PROJECTS
“My musical life has always been a combination of permanent groups and more temporary collaborations. I like that! In fixed bands, you get deepening and development over time. In temporary projects you get a chance to try new ideas and meet new interesting musicians who take the music into new paths."
Ale Möller is known for his many boundary-pushing projects. One of his main artistic focuses has been to create new music based on the meeting between differences, "respectful collisions", if you want. It has been about bringing musicians from different cultures together, as well as exploring breaking points between different genres and subcultures.
“Here are some of my
currently touring projects”
“Here are some of my currently touring projects”
FRIFOT
The legendary folk trio with singer and fiddler Lena Willemark, fiddler Per Gudmundson and multi-instrumentalist Ale Möller was formed back in 1987 and has been a flagship band of the Swedish Folk Revival ever since. Frifot creates a unique music landscape with music that gives new life to the old traditions.
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Over the years, Frifot has toured in a number of countries including Poland, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, the United States and India, as well as the Nordic Countries. Their third tour of the United States, in 2000, included a performance on the radio show A Prairie Home Companion. Their CD Sluring received a Swedish Grammy for the Best Folk Music Album (2003).
Dischography:
Frifot, 1991 (as Möller, Willemark & Gudmundson)
Järven, 1996,
Summer Song, 1999 (compilation album),
Sluring, 2003,
Flyt, 2007.
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Per Gudmundson - Vocal, Fiddle, Octave Fiddle, Swedish Bagpipes
Ale Möller - Mandola, Flute, Hammered Dulcimer, Folk Harp, Shawm, Vocal
Lena Willemark - Vocal, Fiddle, Octave Fiddle, Wooden Flute, Flute
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the Joy of the Unknown
XENO MANÍA
“I've travelled far and wide with my music, and I´m amazed at the power certain musicians still have over me. This record is dedicated to four of them.
It isn't an attempt to demonstrate how they played, but their approach to what they did, their energy and their ability to tell stories through their music have been a major inspiration in the making of this work.
None of them are with us anymore. Their memory fills me with happiness and gratitude.”
- Ale Möller
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“I've travelled far and wide with my music, and I´m amazed at the power certain musicians still have over me. This record is dedicated to four of them. It isn't an attempt to demonstrate how they played, but their approach to what they did, their energy and their ability to tell stories through their music have been a major inspiration in the making of this work. None of them are with us anymore. Their memory fills me with happiness and gratitude.”
- Ale Möller
Xeno Manía is an instrumental suite composed by Ale Möller, originally commissioned by the Swedish National Radio in 2021. A totally unique sound is created from having double percussionists, a horn section and a Swedish “nyckelharpa”/keyed fiddle blending in. The 9 piece orchestra is meticulously picked and every member is a respected instrumentalist in her own name.
Barba ThodorosAmbelas is a village on the island of Paros in the Greek Cyclades. Barba Thodoros lived there. I was just over twenty years old; he was a little more than sixty. We became friends.
Barba Thodoros loved to sing, but he had a problem. According to village tradition, when someone died, everybody had to wear a black armband and avoid singing or dancing for six months. Thodoros was frustrated. He was the youngest of six siblings, and when each six-month mourning period was coming to an end, another elder brother or sister would die. He never got the chance to sing.
One day I rented a car and said, “Thodoros, nobody in the village need to ever know what songs are being sung in a car late at night.” Throughout that night we drove around the hills in the pale light of the full moon. Barba Thodoros sat in the back seat and sand “amanes” in his powerful, rough-edged voice while I sat at the wheel, thrilled.
Röjås JonasJust north of Rättvik in the Swedish province of Dalarna, in the village of Boda, lived traditional fiddler Röjås Jonas. In the early 1980´s I moved into a neighbouring village and struck up a friendship with him which later developed into a musical collaboration.
Jonas was a very complex personality: both exacting and generous at the same time. Very serious, but also a lot of fun, full of playful pranks. The intensity of his polska playing often took my breath away.
Tarak das baul
Travelling around Bengal in India a few years ago, I met Tarak Khyapa das Baul, a spiritual and musical guro from the ancient order of the travelling Bauls. Above all, though, he was a musician of the moment, with an incredible energy and presence.
We had long conversations without understanding a word of each other´s languages. We got our meaning across with looks and gestures, but above all through music.
His songs Kangal and Sadhu are the ones who now keep his legacy alive for the future.
