Fenja Menja

Artist: Fenja Menja
Label: The Orchard
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 669910417126
EAN: 0669910417126
ASIN: B00004RDOE

Release Date: 2000-04-08

Related Categories:

General

| Folk | Styles | Music

Traditional Folk

| Folk | Styles | Music

General

| Pop | Styles | Music

General

| Folk | Indie Music | Stores | Music

Tracks:

Den Grove
Orkanens Oje
Tidmand
Skipper Og Jomfru
Den Laengselsfulde
Djaevlen I Oret
Inderpoolsk
Manedans
Stridsoksen

Customer Reviews:

WOW!.......2002-04-04

WOW! A thousand times, WOW! When I was looking for a review of another CD, I came across a review of this CD and, based on the description, it sounded like something I might like. I was still quite leery of buying it after having been burned repeatedly in the past by buying CDs based solely on descriptions or reviews and the CDs invariably turned out to be complete crud. But, as before, being starved for some new music, I went against my better judgement and purchased again. I'm sure you can all relate. Nine out of ten CDs purchased in this manner are listened to once, put away, and never listened to again. Not so with Fenja Menja. Definitely not so. This is that one exciting time out of ten that you hit paydirt. This CD is simply outstanding. It's all here - excellent musicianship, tight but energetic playing, and crisp production. The best way to describe Fenja Menja's sound is that it is similar to Tempest's 2 best works, "Turn of the Wheel" and "The Gravel Walk", but with Nordic, rather than Celtic, melodies and, at times, much more of a jazzy element. Like Tempest, the cobwebs and dust are blown off traditional folk tunes by hard, driving bass lines, pounding drums, electric guitars, and lots of flashy electric violin. The music ranges from straight folk to folk-rock to swinging jazz to progrssive rock. While Fenja Menja's sound is less hard rocking, less brash, and less in-your-face than Tempest's and the electric guitar is used less prominently, fans of the electric guitar sound won't be disappointed as the electric guitar is nonetheless used more frequently than on most folk records. And, there is always a strong rythm section driving the sound regardless of whether the guitar is in the mix at a particular time. (Progressive Rock fans take note: the closing track, "Stridsoksen", is worth the price of the CD alone. It strays out of the folk realm and right into progressive rock territory with spectacular results. An electric violin intro gives way to a beautiful Scandinavian melody of swirling, kaleidoscopic notes cascading from electric guitar, bagpipes, and piano with the by-now-familiar thumping bass and drums driving everything along. This description doesn't do justice to the power, majesty, and goose-bump-inducing ability of this song!) Fans of folk-rock hybrid groups like Horslips, Tempest, Wolfstone, Hoven Droven, Storm, etc. will eat this stuff right up. If, on the other hand, you are a purist who hates genre-mixing and only like folksy folk and rocky rock, this may not be your cup of tea. It simply may be too folky for fans of straight rock and too rocky for fans of straight folk...Some closing, unrelated thoughts...It's refreshing to hear the Nordic motifs rather than the the much more commonly used Celtic idioms used by others in the folk-rock genre...Fenja Menja is virtually unknown outside its native Denmark. They would immensely benefit from being picked up by an American distribution label. Are you listening, Northside Records?...I thank Amazon.com for carrying this, but I only have one question: Why isn't Amazon carrying Fenja Menja's sterling follow-up rlease "Katten i Saekken?"

Folk?n Groove.......2001-04-28

This is the album prooving that, the folkmusic will live forever. Buy it! And buy the new album being released may 2001 too!

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