Search - Johan Hedin :: Angel Archipelago

Angel Archipelago would be highly recommended just for its cast. Hedin, the nyckelharpa (keyed fiddle) innovator, is joined by Scandinavian music luminaries like multi-instrumentalist Ale Möller, accordionist Maria Kalaniemi, electronics man Frode Fjellheim, and horn player Jonas Knutsson. Together they have created a neo-classical album of grace and quiet energy, befitting the glassine nature of Hedin's fiddle. The compositions are mostly gentle, with echoes of 18th-century classical and ecclesiastical music, but they do have occasional bursts of remarkable energy, utilizing baroque lines and heavy percussion to push the music outside the quietude of the bulk of the record. There will be a tendency to place this music into the new age realm, and some of Hedin's other recorded output certainly belongs there, but Angel Archipelago succeeds because there is no category for it. --Louis Gibson