Reviews

Woodlands Bäckafall
Album: Traditional Colours
Label: Kakafon
Tracks: 12
Website: https://www.woodlandsduo.com/woodlands-backafall

Woodlands Bäckafall "seamlessly blends the essence of Swedish Midsummer with the vibrant atmosphere of a Scottish pub." The two duos came together for a one-off concert at the Goteborg Folk festival in 2020 and found a spark that has led to further collaboration.

The opening tune Sommarpolska is very much an overture for the songs which follow. Those songs, sung in Gaelic, French and English start with an unusual version of Wild Rover. They say, "although the well-known English folk song Wild Rover is mostly known as a jolly waltz, Woodlands Bäckafall plays it in a less common minor version. Mysterious and driving, the song weaves eerie ostinatos, enchanting vocals and ends with the jig Nomad Life by harpist Justyna Krzy?anowska." While they speak the language of musical academia, having studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, the Academy of Music the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and University of Limerick, there is an almost Bluegrass feel to their take on this standard, which comes as a delightful surprise if your heart sank a little at a potentially unimaginative song choice.

Next, we have Bonnet Reels. Two songs learnt from Julie Fowlis' repertoire, so naturally sung in Gaelic. The bounce they put into the pieces is infectious, and nearly impossible to sit still to. The second single Udda Låten, (The Odd Tune) was written by Kristina Leesik as an exercise in odd time signatures during her master studies at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. As they say in the liner notes "odd in name, but not in groove." There is a TV series looking for a theme tun exactly like this somewhere.

Hanter Dro is a traditional tragic Breton tune from the lovely town of Vannes, sung in French, and Atherfield a jig written by English melodeon player Andy Cutting mixed with a traditional Irish reel, finds them again playing with time signatures. They are happy to pick up less well known or contemporary tunes and mix them with self-penned pieces and traditional songs. So, Kim Carnie's Gabhainn's Cha Ghabhainn is followed by Wild Mountain Thyme, which as with Wild Rover, they go out of their way to do something different with. Half the band seem to be playing an Irish version, while the guitar and Nyckelharpa are playing it as a Bluegrass tune, with the latter taking the part of the Mandolin in chugging rhythm style.

They also search back in time and across Europe for tunes to fit their requirements. Chmiel is a thousand-year-old Polish wedding song, and Ann An Caolas Od Odrum is a Scottish song about the Selkies translated into Swedish.

Mairi MacInnes taught Kristina Leesik a lullaby Nighean Nan Geug, which is the gentlest song featured here, and a delightful delicate tune. Skogsmarch was written by band member Hampus Grönberg as a wedding march for the forest celebration of friends during the 2020 pandemic. It's also the perfect close to an album that is both deeply rooted in the traditional folk music of many countries and also highly experimental in its approach to the time and texture of the songs. A very successful experiment and hopefully the first of many albums from the quartet.

Tim Martin

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