Tunes for a Monday Morning

This week, folk music from northern Europe, both traditional and contemporary.

To start with: "Sparvens visa" (about a little sparrow and the coming of winter) by the Swedish folk trio Triakel: Emma H��rdelin (from the folk-rock band Garmarna), Kjell-Erik Eriksson (fiddle), and Janne Str��mstedt (harmonium). Their sixth and most recent album is Thyra (2014).

Above: "Le Fil" by the Swedish folk duo Symbio: Johannes Geworkian-Hellman on hurdy-gurdy and LarsEmil ��jeberget on accordion. They have one album out, Phoresy (2016), with a second due out next year.

Below: "Et steg ut" by  Susanne Lundeng, a Norwegian fiddler and composer who draws inspiration from traditional Nordic music and jazz. In the video below she performs with Bj��rn Andor Drage (keyboard) and Arnfinn Bergrabb (percussion) in Bod��, in the north of Norway. Lungen's eighth and most recent solo album is 111 Nordlandssl��tter (2015.)

Above: "Shallow Digger" by Norwegian singer/songwriter Siv Jakobsen, based in Oslo on Norway's southern coast. The song is from her haunting new album The Nordic Mellow (2017).

Below: "How We Used to Love," an older song of Jakobsen's, from The Lingering (2015).

And to end as we began, with a song about a bird:

"Blackbird" by Swedish singer/songwriter Jenny Lysander, from her lovely first album Northern Folk (2015). The video was directed by Ana Tortos. Lysander is based in Stockholm.

The art today is: "The Maiden Notburga & her White Stag," a Norwegian fairy tale illustrated by Wilhelm Roegge (1829 - 1908), and "Gerda," from Andersen's The Snow Queen illustrated by Honor Appleton (1879-1951).