Nordic Folk Alliance proudly presents a music festival and conference that will be held for the third time on the 18th-20th. April 2022 in Hróskeld in Denmark. The festival is an international forum for folk music and is the largest of its kind in the Nordic countries. The festival brings together folk music professionals and lovers and creates a platform for rising stars in the market. Iceland’s representatives at the Nordic Folk Alliance 2022 are LÓN and Brek.
Folk music refers to the musical style that is passed down from person to person over the centuries and is based on the tradition of stories. The music is often sung or played on traditional instruments and is best enjoyed live. The band LÓN may be new to many, but it is composed of nationally known artists Valdimar Guðmundsson, Ásgeir Aðalsteinsson and Ómar Guðjónsson, where they delve into their folk music roots. The band Brek mainly plays original, folk music with influences from various sources with an emphasis on weaving together the various influences from different styles of folk and popular music. Both LÓN and Brek have recently attracted a lot of attention abroad, but both bands were at the sister festival International Folk Alliance held in Kansas recently.
At the Nordic Folk Alliance, you can expect a unique harmony with performers from the Nordic countries, each with their own story and flair. Musicians on the program that are worth mentioning are, for example, Anna Ekborg Hans-Ers and Suistamon Sähkö. Anna Ekborg is one of the best-known violinists in Sweden and has been nominated for the Swedish Grammy Award. She has won “folk music of the year” at Manifestgala and Dalecarlia Music Awards. Suistamon Sähkö were the opening act for World Music Expo Womex Tampere in 2019.
ÚTÓN is one of the organizers of the festival as part of NOMEX, a cooperation platform of export offices in the Nordic countries. Other parties involved in the implementation of the festival 2023 are Gimle and Byens hús (the concert venues where the festival will be held), Roskilde Festival, the municipality of Roskilde, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Danish Ministry of Culture, and grants from AP Møller Fonden, Øernes Kunstfond and Statens Kunstfond. The jury selects the performers at the Nordic Folk Alliance, with the aim of providing opportunities for aspiring artists, but also to offer listeners excellent folk music. Svavar Knútur sat on behalf of Iceland in the jury.
Í fyrra spiluðu fyrir hönd Íslands Svavar Knútur, Blood Harmony, og UMBRA (sjá myndir – má nota með credit á ljósmyndara). Í framhaldi af flutningi þeirra á hátíðinni varð UMBRA fyrsta og eina íslenska hljómsveitin sem spilað hefur á margrómuðu Folkelarm hátíðinni; Blood Harmony fann bókara í Bretlandi og hafa nú þegar komið fram á Celtic Connections hátíðinni í Glasgow, komu fram á BBC í Skotlandi og eru með bókuð aftur til Bretlands að spila á nokkrum af virtustu tónlistarhátíðunum þar í landi. Svavar Knútur var í dómnefnd til að velja inn atriðin í ár og verður með í hópnum í ár.
Miðað við hvað allt heppnaðist vel í fyrra og sterkum bakhjörlum á borð við stóru Hróarskelduhátíðina má búast við enn stærri og meira spennandi hátíð í árFlytjendur á Nordic Music Alliance árið 2023 verða: Anna Ekborg Hans-Ers (SE), Ánnámáret (FI), AySay (DK), Brek (IS), En:1 (DK), Eriksson/Myhr/Malmström (NO), Hialøsa (SE), LÓN (IS), Spöket i köket (SE), Siustamon Sähkö (FI), Susanne Lundeng (NO), Sylfide (DK), Synnøve Brøndbo Plassen (NO), Tsuumi Sound System (FI).
Umræðan