Marit and Rona

Every so often a collaboration bears fruit that is at once startlingly original and yet exactly what one might have anticipated, if only you’d had the vision to think of it! Marit Fält and Rona Wilkie began playing together when both were studying in Newcastle, seeking out the musical and cultural common ground from their backgrounds in Scandinavia and Scotland. The results immediately found an appreciative audience and the duo won the prestigious Danny Kyle Award at 2012 Celtic Connections and Rona was voted BBC Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year. Marit went on to join Patsy Reid and Catriona Macdonald, forming the Vamm trio. Marit and Rona’s joint adventures have now resulted in this debut album, produced by Mary Ann Kennedy and her husband, Nick Turner, and released on their Watercolour label. The label aims to seek out brave new ideas in Gaelic music and writing and it’s hard to imagine a release more suited to furthering that aim.
Rona, originally from Oban, has been recognised, since her childhood years, as an outstandingly talented fiddle player in both traditional Highland and classical circles. Working with Marit has led her to develop a technique for the Hardanger fiddle, a traditional Norwegian instrument, the 4 bowed strings being supplemented by another 5, tuned to resonate with the played strings. She also adds viola on some tracks. Marit hails from Norway, with Swedish parents and her primary instrument is the låtmandola. Not a traditional instrument but one developed in Sweden in the 1980′s and made for her by luthier Christer Ådin. Describing a låtmandola isn’t all that easy, maybe it’s sufficient to say it’s an octave mandola with an added 5th string pair to extend the bass and, in some instruments, a few quarter tone frets to access notes common in Swedish fiddle tunes. On Turas, Marit also plays cittern and hits objects ranging from piano to cymbal. Percussion is also added by Allan Òg MacDonald on bodhran. Both Marit and Rona take vocal lead and completing the line up of musicians are a classical string quartet, The Cantilena Quartet, and Mary Ann Kennedy providing backing vocals.
The opening track, Fhuair Mi Pòg, is a great introduction to the variety of musical flavours and textures that are such a pleasing feature of the album. The track is a set of two tunes and a brief song, opening with a traditional, energetic Norwegian dance tune. The pace and rhythm are first set by the låtmandola and Rona’s fiddle picks out the melody, a change of time signature and it is the låtmandola that takes up the melody of a tune written by Marit. For the final part of the set Rona’s voice takes the lead with brief but effective lyrics sung to a traditional piobaireachd. Throughout, there is a progression of pace, volume and percussion that satisfyingly builds the 5 minute piece to its climax. It’s thoughtfully constructed but it is the interplay between the 2 lead musicians, changing roles at each stage, that really delights. In contrast Bodach is a much shorter track based around 2 short songs, one Swedish, one Gaelic, sung separately and then overlaid, highlighting their rhythmic similarities and emphasising the linguistic as well as musical facets of the collaboration.

Listen to this album with undivided attention and fascinating aspects emerge from all of the tracks. Kilmartin is a village in Argyll, north of Lochgilphead, and a site rich in prehistoric artefacts, folklore and mystery and, for me, the site of many a grand night in the Kilmartin Hotel. The tune, Kilmartin Glen Campsite, written by Rona, evokes all of this, an apt celebration of a special place. Finally, I can’t help but mention Rory’s Dinosaur Jumper, not only for the pleasure of that splendid quirky title but also to highlight the irrepressible way the set progresses from from Rona’s waltz in celebration of the jumper to the liveliest of traditional reels
Juxtapositions, of melodies, instruments and languages, are at the heart of Turas, and the possibilities they have opened up seem to have inspired Marit and Rona to explore not just their personal roots but to look further afield, with tunes from Finland, Quebec and Nova Scotia finding their way into the mix. This is a thoroughly satisfying album, filled with an eclectic mix of elements that entertain, surprise, and may well inspire others to seek out equally productive collaborations.
Review by: Johnny Whalley - Folk Radio UK

This soundtrack to your next berserker ceilidh (with a few gentle hangover cures thrown in) explores the links between Scandinavian and Scottish Highland music, blending Celtic warmth with Filarfolket-style chill to wonderfully harmonious effect. Marit wields the Nordic Låtmandola while Rona fiddles through a banquet of polkas (sic.) and reels from the infectious, rolling 'Tobar Tobar' to the stately elegance possibly contrasting the reality) of 'Kilmartin Glen Campsite'. Shifting time signatures keep the tunes, sung in Swedish and Gaelic (the title means "to take turns" in both languages), both dramatic and playful whether it's the martial 'Bodach', a lovely, haunting interpretation of 'Psalm 107' or the lilting 'Rory's Dinosaur Jumper' which recalls the best of Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham.

