Trio THG
Tungen Ud Ad Vinduet
GO' Danish Folk Music (gofolk.dk)

Sometimes a musical outing is all about innovation, blending new and old sounds, adding electronics in just the right places, making the old sound new. And sometimes it's about purely reveling in the old. Trio THG takes the latter route.

Listeners should expect quite a bit of fun from a record entitled Tongue Out of the Window and Trio THG delivers on that promise with gusto. These young musicians, fiddlers Andreas Tophøj and Michael Graubæk along with guitarist Sigurd Hockings, take traditional Danish tunes and play them really well. Their arrangements are simple yet effective, allowing the fiddles sometimes to play in unison, sometimes to work in octaves or thirds, and occasionally dropping underneath to let the guitar carry the melody.

Even when writing new compositions, Trio THG loves to frolic in Danish traditional music. "Tak Doctor," dedicated to the Danish fiddler, composer, and educator Harald Haugaard, lopes through a winding melody with a percussive accompaniment. "Rubjerg" is a wonderful dance that bounces in and out of some eerie harmonies. These and the other originals on this recording are a bit on the dark side, particularly the beautiful slow waltz, "Hulkende Sømand" (The Sobbing Sailor). Yet in a quick change of mood, that slow waltz is followed in the very same set by the lively "Nye Sko" (New Shoes), bringing the listener from a melancholic longing to a yearning to try out those new shoes on the dance floor.

Regardless of the source, it's all underpinned by a great sense of exuberance and hope. The expression of these feelings has no need of special techniques or extended effects. It simply takes two fiddles, a guitar, a love of traditional music, and a tongue sticking out of the window. - Greg Harness

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