Gibril BahThe village of Toubab Dialaw, a few miles south of Dakar in West Africa, was the home of Gibril Bah, a master of the Foulani people´s one-string fiddle, the “riti”. Gibril was a proud man. The two of us always made music together as equals.
Once, when I pointed this out, he said: “You´re right, Ali Mullah, we are the same. But there's one difference: you travel the world, you make records and perform on the TV. I don´t. I'll be staying in this village and playing for the same people till I die.”
As it turned out, he was right. We had come a long way in our plans to bring him to Sweden, but a heart attack intervened.
Documentary: Ale Möller - Xeno Mania - Lusten till det okändaReview: https://www.dn.se/kultur/ett-lyckligt-bagnande-storverk-av-ale-moller/
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Ale Möller (various instruments)Jonas Knutsson (saxophones)
Anna Malmström (clarinets)
Johan Graden (piano/keyboard)
Karin Hammar (trombon)
Erik Rydvall (Swedish keyed fiddle)
Felicia Westberg (bass)
Liliana Zavala (percussion)
Robin Cochrane (percussion)
(In the recorded album Per Texas Johansson plays the clarinet, and Kerstin Ripa plays French horn.)
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NORDAN
LENA WILLEMARK
& ALE MÖLLER
A meeting-place for Swedish folk musicians and musicians from the world of improvisation. Music based upon, but not limited by, the Swedish folk tradition.
The duo released the iconic album Nordan (ECM, 1994) and are now, thirty years later, currently working on a fourth album in collaboration with Swedish Grammy winning record label Supertraditional to be released 2024.
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Lena Willemark and Ale Möller are two of the most prominent voices on the Swedish folk scene, and have for decades been important central figures in developing Nordic folk music. They met in the early 90's on request from ECM producer Manfred Eicher with the ambition to create a meeting-place for Swedish folk musicians and musicians from the world of improvisation. Music based upon, but not limited by, the Swedish folk tradition. The result was an iconic album, Nordan (ECM, 1994) that became a huge success that opened the treasure of Swedish folk to an international audience.
In the Nordan Project multi-instrumentalist Möller and singer and fiddler Willemark select a repertoire with songs that are hundreds of years old, alongside newly written material. The fresh and vital arrangements are largely the responsibility of Möller, whose unorthodox biography has included extended stopovers in jazz and Greek music on the way to his current, and enduring, commitment to Swedish folk.
Lena Willemark and Ale Möller have played together in numerous contexts, including the trio Frifot and quintet Enteli, the first with fiddler Per Gudmundson and the latter with among others saxophonist Knutsson and percussionist Bengt Berger. The Nordan Project is comprehensible to listeners who have appreciated, say, the Chieftains, or Jansch and Renbourne's Pentangle, or Fairport Convention and the Albion Dance Band in their heyday. It could be heard as a contemporary Scandinavian equivalent of those endeavours, inasmuch as Willemark and Möller are similarly "progressive conservatives" concerned both with the preservation and the rejuvenation of the folk tradition that matters most to them.
The Nordan Project is a raw, genuine, musical and genre wide melting pot by two of Sweden´s most characteristic artists. It is an adventurous reconstruction of medieval ballads, a showcase for Möller and Willemark's often stunning vocal and instrumental abilities, performed by a flexible constellation with strongly personal and interactive musicians: who excel in conveying the richness and variety attainable within Sweden's "living tradition".
Lena Willemark and Ale Möller have within the "Nordan Project" released three albums; “Nordan” (ECM, 1994), “Agram” (ECM, 1996) and “The Nordan Suite” (Prophone/Naxos, 2014). They are currently working on a fourth album to be released on the Swedish Grammy winning record label Supertraditional.
Lena Willemark and Ale Möller have played together in numerous contexts, including the trio Frifot and quintet Enteli, the first with fiddler Per Gudmundson and the latter with among others saxophonist Knutsson and percussionist Bengt Berger. The Nordan Project is comprehensible to listeners who have appreciated, say, the Chieftains, or Jansch and Renbourne's Pentangle, or Fairport Convention and the Albion Dance Band in their heyday. It could be heard as a contemporary Scandinavian equivalent of those endeavours, inasmuch as Willemark and Möller are similarly "progressive conservatives" concerned both with the preservation and the rejuvenation of the folk tradition that matters most to them.
