Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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HEDNINGARNA

Swedish folk group formed '87 by H†llbus Totte Mattson (b 19 July '55, Mora), lute, baroque guitar, hurdy-gurdy; Anders Stake (b 13 June '60, Degerfors), fiddle, Hardanger fiddle, keyed fiddle, Swedish bagpipe, flute and whistles; and Bj”rn Tollin (b 18 June '55, Sk†ne), percussion, string-drum-hurdy-gurdy, keyed fiddle. They were the third wave of Swedish folk groups after Folk and Rackare and their successors, Filarfolket and Groupa, to take the music into a wider European market, the name Hedningarna derived from heathen or infidel, signifying an intention to contest prevailing orthodoxies. They composed music for theatrical piece Den Stora Vreden ('The Great Wrath') '88, released eponymous debut album '89 on Alice, then switched to Silence for breakthrough album Kaksi! '92, prod. by Folk and Rackare's Ulf Gruvberg. The album won a Swedish Grammy '93 for best folk album, a piece of musical iconoclasm that neatly separated the past from the future. They appeared at the Rudolstadt Dance and Folk Festival in Germany '91, contributing a track to live album Tanz&FolkFest Rudolstadt '91. Finnish singers Sanna Kurki-Suonio (b 21 April '66, Helsinki) and Tellu Virkala (then still Tellu Paulasto, b 26 Dec. '69) joined the lineup in time for Hedningarna's London debut at the Tender is the North Festival at the Barbican '92. Allowing their work to be remixed by DJ Sasha '93 was a pointless if fashionable exercise reflecting the dancefloor scene's appetite for new sounds to chew and spit out; album Tr„ '94 on Silence had the five-piece augmented by another Finn, Wimme Saari (whose own album was Wimme on RockAdillo '95; Saari is the foremost interpreter of Yoik, the song form of the Sami, which is the proper name for the Lapps: 'Lapp' is considered derogatory, a racist term coined by the Swedes). The Finnish members of the quintet were off the road due to family commitments while the trio worked on Hippjokk '97 still on Silence, with guests incl. Saari. Heningarna's impact on European folk can be compared to that of the Pogues on the British and Irish scenes, influential beyond folk music.