Welcome to the site for Multe, the band! If you're looking for Multe Music, the weekly hour-long radio show/podcast, click here.
Rubus chamaemorus (cloudberry)
The band, Multe, takes its name from the Scandinavian root word for cloudberry, the rare slow-growing sub-arctic bramble fruit found throughout the Nordic countries. A wild plant, it needs sunny exposure and grows in acidic ground where other crops are not possible. The taste is both tart and sweet–like life itself. That's Multe!
Multe plays traditional acoustic music from the Nordic countries and their immigrant communities in North America. It's music with an incredible energy and drive that is different from other Northern European styles of traditional music. Most of the music we play is dance music: waltz, polka, schottis / reinlender, tango, hambo, snoa, pols, polska and more!
Multe's current drupelets (members) represent a combined direct heritage in the Nordic countries and decades of experience studying and performing traditional music and dance:
- Jon Thore Bjork (5-row chromatic button accordion, guitar)
- Bruce Jensen (bass)
- Eric Lundgren (guitar)
- Doug "Dag" Wornson (accordion)
- and joined on occasion by Ruth Marie Sylte (piano accordion, vocals, dance leader)
Want to hear us play? We have a "working session" almost every Monday night at The Contented Cow Pub & Wine Bar in Northfield, Minnesota. Things start 7:30ish. And we play every 4th Saturday at Butler's Steak and Ale in Northfield from 8:30-10:30pm. Come and enjoy listening to some great traditional Nordic music!
Multe is committed not only to sharing traditional Nordic music, but also to learning it well. Some of our members have spent countless hours dancing and playing with musicians in the Nordic countries — from small huts on farms to festival hall dance floors. A number of our members regularly study with "tradition bearers" and master teachers through personal instruction and courses offered in Norden and North America, allowing Multe to learn and polish their material "in tradition," adding an authenticity and ease to Multe's performances and presentations.
Multe grew out of the rich Scandinavian music and heritage scene in Northfield, Minnesota USA. Members of Multe have performed at folk music/dance venues in Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the USA, including the American Swedish Institute, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Nisswastamman, Nordlek, Norsk Hostfest, the Norwegian Folk Museum, Stavanger's Emigration Festival, among others.
Just as a cloudberry can have a variable number of drupelets, Multe's core members — rooted in traditional Nordic music and dance — provide the base for a fluid and variable group of performers, depending upon the needs of an event and/or venue. We can provide a single soloist or instrumentalist or full dance band of six to eight players — and almost anything in between!
Almost all of Multe's members are able to play at least two different instruments. Instruments available may include regular fiddle, accordion (piano and five-row button chromatic), guitar, bass, Norwegian Hardanger fiddle, harpeleik/cittra (chorded zither), mandolin, trøorgel (small, portable pump organ), and recorder, among others.