The Nordan Project is a raw, genuine, musical and genre wide melting pot by two of Sweden´s most characteristic artists. It is an adventurous reconstruction of medieval ballads, a showcase for Möller and Willemark's often stunning vocal and instrumental abilities, performed by a flexible constellation with strongly personal and interactive musicians: who excel in conveying the richness and variety attainable within Sweden's "living tradition".
Lena Willemark and Ale Möller have within the "Nordan Project" released three albums; “Nordan” (ECM, 1994), “Agram” (ECM, 1996) and “The Nordan Suite” (Prophone/Naxos, 2014).
They are currently working on a fourth album to be released on the Swedish Grammy winning record label Supertraditional.
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Ale Möller (Mandola, Natural Flutes, Folk-Harp, Drone-Flutes, Shawm, Cows-Horn, Hammered Dulcimer, Flute, Accordion, Vocal)
Lena Willemark (Vocal, Fiddle, Herding-Call)
(with guest musicians tba) -
ALE MÖLLER
MATS ÖBERG
OLLE LINDER
The year was 2012. Ale Möller and his longtime musical collaborators, legendary keyboard wizard Mats Öberg and acclaimed multi instrumentalist Olle Linder, met in Stockholm to jam based on the idea to ignore all genres and styles, and just play all kinds of songs they like and feel free to mix them into new versions with unexpected connections. It turned out to be both inspiring and a lot of fun. Since then, the constellation has played for many years in countless contexts.
Their brand new album ”ANDRAS” with twelve cover songs interpreted by Ale, Mats and Olle, was released February 16th on Swedish record label Supertraditional.
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”ANDRAS” - twelve cover songs interpreted by Ale Möller, Mats Öberg and Olle Linder
After more than 50 years of touring the world and more than 1200 registered compositions, acclaimed multi-musician Ale Möller releases an album with interpretations of other artist's songs.
"I never thought I would make a cover album, but this feels both necessary and good fun! Of all the thousands of songs I've played over the years, there are some that stubbornly come back and insist on being played. Sluggish stalkers attacking from behind, who I have now decided to confront in close combat.”
For a couple of intense days Ale Möller and his musical collaborators, legendary keyboard wizard Mats Öberg and acclaimed multi instrumentalist Olle Linder, met in a summer cottage to record some of these musical "stalkers". Music composed and inspired by George Harrison, Billie Holiday, Evert Taube, Jim Morrison, Ravi Shankar, Lennon McCartney, Timas Hans and others in strongly personal and wayward interpretations.
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Ale Möller (voice, mandola, accordion, flutes, various instruments)
Olle Linder (percussion, guitar, bass, voice)
Mats Öberg (keys, harmonica, voice)
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ALE MÖLLER /
KNUT REIERSRUD
When Ale Möller in 2014 was commissioned to bring his blues heroes together, he invited blues magicians Eric Bibb and Knut Reiersrud to join a trio with together 175 years of blues and folk music experience. The result was a wild musical mix where the blues meets Nordic musical traditions and elements and expressions from all over the world, always with roots deep in the blues.
A continuation of that collaboration is the acclaimed duo of Ale Möller and Knut Reiersud, which in that same spirit continues to approach the broad world of blues with virtuosity and boundless playfulness.
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Bruce Molsky is one of the most revered “multi-hyphenated career” ambassadors for America’s old-time mountain music. For decades, he’s been a globetrotting performer and educator, a recording artist with an expansive discography including seven solo albums, well over a dozen collaborations and two Grammy-nominations.
He’s also the classic “musician’s musician” – a man who’s received high praise from diverse fans and collaborators like Linda Ronstadt, Mark Knopfler, Celtic giants Donal Lunny and Andy Irvine, jazzer Bill Frisell and dobro master Jerry Douglas, a true country gentleman by way of the Big Apple aptly dubbed “the Rembrandt of Appalachian fiddlers” by virtuoso violinist and sometimes bandmate Darol Anger.
Konsertrecension, DN (2016)https://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/konsertrecensioner/knut-reiersrud-ale-moller-pa-stallet/
Konsertrecension, Lira Musikmagasin (2022) https://www.lira.se/humor-och-spelgladje-med-moller-och-reiersrud/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgHcRJp9QBs
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Ale Möller (various instruments)
Bruce Molsky (vocal, fiddle) -
ALE MÖLLER &
BRUCE MOLSKY
Two brilliant soloists and central figures within their respective traditions, driven by a curiosity and desire to constantly develop their music.
The duo offers great songs and a playful, vibrating presence in a concert filled with energy and passion.
