Vasen

Brewed

North Side

Twenty-eight years into their touring and recording life together the three musicians who make up Sweden’s folk music phenomenon Vasen know their places in the music. There’s a natural flow to each of these 15 new compositions that sounds effortless and yet there’s bite in the combined attack of nyckelharpa, five-string viola and twelve-string guitar and an audible sense of enquiry that keeps the music fresh and invigorating.

Much of the music is based on the traditional polska dance measure but its three-beats rhythm is anything but limiting. Melodies cascade and dance with energy before slipping into more reflective passages and the instrumental grouping can sound almost orchestral in size one minute and intimately delicate the next.

Trostemarsch was written in consolation for the trio’s many American friends (they have a street named after them in Bloomington, Indiana) after the presidential election, although there’s little here that sounds anything other than optimistic, and even the mellowest and most atmospheric tunes, such as the cunningly titled Mellow D and Jungfrun Av Norge, have a brightness about them that’s completely enchanting and involving.

Dedicated fans will know what to expect, while still finding surprises; new listeners are in for an adventurous treat.

ROB ADAMS