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Sofia Karlsson
Svarta ballader
Sofia Karlsson Sings Dan Andersson's 'black ballads' ()
$18.99

One of Sweden's finest young singers, accompanied by a stellar group of musicians including Ale Moller, Lena Willemark, Sara Isaksson, Esbjörn Hazelius, Leo Svensson, Lisa Rydberg and Sofie Livebrant. The recording explores the poetry of early 20th century writer Dan Andersson. Highly recommended.

Listen:
jag vantar
jag har dromt
omkring tiggarn fran luossa

Press from the record label:
Dan Andersson was a popular writer, his poetry deeply rooted in the Swedish psyche. His writings have been prolifically set to music ever since his untimely death in 1920. In the foreword to the collected poems of Dan Andersson (Dan Anderssons Dikter, Tidens Förlag, 1988), published a hundred years after the poet's birth, one of his most celebrated interpreters, as well as one of the most successful in setting Andersson's poetry to music, singer and guitarist Thorstein Bergman establishes that it is doubtful whether anybody, ever, in Swedish literature has been the subject of such a long and faithful love as Dan Andersson.

Dan Anderssons poetry continues to entice new musical settings of his works. The new Sofia Karlsson album is partly a result of this. The new music to Vaggvisan, Du liv, Mot ljuset and Jag har drömt have been key factors behind this project. That Sofia has been singing Dan Andersson practically all her life is of course of equal importance. When we released her debut album Folk Songs (AMCD 748) in Spring 2002 Dan Andersson material spontaneously appeared as encores at some of the concerts. Already then we started to discuss a folk musically tinted singer/songwriter album centered around songs by some of the giants within the Swedish tradition: Olle Adolphson, Evert Taube, Fred Åkerström, Ruben Nilsson, Barbro Hörberg and of course Dan Andersson. It was soon decided that we wanted to do a pure Dan Andersson album.

We also knew that we wanted to invite musicians from the folk music ranks as well as from other musical scenes. Thorstein Bergman, multiinstrumentalist Ale Möller and vocalists Lena Willemark and Sara Isaksson were on the guest shortlist/wishing list. The versatile stringmusician, and something of a musical motor on Folk Songs, Esbjörn Hazelius was a given, just as cellist Leo Svensson, fiddler Lisa Rydberg, bass players Olle Linder and Andreas Unge and percussionist Sebastian Notini. We also wanted to incorporate Niko Röhlcke's (from Swedish rock band Weeping Willows) pedal steel playing and Mikael Augustsson's bandoneon on the album. That Sofie Livebrant would play the piano on her new compositions was self-evident. We also felt that some of the songs needed a horn section, who these wind players would be not quite clear, i.e. not until the recording of Oskar Schönnings Amigo debut album (AMCD 908) in the early Summer of 2004. The band had a sound perfectly fitting the bill. Nils Berg's bass clarinet, Emil Strandberg's trumpet, Jonas Östholms piano playing and not least the arrangement ideas of bassist and bandleader Oskar Schönning that resolved our doubts about whether we really would be able to capture Gunde Johansson's musical setting of Omkring tiggarn från Luossa on tape. During a row of recording sessions at different locations in the Summer, Fall and early Winter of 2004 it, as well as all the other songs eventually was duly recorded.

Classical Dan Andersson-material as Thorstein Bergman's Vaknatt, in a duet with the composer, Julvisa i Finnmarken, with Ale Möller and Minnet, Gunnar Turesson's Jag väntar, Sven Scholander's Helgdagskväll i timmerkojan and Dan Anderssons own musical setting of Till min syster, in an intimate a capella-version by Sofia, Sara Isaksson and Lena Willemark, and the four new, fledgling classics, Sofie Livebrant's Vaggvisan, Mot ljuset and Du liv, where Sofia's and Sara Isaksson's ethereal voices, Esbjörn Hazelius' openly tuned guitar and Niko Röhlcke's pedal steel marry the blue sadness of the Finn forests of Dalarna with that of Nashville and last but not least Sofia Karlsson's own congenial musical setting of Jag har drömt. - Göran Petersson Swedish folk singer Sofia Karlsson sings Dan Andersson, poet, novelist, short story writer and musician, one of the most loved Swedish poets. Born in 1888, he accidentally died from gas poisoning in a Stockholm hotel in 1920. His popular volumes of poetry "Kolarhistorier" (1914) and "Kolvaktarens visor" (1915) was published in English as Charcoal Burner's Ballad & Other Poems in 1943. Sofia Karlsson – Vocalist from Stockholm. Musical influences: First grandma playing chorals on the pump organ, grandad playing the single row accordion and mother who always sang in the car, later Fred Åkerström, Dolly Parton, Tracy Chapman, Dansar Edward, Kirsten Bråten-Berg and Lena Willemark. Educated at the Folk music dept. of the Royal College of Music in Stocfkholm. Between 1998-2002 full time member in Swedish folk music act Groupa, released "Folk songs" (Amigo, AMCD 748), her first solo album in 2002, since then active as freelance soloist/vocalist.