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Bruce Molsky is one of the most revered “multi-hyphenated career” ambassadors for America’s old-time mountain music. For decades, he’s been a globetrotting performer and educator, a recording artist with an expansive discography including seven solo albums, well over a dozen collaborations and two Grammy-nominations.
He’s also the classic “musician’s musician” – a man who’s received high praise from diverse fans and collaborators like Linda Ronstadt, Mark Knopfler, Celtic giants Donal Lunny and Andy Irvine, jazzer Bill Frisell and dobro master Jerry Douglas, a true country gentleman by way of the Big Apple aptly dubbed “the Rembrandt of Appalachian fiddlers” by virtuoso violinist and sometimes bandmate Darol Anger. -
Ale Möller (Mandola, Flutes, various instruments)
Bruce Molsky (Vocal, Guitar, Banjo, Fiddle) -
ALE MÖLLER
JOHAN GRADEN
OLLE LINDER
Sweden’s best multi-instrumentalist Ale Möller builds his own musical landscape based on musical traditions from all around the world. Here he moves freely, cheered on by his own curiosity. Few can, like this musician and storyteller, create ecstatic joy both on and off stage. With his acclaimed fellow musicians, pianist Johan Graden and percussionist and guitarist Olle Linder, Ale treats the audience with world wide harmonies, rhythms and anecdotes collected from his long and exciting musical journey.
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Ale Möller (Vocal, Mandola, Accordion, Flutes, various instruments)
Johan Graden (Piano, Keys, Vocal)
Olle Linder (Percussion, Guitar, Bass, Vocal)
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ANNA MÖLLER & ALE MÖLLER
Anna and Ale Möller. Father and daughter and a long awaited meeting between violin and mandola.
This particular duo has literally a lifelong history and a repertoire that has been shaped over time. A familiarly kitchen jam that now takes place on stage through this musical meeting in the borderland of two generations.
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Anna Möller is a multifaceted folk musician, violinist and composer. With curiosity she constantly appears in new projects and constellations for which she has established herself as a given part of today´s innovative and contemporary folk music scene.
Few have as Ale Möller come to be associated with the development of contemporary Nordic folk and world music. For nearly four decades he has been a driving central figure in the search for new musical paths and expressions. For his many groundbreaking projects he has been awarded the prestigious "Folk Alliance Lifetime Achievement Award". An award he shares with among others; Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Harry Belafonte and Joan Baez.
This particular duo has literally a lifelong history and a repertoire that has been shaped over time. A familiarly kitchen jam that now takes place on stage through this musical meeting in the borderland of two generations.
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Anna Möller - fiddle, viola d'amore, flute, voice
Ale Möller - mandola, flutes, voice, various instruments
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WEST/RYDVALL/MÖLLER
In the meeting between multi-instrumentalist Ale Möller, nyckelharpa player Erik Rydvall and baroque flute and recorder player Kristine West doors are opened to a musical treasure.
Ale Möller is an internationally renowned artist with stardom not only in Sweden but also on the big festivals over the world. In this concert he approaches baroque music through playful interpretations made together with West and Rydvall, combined with a muddle of folk music from near and far.
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Kristine West and Erik Rydvall are both musicians with a strong musical voice and anchorage in baroque music as well as the nordic folk music tradition. Born and raised in the strong Swedish folk culture, they have taken on a journey into the winding roads of the baroque era and the treasures of the music by Johann Sebastian Bach. With one foot in baroque music, with focus on the solo music by Bach, and one in Swedish traditional music, they build a musical bridge between time and musical cultures. In 2020 they released their first album as a duo - Dancing with Bach. Together they have done several collaborations with baroque orchestras, and their concerts have been broadcasted several times in Swedish television and radio.
West and Rydvall
“The music of Johann Sebastian Bach is timeless, and often said to be “indestructible”. Regardless of this, arranging or making changes in works that are beloved and so often played around the world is not something a musician takes lightly.
Since both of us have roots in Swedish folk music, we approach Bach from a folk musician’s point of view, which allows us to take certain liberties and imbue this repertoire with our own brand of musicality. We have also chosen to add some folk music to Bach’s works – both because the combination has merit in itself, and because it is music we love to play.
In this concert we have chosen pieces from the treasure trove of Johann Sebastian Bach, along with our own arrangements of folk music favorites. Inspiration from nature colors the pieces, the outdoor summer festivals and jams, and simply growing up with the improv that is folk music.
The result is a meeting of two worlds, where we invite our listeners to join us on a vibrant and whirling journey from the Baroque era to our own.”
