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Listen/Download: 2009-06-27 Multe Music (Euro-visions) The links will lead you to information about the artists/music and/or online merchants that sell recordings of the artists and music featured on this week's show. Tune | Artist | Album | Country
The Minnesota Twins have pre-empted and delayed Multe Music today, as they will a few times during the summer. The show will be broadcast today at 5 p.m. CT (-6 UTC) and 0:00 GMT/UTC, available on-air at KYMN 1080 AM and online at http://KYMNradio.net. However, the playlist and downloadable audio file will be available as usual from the Multe Music web site at 2:00 p.m. CT / 20:00 GMT/UTC. We'll return next week at our regularly scheduled time of 1:00 p.m. CT / -6 UTC , which is also 19:00 GMT/UTC. This evening, the Geilo community will lay the grunnsteinnedleggelse (foundation stone) for the new "Kulturekyrkje (Cultural Church)", also known as "Kulturkirken". The church will be located in a lower area of the valley where Geilo is located, near the river and central to all of Geilo. It is being built in an ecological and environmentally sensitive way. Much of the church will actually be underground and the church itself will seem to rise from the earth. The church's web site has made a great slide show of the development of the church available. Included in the ceremonies this evening will be Bishop Laila Riksaasen Dahl, Kvarts, Agnes Buen Garnås, Eilif Gundersen, Jørn Simenstad, Odd Sylvarnes Lund and three FRIKAR dancers (Sigbjørn Rua, Solveig Hårdnes and Martin Myhr). Last night, the finals were held for Lagspel at NM i Folkemusikk. In previous years at Landskappleik, the Lagspel was done like all the other categories with the groups playing two slåtter (fiddle tunes) and then the final results were posted after they were available. This year, in part because of the blending of Landsfestival and Landskappleik, a "qualifying" round was held with about 34 groups competing in a marathon of fiddle playing during the day. Shortly after, they posted the results with the top six groups going into the final round, which was held at 10 pm that night. The groups going forward were:
The finales were constructed in a way similar to how finales have been held at Landsfestivalen, with a few differences. There were six judges in all: the three from the hardingfele (Hardanger fiddle) competition and the three from the vanlig fele (regular fiddle) competition. Good playing as a group and other expected important points are not the only criteria considered. During the finals, the judges also note how the group and the dancers on the floor respond to each other. Each group played five tunes of various dance types: waltz, polka, masurka, pols, reinlender and, for those from Gudbrandsdal, springleik. During the evening, one of the judges (a master dancer and fiddler) jumped up a number of times and went down to the floor to dance to music of the group playing. I was glad to see this as I have sometimes wondered why the judges in these competitions have not experienced the groups on the dance floor as well as from the judging platform. During the competition, the sound quality seemed to be pretty good. In the finals, however, there seemed to be sound issues with the first two groups and the sound was not good. In fact, it seemed to be coming off the stage and not from the speakers. Hopefully, this did not put these groups at a disadvantage. Some of the delightful moments in the evening:
The MC for the evening, Olav Sem from Telemark, did a fantastic job of keeping the energy of the crowd going by leading them in cheers for the music during the evening. Well done! It was a fantastic evening of music with some of Norway's best spelmannslag. While it was great to have a final "play-off" among the top six groups, I wonder if this particular competition setup has affected the number of spelmannslag and bands playing in the evening for open dancing. There seem to be less groups playing this year. Perhaps groups did not sign up with the hope that they would be in the finals or a reluctance to play before their competition. While the finals are great, they are not a substitute for hearing the lags and groups play entire sets. Five tunes in the finals from Glåmos or Vågå doesn't suit me as much as an hour of open dancing with either of them does. A good example was that Voss spelemannslag played an entire energetic hour at Thon Highland Hotel later that night and they were great! This is not to take away from the achievement of making it into the finales. Rather, it simply means that I'd like to hear more of these groups, not less. Perhaps the groups will now play an hour in the mat-telt (food tent) today or tomorrow. The Gruppespel (band) competition will be on Saturday with finals on Saturday night. Getting around Geilo during NM i Folkemusikk can be a bit of challenging, depending upon where your accommodations are. The Multe Music crew has been staying at the Ro Hotell, right next to the Geilo train station. This is the second time we've stayed here. The rooms are small yet comfortable, the food simple and filling, and the folks who run the place are friendly and helpful. There is also a restaurant downstairs serving solid Norwegian food with a great patio when the weather is good. The location offers easy access to Geilo sentrum with necessary shops and to the Thon Highland Hotel, one of the competition venues. But the main location for NM is located a decent 20 minute walk – about a mile and a half – from where we're staying. NM has a bus service that stops at some major hotels and camping places (including the Ro Hotell) at 30 minute intervals, which is convenient. But it's not for everybody. This year, a number of us decided to rent bikes to use during most of NM. We found the best rates and very helpful staff at Geilo Sport. We rented three-speed city bikes with racks and locks, which are perfect for getting around town. Taking bikes has really cut down on the time to get between venues and given us a good workout at the same time. NM does have a simple map of the town in the program, but the way it is set up makes it difficult to locate the different venues easily on the map. Two things that future Landskappleik and Landsfestival organizers might consider:
