These days I'm working on a coming videoclip ! The tune was recorded quite a while ago already but the work on the visual part was finished just last week. It's a serie of pictures which will be arranged as a stop-motion little story about a huldra, a creature from the scandinavian folklore.For the costume, I was strongly inspired by the beltestakk, the folk costume of Øst-Telemark region in Norway, but mixed with other elements as I imagined a huldra would pick clothes a bit everywhere in an attempt to try looking like a normal human being. So here's a little teaser picture for the video, probably online later this week - if everything goes well.

(Oh and yes, I do look extremely pale on the pic, don't get worried about my health, it's only very white makeup !)

SE - För några månader sen har jag öppnat min Patreon sida. Den finns mäst för att understödja mina Scandi Folk Nerd videoer, som tar massa tid och energi att göra ! Så om du tycker om dessa videoer och/eller min musik, du kan hjälpa till på Patreon. Det finns några olika möjligheter, med olika belöningar, till exempel noter (med stråkmönster) till låtarna jag lärar ut i mina videoer och exklusiva inspelningar. Tack så mycket för hjälpen !

FR - Cela fait déjà quelques mois que j'ai ouvert ma page Patreon afin de soutenir ma musique et notamment mes vidéos Scandi Folk Nerd. Ces vidéos me demandent beaucoup de temps et d'énergie mais semblent aider pas mal de gens à comprendre et jouer la musique scandinave. Si vous souhaitez soutenir ces vidéos et/ou ma musique en général, vous pouvez ainsi le faire via Patreon, avec diverses contreparties, par exemple les partitions (avec coups d'archet) des morceaux que j'enseigne en vidéo ou des enregistrements exclusifs. Toute aide est une grande aide et me permet de continuer ma musique et mon enseignement de celle-ci. Merci infiniment !

You might have noticed there's a new page to this website ! It's a list of builders, courses and teachers for nyckelharpa. It will expand with time. Please send me all infos you could have on builders/courses still missing on the list, or details about how instruments by a specific builder sound like. Thanks a lot !

http://waldken.weebly.com/nyckelharpa.html

Just some hints of news in this end of summer : I went to the Nordic Fiddler's Bloc Camp in Røros (Norway) and it was amazing, with many other crazy fiddlers jamming for hours and hours in every corner. I am developping Skoga Obscura again, in a quite new direction, I will soon talk much more about it. And today I drew some bows, so here they are !

How come I haven't talked about that yet ?!? This has been one of the big events of this 2018 spring : I have started joining the band 'Madina das Spielweyb'. Basically Madina has now two nyckelharpa players to hire (the other one being my good friend Elena, which is also part of Skoga Obscura !), which gives both of us some less stress in our agendas.

It's a really nice project, with Madina's well-written songs and her equisite voice, the amazing Karen on harp, a good degree of percussions (here Christophe Zürcher on bodhrán) and a nyckelharpa. A full new repertoire for me, for which I had to rehearse quite a lot, but it's definitely worth it !

We played at MPS Bad Säckingen last april (realizing my dream of playing at an MPS) and... I will join Madina again for no less than the Greenfield Festival in Interlaken in june ! Yay !!

Hej folkies, it seems I'm awfully bad at keeping this blogpage updated. I'll try to do it better the coming months ! Especially as there are many many exciting things coming and actually a great one happened two weeks ago :

My duo Knep released its second album !! It's a mini, with 4 tunes for a total of 17'53''. It's called 'Hallingrr' and as the name suggests... it's containing only halling music ! As usual with Knep, it's a mix of traditional tunes and modern compositions, and we added lots of silly things in it, as for example playing percussion with leek and pumpkins. We also released the goats. You'll understand when you'll listen to it. We basically had a lot of fun with many instruments and crazy ideas and I have to say I'm quite fond of the result - especially as halling music is one of my absolute favourite repertoires. The album can be ordered via Knep's page or just by writing to me (on this website or on FB or any other possible way).

More exciting news to come very, very soon !

Polska week-end in Zürich with Knep on the 2-3 december ! Let's explore polska in details during a whole week-end, with live music, analyzing videos, learning from each other and trying out different variations ! Already full booked, but don't worry : we'll organize an extra one in the spring 2018, along with several other workshops, both in german- and french-speaking areas !

Knep has been working a lot during the spring and summer, to organize what we decided to call The Centipede Tour in Belgium and the Netherlands ! Soon halling, polska and octopi will conqueer the region ! All infos are to be found on the page 'Agenda'.

There are places left for my workshop on saturday 7/10 !! If you live close to Utrecht, take the chance, it's still possible to apply (here) ! We will work mostly on bowing technique and bowing patterns, which are at the core of good fiddle / nyckelharpa sound. All levels on both instruments (also viola) are welcome !

I went to Korrö festival, and it was amazing : going to workshops (learned some more about Røros pols, yay), jamming, dancing, listening to amazing music and basically being in Sweden again.

Then I went to Castlefest in the Netherlands, and it was maybe even more amazing ! I was working as a volunteer but still found the time to enjoy the festival and even to play some tunes with Andoorn as a guest... Playing on stage at Castlefest has been a dream for many years, and this dream finally became true ! Thanks so much Andoornians for this !!

(français plus bas)

Skoga Obscura is my new project : a mix of scandinavian folk tradition and fantasy costumes, around the theme of dark and mysterious nature ("skoga obscura" meaning "dark foresting" in an unofficial crossover of swedish and latin).
This new baby of mine sprouted last week-end during the Médiévales de St-Ursanne in the swiss Jura, with a constellation involving two nyckelharpas, some drums, 1-2 dancers and a wild troll. I am very glad to announce that it was an encouraging success for the little company ! I will continue working on developping this idea, for more exciting adventures in the secret groves of nordic folklore.
http://skogaobscura.weebly.com/en.html

Skoga Obscura est le nom de mon nouveau projet : un mélange entre les danses et musiques traditionnelles de Scandinavie et des costumes fantastiques, autour du thème des forêts sauvages et sombres ("skoga obscura" signifiant "forester obscurément" dans un mix de latin et de suédois non homologué).
Ce tout jeune rêve a émergé le week-end dernier lors des Médiévales de St-Ursanne dans le Jura suisse, avec la constellation suivante : deux nyckelharpas, quelques percussions, 1 à 2 danseuses et un troll des Alpes. Je suis très heureuse d'annoncer que cette première sortie fut un encourageant succès ! Je vais donc continuer à travailler ce projet, à le développer, pour de nouvelles aventures dans les bois sombres des traditions nordiques.