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Kristin West - Baroque Flute, Recorder
Erik Rydvall - Nyckelharpa (Key Harp)
Ale Möller - Mandola, Cow Horn, Flutes, various instruments
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ALE MÖLLER
ALY BAIN
BRUCE MOLSKY
“Our far-flung trio of pals love meeting up whenever we can and enjoy our music most when it’s ‘in the moment’.
We very much hope that you too enjoy this meeting-point!”
- Aly, Ale and Bruce
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Lena Willemark and Ale Möller are two of the most prominent voices on the Swedish folk scene, and have for decades been important central figures in developing Nordic folk music. They met in the early 90's on request from ECM producer Manfred Eicher with the ambition to create a meeting-place for Swedish folk musicians and musicians from the world of improvisation. Music based upon, but not limited by, the Swedish folk tradition. The result was an iconic album, Nordan (ECM, 1994) that became a huge success that opened the treasure of Swedish folk to an international audience.
Multi-instrumentalist Möller and singer and fiddler Willemark select a repertoire with both songs that are hundreds of years old, and also newly written material. The fresh and vital arrangements are largely the responsibility of Möller, whose unorthodox biography has included extended stopovers in jazz and Greek music on the way to his current, and enduring, commitment to Swedish folk.
Lena Willemark and Ale Möller have played together in numerous contexts, including the trio Frifot and quintet Enteli, the first with fiddler Per Gudmundson and the latter with among others saxophonist Knutsson and percussionist Bengt Berger. The Nordan Project is comprehensible to listeners who have appreciated, say, the Chieftains, or Jansch and Renbourne's Pentangle, or Fairport Convention and the Albion Dance Band in their heyday. It could be heard as a contemporary Scandinavian equivalent of those endeavours, inasmuch as Willemark and Möller are similarly "progressive conservatives" concerned both with the preservation and the rejuvenation of the folk tradition that matters most to them.
The Nordan Project is a raw, genuine, musical and genre wide melting pot by two of Sweden´s most characteristic artists. It is an adventurous reconstruction of medieval ballads, a showcase for Möller and Willemark's often stunning vocal and instrumental abilities, performed by a flexible constellation with strongly personal and interactive musicians: who excel in conveying the richness and variety attainable within Sweden's "living tradition".
Lena Willemark and Ale Möller have within the "Nordan Project" released three albums; “Nordan” (ECM, 1994), “Agram” (ECM, 1996) and “The Nordan Suite” (Prophone/Naxos, 2014).
They are currently working on a fourth album to be released on the Swedish Grammy winning record label Supertraditional.
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Aly Bain: Fiddle
Bruce Molsky: Guitar, Banjo, Fiddle
Ale Möller: Mandola, Flutes, various instruments
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ALE MÖLLER BAND
Acclaimed Grammy winning six piece band Ale Möller Band is something of an institution on the Nordic folk and world music scene - a crossover musical celebration and a journey of unexpected meetings.
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Ale Möller is one of Sweden's most beloved folk musicians, who with tireless curiosity and great joy has taken audiences nationwide on breathtaking musical journeys. The multiple priced six piece band Ale Möller Band is something of an institution on the Nordic folk and world music scene, and perhaps one of Möller´s most popular constellations.
The band members have diverse musical backgrounds and together they make music that is not only rooted directly in the background of the members, but also in their strength as musicians. A concert with the Ale Möller Band is not like any other concert, it is a crossover musical celebration and a journey of unexpected meetings that often leaves the listener with hope that a more peaceful world is possible.
The band consists of five strong, colorful and characteristic musicians, all of them highly respected within their field. The two singers Mamadou Sene and Maria Stellas, multi-instrumentalist Magnus Stinnerbom, bass player Sebastian Dubé and percussionist Rafael Sida.
Ale Möller Band has released three acclaimed albums, which all got nominated for (and won) a Swedish Grammy; Bodjal (Bonnier Amigo Music, 2004), Djef Djel (Bonnier Amigo Music, 2007) and Argai (2012)
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Ale Möller: Voice, Mandola, Accordion, Flutes, various instruments
Mamadou Sene: Voice, Percussion, various instruments
Maria Stellas: Voice, Percussion, various instruments
Magnus Stinnerbom: Fiddle, Viola Dámore, Mandolin, Mandola, various instruments
Sebastian Dubé: Double Bass
Rafael Sida Huizar: Percussion
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