Arv og Slarv

EM83 / 2017

Firo består av kvedaren Mari Midtli, Bjørn Kåre Odde på fele og bratsj, Mads Erik Odde på trekkspel og Øyvind Sandum på trekkspel og harpeleik, alle frå Gudbrandsdalen. Det siste året har gruppa turnert rundt i Noreg med eit repertoar av det sjeldne. Dei har nemleg grava fram gamle viser og melodiar, og satt det inn i eit større musikalsk lydbilete.

– Om ein leitar litt i dei rikhaldige folkemusikkarkiva våre, så kan ein finne gull. Det har vi i FIRO gjort, og vi tykkjer no at det er på høg tid at fleire får glede av dette. Vi har difor jobba mykje for å få songane til å passe inn i besetninga vår og dei musikalske preferansane vi har. Samstundes er det viktig for oss at arrangementa blir gjort på melodiane og tekstane sine premiss, for tradisjonsstoffet er så bra og interessant i seg sjølv, forklarar songtalentet Mari Midtli (20)

Firo har hausta strålande kritikkar for sine konsertar det siste året. ”Folkemusikkens Beatles og Rolls-Royce”, skreiv Einar Almehagen i GD etter konserten i Otta Kulturhus den 10. september i fjor. Firo har også spelt konsert saman med den kjente artisten Rita Eriksen, så det er ingen som skal seie at kvartetten ikkje er allsidige, noko Bjørn Kåre Odde trur er ein oppskrift på suksess.

– Alle i gruppa har så mykje musikk og særtrekk i seg som vil ut, noko som gjer at plata blir veldig variert og spennande. Dessutan fungerar vi godt i lag. Vi er gode vener og har det artig når vi samlast. Det synest og høyrest på konsertane, seier Odde, som i likheit med Mari Midtli har vunne den gjæve solistkonkurransen Toneprisen.

På plata vil ein også høyre noko ny musikk av mellom anna gruppemedlemmane Mads Erik Odde og Øyvind Sandum.

ENG:

Debut album from talented folk singer in Norway

One of Norway’s most talented folk singer releases her first album together with three experienced musicians. The group called “Firo” wants to reveal that old songs can be cool, funny and relevant even today.

She is only 20 years old, but has already an impressive collection of awards and merits. The folk singer and fiddle player Mari Midtli from the small town of Sel in Norway has on several occasions performed with the best orchestras in the country, and in the past 12 months the focus has been her band Firo. The band’s biggest wish is to make more people listen to traditional music without using modern electric instruments or other elements from the popular music.

Their new album is called “Arv og slarv”, which means “heritage and gossip”, and is to be released May 5th. The other members in the group is already well known folk musicians in Norway: Bjørn Kåre Odde (fiddle and viola), his brother Mads Erik Odde (accordion), and Øyvind Sandum (accordion and zither). These three have been good friends for years, and when Mads Erik and Mari became a couple, they decided to start a band and cultivate their common interest for traditional folk music from their home county. They have been digging deeply for gold in the folk music archives to find interesting song and melodies.

– The repertoire on this album comes mainly from archive recordings of traditional vocal music from Gudbrandsdalen. A major goal of ours was to find material that has remained more or less unused since it was recorded for preservation in the archives. The findings we made stretch from small snippets of songs and rhymes to skjemteviser (humorous songs), bygdeviser (village songs) and ballads.

Even if the music is traditional, and the band members in Firo have done a great job learning tunes from old recordings, the material has automatically been coloured by their way of playing and how the music is performed today.

– During the process, one has to make choices in order to make the music and lyrics mirror traditional expression as it is today. After working with the melodies for a while, we naturally integrated our own preferred ways of singing and playing into the music. When we went back and listened to the original recordings, we noticed small changes had taken place, and that we had made the songs and melodies our own. This is what makes traditional music come to life, the band members discuss.

The band reveal that you also can hear new music on the album, composed by the Firo members.