After the longest night

I have danced away the longest night and celebrated solstice in the most lovely way I can think of. And now we will have more and more light coming in for every new day.

The songs that goes together with this time of the year all tell the same message, see the star in the sky, let light in. This is what we all need right now. Let light in on all the squares in the world where people gather to express their free opinions, to find a new road to the future where people can live harmoniously together. Violence crack down on peaceful demonstrations and this is the real darkness of our time. Lets stand together and light even the smallest candle in the darkness. Peace and strength will forever come out of the memory of Vaclav Havel, and how culture took a big role in the changes Havel was a leading part of. What a great role model he is! I'm going to read his biography as soon as I get hold of it.

I'm going to keep on singing the old old swedish folk songs talking the same story, let light in. Here's a photo right before we entered the stage to make the duo concert at Uddevalla Museum. Saxophonist Mikael Godée and I made a contemporary performance out of the old songs.

After the concert with Gunnar Eriksson, Bengt Hallberg, me and choir.

It's a very rare thing to encounter a musician like Bengt Hallberg. Tonight he was playing with all the brilliance, timing, and sence of playing only what's important and nothing else, the way it's earned only after such a long carreer. A long life of experiences. When a life long committment to the music really grows year by year. It was shining through his very playing. If it's possible to talk about sound as shining with light, this is it. He definitely grasped the whole piano, with both power and precision. So musical, so deep of invention. His harmonies of Ack Värmeland du sköna, I will forever remember this.

Gunnar was at the height of his artistry as well, I believe the two inspired each other tonight. When he was conducting the choir Göteborgs Kammarkör it was like the music became visible in his hands, you could see the sounds and timbre. For the second part of the concert I could sit and listen, enjoy, open every fiber to recieve this unique moment of music. The choir + Bengt + Gunnar did wonderful takings of Evert Taube and Lars Gullin, many songs by each one of the composers. In this part I was just listening.

I was also very inspired. One example, even if there was many golden moments. On the rehersal we did ok, but in the concert, there was something very special coming out of the Anna Sjöbom song: En gång i bredd med mig. I don't know how many times I've sung this song, but it came out tonight like it was brand new to me, when Bengt was doing the intro and playing with. It was a 100% intense moment. In the first half of the concert we did our folk music set, with Lys morgonstjärna + Gläd dig du kristi brud, Bered en väg för herran, Jag vet en dejlig rosa, En gång i bredd med mig, Å att jeg kunne, Gjendines bådnlåt, Till Österland vill jag fara.

After the concert we started travelling back to Göteborg in the worst snow storm we've had so far this winter. Almost impossible to have any kind of vision of the road! But all the way back to the city we talked and agreed on how great the contribution of Bengts piano playing was for tonight's concert. He's really fit for plaing. I've seen on wikipedia he's recorded an album this year, and yet another one 2010. So he's doing a great come back after 9 years of a break.

Things he's done in his carreer is somehow too many to start to mention, but at least I can say he's composed the song for Madicken-movie, and tv serie Den vita stenen. He's got a list of about 60 different albums (with many famous jazz musicians) recorded says wikipedia, starting från 1950 and on uptil our days. He's born in 1932. A truly amazing musician.

It will be a little difficult to unwind and fall asleep tonight, I get so many new ideas in my head. And maybe it's also because of the 5 cups of coffée I had today wich is a rather high doze for me...but it doen't matter on such a special day.

Eva

Jazz legendar Bengt Hallberg joins us today

Tonight it's the yearly December concert designed by Gunnar Eriksson, choir conductor and leader of Göteborgs Kammarkör, held at Ljungs church in Ljungskile. I will take part as soloist with the choir, and this year we have the honour and pleasure to have Bengt Hallberg with us at the pianio. Bengt and me will perform together on the songs En gång i bredd med mig (Anna Sjöbom, Enviken), Jag vet en dejlig rosa, and the norwegian folksong Å om jeg kunne. I'm so delighted to do this! Rehersing started with the choir some weeks ago, and I've been intensifying the mental preparation for a few days, and today is The Day, with everything that includes gathering energy without getting too nervous.

It's a beautiful day with sunshine and a few minus degrees.

I've done voice excersices and warming up. I will continue with some Alexander technique and just go through the songs once more.

