tisdag 15 juli 2014

Yoda of the scythe

It totally made my day, meeting with master Birger.
We sat talking about how to cut the meadow with a scythe. All about technique, weather conditions, general advice, and how to maintain the scythe and make it sharp.

Birger went after his best scythe, the one he used in competitions as well as in daily work on his farm lands.
Carefully cutting the grass, beautiful and neat.
He also let me cut the grass and corrected my technique. The tip of the blade must be more parallell to the ground. He make half moon shaped cuttings but slightly shorter from side to side than I tried to do it before.
It was truly a special feeling to hold on to this scythe that has served so long in his masters hands. As if the iron handles had softened and transformed in the contact with human hand.
Birgers lovely wife Terese came to sit with us too and we all had a good talk in the summer afternoon.

I was suggested to go to Birger if I wanted to know deeply about the traditions. He's the elder, the knowledge holder of the traditions that passed down in generations. He had a lot to tell, I say! This is indigenous knowledge for me, connected to the life in harmony with nature here in the north. Connected to my family roots of farmers in Dalarna.


Birger with his scythe.



Birger gave me this whetstone to sharpen my scythe. An honour to be given such!



A rose that unfolded this morning in my garden.

fredag 11 juli 2014

Summer workshop week with Myst

Music is in the air.
Myst have had a week together in Göteborg. Long time no see, but now we've had full days of digging into our music again.

God is in the small details.....

Three days rehearsals and two days recording. One new song has seen the light, Ahmad wrote the piece and Eva added some lyrics. It's called "A Song I Wrote For You".

Seven songs from our repertoir last year has been recorded for demo, that makes eight songs all in all this week.
Here's some pics from work in the studio:
Martin and his new tattoo.

Youssef Hbeisch, percussion.

Ahmad Al Khatib, oud.

Martin Holmlund, double bas. Sara Nilsson, violin.

Eva Rune, vocals.