Midsummer 2009 in Ål It was a midsummer to remember in Ål as the 2009 NM i Folkemusikk (Norwegian National Championships in Folk Music) began with the first competition and a public dance at the local Folkepark. Well-known Norwegian recording artist Odd Nordstoga opened the evening with a very clever and well-done speech about the historic nature of this event (which this year combined both Landskappleik and Landsfestival) and making humorous references to what one won't find at this festival (for example, Alexander Rybak) — and what one will (the guys who dance behind Rybak) . The opening competition category was "Open Class", a competition meant for groups or individuals that don't fit in any of the other categories of the competition. It's also a category that is meant to foster new ideas and new combinations. A young duo called "Nina & Audun" won open class. Odd Nordstoga's group, Blåmann Blåmann, came in second. A standout entry that took 4th was "Kvedarkvintetten" from Hallingdal, made up of five young ladies (two groups of sisters!) who sang in the traditional style. It's worth noting that the genes of kveding run in their families as their mothers made their mark in traditional music a number of years earlier. One of my personal favorites was Helen Myklemyr Bolstad and John Oddvar Kandal from Nordfjord who gave lovely reditions of tunes from Nordfjord. Another interesting entry was a young man, Andreas Jordhøy, on harmonica. After the competition, there was a public dance with music provided by Kvarts and a reunion of Hallingdal's Toradertrioen. The longest day of the year was used to its fullest as the crowd danced into the wee hours of Wednesday morning. The cultures that seem to appreciate light the most are the ones that go without it for large parts of the year. That is why the summer season is so important for the inhabitants of the Nordic nations. Today, June 23 is Sankthans in Norway — also known as Midsummer / Midsommer / Midtsummer / Juhannes. Other countries may celebrate on others days around this time — but it is always a celebration of the longest day of the year (and the shortest night!) The celebration comes from two different traditions. In the pagan times, it was a celebration of the summer solstice. In the Christian church, it marks the birthday of St. John the Baptist. And it has a relationship to Christmas because June 24 is six months before/after December 24 which begins the Christmas holidays. The crew has a few interviews scheduled for today but the big doin's are tonight. We'll travel east about 30 minutes to the town of Ål in Hallingdal. Norway's NM i Folkemusikk will begin there this evening with the Open Class competition. This will be a competition for groups that have unusual configurations or are playing their own compositions. Basically, it's a competition category for those who don't fit into any of the others. And this means that you can hear and see some new and interesting things that are happening in folk music. Before the competition, Norwegian singer Odd Nordstoga will open the event with a special presentation. After the competitiotn, there will be dancing with Kvarts and the legendary Torådertrioen. And, of course, there will be plenty of food and drink available and the spectacular Sankthansboller — the huge bonfires that are lit to mark this very special day. It's going to be a late — and fantastic — night! Don't wait up for us. We'll be back sometime tomorrow morning after we're done celebrating. Listen/Download: 2009-06-20 Multe Music (Midsummer) The links will lead you to information about the artists/music and/or online merchants that sell recordings of the artists and music featured on this week's show. Tune | Artist | Album | Country
Yes, the Multe Music crew has arrived at Gardemoen Airport, taken the airport express train into Oslo and gotten settled in our digs for the evening, Thon Hotel Astoria. And we'll be taking over the blog for the next couple of weeks as we travel in Norway. There's lots going on in Oslo tonight. Two major publications, VG (Verdens Gang) and Morgenbladet are sponsoring outdoor activities free and open to the public. Morgenbladet is having an event at the new Opera house in Norway, very near the central train station. The building has been getting lots of attention for its architecture and placement. VG will have the VG-Lista Topp 20 concert at Rådhusplassen with groups such as a-ha, Alexander Rybak, the Hallelujah-kameratene (Lind, Nilsen, Fuentes, Holm) and, among others, a Sami rap group called Duolva Duottar. So it will be a lively evening for the crew. Tomorrow morning, the crew is off on the train to Hallingdal and a wedding with plenty of tradition and music. From there, we go to Geilo for NM i Folkemusikk — Norway's national folk dance and music competition. |
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