Album Review: 'Väsen & Hawktail'

Väsen, the Swedish folk instrumental duo of Olov Johansson (nyckelharpa) and Mikael Marin (violoncello da spalla and a blue electric viola) has long been inspiring to Hawktail, the roots instrumental trio of Brittany Haas (fiddle), Paul Kowert (double bass) and Jordan Tice (guitar). When Väsen encountered Hawktail at various festivals, they discovered kindred musical spirits; a grant from the Swedish Arts Council gave the groups a chance to tour together, and they eventually had a chance to record for a week together in Sweden.

The ten tunes on their new eponymous album—five written by Väsen and five by Hawktail—tumble out in a cinematic fashion, each casting its own light or dark tones with playful or somber notes. On the first track, “Hawk Ale,” sauntering plucked strings open into sprightly fiddling that circles into a quiet interlude before picking up tempo again and dancing madly to the tune’s conclusion. Tice’s guitar fingerpicking and strumming on “Tell Me Watcha Gonna Do Now” establishes the thematic line around which Hass weaves her fiddling, and throughout the tune the two instruments mimic the mounting tenor of the conversation indicated in the tune’s title.

Johansson’s nyckelharpa—a combination of hurdy gurdy and violin—provides the ethereal, moving foundations of “Hymn Till Sommarnätter,” a tune that moves between a lament, almost a dirge, and a psalm. Haas’ crystalline fiddling opens “Your Town Polska” and leads the other instruments on a jaunty musical parade that dances along, lifting our spirits and moving our feet. The album closes with the meditative “Unless,” a moving dialogue among all the instruments that is at once melancholy and hopeful.

A match made in musical heaven, Väsen & Hawktail showcases the musical ingenuity that grows from five musicians listening carefully to one another, following one another’s leads, finding the space between the notes, and turning tunes in slightly different directions while maintaining their integrity. We can only hope that this is the first of many collaborations between Väsen and Hawktail.