After a string of albums singing with bands - Kalabra, Sälta, Ranarim, Rosenbergs Sjua - for her first solo project Ulrika Bodén has turned to the traditional music of Ångermanland, the region of her home village of Helgum in eastern central Sweden.
Her singing has always had a natural, direct freshness, and with this album it seems to have gained a new confidence and command. In some songs she’s unaccompanied; in most she’s eloquently accompanied by Ranarim colleagues Niklas Roswall (nyckelharpas, chord zither) and Jens Engelbrecht (guitar, mandola, kantele) joined by Hedningarna’s Anders Norudde on stråkharpa, moraharpa, fiddle, whistle or Swedish bagpipe. Subtly crafty in arrangement, drawing out and pointing up the spirit of the material, the sound is very complete, needing no bass lines nor percussion. Together they lift into fresh new life material, rarely if ever heard from other contemporary performers, learnt from old radio recordings, transcriptions and from visits to some of the surviving old singers including Ester Isaksson from Helgum, a snatch of whose singing of the title song opens a very attractive album. The title means “picking and choosing” and she has obviously done just that; there’s nothing superfluous here.
01 Hej Dåna-Malin
02 Giftasvisan
03 Helt Lustigt - Tut tut
04 Lillsviten
05 Vad jag har lovat
06 Graningepolska
07 Josef från Arimatea
08 Ol i Tängsta
09 Tjasj geta
10 Killegeten
11 Söta Lillpiga
12 Karins Polska
13 Gitarrpolska
14 Vispermön och fången
15 Fanteguten
16 Noras Polska
17 Stormig Jordan
18 Jungfru Britta
19 Vålje å Vrake
20 Vaggvisor
Ulrika Bodén - voice
Anders Norrude - bagpipes, flutes, strings and other Nordic sounds
Jens Englebrecht - mandola, guitar,
Niklas Roswall - nyckleharpa, kontrabasharpa