If you want to come and listen there's tickets sold, if there are still left, by L'Jazz, the jazz club in Ljungskile. http://www.ljazz.se/bokning.html

Warmest wishes, Eva

Colours in music, words like music, and Skottvång jul

This afternoon and evening I've been surrounded by poetry and music. First it was our last and final meeting in the course for Henric Holmberg, on poetry. Oh, I will miss this good work we've been doing there, and all the nice people who participated. Thank you Henric for all your knowledge and artistry with poems.

In the evening I've been in a first meeting with master percussionist Youssef Hbeisch from Paris, and also in this meeting were Roger Johansson, composer, and Ahmad Al Khatib, fine master of arabic lute, oud. We've been playing-singing for eachother and with eachother, and I've been listening to Youssef and Ahmad when they play together. It's beyond words the way they create music. The scales, the colours, the turns in the musical moods, it's just amazing to sit so close and be swept away in another kind of poetry without words. Air and earth, and water....



Yesterday Irmelin did a christmas concert at Skottvång Mines together with Emma Reid on fiddle, and Daniel Reid on saxophones. A very nice encounter, indeed. Good King Wenceslas, what a hit-song! We did that one and a couple of swedish "staffans-songs" and other related to the time of the year. Lovely audience we had, I'm so thankful that we can go to such wonderful places like Skottvång and enjoy the very best in terms of good atmosphere and caretaking for musicians, good sound system + enginer, good food, bless you for this home made high level christmas food there! You have to visit this restaurant at some point!

If it wasn't for lots of preparation work before going to New York, I would have been dancing lindy tonight...but New York is kind of a good excuse....
I wish you a very good evening!
Eva

On poetry and reading loud

This past weeks I've been taking part in a 5 mondays long course on how to work with reading poetry loud. The course is given by actor Henric Holmberg, who created the course because he wished he could go such a course himself. He has a long time experience of reading poetry, creating performances with a big portion of poetry reading, and as an actor he's brilliant with making the words come in a way you are hit by the deeper message.
Each monday all of us prepare to read two poems, infront of the rest of the group, and Henric gives us feed back.

This whole workshop has been so right on the spot for me. It's close to preparing songs for a concert. There's a big difference in reading with eyes or reading loud, and when I reherse my songs for a concert things start to happen when I spend time with the words and melody doing it loud. It's almost impossible to try to incorporate the material with just reading it with my eyes.

Henric also said many times that when a material of poems (or songs, in my daily work) is resting for a while the deeper parts of our conciousness keep on working with it. I recognize this. A concert done a year ago that is revitalised is somehow more mature and comes out again in a new form. Like now, I have to re-create the christmas songs for this years performances, and it never feels old or the same. I'm one year richer in experience and the songs will reflect other things, I'm able to deal with the songs from new levels.

It would also be interesting to go through the songs just reading them, as poems. Work it through the way we have worked in Henrics course. We've trained a lot how to gather focus, how to work with tempo, with starts and endings, with voice possibilities. All poems can't be read the same, the particular poem (or song) evoke different volume, speed, rythm.

The first session with Henric I recognized his voice. I was outside the room where we work, hanging up my jacket, and Henric was talking to someone in the other room. Without seeing the person talking I knew exactly that it's him doing the speaker voice in the awesome short film "Den fjärde kungen" by Ted Sieger. In my family we sometimes gather friends for a film-party shortly after christmas, seeing Den fjärde kungen. I love the film and I cry at the end every time I see it.

Thank you Henric for bringing the stories and poetry loud and live.
Eva

Lots of radio-activity

Welcome dear reader! At 19 today the radio program Folke is running it's show, and I will in the program share some thoughts about this blog. I'm proud to be in the same program as the portrait of Ahmad Al Khatib and Youssef Hbeisch, two brilliant musicians who I will have the pleasure to work with in a collaboration next year.

Also tomorrow I will be in radio, a morning show at local radio station Radio Dalarna. Dalarna, my home county where I was born and raised! I will then give my thoughts on a specific number that the radio man will give me.

Other news for now is that Irmelin, vocal trio, has been chosen to go to APAP music fair in New York in January, plus we recieved the grant from the State Cultural Affairs. Yippe! Also Nordic Wedding Music, trio with guitarist Mats Eriksson and saxopfon player Mikael Godée, has been approved in the same type of application. So it means we have wind in our sails.

