Detektivbyrån will be performing at this year's Nordic Roots Festival in Minneapolis, MN in late September, which will apparently be the 10th and final year of said festival. Also on the (amazing!) lineup are Hedningarna, Hoven Droven, Hurdy-Gurdy, Frigg, Väsen and many more. More details: http://www.nordicroots.org/NRF2008/index2008.html

MP3: Hurdy-Gurdy - Venjan

We continue our exploration of traditional Scandinavian folk this week with a track from the aptly-named Hurdy-Gurdy. Artist monikers don't get much more self-explanatory than that! The concept is straightforward enough: two men (Stefan Brisland-Ferner of Garmarna and Hållbus Totte Mattson of Hedningarna) and their instruments. Except that it's not really that simple - the men don't just play their instruments - they also process and chop the recordings on their computers so that every single nuance of sound you hear on the album originated from a hurdy gurdy. The so-called "medieval synthesizer" is an unexplored landscape of noise, especially when it comes to modern recording technique. It's not at all like electric guitar where there's an established and accepted standard for mic placement, tone range and so forth. Most engineers, when faced with a contraption like a hurdy gurdy, would have absolutely no idea what to do. Stefan and Hållbus use that to their advantage and are free to play around and create something completely new from the old device. It's a fascinating instrument and I highly recommend that, if the opportunity presents itself, you see it performed live. I caught Garmarna on tour a few years back and Stefan stole the show. Never would I have imagined that a hurdy gurdy player could rock out with such reckless abandon.

Hurdy-Gurdy - Venjan