6th November 2014 at Horseshoe, London EC1.
Islington Folk Club,
www.islingtonfolkclub.co.uk/ifc.html.
Country: Sweden. Style: Traditional Swedish.
Lineup: Sonia Sahlström (fiddle/nyckelharpa), Håkan Larsson (harmonica).
Every year a Scandinavian fiddle player performs at the Club immediately before Tania Simon’s weekend instrumental workshop. This time, like most years, the musician was from Sweden.
Sonia Sahlström, and her husband Håkan Larsson, are from Uppland in eastern Sweden. She comes from a long line of musicians including her grandfather Anders, uncle Sture, and father Eric (who played key role in developing the modern Chromatic Nyckelharpa). As well as fiddle, Sonia plays Silverbasharpa (silver-drone keyed fiddle). This is an earlier instrument than the Chromatic version with 2 rows of keys instead of 3 (this particular one was made for her by Sture). Larsson played the harmonica, which since the start of the twentieth century has been a popular instrument in traditional Swedish music. The duo played tunes from both Uppland and Dalarna.
