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Väsen Street

Vasen Format: Audio CD
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 11 ratings
$53.41
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Editorial Reviews

Sweden's leading acoustic trio mark their 20th year together with a studio recording of new tunes. The band and its mostly original repertoire are already legendary among string players all over the world, and "Vasen Street" will only further their status with its brilliant ensemble interplay and brain-sticking melodies.* Multiple U.S. and Canada tour dates, both as a trio and in combination with Darol Anger and Mike Marshall* National publicity campaign by global music specialists rock, paper scissors

Product details

  • Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 5 x 0.5 inches; 5.92 ounces
  • Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Northside Records
  • Date First Available ‏ : ‎ June 28, 2009
  • Label ‏ : ‎ Northside Records
  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B002BYLVSS
  • Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 11 ratings

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
11 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

The Buzz
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Nordic
Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2020
Verified Purchase
Excellent add to a roots collection.
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Cindy
5.0 out of 5 stars If you like Celtic, you'll like Swedish too!
Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2015
Verified Purchase
The first time I heard Vasen was at the Somerville Theatre many, many years ago. Watching them play is as good as listening to them.
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oriole
1.0 out of 5 stars product cracked
Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2022
Verified Purchase
First time I have ever ordered a CD and received a broken one. Had to return, awaiting refund.
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Allison Hayward
5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous
Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2009
Verified Purchase
Vasen is a recent discovery of mine, and I am thrilled. Very enjoyable instrumental music. Some might classify it as "world" or "folk" but to me that implies a stodginess that isn't here. Fun stuff. Give the a listen.
One person found this helpful
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Deena
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Music
Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2009
Verified Purchase
EXCELLENT! VASEN AT THEIR BEST!!
a VASEN FAN,
FROM VASEN STREET,
BLOOMINGTON
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Thomas Erickson
5.0 out of 5 stars National instrument of Sweden nyckelharpa(key fiddle).Great Vasen band . Polska dance music, more modern plus traditional
Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2012
Vasen is my favorite band in the world...period! The centerpiece is Olov Johansson world nyckelharpa champion, plus a super world class viola player Mikael Martin, and an excellent guitar player. Olov had the great fortune at a young age in Sweden to be tutored by a nyckelharpa Grandmaster.

The nyckelharpa is a very old style, extremely difficult instrument to master. You key the many wooden pegs into the regular strings plus the many drone strings ( much more than a twelve string guitar), while you bow the strings with a bow. Very difficult to do both well at the same time and takes decades of practice. I know, as I have a nyckelharpa and can only play 3 songs, none very well. Both hands with fingers flying, hands and wrist just so, trying to keep in sync and using the correct pressure and technique with the bow. You get the picture...more difficult than playing the Violin.

There are only a handful of Grandmaster world champion nyckelharpa players and Olov Johansson is one.

I met the great Vasen band playing in Epcot at Walt Disney in Orlando Fl and shook hands with the players. Super great music and a fantastic meeting. I have almost all their albums on CD.

I downloaded Vasen Street on my much more portable and longer battery lasting MP3 player. Absolutely no problem with the MP3 download and the syncing. The audio was great. The instrumental songs are rich with the complex full body, in depth Nyckelharpa as the lead instrument. This gives the songs an extreme range of notes and octaves. Sounds that on a regular violin or fiddle are impossible to produce. Rich and powerful.

Great dancing Polska, plus some more modern songs and a lot of the more traditional Swedish nyckelharpa music. A well blended sampling allowing the listener to sit back, close his/her eyes and experience northern Scandinavian old time ( way,way before radio and TV)music that they used to play around the campfire and still do at competitions in Sweden. A few of the songs makes me think of the Viking age and others resemble a complex Irish jig or Celtic music.

The old time nyckelharpa players were very superstitious and took great pride playing at weddings etc. and trying to be the best players. Some kept fingernail clippings of past great players in little sacks stored inside the instrument to give them luck and instrumental power.

The listener will be blessed with great music as the vast majority have never even heard a nyckelharpa. Here is Vasen a band with a Grandmaster playing the lead instrument, INMO one of the world's best Viola players,and a great guitar player that mesh extremely well in their playing. Vasen street is a great album and MP3 download and Vasen INMO the greatest band in the world! 5 stars plus
One person found this helpful
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Gio
5.0 out of 5 stars Minor Keyed
Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2009
Väsen (Sw. Essence) is a unique group, contemporary musicians with thorough commitment to the authentic traditions and styles of Swedish folk music but with the technical skills on their instruments to impress and satisfy classical music "snobs' like me. At the heart of the ensemble is Olov Johansson's "nykelharpa", a fiddle fretted with keys by the left hand while the right hand wields a short slack bow. The instrument can produce any of several drone pitches, with an effect that may remind some first-time listeners of Irish or Scottish music. The other instruments you'll hear from the trio are a viola and a twelve-string guitar; this is plainly not a standard folk instrumentation, but it's one that provides immense possibilities of tone color and rhythmic accentuation.

Swedish folk music has an ancient penchant for minor keys, as you'll hear on almost every track of this CD. People tell me that it sounds melancholy; they often presume that it reflects the 'dark' temperament of Swedish culture as portrayed by Ingmar Bergman. Welllll... Bergman was gloomy, it's true, but most of Väsen's music is dance based, and if ever you go upcountry in the summer in Sweden, where people have their "stugas" (summer huts), and see the folk dancing, you'll come away with a different sense of Swedish joy. Minor is our major.

There are samples on amazon for this CD. Väsen's first CD, titled Essence in English, is still available also. Many of the intervening CDs have included percussion and have edged toward pop synthesis; to my ears thsoe recordings were far less compelling.
10 people found this helpful
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eclectic collectrix
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Acoustic Music
Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2009
These three musicians from Sweden make up one of the greatest acoustic bands I've ever heard. Their music is on the crossroads of folk and chamber music. They play traditional instruments--12-string guitar, viola, and nyckelharpa (a medieval-sounding keyed fiddle)-- and they play tunes in traditional dance rhythms popular in Sweden since at least the 19th century, especially something called "Polska." They are also first-rate composers and arrangers and extremely accomplished on their instruments. There is nothing dry or academic about this music; it's dance music played with terrific pulse and drive. There are no vocals, just straight-ahead instrumentals. Great for in the car or at home. This is Swedish music, but if you like Celtic music, you will probably love this album. The great Irish band Dervish recorded one of Vasen's original tunes, the hauntingly beautiful "Josefin's Waltz," and it has since become a beloved part of the repetoire of many Celtic musicians.
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Top reviews from other countries

Philip Lyon
5.0 out of 5 stars Another good lot of music from Vasen
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 29, 2015
Verified Purchase
Another good lot of music from Vasen. I'd love to get along to one of their concerts in Sweden - see and hear them on home ground. I'd like a Nyckelharpa for Christmas please...?
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