Pianist Julian Svejgaard of the Danish folk trio Stundom tells Cara Lieurance that describing the band's sound is difficult, but he tries: "It's an ancient sound brought to new life." The trio performs at 7 pm Wednesday, Oct. 14, in the back room at Bell's Eccentric Cafe as part of the Connecting Chords Music Festival.
Svejgaard says the music pairs old Nordic dance music with cinematic and classical influences, and can be tender or rough enough to dance to. The largely instrumental group centers on the violin, played by Emma Kragh-Elmøe, alongside Villads Hoffmann on cittern, which Svejgaard likens to a big mandolin or 12-string guitar. Svejgaard plays piano, pump organ and melodica.
Folk music, he says, comes from an oral tradition and has to be close to the heart and ear. The trio sometimes ventures into fast, difficult melodies and strange chords, but "the main DNA would be something that speaks immediately to the heart and the minds of the listener."
He praises Hoffmann's optimism and belief in music, and Kragh-Elmøe's ability to play both beautifully and powerfully. Raised in a musical family, Svejgaard says classical, cinematic and jazz influences find their way into the trio's writing.
When Lieurance recalls the Estonian duo Puuluup, Svejgaard describes Scandinavian fiddles, including a Swedish violin built from a wooden shoe and the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle, whose resonating strings create an echo: "It's like you just open a door into the realms of magic and fairies." He gets a similar lingering effect by dampening piano strings with poster tack.
Stundom began at traditional festivals, he says, but adding electronics and symphonic layers has led to pop, electronic and classical festivals as well. The U.S. tour starts in Atlanta and proceeds mostly by rental car, which lets the band see smaller places along the way.
Their latest album, originally released on vinyl, is pressed on CD for the tour: "So we brought eight kilos of CDs with us, only for US." The set also includes traditional Danish tunes the trio rarely plays in concert. Svejgaard also hosts a jazz radio show in Denmark.
This interview was summarized by Claude AI and edited by the author.
