Irmelin skivinspelning med fjällvandrartermos och yogi-te

Irmelin har just spelat in på Kingside studio materialet till nästa platta.
Sångerna som är vår första förälskelse.

Otto Wellton är vår inspelningstekniker. Tre intensiva inspelningsdagar i vackra höstglödande Sörmland. Fyra katter och vackra stora hund-damen Tamla spred värme med sin närvaro.

Orsapolskor efter Gössa, bröllopskväden,
visor från Dala-Floda,
Enviken, Rättvik,
och inslag av Helsingfors, Estland och Norge.

Visor och låtar vi älskat sen tiden vi började med folksång.
Koraler, kulning, vallvisor, vaggvisor och en massa sköna polsketrallar.

Koklockorna.

Otto, Maria och Karin i kontrollrummet.

Hjärtervärmare från Nås, in the making....

Mina tillbehör i inspelningsbåset. Yogi-te och stämgaffel. Samma gamla fjällvandrartermos.

I januari 2016 räknar vi med att släppa vår kommande platta.
Håll utkik!

Nu är det en stunds vila och återhämtning.
Kreativt skapande kräver en god portion vila, enligt forskning har jag sett.
Så jag bestämmer att det är ok att grotta in sig hemma
nu kring omställning till vintertid.

Eva

Voicing - meeting - sharing - circle Folk Voice Tradition 2014

Giving and taking in its most beautiful form. Mutual inspiration!

Folk Voice Tradition 2014

On the last day of our conference we did reflections and circle talking about how to proceed. How can we build stronger circles and voice the tacit knowledge we share? Very empowering! Wordsmith and painting artist Malin Sverige showed us beautiful paintings she created in our conference, her reflection. When her pictures was displayed the whole room started to sing in a collective improvisation.

I wonder how this could be possible in any other conference?

The past weekend I spend time in Stockholm with an amazing gathering of the tribe of folk singers. I'm been awestruck by the power and creativity, filled with new inspiration.

Reunion of friends I've known since many years. Friends from my time as student at KMH (Royal College of Music) Friends from the first ever, the glorious, the turning point: Ethno -90.
Irmelin songsisters, great to be here all the three of us!

And happy to make new friends!

We had to use english as the official language since we speake so many languages in this group and not all of us share the same language root. Finnish, Latvian, Estonian and Scandinavian languages.

I have to say that listening to the songs I couldn't follow the lyrics was maybe the most memorable for me in the concerts. Music has the power to take a grip even if there's no common language. Music is the common language and it speaks clearly about what it is to be a human.

A warm big THANK YOU to Susanne Rosenberg and the crew for empowering the diverse family of singers, storytellers, artists, holistic improvisators.

Eva

Sitting on the train up to Stockholm, enjoying the November peace. Working on the order of songs for my new album.

KMH, The Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Old meets new.

Singers from Sibelius Academy in Helsinki in a song of lamentation.

Singers from Latvia, amazing vocal traditions!

Pure love for sounds and voices

The creative has a good soil here.
Key persons make a huge contribution in bringing the good things together. Thank you so much initiative makers, crew and leaders of this lovely voice festival, Naturstimmen - Klangfestival in Alt St. Johann, Toggenburg.
The pure love for sounds and voices made a great impact on me.
For example:
This house with a black smith on the bottom floor, powered by a water wheel. Water and fire energy steaming up in the rest of the house.
On the other floors in the house it was room after room filled with  music of many kind. Music therapy, music exploring, music to touch and be touched by. Instruments with pentatonic scales so beginners can feel the happiness of being creative with tones. And vibrations.
On the top floor Irmelin had our course every morning, sharing the songs of the north. Thank you participants who signed up to spend four whole days with us. We had a lovely time with you!

Here's Bernhard Betschart performing his pure yodel from Muotathal. Irmelin had the pleasure to perform together with him on the night out at the lake Schwendisee in the Alps of Toggenburg. Nature gave us blessings of rain and it was pure life being there listening to Beny's yodel answering in with our shepherd calls from the north.





“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
― Mary Oliver

After Toggenburg I continued to Hochdorf to work with cellist Annika Dobler, a long time music partner. We were both members of Rosenbergs Sjua and have several tours together all around in many countries.
The magic linden tree in their garden. Perfect for en evening session with music in the garden.

Last concert was performed in a local church in Hochdorf in the morning, Annika and me singing away in a non-picture-only-colors-and-shapes reformert church. It was a cleansing experince and very etheric.
Then finally, time to just relax!
On my last day in Switzerland I had an afternoon & evening free. We took the train to Luzern. Annika and Alain showed me around to their get-away-places of tranquility in the middle of a city.
Seebad in Luzern.

