Customer Reviews

Anon

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I saw Anon Egeland last week in concert and it was an exceptional show. His use of the Norwegian fiddle, flute and jew's harp were other worldly. Imagine the most haunting waltzes you have ever heard and you get the picture. 23 songs and nice liner notes, too. The CD matches the performance almost exactly. Highly recommended.

This is a lovely, unusual set from Swedish fiddler Anon Egeland -- one of the best albums on the Northside label. Highly recommended!

This is dark, passionate music: lively, rhythmic, various. It's full of ghosts and hints of other traditions, and you get a sense that much of what's played here is the made for the dancing pleasure of people with big boots. Standouts: the first track, and the incredible "Is It You Or Is It You." You will not regret buying this album!

There are a variety of instruments on this CD: fiddles, overtone flutes, and jews harp, along with guitars, viola, and octave mandolin. Most of the songs are quite brief, and usually feature one or two instruments, so you can get a feel for them without being overwhelmed by a wall of sound.

The sound ranges from dance tunes that will sound familiar to a lover of Celtic music, to strange, like the Jews harp tunes. I didn't think I'd like the Jews harp pieces, but they're actually really interesting. Very rhythmic, with this sort of swirling phasing quality that sounds like something you'd get from a synth, or at least through processing, but it isn't. The flute pieces are particularly haunting.

This music is truly magical -- and I don't mean that as marketing hyperbole. It's deep and sophisticated, but simple, too, and evocative of a world just on the other side of breath.

Like I said, it's similar to Celtic music, superficially, but has an eerie, haunting quality that is somehow more primal. It's rhythmically and melodically less predictable, certainly -- and that, in my opinion, is a good thing.

If you like other Scandanavian music, this is a wonderful exploration of smaller ensembles and traditional tunes, all instrumental.