JENSEN & BUGGE - Greatest Hits
Go Danish Folk GO0721
Probably the best accordion and fiddle duo in Denmark, Jensen & Bugge have played great traditional dance music together for 20 years - since they were in kindergarten basically! They've done it all - world tours, big festivals, TV concerts, and more collaborations than most people have had Danish pastries. On this album they've chosen a selection of highlights from their huge repertoire - newly arranged and recorded, all delivered on Kristian's fiddle and Mette's continental box with no safety net.
Languid couple dances from the Western Danish tradition of Sønderho, eighteenth century pieces from the great collections of Reventlow and Storm (solicitors manqués), punchy reels and polonaises, and of course you can't go far in Danish music these days without a tune or two collected from Dwight Lamb of Iowa! Some of these pieces have already spread well beyond Denmark - the lively Fransk Morgenstjerne may have travelled with the armies of the Renaissance, while Carl Erik Lundgaard's charming Valsen Til Christine was spread by the plague of YouTube. La Nouvelle Allemande shares elements with several Playford melodies and was captured in the Faroe Islands. Other tracks are quintessentially Danish - waltzes, hopsas, and everything in between. Every note here is well placed, whether in a gentle Rheinlænder or a rattling polka. With interesting sleeve notes in Danish and English, Greatest Hits is a lovely CD and a fine example of Danish traditional music. If Carlsberg did ceilidhs...
www.jensen-bugge.dk
Alex Monaghan
This review appeared in Issue 141 of The Living Tradition magazine