Seebad in Luzern. My friends grandmother used to come here every day.

My first swim for this summer, in Lake Luzern.

Strolling the streets of Luzern on a summer evening.

Have a beautiful day out there!
Eva

Irmelin goes Finland

Irmelin loves Finland!
We are in Vaasa right now together with hundreds and hundreds of other singers. It's the Vaasa choir Festival. Super nicely organized by the festival crew, many thanks, kiitos kiitos! Your dedication for the vocal music is so uplifting and empowering. Lovely to walk in the center of town and hear choir music in every corner.

Yesterday evening we made a concert at Ritz, a theater-like hall, it's a cinema with totally beautiful original atmospher. Interiors from the time it was built. A special thank you to all who came to listen with so big ears and big hearts. Kiitos to all of you. We allways love to share the stories from the sea, from the travellers, of love, of death, of joy again after the sorrow.

It's always a great pleasure to sing in a hall like this, with good light and sound and a setting that enhance focus and energy for the details in our voices and music.

I wonder if they sometimes dance lindy hop, balboa or boogie woogie here? This is just outside the big cinema hall.

We had a lovely dinner at il Banco, a house built on 1860 for a bank in those days. Today a culinary rich place to go, my dinner was ecellent.

Maria Misgeld at the doors of il Banco.

Today we perform again at Ritz and this time it's a shared concert with the choir Philomela. I'm very much looking forward to sing there. We had super nice sound!

Vaasa train station.

To travel with Karin and Maria, it's my best place to be. Song sisters, you rule!

Eva

MUKO Sweden festival and a day of love

Irmelin did a great day yesterday, taking part in the first ever festival of MUKO Sweden. Music Collective (=MUKO) manifested ourselves for the first time.
Irmelin pictures

With a 8 band long festival including  childrens concert and whole night long row of music at Storan, Göteborg. 6 bands from our own power house of MUKO and two international acts. I especially enjoyed listening to Mikael Godee and Eve Beuvens quartet (Sweden and Belgium) and Jaron Freeman Fox and the Opposite of Everything (Canada). Sparkling energy. Deep and sensitive. Fun!

Mikael Godée & Eve Beuvens Quartet

All the other bands are super interesting too, but because Irmelin performed so much ourselves I couldn't hear everything I wanted to.


Irmelin sang in the opening ceremony of the festival, and immediately after we had to run to next gig. My friend Thomas married Cecilia and Irmelin provided with love songs and bridal march. A truly enlighted moment was to call out with our voices only in herding calls over the fields where the bride and groom walked up to their friends and family who had gathered to celebrate with them.

Yes, a long day of love indeed.

Music in all directions. Love for what we believe in.

Irmelin headed back to Göteborg and Storan Theater to get up on stage there a second time in the MUKO festival. We were carried of the support from among others the members of my choirs who came to listen. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. 

I'm happy to say we also made a statement from stage yesterday, in support and solidarity with all who stand up for mother earth and protect her from big company greed, mining companies. In solidarity with Gallok in Jokkmokk, Sweden, as well as anti-fracking movement in Canada and elsewhere. Our thoughts goes to the situation in New Brunswick in Canada where military made a crack down on unarmed peaceful protesters and shoot rubber bullets and teargas. Snipers aiming at singing and praying elders, women, children. Peaceful protesters, you have all the love and support that the corporations envy and fear so much. Your songs, drums, dances and prayers are more powerful than bullets. Put your boots on the ground, stand up for future clean nature to our children and their children.

Today I could think of resting a bit......and dream of all the goodies from yesterday.

Irmelin work days in Stockholm, beautiful city

Stockholm one of the most beautiful cities in the world!

This week I had some lovely days in Stockholm together with Karin and Maria, my Irmelin sisters.

Photos are from August when I visited Stockholm for other singing reasons. To take part in a voice-yoga-course.

On the roof top.

If I could be a bird.

Eva

Irmelin creative days

Spider web with water drops.

Autumn beauty.

In the material world we are here.
But where we are in the wholeness, it's more difficult to tell.

This and next week Irmelin is working on new songs. Music and poetry by us.

Sometimes even collectively made by the three of us in Irmelin.

Among other things that inspire me is simplicity. That a painter can paint just a few lines and create art with simplicity. I'm not there yet. But it makes me curious, and it lights my fire.



Time to prepare for tomorrow and get some rest.
Eva

Rolling deep into music

This week has been full of creativity with writing new songs.
It was about picking up small seeds of melody and lyrics that came some years ago when I was visiting the Faroe Islands. By that time the seeds was not ready to flower.

Now, I feel I have traveled some distance, discovered new sides of you and me and everything. It's now that the time has come to fulfil the song that was started long ago.

