Music
Press
When the two famous musicians, flute/pipeplayer Göran Mänsson and lute/baroque guitar player Sven Åberg, once again make a record together they show a wonderfully creative freedom in their intense dialogue. They develop their music far beyond folk-melodic limits. With their background in folk music expressions they have reached a way of their own of treating traditional music, keeping it fully recognizable but still in another exciting guise.
A large part of the record consists of their own tunes. It’s a subtly innovative music which from a beautiful folk-melodic base let the compositions grow to something larger. With artful digressions and improvisations, sometimes touching at the forms and attacks of jazz, the music moves from the most simple and straightforward themes to more complex musical constructions. Månsson & Åberg are sensitive virtuosos and skilfully form the music with their arsenal of instruments and ways of playing. Folk music is for them a material to freely relate to, without ever loosing it's innermost core.
Gunder Wåhlberg - Lira (Sweden)
Flute player Göran Månsson and lutenist Sven Åberg invite us to a wild dance on the title tune of this interesting CD. It has a brutal swing. The duo has since the mid nineties developed a sound of their own with their medievally sounding instruments where improvisation has gradually taken more space. The 14 tracks of ”Älvdans” bear witness of both range and great knowing – and sometimes of breathtaking virtuosity.
Magnus Börjesson - Nerikes Allehanda (Sweden)
Secure, straight melodies with the firm tuneframe of the fiddlers tradition are broken by improvisations driven by an unrest of jazz. Innovative, curious music headed by a free flute.
Lars Åbom - Östgöta-Correspondenten (Sweden)
Göran Månssons flute and Sven Åbergs lute take us on a musical journey, they gently lead us, they repeat and take it once again without being persistent or obstinate, but unbelievably skilled. They convince by their lightness and freedom. I forget the grey day and follow the light with the music.
Bo Bjelvehammar - Ystads Allehanda (Sweden)
Discography
Full length CD albums:
Älvdans (2009, dB Productions)
Spår (2001, EAR)
Oknytt (Prohpone 1997)
Photos
Bio
Månsson & Åberg consists of Göran Månsson and Sven Åberg, often backed-up by Jonas Åkerlund, violin, and Petter Berndalen, percussion.
Göran Månsson (born 1967) currently ranks as one of the most exciting and dynamic flute players on the Swedish folk music scene. He comes from the town of Haverö in Norrland in the north of Sweden. As a descendant of one of Sweden's celebrated folk music families, Göran is actively furthering the Swedish folk music heritage.
Göran performs with the folkmusic group Gjallarhorn and also the folk-pop group Sarek which was one of the artists in Eurovision song contest 2004. Other groups: Frispel and Månsson & Åberg. He also performs as a soloist and his solo album Inland (Drone) was released in December 2002 to widespread critical acclaim.
Göran is an in-demand session musician for folk-, pop- and early music recordings and has toured the world as percussionist and recorder player. He teaches at the Stockholm Royal College of Music's Department of Folk Music.
Sven Ã…berg (born 1963) is known as one of the most versatile Swedish lute players on the music scene. He has for several decades been active as a sought-after musician in the early music field, working with orchestras like the Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble and the Drottningholm Theatre Orchestra, conductors like Roy Goodman, Christophe Rousset, Andrew Manze and Andrew Parrott, chamber music groups like Harmony of Voices and Musica Humana as well as well as giving numerous solo concerts. He has also been musical director of opera productions, for example at the Vadstena Academy.
But he has also used the early plucked instruments, like the renaissance lute, baroque lute, theorbo and baroque guitar, in other musical contexts. He has made extensive tours and three critically acclaimed records playing Swedish folk music with the duo MÃ¥nsson & Ã…berg as well as participated in the development of a tune-lute adapted to the microtones of the Swedish tunes. He has also worked with contemporary music in the groups KammarensembleN, Avanti and Ensemble Son as well as played Argentine tango in the group Tango Libre.
Sven Ã…berg is lecturer of lute and chamber music at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. He regularly holds courses in contemporary and early improvisation and has also been active in the skills research laboratory known as the Dialogue Seminar. His book Spelrum earned a doctorate degree in 2008.
Some of the labels he has recorded for are: EAR, Prophone, Vanguard Classics, Daphne, Proprius, Alice, Musica Sveciae, Drone, Caprice, BIS, dB Productions and Swedish Society Discophil.
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