Swedish trio Northern Resonance has the whole world as its playground, despite - or perhaps because of - the fact that their music is rooted in the Nordic folk music scene. The Swedish Grammy-nominated debut album from 2020 is now followed by a new collection of songs and an extensive world tour across four continents. The trio - consisting of Anna Ekborg Hans-Ers (viola d'amore), Jerker Hans- Ers (Hardanger fiddle) and Petrus Dillner (nyckelharpa) - has developed both the arrangements and the sound into something even more elaborate on the upcoming album "Vision of Three”.

"Our first album consisted of a repertoire that we wrote together when we started playing together", says Anna Ekborg Hans-Ers. ”It was also a test of how the instruments worked together in this unique setting”, adds Petrus Dillner. "Since then we've been exploring this deeply over time and through that we've become more comfortable with our way of writing and arranging."

Just as the compositions and arrangements evolved on "Vision of Three", the sound has also taken several steps in a new direction, influenced both by the fact that the recording process was allowed to take longer and by the fact that sound engineer Jeroen Geerinck became like an extra band member in the process.

"This record is more laboured, produced as if it were a pop record," Anna continues. "There was something more traditional about the first record; recorded live, no overdubs, a very acoustic record. This time we really produced and found out how we we got the best out of these instruments and the band.”

Northern Resonance spends much of its time touring internationally, reflecting a growing interest in instrumental music in general and Nordic folk music in particular. The band's live concerts are characterised by an explosive energy. How the band's music is received and perceived differs depending on where the audience is located. Jerker Hans-Ers says it depends both on how it sounds and how it looks visually:

"Some people who hear us think very much about early music or chamber music, others about Swedish folk music, which they are very passionate about. As soon as you leave Sweden, the instruments become very exotic too, both the sound of them and the way they look. Not many people have encountered these instruments, I would say.”

Interest is also growing at home - both in more traditional forms and in branches that draw inspiration from various popular culture genres and trends. Folk music is making its way into concert halls and nightclubs. 'Vision of Three' and Northern Resonance as a whole reflect this blurring of boundaries between genres as a new generation finds its music.

"We have noticed that many people have started to reach out more with folk music. New generations see that it is so broad, that there is both this archive music, older fiddlers, the solo traditions, but that there is also a more modern interpretation. And that there is this community and the whole subculture that comes with it. So it also feels like there are many people who are very positively surprised and discover a world that is quite different from what they might have thought initially", Anna concludes.

Northern Resonance's album "Vision of Three" is available on January 12th via streaming/CD and is followed by a longer tour with dates in Australia, USA, Chile, Colombia, UK, Germany and Sweden.