Artists
who's who and who's doing what?Blodig, Kerstin / Melrose, Ian
Line up
- Ian Melrose (guitar, vocals, wistles )
- Kerstin Blodig (vocals, guitar, bouzouki, mandolin, bodhràn)
- country:Norway
- style(s):Celtic Folk
- label:
- type:Band, Composer/Songwriter
- artist submitted by:
From Celtic-Scandinavian Roots to New Acoustic Music
A Kelpie is a spirit in Scottish mythology who appears at the waterside disguised as a beautiful white horse. Once mounted the unsuspecting rider is taken to the bottom of the loch never to be seen again. In Norway it is the water troll Nkken who lives in a lake or river, occasionally surfacing to lure people to their doom. He, too is said to appear in human shape or as a white horse (also called straumhesten). The Nkk is said to be very musical, being a master of fiddle-playing, and often he plays the most beautiful melodies to attract human beings, especially young women. He may also offer to teach tunes to ambitious fiddlers in exchange for their souls.
As this creature is to be found in both Celtic and Scandinavian mythology it is a fitting symbol for the music, combining material from these two cultures with the Kerstin's and Ian's musical backgrounds and arrangements.
Kerstin Blodig
studied musicology and Scandinavian languages and cultures in Berlin (Germany) and in Bergen (Norway) with particular emphasis on Norwegian folk music.
She is involved in a wide variety of different projects, ranging from studio work, folk-pop and theatre music productions to the Celtic groups Norland Wind, Talking Water and Touchwood with Belfast musician Cristina Crawley.
She cultivates her Norwegian roots not only with Kelpie, but also in her solo performances and her Celtic-Scandinavian world-music project Valivann. Her new solo-CD "Valivann" (Westpark 87088) has just won the renowned German Critics Prize (May 2002) in the field of world-music/ folk.
"Blodig impressed us with one of the most expressive voices I've ever heard" (Glamdalen, Norway)
Ian Melrose
from Ayr in the Southwest of Scotland, belongs to the cream of Europe's acoustic guitarists. He is an internationally acclaimed composer and arranger, lead guitarist with Clannad (World Tour, Grammy Award winning CD "Landmarks"), and plays with Kerstin also in Norland Wind and Talking Water.
A major aspect of his work is solo guitar: based on Celtic finger-picking style, his compositions blend Irish dances, Scottish ballads and classical formats with Brazilian samba and Argentine tango to create real world-music on the guitar. His solo CDs, "Wolves", "Between the Sighs" and most recently, "A Scottish Legacy", have gained him rave reviews in the international music press.
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