STEVE BENNET - Blaze Publishing

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Marit Fält plays the Scandinavian lätmandola, the equivalent of our contemporary cittern, or octave mandola – which she infuses with her Nordic sensibility, beside her Scottish friend’s fiddle. From Oban, BBC Young Traditional award-winner Rona Wilkie formed a duo with Marit at Newcastle’s traditional music course, going on to create this novel fusion of both cultures. Songs in Gaelic are joined to tunes and airs from both sides of the North Sea, but with a deliberate intensity and musicality, as the two young women create a beautiful new synthesis from some old rocks lying around our equivalent topography. NORMAN CHALMERS

• Download this: Rory’s Dinosaur Jumper - The Scotsman

This is the debut recording from Marit Fält and Rona Wilkie, exploring the music of Scandinavia and the Scottish Highlands. You should know Marit from Vamm and Rona has been awarded BBC Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year, the girls met whilst at Newcastle Uni and obviously found a shared musical language that has resulted in ‘Turas’.

The music is stirringly evocative of the Northern Lands that share so much yet have their own distinctive cultural styles. “The way that the Gaelic and Norwegian and Swedish languages are sung is very similar, and the melodies of the languages are similar as well,” Rona explains. “But we’re also exploring the differences in the music – in the tempos, time signatures and even the tone of the instruments.” yet it is often the contrast of Swedish and Gaelic in the singing that makes this album so enjoyable. An album that. like the cultures it feeds from, is very deep indeed.

www.maritandrona.com - Spiral Earth

Too often, blending styles and influences dilutes both. Sometimes the result works well, other times the blend feels forced with the’ joins’ all too evident. That’s not the case with the debutalbum from Marit Fält and Rona Wilkie – their partnership amalgamates contrasting themes, heritage and influences into a mix that forms a wonderfully coalesced entity.

The geographical resemblances between Scandinavia and the Scottish Highlands are there for all to see, the parallels in the indigenous music are not always so evident … and yet one listen to ‘Turas’ will change all that. The borders fall before the fusion, edges blur, yet the strength of each culture shines through and that’s the true beauty of this album as instruments and languages complement each other. Along with cittern, piano and a range of percussion, Marit plays låtmandola (or Nordic mandola) a relatively new instrumentdeveloped by Swedish multi-musician Ale Möller, which she brings to sparkling life. Rona plays fiddle, viola and hardanger fiddle a traditional Norwegian stringed instrument with eight or nine strings, four of which are strung and played like a violin, the rest being ‘understrings’ that resonate to give an evocative echo effect.

The result is an emphatic, melodic and rhythmic intermingling that will hold you engrossed. ‘Fhuair Mi Pòg’ opens and leads you softly into the blend, ahead of the lively language of ‘Tobar’ and haunting ‘Kilmartin Glen Campsite’, the energy of ‘The Reels’ is suitably infectious and highly melodic and ‘Rory's Dinosaur Jumper’ stays with you long after the last notes fade.

‘Turas’ is available through Amazon, cdbaby.com, cdUniverse and others. Visit their new site: maritandrona.co.uk that's where you'll find Marit Fält and Rona Wilkie.

Reviewer: Dan Holland - Folk Words

Normally whan an album starts with two vocal tracks I reach for the next album, or at least for the sleevenotes to see how many instrumentals are coming up - but in this case I was already intrigued by Turas with its raw and starkly beautiful mix of Scandinavian modes and Gaelic melodies. In fact, it probably took about five tracks before I began to get a handle on this CD, by which time I was excited to know what was coming next. This Edinburgh-based duo pack Norwegian and Finnish tunes alongside Gaelic songs and port a'beul, not to mention a range of styles from a 17th century pibroch to a new composition in 7/8. With that amount of variety in just the first two tracks, there's considerable pressure to maintain the buzz. You can form your own opinion, but in my view Marit and Rona manage to make every track fresh and exciting, and they keep the surprises coming to the very end.

Turas is the work of Rona Wilkie, fiddler and singer from Oban, and Marit Fält from Norway who plays citterns and percussion as well as singing. It is not a super-polished recording, and that's part of its appeal: the sound moves and changes, there's an intimacy and warmth which is washed away in some studio productions, and you get the feeling with Marit and Rona's music that this is a live session, just for you, not a mass-produced chocolate-boxed commodity. This applies equally to the vibrant fiddle tunes - Kilmartin Glen Campsite and Yes! by Rona, Reel de M Santé, Auchendoun Castle, and Halling fra Elverum from various traditions - and to the more soulful songs. Psalm 107 in Gaelic is very atmospheric, with authentic church acoustics and the wind whistling through the windows, while a ghostly figure plays viola. Bodach puts real venom into the lyrics, and the intertwined vocals are fascinating. The anguish of They Stole My Wife From Me pales beside the utter despair of This is the Year that has Left me Desolate, a Gaelic song of misery to end all misery, delivered with authentic Hebridean fatalism.

Roughly half and half vocals and instrumentals, every piece on Turas has been carefully arranged, whether to support the clear natural singing or to exploit the rhythmic and melodic possibilities of fiddle and cittern. There's additional percussion from Allan Òg MacDonald, and subtle use of a string quartet, but Marit and Rona carry this album between them. I haven't mentioned everything: you can discover the compositions of Paul Anderson and Patsy Reid yourselves, as well as the majestic Ebba Brahe Polska and the deadly serious Rory's Dinosaur Jumper. The final Cape Breton lullaby Tha Bò Dhubh Agam is simply enchanting, adding another aspect to a complex and absorbing CD.

Alex Monaghan - Folk World