Frode Haltli: Border Woods
Hubro

It's a shame accordionist Frode Haltli used Avant Folk as the title for his 2018 Hubro release, given that it's even more perfectly suited for his latest. In coupling contemporary, quasi-experimental explorations with melodically enticing, Nordic folk-flavoured settings, Border Woods splits its focus between the directional tendencies indicated in that earlier title. Even the instrumentation used for the recording reflects the dichotomy: the melodic folk aspect largely handled by Haltli and Emilia Amper on nyckelharpa (a centuries-old chordophone or keyed fiddle), and contemporary classical exploration rooted in the playing of percussionists Håkon Stene and Eirik Raude. As if to further underscore that difference, Haltli's six compositions separate into two groupings of three that tend to gravitate in one direction more than the other.

If the number of musicians involved is modest, the sound-world generated by them is rich. Haltli and Amper, virtuosi who began learning their respective instruments at early ages, are a rewarding front-line: the timbres of the accordion and nyckelharpa are contrasting enough to be clearly distinguishable, yet there are also moments where the playing is so complementary each instrument seems to take on characteristics of the other. The arsenal deployed by Stene and Raude, which includes mallet instruments and tuned and untuned drums, enables the two to enrich the pieces with all manner of percussive colour and texture.

They're hardly supporting musicians, either, a fact made clear by the prominence with which their playing's featured. In fact, the opening evocation, “Wind Through Aspen Leaves,” dedicates the first half of its four minutes to slow-rising cymbal rolls, after which the others surface to add minimal details to reinforce the composition's chilly character. Midway through the album, the aptly titled “Wood and Stone” presents a two-minute showcase for the percussionists that plays like a basic minimalism exercise. While Haltli and Amper assume a more dominant presence on the concluding “Quietly the Language Dies,” Stene and Raude also figure significantly into its sound design when each plays six tuned (in quarter tones) wine glasses to generate a droning ground for mysterious, even eerie musings by the nyckelharpa and accordion, both also tuned in quarter tones.

As satisfying as those pieces are, it's the album's melodically oriented half that constitutes its major selling point. Towering over the others, “Mostamägg Polska” wends its episodic way for sixteen engrossing minutes. Gliding above a metronomic marimba pattern base, Amper initiates the trip with a singing folk theme that's soon augmented by Haltli, the two locking into their collective expressions like graceful dance partners. A state of controlled ecstasy is achieved that gradually gives way to freer, dream-like musings until the theme re-instates itself, now delivered in darker hues, and then a chugging riff that exudes the dance quality of a jig or reel. Sans percussive backing, Amper and Haltli next subject the riff to a number of key changes, in doing so casting the material in shades of light and darkness. Bringing this rather magnificent performance to a close, a subdued episode featuring Stene and Raude re-brands the piece as an experimental exploration in classical minimalism before one final voicing of the folk theme.

December 2019