From their small beginnings, meeting at a Copenhagen festival in 2009, the Danish trio has built up an impressive global following – certainly large for a band that makes instrumental music with its feet firmly planted in the Danish folk tradition. They regularly tour places as far apart as Japan and the United States and have quite a devoted online following. For this new album, they’ve looked back a short way - to the pandemic. Then, unable to play shows, they composed, calling the collection of tunes Handed On and eventually going into the studio to record a few of the 58 pieces they’d written, plus a couple that look much further back in time.

The debt to the Danish and Swedish traditions are strong, as shown on the opener, “Uhrbrand’s Cabin,” a graceful tribute to the Uhrbrand family of Fanø (Peter Uhrband has been a linchpin the Danish folk scene for decades). Led by the violin of Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen – who’s also a member of the Danish String Quartet – it’s music for the dance, as is much older Danish music, deliciously light and sprightly, with the kind of warm, immediately melody that’s become one of the hallmarks of Dreamers’ Circus over the years, and helped endear them to audiences who arrive with no knowledge of Danish folk music.

But that’s far from the only arrow in their quiver. “Iron Halls” offers a brisk, rhythmic stomp that owes a lot to the Québecois music Ale Carr heard when he was young, and “Promenade,” as befits the title is an airy, quiet stroll with a gorgeous melody that highlight Nikolaj Busk’s piano works, as does the traditional “Regnars Styk’,” which the group learned from Peter Uhrbrand, bring things neatly full circle.

“Make High The Gate,” a familiar hymn tune (there’s a long Nordic tradition of crossover between folk music and hymns), comes alive in a stately, fascinating arrangement that blends the instruments to resemble a bagpipe, with the underpinning drone giving it real gravity before opening up into the traditional children’s song, “The Billy Goat,” full of joy and springtime playfulness.

For a project originally conceived as something to fill an awful time, the album takes on a life of its own. It’s not only informed by the past, it adds another layer to it, to the point where it can be sometimes hard to find the line separating history from the present. That in itself is quite an achievement. It’s one to satisfy the old fans and probably bring in a few more. With Handed On, Dreamers’ Circus might well have created a new tradition of their own.

Find the artist online.

Further listening:
Dreamers' Circus - Blue White Gold
Frode Nyvold and friends - Trioliadam
Vaev - Sløjfen

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