Wind....hm, there's a storm over Göteborg right now, let's hope that everything will work out for the best with traffic and weather related things over the west coast of Sweden.

I'm in a course for actor Henric Holmberg, about litterature, poetry, and the art of reading poems loud. An amazing world of spoken word. It's very different to read poems loud than to just read them with your eyes. What a fantastic course, so right on the spot now. I will miss those mondays when it's over.
I finish this with a poem of Tomas Tranströmer.

Skyping with Miranda July on a foggy november night

Stockholm Film Festival on a foggy November night. Before show, I'm so much longing to visit the magic, absurd and fascinating world of Miranda July in her film The Future. She wrote the manus, directed the film and play one of the main roles in it. I feel at home in her world, I've seen the previous film and read her earlier book.

After the show Miranda skyped with us in the audience. This was absolutley special to me, and a historic moment in the film festival, first time they had a face to face talk on skype. Normally the directors are present in the room, this time Miranda was in her home in Los Angeles. Miranda was speaking of the artistic process making the movie, how it was sprung from performance she made. She also explained the symbols and the roots of certain parts of the movie, her way of looking at contamporary society, us humans how we look at our time, our lives, our future.


Miranda waving good bye to us and recieving our warm and heartful ovations.



Official trailer for the The Future, by Miranda July:

To make someone see

Hannu before concert at Moa and Mats houseconcert, Sunday.

Yesterday at concert something very special happened. One listener in the audience, a blind man, said afterwards that our music and my way of making the songs alive in the storytelling made him see pictures. He could once in his life see, and now we made him see things again. I'm definitely not any kind of small Jesus, but things like this is miracles to me. It makes me wanna go on and sing, it makes it all worthwhile. The blind man also said that the concert was going to warm him up for long time to come. I can say his response to our music will do the same for me, it gives me courage to go forward and never give up for my music dreams. It's so clear, how a reaction from a single person in a small venue can be so important.

Our audience yesterday was really really appreiative, all of them. Both Hannu and I were given flowers from a blacksmith who had walked several kilometers to get to concert. Very special. Thank you for flowers, and thank you all of you listeners,
yes,
I will keep these moments in my memory, very dear.

Here's a little filmclip from soundcheck on thursday at Oceanen.



Wish you a good week!
Eva

Following the tracks of the trout

I've been a full day outdoor, by the sea and in the forest, invited by Sensus as a thank you for jobs I've done. So I say, thank you Sensus for a wonderful inspirational day! We had a guide with us, Anders Nicander, who knows almost everything about the life of the trout. A fish that in this time of the year leave the big sea, swim into the rivers, jump upwards waterfalls of the smaller streams and find their perfect places to mate and make new fish. About 10 people, not knowing each other since before, going out in the forest to spy on mating fish, that's also a way of spending a Friday, isn't it?
Temperature has to be perfect for the trout, waterlevels/amount of rain has to be perfect, the small stones on the bottom of the stream has to be perfect size. Isn't it a miracle somehow? That's also a reason not all fish of the population swim into the streams, some 10% stay in sea and do it next year instead, just in case the weather or nature for some reason would destroy the whole process one year. How does the fish know when to go?
Everytime I get this small insight in such a complicated eco-system, I just have to say: life is a miracle!

Yesterday was a day of many shades of grey. Perfect for some photographing. Our guide is a fish photographer for a fishers magazine, so he had a lot to tell how it is to try to catch a fish on photo. Many hours laying in the stream in a wetsuit it is...a rather contemplative thing actually. I'm glad I'm not doing his job thou.... I really tried to make a pic of a fish, and the result can be seen below. I have deleted many pics that is just showing water surface. There's a trout's fin crossing the surface in this one:
And I had the luck to see many trout! Big ones, playing ones. They easily see us, so we had to be very careful going close to the water. This means we had to crawl in the mud to the stream shore. But in the forest it's many things to look at.

The gateway to the sea:

Deer on farmland.



Warmest autumn-wishes from Eva

Concert preparations

Tonight I'm doing a concert with Hannu Kella.

This is the way it goes on a day of a concert. Contemplating and doing practical preparations.