One notice, when I find my flow in writing music, I totally loose the fantasy in cooking. Anyone experiences the same? It's like I have to put other things aside when I want to focus on music. I don't like to spend too much time with the cooking then.
Rich in spirit, but not so much with the ideas of what to put on the dinner table :-)

More inspirational was my dreams at night. Truly set the sparkle for some new material. One remarkable dream after the other. I write down some of the most significant pictures coming to me in dreams.

Irmelin on Germany tour

Irmelin diary, May 2013

Three concerts in three very different venues.
First concert was a big hall, Altes Elwerk in Greifswald. Chamber music feeling, a wonderful audience giving us the most heartful response.
Second concert in an out door venue on the country side, Venne Früling Folk Festival. Beautiful small, families, young people, rain and sunshine in mix, and a super nice sound. Thank you sound engineer, and thank you lovely audience!
Third concert in a club in Berlin. In the nice area of Prentzlauerberg, full of small and hidden pearls of culture everywhere. Great night out in Berlin. Met lovely people in both audience and the local arrangers, promoters of vocal music and excellent artists, Mattias and Tania. 

Greifswald, Nordischer Klang.
Sun + dark sky, I like!

Walking in town, first night.

Fish with green fish-bone are a lovely tasting fish. Dinner on a boat in the canal.

Hotel Galerie. I can recommend this place. Nice paintings in my room. The chinese lucky cookie had a good line saying:

Sometimes, travelling to new places can bring great transformation.

On the road towards Osnabrück and the small village Venne.

Us having the best spot in sunshine on Venne Früling Folk Festival.
Outside the café where I expected Aragorn sit in a corner. Instead I saw 4 Gandalf walking around on the festival area.....

Astrid's garden. A truly inspiring place to retreat after concert. Frogs singing in the pond.

Last day in Berlin. Haus der Sinne.
Tango, lindy, blues dance on some evenings, and now, vocal evening with choirs and Irmelin!

Back stage in the dark cellar.....
What can be more Berlin than a club like this.....

German audience, what a wonderful tour we've had meeting you all great people! Hope to see you soon again!
Eva

Irmelin on tour in Finland

Soon I will be absorbed by Irmelin events for a week! So much looking forward to sing with Maria and Karin again! It will be workshops, concerts and cd release for our new album, North Sea Stories.
More info of tour and new cd is found on irmelin.nu

Frozen mix of ginger, honey and lemon.

Today I was walking with the dog, gathering inspiration in nature.
Spring is in the air.
Ice is melting.

Form and transformation.

A frozen well in the forest is the last remains of ice and snow.

Colour and light.

Eva

Final steps in Irmelin CD-making

Karin, Maria and me in vocal trio Irmelin are just in the final steps of the process of making our new CD. It's a great pleasure to see it come into form. On Monday it's time to do the mastering. I'm very excited about all this. As usual it's also a bit of a labour emotionally. Will this music come out the way we dreamed about it? The stories we want to tell, will it be touching? As soon as the CD is printed it's totaly up to the listener, but at this point it's a fragile and yet strong walk of balance carrying something precious in our hands. A work with lot of heart in it. Everytime you put your naked heart into the work it's also a portion of pain to it.

In this process we are united and working together in the very best way. The Irmelin trio stands strong together! It's a joy to work with Karin and Maria, to unite with their artistry and personality. I learn so much everytime we work together!

Some pictures from this week:

Yesterday I visited a second hand store I've never been to before. Lucky me I found a dress compleetely hand made with fine knowledge in hand craft, probably from the 50th or 60th. I'm happy about the bright colour, even with out the sun shining through it's the colours of fire. Double layers of fabric. i wish I knew who made it and what parties this dress has been to before.

Eva

What a joy to sing to the elders

The last two weeks we did 22 concerts to the elders. Vocal trio Irmelin in Göteborg, what a joy!

It's a fine job, the elders get so happy, they need this input from outside to put colour to the daily life. Many have loss of memory, sit in wheel chairs, can't take part in society like they used to. It's a good thing that the city employ us musicians and make sure they get live music when they can't go to concerts in town anymore.

Our songs come from the north sea, shanties and sea men songs. In the audience we've had a number of people who worked on the sea. Here's the tattoo one former sea captain showed us after concert. He was 16 years old when he started on the sea. The tattoo was made then.

Dotted dresses and red shoes has been our outfit for performance.

Most days lovely winter weather. Frosty trees, minus degrees, blue sky.

Göteborg by night. Many days we kept on working late after doing our concerts. We have to compleete the mixing of our new coming cd and we did the photo session as well.

No wonder that I have been extraordinary tired this weekend, the first free days in looong time.

And what can be more energizing than dancing? Today is balboa boost at the dance club. I'll be there!

Eva