Bridget Marsden & Leif Ottosson
Album: Mountain Meeting
Label: Playing With Music
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.bridgetandleif.com/

English fiddle player Bridget Marsden moved to Sweden to study that country's tradition at Stockholm's Royal College of Music, and has made her home there, playing in a number of acts as well as releasing her debut solo album "When I Listen to Bingsj?" this year. At the same time she has released this simultaneously austere and earthy album with Swedish accordionist Leif Ottosson.

"Mountain Meeting" comprises older Swedish folksongs and 19th century compositions, as well as original material by Marsden and Ottosson, some of them composed for accompanying storytelling performances. As one of those storytellers, Dominic Kelly, relates in the sleevenotes, "What they came up with … is typical of the creative dynamism, playful skill, musical rigour, focus and energy" of the pair.

If the opening "Newborough Sands" is very much the austere end of the spectrum, the solo fiddle slowly drawing in the warmth of the accordion, "Valkommenvalsen" has much more heat and emotion about it. "Drinks Are On Me", not unnaturally, evokes a country alehouse, the percussion of Walter Kinbom encouraging a staggering dance. The title track, like the opener a Marsden composition, is a conversation between the two principal instruments, again as the sleeve notes: "Still, cool and calm. A place for thinking."

The following track "-30°c", opening with the vibraphone of Olaf Wendel, conjures up visions of tundra, fleetingly melting, before succumbing again to the cool percussive marimba. Ottosson's "Stjarnklart (Starry Night)" is a lyrical vision of clear, open skies, whilst the accompanying "Stjarnfall (Shooting Star)" sees Marsden's fiddle brought in to wind the trail of a comet. Johan Munter's Polska, which follows is another of those calm, solo fiddle openings, which gradually merges with the chords of the accordion, swelling to a warm finish. "Times of Ice", with Leo Svensson Sander on cello, returns to northern chill, the fiddle and accordion tinkling over the bass notes.

The final two pieces and "On the Moors" are based on storytelling accompaniments for Kelly, and conjure up visions of Grimm-like tales, " The Devil's Purse Suite" being alternately foreboding and merry, whilst the sinister tango of "On The Moors" decelerates and quietens into the nothingness of a Baltic twilight.

The set of tunes is a feast for the ears, and the good news is that Marsden and Ottosson are touring the north of England, with a trip to Edinburgh included, between 26 September and 9 October. Try and catch them if you can!

Harry Thomson