Haugaard & Høirup

“Their extremely personable natures shine through on stage and their musicianship is simply exquisite” - BBC Radio 2

"The have that ability found in the greatest of duos on conjuring up a third personality when they play together ". - Trad&Now, Australia

8pm Wed 10th May, Whelans Wexford St D2 adm € 14

As the recent visit by Frifot so eloquently demonstrated, traditional music in Sweden is alive and well, and now Facing North, our year long series exploring the multifaceted dance, song and instrumental character of Scandinavian music continues with Denmark’s trad torchbearers, fiddler Harald Haugaard and guitarist Morten Høirup.

As with that other great duo of the same instrumentation, Hayes and Cahill, they enjoy an equally empathic rapport, Morten’s guitar providing the subtly shifting counterpoint to Harald’s lyrical fiddle. Together since 1998, they have galvanized their domestic scene with elegant and spirited reworkings of the old Schottisches, Polkas, Danish Hopsas and Waltzes that define Denmark’s traditional music. In common with their Nordic neighbours, these tunes are characterized by an intuitive use of space and gently skewed rhythms that compliment the undulating melodic contours. It’s a sound that’s at once familiar to Irish ears, and yet carries an enigmatic quality that is unmistakably Nordic, evidence perhaps of some distant cultural exchange from the first millennium.