As usual, I feel a little disorganized but at the same time so strong about the music we are going to play. Like a feeling that the whole world needs to hear the songs we will play tonight, as answer to all kinds of questions there might be in a human mind. Because we are mirrors, music is like poetry, it's open for understanding in many ways. Folk music is often a reflection of timeless questions about life and death, jealosy, love, broken hearts, boldness and courage.

I've sung the songs on my own, I've read the lyrics loud (my daughter is sighing about this...)
I've decided what the outfit will be, most black and white colours for the sake of the drama ingredients found in the swedish-finnish songs.

I've almost packed the bag with stage clothes, shoes, microphone, book of lyrics and set list. What else do I need to bring?

I will just now, after I've finished writing, do some yoga.

A cup of coffé and then go.



Life is so fantastic. Here's one of my inspirational movies, made by multi-artist Miranda July:

Finnish-swedish songs: 10 shades of passion

Yesterday we had a tour start in Karlstad, at the cosy and warm Café August. What a wonderful audience, and the friends who came, I'm the happiness to see my collegue and band-mate Mattias with his wife and daughter. Other close friends showed up too and it was a very special evening singing there.

On thursday we play at Planeta-festival in Göteborg, more precisely at Oceanen at 19 in the evening. We'll play some finnish-swedish songs full of passion and love. Sometimes songs about broken hearts, yes, it's like deep rooted in the tradition of the 2 countries.

360° view and hight fright-lunch

Dreams are some days reality, in a very specific way. Dreams of my heart.

Säntis, one of the best hiking places to go in Switzerland. Mountains has always attracted me, they are so powerful and timeless. One word has been repeated a lot the whole day: amazing! The wonders of my life's adventure has now taken me here. I wouldn't have been here if I've never met my love.

Right on the top there's a small space for hikers to sit and enjoy the vast views. Like birds on a roof. The mountain Spitzeli sides fall steep on each side. It's having lunch under height fright, with a viwe of 360°, and side by side with my love. That's the way I like it most.
Sun was shining on the mountains the whole day, but lower lands was under the fog sea. Reminds me of one of the best chapters in Michael Ende's The never ending story.

Looking from Spitzeli towards Säntis.

To live fully 100%, that's what it's all about, isn't it?

Eva

Irmelin sing scottish folk songs

Three of Swedens top folk singers united: Irmelin.
Maria Misgeld, Karin Ericsson Back and Eva Rune, vocal trio.
Tonight Irmelin performs a new concert of scottish folk songs, come and listen in Oscar Fredriks church in Göteborg, at 19.30 and 21.30. Cultural night in Göteborg. Metro news today highlight the Scottish night in Oscar Fredriks, that's wonderful!

Among the songs there will be both well known, and some awesome traditional songs not often heard. The famous Auld lang syne will be sung in a lovely folk version, I guess it's going to be the hook of the night. Among my personal favourites are Ye Jacobites, by Robert Burns, and Follow the heron home, by Karine Polwart, that Irmelin will perform together with the womens choir Cecilia Choir, from Oscar Fredriks church.

If you can't make it to the church tonight, but long to hear us sing scottish songs, you will have one more chance tomorrow Saturday in Alingsås. We'll do a full concert there in Christinae church at 17.

Warmest welcome!
Eva

Music of the forest: workshop in kulning

Walking out on a autumn weekend.
Songs and calls in the forest.



Susanne Rosenberg, Ulrika Bodén and me in a recordning "Vallåtar från Gammelboning".





Outdoor workshop in herding calls, plus master class in the style of folk songs for all members of Cecilia-kören. That was a new and very good way of working with a choir. Every singer had 10 minutes private lesson, some did it in master class, some did it the normal way as a singing lesson. Both ways worked out really nice. I love to work with singers!

The autumn gold surrounded us.




After the workshop on Saturday I had the pleasure to get a ride in Carins car, down cab driving to the train station. Nice!

Songs of joy at senior citizens homes

Oh, today we have made half way in this tour at senior citizens homes. Mikael Godée and I are recieving so much back from them, our audience shines towards us. I guess live music is a welcome break in daily routine in theese homes. And for Mikael and me, we have been playing the wedding songs in so many different places now, festival-gigs at Faroe Islands, churches, cafées, and now for the elderly people.
Sometimes younger relatives come to see their mothers and fathers there, and one woman told us how her dement mother became much more alive when listening to us, to music. She was very thankful and in occasions like this it's a double joy to be out there and present live music.

