Gjallarhorn..
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This Finnish four piece were the big surprise
hit of the festival for me, since I'd never ever heard of them before they
arrived here in February. Reportedly it was a bit of a shock for them ,
as it was 35C when they arrived in Adelaide and it was minus 35C
in Finland when they left !.
Still, they acclimatised remarkably well and gained a big following
with their great mix of traditional Finnish instruments ( note the Dragon
headed violin played by vocalist Jenny Wilhelms ) as well as
didgeridoo, jaw harp and lots of exotic percussion . The eeirie vocals
ofJenny are out of this world and there were some great fiddle duets and
up tempo numbers which are good for dancing , a band to watch out for ! |
Jenny : I could compare the way we do music with jazz musicians,we
do a lot of improvising ,a lot of riffs , stretching out notes. We want
to keep the freedom but also the respect for the traditional music.The
music is built up for melodies , its not builtup for chords.
We don't have in our music a walking bass, we only have a drone and
the percussion to do the bass stuff. The music is extemely danceable!
They are right,this stuff just makes you want to dance !
A good portion of the Friday night set from stage 2 is included
in the ABC TV special. Theres an excellent aud tape circulating as well.Check
out their albums, well worth a listen, they have a unique sound. |
