After 30 years Väsen has moved into a new phase. Olov Johansson and Mikael Marin continue as Väsen, but now as a duo with exciting new material.  Mikael and Olov have refined their sound and their stage presence to the extent that today they are quite unique.

With their playful and perfect interplay, they seem to have telepathic communication as musicians, now touring and recording exclusively as a duo. They started playing together as teenagers around 1980 when they would regularly visit Curt and Ivar Tallroth and Eric Sahlström, older musicians who lived nearby in the Uppland region, where they would play and learn traditional music from them. In this way they became a link in the living tradition that Swedish folk music has enjoyed through the centuries. In 1990, Olov became the first world champion of the nyckelharpa. He began to play the nyckelharpa in 1980 as a fourteen-year old, and was named a ‘riksspelman’ (master musician) in 1984. He is regarded as one of Sweden’s most prominent nyckelharpa players, and is an inspiration for numerous young performers on the instrument. As always, Mikael Marin’s five-string viola adds richness to every tune.

General Admission: $22