Always a joy to me to sing the songs where love is celebrated. Here's some places and views I saw today along the road.
Wish you a good weekend!
Eva

21 more concerts to go

Every day before going to perform we meet in the lovely neighbourhood of Haga, a part of Göteborg that is well known for it's athmosphere. As in many towns such neighbourhoods have a history of being the place where artistic and creative people used to live and that made the whole area flower. Today it's one of the best places to live, cosy and trendy, small shops and lots of cafés. It's a mix of second hand shops and exclusivse shops. The cafés is a must for a visitor.
Warming up before concert. Mikael Godée.

5 concerts compleeted, 21 more to go.
Our set of songs feels really good. We knew from the beginning that our concert has mostly repertoire that is not well-known, and that can be a challenge. But the message has been clear so far. It's all about love. Every song is in one way or another part of the wedding traditions where love is celebrated. It's based in party-music from the old days, and our task as todays performers is to bring it to live again, the spirit of celebration.
Some of our listeners have heard the song written by Svarta Masken (Anna Myrberg), the creative author and performer who lived in Stockholm around 1910-1930.

I just love looking around in the smaller and more remote second hand shops. I just found this lovely coffé cup from England.
Today we have two concerts. Seeing more parts of Göteborg, seeing more white hair heroes, they are so sweet!

Eva

Grand tour at senior citizens homes

Good morning!
Today I have the pleasure to start a 26 concert long tour at senior citizens homes around Göteborg. It's a real pleasure to do this with saxophonist Mikael Godée who is my collegue, fellow musician, duo-partner whom I have collaborated with for years now. We explore music in the borderlands of jazzmusic and folkmusic, all the time focusing around melody, improvisation, openess in listening, sound, colour of tone.

I hope we'll touch some hearts along our tour, presenting some of the joyous songs from the wedding traditions in nordic countries. Among other songs I will also sing a song written by Svarta Masken, a creative, musical and a little bit "mysterious" woman who worked as performer and author in Stockholm in the 1920th. She used humour as her tool. Her name was Anna Myrberg, born in Norberg, and she lived between 1878-1931.

Most of all we will make sure the audience will have a moment of live music, close and warm. The performances most often take place in the dining rooms, and it's easy to walk around and get close contact with the listeners. Small rooms where the acoustics might be a little dry, but we'll do it the best we can. It's going to be fun!

Have a nice day!
Eva

Sunergy

These are the days, we are the times.

I love my life and the ones in it.

Eva

Musical ecology and space for all spieces

RFoD take part in the music network, the whole ecological system of different spieces in our musical world....
Yesterday I was leading the planning meeting at the RFoD office. (RFoD, Swedish Folk Music and Dance Association.) A couple of times each year we are a small group of members of the board who meet the employees in RFoD office in Stockholm. It's a very interesting process, an extremely turbulent time in cultural politics, and a most creative situation.
Khaos is neighbour with creativity.
I'm so thankful that we have a good talking climate, people dare to be personal and share their inner views. And we have big questions to juggle. We are progressing all the time!
I made a one hour coaching for RFoD, sharing the philosophy of the Seven habits of highly effective people, a book by Stephen Covey. Very useful information there, especially talking about the deeper meaning of win-win. The synergy when proactive people and organisations collaborate and create innovative new sollutions and developments. Goes for yourself, your own being, your family life, and in your work.

After our day with RFoD I rushed to get to the rehersal of Irmelin vocal trio. So good to see Karin Ericsson Back and Maria Misgeld and sing. Lovely women!
Singing is my main.
The singing is the reason I take part in all the other networking.
Music and voice is the center of all other activity in my work.
Irmelin will perform in Söderleds church at 4 pm on Sunday this week, the 18th of September. We have a full concert based on sea shanties, ballads and hymns.
You are all warmly welcome.

Eva

Two strong women: Svarta Björn and Djur Djura

This week I'll start a new choir project with womens choir Iris in Göteborg. We'll collect songs made by women, sung by women, and tell stories of womens life. My input in the project will be to coach with folk music, the singing style, and some repertoire.

