Sweden

Swedish instrumental folk trio Vasen will take the stage at Lotus Fest on Thursday, continuing what has become a tradition in Bloomington. Vasen’s fans half-jokingly proposed that a street in town be named for the band, leading them to title their newest album “Vasen Street.”

The band formed in 1989 and originally only played traditional Swedish standards before beginning to compose original music.

Now, the band’s goal is to “stretch the borders of what you can do with three people with three acoustic instruments; to all the time try to improve tightness energy flow and skills but still keep the presence and joy of playing for an audience,” guitarist and founding member Roger Tallroth said in an e-mail.

The band emphasizes that while the music is still at its core traditional Swedish folk music, it has evolved into “Vasen music.”
T
he band’s sonic template is characterized by a virtuosic blend of the traditional Scandinavian folk instrument – the nyckelharpa and the more familiar sounds of 12-string guitar and fiddle, creating melodies that weave in and out of one another.
Nyckelharpist and fellow Vasen founder Olov Johansson is aware of the band’s individual-centric approach.

“We are like three soloists, soloing at the same time and all the time considering what the others are doing,” he said in an e-mail, adding that “The best moments are when we manage to surprise ourselves and the audience.”

Tallroth said that Lotus Fest is a great way to expose middle America to music from around the world that they might not be familiar with, but claims that the credit for this goes to the organizers, not the bands.

“We’re not on a mission of spreading our music to places it hasn’t been before,” Tallroth said. “For me, it’s more of a nice side effect of what we do.”