R7

Amazon.com
Susanne Rosenberg mines some very deep roots with her ensemble, fusing the great vocal and fiddle traditions of Sweden into a uniquely ancient yet startlingly contemporary sound. It encompasses a folky warmth and the icy chill of the avant-garde, and ranges from traditional mountain calls to baroque elegance. Joining leader Rosenberg in this venture are some of Sweden's best artists. String players Sven Ahlbäck, Hadrian Prett, Annika Wijnbladh, and Ellika Frisell and singers Ulrika Bodén, Sofia Sanden, and Eva Aström-Rune are all well respected in the art and folk-music world. The band also enjoys the expert production work of Ale Möller, whose light hand and sympathetic ear has let the music shine through in an almost barren state, uncluttered and yet still complex and diverse. The sound of R7 is direct and local; up-front music with high expectations and no pretensions. --Louis Gibson

Tracks:

To Hire A Maid
My Wedding Day
No One Is Dearer To Me
Arto's Christmas Polska
Silibrand
Praise Be To God
Jorid - Herding Calls
Three 'Fling Polskas'
Interlude
The Ballad Of Little Karin
The Little Man
The Goat
Eye Of The Night
Now The Whole Earth Is At Rest

Amazon.com

Susanne Rosenberg mines some very deep roots with her ensemble, fusing the great vocal and fiddle traditions of Sweden into a uniquely ancient yet startlingly contemporary sound. It encompasses a folky warmth and the icy chill of the avant-garde, and ranges from traditional mountain calls to baroque elegance. Joining leader Rosenberg in this venture are some of Sweden's best artists. String players Sven Ahlbäck, Hadrian Prett, Annika Wijnbladh, and Ellika Frisell and singers Ulrika Bodén, Sofia Sanden, and Eva Aström-Rune are all well respected in the art and folk-music world. The band also enjoys the expert production work of Ale Möller, whose light hand and sympathetic ear has let the music shine through in an almost barren state, uncluttered and yet still complex and diverse. The sound of R7 is direct and local; up-front music with high expectations and no pretensions. --Louis Gibson

Customer Reviews:

Great Disc!.......2005-03-01

I bought this disc a few years back when I was getting into more world music, and its been in regular rotation in my CD player ever since.

What it sounds like... Cold, icy, blue, rocky, furious and majestic. The kind of music that you SHOULD hear when walking beside the sea with huge waves breaking across rocks. The strings are fantastic, clear and present. The album is well recorded, and the voices are incredible.

Can't recommend this album enough!

cool singing.......2004-03-14

I really enjoy listening to this cd. This group's talent is impressive. I especially enjoy the accompaniment by the string section. I've listened to other Swedish cds, and being somewhat familiar with the language myself, the accent of the singers seems different than other swedish folk groups I've heard. Nevertheless, this record is wonderful! If you don't buy it for the vocals, buy it for the string section!

Good music but lacks that genuine touch.......2002-03-14

This record is - to someone who knows the language and cultural context - somewhat of a disappointment, even though the quality of the music and performance is certainly very good. The selection of songs is certainly excellent and the arrangements are great too.

Susanne Rosenberg is clearly very talented but she insists on robbing the songs of their local context by performing them in the most extreme and artifical "standard" Swedish that I have heard in a long while.

To illustrate what I mean to those who do not speak the language, imagine the Southern Blues sung in Oxford English or in that plain American accent of a network news anchor... The feeling would be entirely different, right? Local dialect and sensitivity to the cultural context certainly brings a lot to any style of singing!!

To add a little more context, the so called "standard" Swedish is only used in the capital and by TV and radio. People outside the capital have long felt colonized by those arrogant Stockholmers and have always insisted on their own local identity in language and otherwise. So, in this way, the people of the local areas where these songs originated might justifiably feel robbed by this insensitive use of their heritage.

a great combination of voice and strings.......2001-01-14

I originally heard Susanne Rosenberg's voice accompanying some of Hoven Droven's songs... and knew it was something special. the third track, in particular, highlights her impressive voice, as much for the whimsical tone it evokes as the tonal range she can summon.

but the album is also impressive for the quality of the string arrangements. the phrasing, and interplay, of the vocal parts and the strings adds a texture and richness to an album which is, otherwise, very simple in its production.

Ravishing!.......2000-01-04

The glory of female voices presented in as compelling a way as can be imagined! I can't recommend this disc highly enough.