Sofia Karlsson | |
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| Background information | |
| Born | 25 March 1975 Enskede, Sweden |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Instrument(s) | Bouzouki Guitar Flute Pump organ, Violin |
| Years active | c. 1998–present |
Sofia Karlsson (born 25 March 1975 in Enskede, Sweden) is a Swedish folk singer. [1]
Sofia Karlsson grew up in Enskede, Stockholm. She attended the folk music department of the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. From 1998 to 2002 she was a full-time member in Swedish folk music act Groupa. In 2002 she released her debut solo album Folk songs.
In 2005 she made her public breakthrough with her second album Svarta ballader (Black Ballads). The album contains her interpretations of the Swedish poet Dan Andersson, named for his 1917 book. The album was in the charts for more than a year and has to date sold 60,000 copies. It was rewarded with Swedish as well as Danish Grammys.
After touring the country for two years she released her third album Visor från vinden (Songs from the loft) with its collection of classical songs sung in Swedish, but written by poets and musicians such as Baudelaire, Dan Andersson, Marianne Flodin, Mikael Wiehe, Alf Hambe, Inger Hagerup, Carl Michael Bellman, Peps Persson, and Evert Taube. The album also contains Lars Forssell's free version of Boris Vian's "Le Déserteur".
Peggy Latkovich, writing on Rootsworld, describes Karlsson as "an artist who deals in nuance and delicate shadings", adding that her voice "has the smoky overlay of Sandy Denny and the expressive phrasing of Niamh Parsons". Rootsworld describes Folk Songs as understated, with "exquisitely subtle performance". Rather than being traditional Swedish folk music, Karlsson and her band produce "meticulously wrought, emotionally satisfying works of art". [2]
Göran Holmquist wrote in Helsingborgs Dagblad that "With its fingertip-light arrangement, she manages to bring Dan Andersson's poetry about dreams, breakup and longing into the present." [3]
The review site Dagensskiva.com gave the album 10/10, writing that "Sofia Karlsson has built a bridge to my childhood experience of Dan Andersson. The romantic, primaeval forest's loneliness and longing for closeness." [4]
The review site Rootsy.nu ended its review with the words " Svarta ballader is hereby designated as 2005's best Swedish ballad and folk music album." [5]
Karlsson has won the Swedish equivalent of the Grammy, the Grammis, four times, in 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2011, for her albums Folk Songs, Svarta Ballader, Söder om kärleken, and Levande. [6] [7] [8]
In 2006, Karlsson won the "folk/world music" prize at the Swedish Manifest Gala, where the jury said that "With an alloy of Swedish song tradition, folk music precision and playful genre-borrowing, Sofia Karlsson's album has made Dan Andersson indispensable for another generation." [9] In 2008, she won the Dan Andersson prize ; [10] In 2009, Prince Eugen's Culture Prize ; [11] in 2010, the Ulla Billquist Stipend; in 2013, the Troubadour Prize; and in 2015, Stockholm City's Culture Prize. [6]
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Svarta ballader is the classically-trained Swedish folk musician Sofia Karlsson's second studio album, released in 2005. On the disc she exclusively interprets poems written by the Swedish proletarian school author Dan Andersson; five of the eleven poems are from his 1917 collection Svarta ballader. The poems are set to music by different composers, including the singers Gunnar Turesson, Gunde Johansson, and Thorstein Bergman; the musician Sven Scholander; a member of Karlsson's band, Sofie Livebrant, and Karlsson herself; while one song was set by Andersson. Karlsson and her band arranged all the songs, with novel instrumentation including cello, trumpet, bass clarinet, piano and percussion.
Svarta ballader is a 1917 poetry collection by the Swedish proletarian writer Dan Andersson, his third and the last to be published before his early death in 1920. It has become one of the most important texts in 20th century Swedish literature. The poems convey strong feelings about life's struggles, love, hate, suffering, and death. They are framed in nature-romanticism, set in Andersson's wild rural home region of Dalarna. Several have a musician as a central figure, close to Andersson himself, while others evince social sympathy for beggars and outcasts. The core theme, however, is religious, with a combination of Christian longing for eternity and Indian nirvana mysticism.
Visor från vinden is the Swedish singer Sofia Karlsson's third studio album as a solo artist. The album was released on 11 April 2007 by Bonnier Amigo Music Group.
Omkring tiggarn från Luossa is a poem by the Swedish proletarian author Dan Andersson. Its nine four-line verses, with a ABAB rhyming scheme, create a picture of longing for something beyond the visible world. The poem was published in his 1917 poetry collection Svarta ballader. It has become well-known through popular recordings by musicians including the Hootenanny Singers, Thorstein Bergman, and Sofia Karlsson.
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