Danish String Quartet: Keel Road
ECM New Series

So completely has the Danish String Quartet (DSQ) assimilated the traditional folk music associated with the Northern European region that the pieces members Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen (violin) and Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin (cello) contributed to the album could easily pass for long-standing traditionals. The quartet's statement, “Folk tunes are not just a part of our repertoire, but an important element of our identity as musicians,” speaks to how deeply the ensemble has absorbed the material. In place of a string quartet release featuring works by, say, Brahms and Debussy, DSQ performs ones by Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738), the legendary harpist from Ireland's County Meath, and others. The album comprises fourteen settings, all exquisitely rendered and sure to warm the heart. Close your eyes as Keel Road plays and you'll feel like you've been transported to a cozy country inn with a fire blazing, locals carousing, and jigs and reels playing.

Stops are made across the North Sea that stretch from Denmark and Norway to Ireland and England. Keel Road builds on 2017's acclaimed Last Leaf (ECM New Series) and before that 2014's Wood Works (Dacapo). Bolstering the traditional feel, Sørensen, Sjölin, Frederik Øland (violin), and Asbjørn Nørgaard (viola) supplement their string playing with spinet, harmonium, bass, and clog fiddle on selected tracks. As perfect a fit as the group is for traditional tunes, the DSQ's repertoire is broad. Together for more than two decades, the group has issued recordings featuring material by Bach, Beethoven, Shostakovich, Schnittke, Bartók, Mendelssohn, Webern, Adès, Nørgård, and Hans Abrahamsen.

The group's affection for the music shines through at every moment of Keel Road, and the compositions are rendered with feeling to match their style, be they spirited or plaintive. The musicians—three Danes and one Norwegian, in fact—are virtuosos yet put themselves in humble service to the material, all of it arranged by members of the quartet. O'Carolan's “Mabel Kelly” initiates the album with a poignant, sombre expression that retains its folk identity but also exudes the formality of a European classical composition; his radiant “Quarrel With the Landlady” is worlds removed from it, however, when it dances without a care in the world. The appeal of O'Carolan's music is enhanced by its rich melodic content, something deftly illustrated by the singing “Planxty Kelly.”

In the first of two album medleys, the infectious Danish traditional “Pericondine” segues into Sørensen's foot-stomper “Fair Isle Jig,” the coupling so seamlessly effected you'll be hard pressed to determine where the transition happens. The penultimate setting fluidly pairs the Danish traditional “Marie Louise” with “The Chat” (Sjölin, Sørensen) and the furiously executed “Gale Warning” (Sørensen). Many a piece radiates optimism, but a few, such as the Faroese traditional “Regin Smiður” and hymnal Norwegian traditional “Når Mitt Øye, Trett Av Møye,” pack a sorrowful punch.

Guests join the DSQ once, with Ale Carr (cittern) and Nikolaj Busk (piano) sitting in on Carr's own “Stormpolskan” to help amplify the breathless thrust of the material. Speaking of drive, there's also Sjölin's “Kjølhalling,” notable also for working a funk groove of all things into its design (in 9/4, though). While it's not formally a medley, a crackly field recording excerpt of the Danish traditional “En Skomager Har Jeg Været” (A cobbler I was) provides a natural lead-in to Sørensen's swooning folk ballad “Once A Shoemaker,” its intoxicating lilt sweetened with pizzicato and humming. Shifting locales, the English traditional “Lovely Joan” proves a haunting partner to “Once A Shoemaker” when it likewise augments bowed playing with plucks. There's a seductive slinkiness to the English traditional “As I Walked Out” that helps make it stand out, as does its whistling earworm.

February 2025