Lena Willemark & Ale Moller - Agram

Agram represents the second coming of the Nordan Project whose 1994 release Nordan was highly acclaimed. Defined by its co-leaders vocalist Lena Willemark and multi-instrumentalist Ale M�ller as a meeting-place for Swedish folk musicians and musicians from the world of improvisation, the group's music is based upon, but not limited by, the Swedish folk tradition. Willemark and M�ller select the songs, some of which are hundreds of years old, and write new material and fresh arrangements. M�ller's unorthodox biography has included extended stopovers in rock and jazz and Greek music on the way to his current, and enduring, commitment to Swedish folk. Willemark, the daughter of a forest-keeper, embodie's the musical tradition giving it new life with her stunning vocal abilities. Together, the Nordan Project is concerned both with the preservation and the rejuvenation of the folk tradition. M�ller and Willemark met ECM's Manfred Eicher by chance in 1992 when the musicians were appearing at a folk-festival while the producer was in town for a Arvo P�rt premiere. Over the next year and half they discussed the form that their collaboration should take and the Nordan Project was born. A key figure in its line-up is bassist Palle Danielsson, who has been associated with ECM almost from the beginning of its history. He has been a member of several important ECM bands including Keith Jarrett's Belonging group, the Jan Garbarek-Bobo Stenson Quartet, the quartets of Enrico Rava and Charles Lloyd.