Øyonn Groven Myhren: Akkedoria frå Kristiania
MIC’s Listen to Norway series continues with Øyonn Groven Myhren’s Akkedoria frå Kristiania
Øyonn Groven Myhren is something as unusual as a city girb at very forefront of Norwegian traditional folk music, -a predominantly rural phenomenon that seemingly has little chance of survival and development in young urban milieus. All the more pleasing and assuring then to present an exception to this unfortunate trend, and an outstanding one to boot! Øyonn Groven Myhre has her roots in Telemark, and can count many influential folk- musicians among her family and ancestors. She herself however grew up in Oslo and her exposure to traditional music was far from something enforced by her parents. Great was therefore their surprise when they discovered that their daughter was attending folk singing contests, and obviously had more readily taken to the tunes she had been naturally exposed to in the environment of her family than by the popular music of her urban environs.
On Akkedoria frå Kristiania, she presents vocal pieces from Telemark and Hallingdalen; two of the richest parts of Norway in terms of musical traditions. The songs are to a large extent performed without any instrumentation, and when such is present it is sparse. A major part of the repertoire belongs to specific vocal techniques that traditionally had no tonal accompaniment but were a means of creating and expressing music when no instruments were available. Øyonn’s singing is delicate, nuanced and moving in the special way that does justice to the essence of folk music; the heartfelt and simplistically beautiful expression of ordinary rural life.
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