Buy the CD on line:
CD No: AMCD755 by Mats Edén + Tina Quartey called Vägen in. Released: 2004

Short description: Outrageously wonderful violin and percussion - very spacey

The Review: Mats Edén and Tina Quartey made their debut as a duo on Swedish Radio's P3's live program, Lunch Music, sometime around the end of the '80s. A bit odd, considering that their music is light years away from the normal aesthetics of popular radio. As could be expected, it didn't lead to any major breakthroughs among listeners, even if their immediate circle of friends were enthusiastic.

Live audiences (which with time have grown considerably) are also generally enthusiastic because this duo symbolizes the joy of playing, great musical freedom and communication. The basis is set in folk music, strongly reinforced by Mats' life-long Värmland traditions, into which Norwegian melodies have recently been integrated as well. Tina's background includes an exploration of Afro-Cuban and Brazilian percussive music, with the Brazilian berimbau playing a major role in the interplay with Mats.

They have been performing as a duo for fifteen years, refining and perfecting their mutual style. The meeting between the Swedish and Latin American music traditions has proven to be a suitable creative field for joint exploration, both in improvisation and composition. But the resulting music is not a "fusion". Instead, it is a tightly woven musical expression in which percussion and fiddle act and react with each other, carefully sculptured but never contrived - or free improvisation around a mood or a rhythm. This is music that is made in the present, very little is arranged in advance. It can be based on a line, a sound, a thought.

Something that may be significant for this duo is that they first waited fifteen years before making their recording debut, only to finish the entire session in three days. Even so, they really pulled out all the stops on a couple of tracks and pushed the musical borders to new limits by making use of the extra potential that a studio presents. In this way, a new kind of music is created on this CD, which otherwise consists of traditional material from western Sweden as well as material written specially for this record. Key words:

The Band: Mats Edén + Tina Quartey Sweden

Band members:
26 Mats Edén (Melodeons, Violin, Viola d'Amore) 153 EDEN


CD Tracks: 1 Vaggvisesviten / Lullaby Suite
2 Varlauvet / Blues i Bayreuth
3 Den Vackre / The Beautiful
4 Halling
5 Is / Ice
6 Ulvelyden
7 Polska from Norra Rada / Trumpen hass Trond
8 Tre Langdanser / Three Long Dances
9 Trym
10 Polska from Norra Finnskoga
11 Breimbau d'amore
12 Malargubbens brudpolska / The Painter's Bridal Polska
13 Nordafjalls
14 Vagen in / The Way In
15 Han som sto oppat av grava / He Who Rose Up From The Grave