For the rehersal tomorrow I'll bring three lovely lullabies plus two songs telling the story of Svarta Björn. Anna Rebecka Hofstad was cooking food for the rail road workers near Narvik, and she became a legend during her short life, known for her strength, her intelligense, her rightiousness, her beauty. So much a woman! Strong and beautiful, that's the way! Not much is known about her background, but she came from Norway. Her grave is in Tornehamn, a graveyard for the railroad workers. There are lots of songs about her.
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svarta_Bj%C3%B6rn

I found again Djur Djura. There's something with her voice that sounds like a young girl, but in fact, she's a generation older than me!

Djur Djura moved from Algeria to live in France and make her own music there. She's a great role model for many women. As a baby she was rejected by her own mother just for being a girl baby. She was then raised by older relatives. Djura dedicates her songs to “all women who have been deprived of love, knowledge and freedom”.

This song is about a a girl dreaming of freedom.



So, let's rock n roll into this new day, bring in our strength and our beauty. Come on girrrrls!
Eva

Folkmusic sustainability

Rain and sun, sun and rain, Gothenburg seems to have it all!
Among other things today, I've been reading the document that RFoD, SSR and Folkdansringen and more instanses are working on. I'm so proud of our collaboration between all the national associasions in the field, that take part in this work of the document. I'm so proud to read this now, we have been working for years to make a compleete survey/research of the whole situation for our genre folkmusic and folkdance in Sweden. In its wider sense including all forms of it, multi cultural, worldmusic, the whole rainbow of musical colours, both traditional and experimental, contemporary. Phew, imagine how big that is to make a survey! Many people has been involved in doing this of course.

The purpose of the text is to find political goals for the next 5 years, where do we stand today, and where are we going the next period? Where's the weak points and where's the strength in our genre?
So this has been my joy today, to see that we have actually worked all the way to a good document where great parts of the genre is represented, the professional sides as well as the amateur sides. In this, prof/amateur, we are so closely linked together and that is one of our strength to the whole picture.
The document is still under construction. Soon soon it's going to be released for public!

Yesterday I started a 7-week intense course in Alexander Technique, for my teacher Barbro Olsson that I study for since many years. So I'm just about to do my home work for that: to lie down on the floor with a few books under my head and just be there relaxing my back. For 15-20 minutes let my neck and back rest and be stretched out by gravitation and the support of the hard floor. Sounds strange? Not at all. This is the real deal. Let the body work as it's designed to do. Let the spine stretch out. Alexander Technique works deeply in your motional behaviours and allow you to find the healthy habits in body movement. Essential to have the best way to perform and to sing.

You've got spine!

Eva

Sailing out this year: part 2. Space, openess, wide nature, horizon

Space
openess
wide nature
horizon


Och inte vill jag sörja, men sörjer ändå,
han kommer väl igen om ett år eller två.
När liljorna de blomstra på marken,
när dagen faller på,
men det dagas inte än,
men det dagas likväl under tiden.

A seamans wife's song that is like a poetic teaching in mindfulness. It says that:

I don't want to grieve, but I do.
He will return in a year or two.
When lilies flower on the ground,
when the day comes,
but the day is not coming yet,
but still every day, time starts over again.

To me it's talking about how days follow days, creates weeks and month. Life goes on here and now and at the same time there's the longing for someone far away. Time turns its wheel. A wheel represents something eternal. The deepest things in us are timeless, eternal values.

Nu står jag på min resa och skall fara
Gud vet när jag kommer igen.
Farväl alla vänner så rara,
farväl min utvaldaste vän.
Nog är det mycket svårt
när vänner skiljas åt,
men det kaninge människa hjälpa,
denna tiden den går ju så fort.

Now I'm bound away, will travel,
God knows when I will return.
Fare well my friends so dear,
fare well my chosen beloved one.
It is very hard
when friends must part,
but no one can help,
and time will flow swift.





Yesterday I sang a concert at the Boat Museum of Galtabäck, just a little south of Varberg. With me played the clarinettist Pers Nils Johansson, also playing two row accordeon.

A beautiful open country, and lots of wind from the sea. There was a typical smell of drying, rottening sea plats lying where the sea meets land.
The boat above is a model of a boat from the 1200 century. Pieces of such a boat was found in a farmers field here in Galtabäck. Below some of the boat houses.


Eva