Hurv KRCD-1: Forsens Låt - The song of the Falls

Anders plays a folk fiddle with two sympathetic strings, built in 1974
by Kåre Leonard Knudsen of Arendal, Norway. This reissue is dedicated
to his memory.

Originally most of the tunes were just described by their generic names, ”springlek”, ”gånglåt” etc. They have been given individual names here for practical reasons.

Forsens låt, 'The Song of the Rapids' is the first in a new series of re-releases from the range of Hurv LPs.

There have been many requests for the old LPs to be released as CDs, so it seems that the demand is there. Since it's quite expensive to release a CD and you can't tell in advance what the demand will be, we will be releasing the LPs in small numbers, 'home-burnt' and 'home-printed'; but this doesn't mean any compromise in quality, since the equipment used at all stages is of high professional standard.

NB. - the low CD number corresponds to the catalogue-number of the original LP.

When 'The Song of the Rapids' came out in 1975 it broke completely new ground. With hindsight we can say that it marked the breakthrough of the soprano sax in Swedish folk music; and the Swedish sister of the Hardanger fiddle also made its breakthrough with this album. And in many other ways it showed the way for a large number of sequels. It was the first record to be issued on the Hurv label, the oldest Swedish folk-music record-company owned by musicians - and not only that, oldest musician-owned record-company of any kind in Sweden - and perhaps in the world? Let me know if you know anything to the contrary ...

In fact this little pioneer record-company in 1975 was just a continuation of what producer, fiddler and soul-of-fire Anders Rosén had started as early as 1972, with the release of Västerdalton with Kalle Almlöf and På vandring med Lejsme Per (solo) under temporary label-names until the company started to call itself Hurv after a family of tunes form the Norwegian-Swedish border.

Quite apart from this historical significance of Hurv as a record company, it's primarily for the playing and the tunes that we remember and love 'The Song of the Rapids'. Half the tunes were newly-composed, in a somewhat 'free-fantasy' archaic style, with influences from both Swedish and Norwegian tunes. Through the whole album the music is strikingly light and uncomplicated, you might even say provocatively simple, and the playing has an infectious swing to it - call it the glow of youth, sound-enchantment or whatever you like. If you find it typically 1970s music, remember that it was here it started, this is where you find the denominator of the style. The soft harmony between the soprano sax and the violin seems also to send the two players into a trance - they play and play and it seems they never want to stop. The simple repetitive tunes and the light quick swing has set deep imprints in younger Swedish folk-music and it's still easy to hear its influences today. The Falls have evidently engraved a new furrow where it still rushes forth with great power.

First released as an LP 1975, now as a CD, this album marks a breakthrough for the soprano sax in Swedish folk music, and the rebirth of the Swedish sister to the Hardanger fiddle.

Once upon a time there was a fiddler who wanted to learn the song of the rapids.

The old tradition is that when you want to become a great fiddler you go to the falls three Thursday nights in a row, and notice carefully everything that happens to you, both inside and outside of yourself.

The first night, after a long wait, the fiddler discovered how the falls and the river were a picture of the living tradition, how the tradition contained an unbroken powerful movement and how the song of the falls flows through and binds together the music of different times and different places.

The second Thursday night, in the midst of deep reflection, he heard a wonderful sound deep in his ear. The notes were so high and clear that at first he didn’t know if he had heard aright. The sound stood perfectly still like a rainbow of notes. He understood that it was the overtones of the droning bass of the falls, and that at the same time it was the drone in the music which made the overtones shimmer. It was this immobility in the midst of movement which was the song of the falls, a stillness which led thought to rest a moment and to listen from within.

The third Thursday night the very water spirit, "Necken", showed himself. Now the fiddler heard the song of the falls played by the master. He heard how it is the wholeness of all the changing heights of the notes, with neither beginning, nor end, nor repeating.

Anyone who wants to can hear the song of the falls, but you have to listen in your imagination. No-one can play it, but we can learn from it if we know that in comparison with the song of the falls, our tunes are no more than ripples in the current.

Recorded in Dala-Floda, New Year 1974/75

list of tunes