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V​ä​sen & Hawktail

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V​ä​sen & Hawktail --- 2024-09-20

The music of Väsen is foundational to the members of Hawktail. They avidly followed (and played) it as teenagers, and then as they moved through their music education and early professional careers. Encountering these young musicians at festivals, Väsen quickly recognized and appreciated the talents and clever musical inventiveness of Hawktail. Aspirations to collaborate rarely advance beyond the idea stage: “let’s try to do something together sometime!” But in this instance an application by Väsen to the Swedish Arts Council resulted in funding for two collaborative tours (one each in Sweden and the U.S.), which laid the groundwork for yet more touring and a week of recording in Sweden. Let’s hope it’s just the beginning of a long and fruitful musical relationship. This set, honed by those first tours, combines original tunes already established in each of the band’s repertoires (but newly arranged for this 5-piece ensemble), with freshly composed music for the collaboration. Usually the tune is a polska, that infinitely variable 3-beat rhythm that permeates Swedish traditional music, and universally just gets under your skin. In the hands of these five enormously talented acoustic musicians, it’s like mining for joy. -Robert Simonds Väsen is Olov Johansson (nyckelharpa) and Mikael Marin (violoncello da spalla and a blue electric viola). For decades now, Väsen’s unique music has been a benchmark in the folk-instrumental category. Hawktail is Brittany Haas (fiddle), Paul Kowert (double bass) and Jordan Tice (guitar). When not appearing with other bands (Punch Brothers, Dave Rawlings Machine, Crooked Still, Yola...), the members of Hawktail convene to make their original instrumental music. credits released September 20, 2024 Produced by Väsen & Hawktail Recorded at Studio Västerås by Stephan Lövstrand Mixed and mastered by Martin Igelström Photo by Erik Larsson Design by Loren Witcher Thanks to Rob Simonds & Karen Margolis, Maria Camillo, Lindsay McDowell, Dave Sinko, Erik Larsson. Hawk Ale (O. Johansson) Leadfoot (P. Kowert) Tell Me Watcha Gonna Do Now (J. Tice) Hymn Till Sommarnätter (M. Marin) Your Town Polska (B. Haas) Kackerlackan (M. Marin) Strykarepolska (M. Marin) The Tobogganist (B. Haas, P. Kowert, D. Leslie, J. Tice) Brötpolska (M. Marin) Unless (B. Haas, P. Kowert, J. Tice) All arrangements by Väsen & Hawktail. Publishing notated by each track: Brittany Haas (Brittany Haas Music), Dominick Leslie (DomTunes) BMI; Paul Kowert (PFK Music), Jordan Tice (Ticeberg) ASCAP; Olov Johansson (235758350), Mikael Marin (239565537) STIM. © Väsen/Hawktail ℗ Olov Johansson Musik/Padiddle Records. All rights reserved. With support from Swedish Arts Council.