duggup

Nah, not a new brand of beer, this is a Danish progressive rock/folk studio band. My thanks to Finn from Denmark for pointing me in their direction. The name Sorten Muld translates as Black Soil.

First I’m going to give a big thumbs down to the Sorten Muld website . The flash website (yes once again we have a website where form beats function into oblivion) they have set up, is probably the worst website I have had the misfortune of trying to use. Missing pages, obscure and pointless pages and places to click – no information and incomprehensible navigation – but enough of my complaints, fortunately the same can’t be said of the music itself.

As it turns out I had more luck getting information from a fansite and it goes something like this: Taking inspiration and elements from the Nordic tradition of story and song, they have revived and updated these tunes giving them a pop treatment using synthesizers, sequencers and an assortment of traditional instruments and most importantly the voice of Ulla Bendixen.

Ulla Bendixen (vocals), Martin Døssing Ottosen (keyboards, electronics), came together in 1995 in the studio of Henrik Esben Munch (keyboards, electronics). Collaborating with other musicians they have produced several albums, although nothing seems to have been released since 2002.

Listen as Ulla’s voice weaves sinuously around the edgy, percussive arrangements like a clown fish safely negotiating coral as she reinvents the life and death tradition of folk songs everywhere. The themes are familiar and universal; death, betrayal and loves lost and won. Take the sad tale of Kirstin whose father served her the heart of her true love.

or from the same tale as “Bonnie Swan” by Loreena McKennitt is the story of the two sisters who vie for the love of the same man. One sister drowns her rival only for have two fiddlers find the drowned girl and fashion her bones and hair made into a talking harp.

Recommended.

jools is a graphic designer who used to front a band on vocals and bass. All evidence of which have mercifully been obliterated or otherwise lost.
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