Unique septet blend Nordic folk and American bluegrass

The fiddle septet is back in the country after an excellent debut, bringing together the talents of a young generation of folk musicians, who have come up with the concept of Nordgrass, a mix of Nordic folk and American bluegrass.

Energy, fun, humour and interaction are Frigg’s most important virtues in any gig, says member Petric Prauda.

Frigg’s globetrotting has seen them complete six tours of North America, together with tours of Australia, Japan, Germany, and the Benelux countries and appearances in Malaysia, Spain and France. They have also completed several tours of Switzerland.

As Petric says, the great thing about being a folk musician is that you can genuinely say that your marketplace is the whole world.

“Frigg music is what I call a bit of a fusion of folk music. It is Finnish or Nordic by the roots, but there are a lot of other kinds of inspiration that tend to seep in there. I hope that there is something in there that a lot of people can recognise even if they don’t really know Nordic music.

“We started, I think, 14 years ago. The short story is that we mostly met via the Sibelius Academy where you can study folk music. It is the only music university in Finland. You can do folk music masters degrees and post-graduate degrees, and that’s what we were doing and where we met. But the circle is small so, inevitably, you meet almost everybody in the business on the scene in Finland.”

The group features the virtuosic talents of three members of the famed Jarvela family from the central Finland village of the same name in the municipality of Kaustinen – siblings Alina and Esjo Jarvela and their cousin Antti, the band’s frontman.

“They are the core of the band,” Petric says.

“We write our own music, very much based on traditional music, but every now and again we play traditional songs. We also often play for dances when we tend to lean more on the traditional repertoire. Our own original compositions are maybe more contemporary and less for dance.

“It’s instrumental music. We like to play music with a good energy. We like to bring people together and get people to meet people. I would say that that is the philosophy of our music and what you find in our own writing.”

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