Gunnar Idenstam – Gunnar Idenstam: Lofoten Meditations (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:03:55 minutes | 565 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Toccata Classics
In 2019 the Swedish organist and composer Gunnar Idenstam was commissioned to provide the music to a film, The Vegan Toothbrush, by the Norwegian film-maker Trygve Luktvasslimo, which takes seriously the issue of climate change itself but satirises the quasi-religious intensity of climate activists. Idenstam is one of the few remaining organists who maintain the centuries-old tradition of improvisation at the console, and his extemporisations for the film, all of which are concerned with water, developed into a kind of powerfully atmospheric sea symphony.
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Gunnar Idenstam, Ulrika Boden, Sandra Marteleur, S:t Jacobs Kammarkör & Gary Graden – Folkjul II: A Swedish Folk Christmas (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:13:21 minutes | 1,27 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
Well into the previous century Sweden was largely a peasant society with folk music an integral part of daily life. There were work songs, narrative ballads and, obviously, music for dancing. Over the centuries a not always easy coexistence between religion and folk culture developed, with hymns being adapted to a folk-music aesthetic while popular traditions were given a Christian veneer. An example of the latter is the rich store of ‘Staffan ballads’, springing from a pre-Christian horse cult but given a new slant as its focus shifted to St. Stephen – the first Christian martyr. Gunnar Idenstam and S:t Jacobs Chamber Choir have performed their Folkjul concerts more or less every year since 2002. The concept stem from a rich interplay between ‘folk culture’ and ‘high culture’ and in Idenstam’s arrangements a newly composed halling or polska entwines itself round the old Christmas melodies. The first Folkjul album was released in 2007 – this time the choir and Idenstam are joined by violinist Sandra Marteleur and Ulrika Bodén, one of Sweden’s most well-established folk singers.
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Gunnar Idenstam, Lisa Rydberg, Jonas Sjoblom – Urban Folk (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 53:19 minutes | 529 MB | Genre: Folk
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Footprint Records
Welcome to our world of modern folk music from Stockholm, Sweden! This particular constellation, with Lisa Rydberg on violin, Jonas Sjöblom on percussion and vocals, and myself – Gunnar Idenstam – on harmonium and keyboard, for a few years in the early 2000s under the name plan3. During that time, we performed all over Sweden at venues ranging from churches to dance halls and pubs.
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