Today I found a press release about the latest album Bastard Etno of the Danish-Finish band Afenginn which is released today. This made me curious and I listened to the tracks available on Afenginns myspace page.
Finnish mandolinist Kim Nyberg composes almost all of their music.
Afenginn is the winner of the Danish Folk Price in 2009.
Let’s start with some quotes form Afenginns homepage and myspace site:
Afenginn means intoxication and strength in Old Norse! Their homebrewed and unique style is categorized as Bastard-Punk-Ethno, with a sigh of Nordic melancholy and a twist of cheerful madness.
Bastard Etno – the fourth album from the unconventional Danish orchestra – is getting great reviews in national media!
The Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten (perhaps mostly known for being the one with the Muhammed pictures) gives 5 stars out of 6 to the new Afenginn album. They write:
There is nothing normal with this album, nothing what so ever.
I recommend to start with the music on myspace first – this is a bit more refined and not so wild as the music in the following life videos from youtube. You can find several tracks from the previous albums, I hope that some tracks of the new album will be added soon.
Video from a Festival in Germany, Bad Wildungen, with one of the slow tunes:
There are several videos of Afenginn available at youtube. I have compiled some of the videos in the following playlist – enjoy the power and energy of the performances of Afenginn.
Playlist Afenginn
Resources
Homepage: Afenginn
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CD recommendation (amazon partnerlink)
Retrograd – Afenginn