WELCOME to KAKAFON RECORDS!

ORIGINAL | TRADITIONAL • EXPERIMENTAL

Kakafon Records will attend Womex 2019 in Tampere.

Meet Livet Nord at the
Nordic Lounge Area: 3.2-3.3
Swedish Stand: No. 3.9

 

On this particular site we have selected some of our fineest Swedish folk- and world music artists that are also highly appreciated live acts!

Kakafon Records was established in Gothenburg, Sweden, in June 2010 but has it's home today is the small village Siljansnäs, in the epicentre of Dalecarlia.Reflecting innovation as well as traditions the label releases words and sounds deriving from folk music. Sounds that have taken winding roads all around the world.

FOLK / WORLD MUSIC from SWEDEN

Navarra

- "It’s not often you get floored by music but Navarra’s way of performing is so incredibly open, honest and direct that it simply can’t be resisted." - Lira musikmagasin

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NAVARRA • I LJUSNINGEN

Navarra is folk music with a nerve of city pulse and a longing for morning light. It’s energy-laden folk groove and a gentle comfort on a rainy day. 

They are known as innovators of their genre and as a fiery live act, creating an almost magical atmosphere between band and audience. The new album I ljusningen (At dawn) is the band’s third and much-awaited album. It gives us folk music with Navarra’s unmistakable energy and joyous interplay but there are also songs that really stretch the concept of folk music. A sister from Somalia, music from the deep forests of Värmland, telephone salesmen and a longing great as the moon all have a natural place when Navarra’s music takes shape. Lyrics with a deep and personal imagery are given color and form in accurate compositions. Arvid Kästel's groovy folk music piano and Erika Risinger's virtuoso violin playing rest firmly on a creative and confident drum play by Carl Johan Groth. Sofia Kunze's warm voice naturally weaves into the whole with nerve and expressiveness. At dawn, just as the sun breaks through the veil of night, we find Navarra's magical world.

Navarra have performed at a Womex showcase.

Latest album release 2019|13|09
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ELLINOR & LEONOR

- "Ellinor & Leonor lift the traditional music of Dalarna to previously unknown heights" - Lira MusicMagazine

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ELLINOR & LEONOR • ÅRSRINGAR

With the unusual combination of five-string cello and fiddle, Ellinor & Leonor vitalise and give new life to Swedish folk music.

In “Årsringar”, the duo present traditional tunes from South Dalarna in stylish and lilting arrangements enriched with improvisation and influences from chamber and world music. The duo have chosen to call their second album Årsringar (Growth Rings) in celebration of significant Swedish folk musicians that have gone before. Retaining a respect for the traditional, the duo relishes in the spontaneity of artistic freedom to playfully develop and express the material through different genres. Thanks to Leonor’s way of playing her five-string cello, the melody wanders between the two instruments, leaving room for improvisation. Ellinor and Leonor are also much appreciated dance musicians which can be heard in the lively triplets of Hins Anders polska, the energy filled hagervals “Karusellen”, as well as in their rendition of majestic polonaises and melancholic polskas.

Album release 2019|17|05
BUY LISTEN/PRESS/MORE ITUNES PRESS RELEASE (ENGLISH)WEB

ANNE KALMERING

- "Klezmer music with width performed by highly skilled musicians!"

KAKACD037 DEBUTE ALBUM!
ANNE KALMERING & STAHLHAMMER KLEZMER CLASSIC
VAYTER


Anne Kalmering’s voice resembles no other. Her warm, humorous and soulful interpretations of songs in Yiddish and Ladino have made her a central figure of the unique Jewish-Swedish cultural heritage. Together with critically acclaimed Stahlhammer Klezmer Classic, she now releases their debute album Vayter. Stahlhammer Klezmer Classic has its roots in Stahlhammer Klezmer Orchestra, which existed in Krasnik, Poland from 1920 to 1939 with violinist Semmy Stahlhammers grandfather, uncles and friends. Semmy continues the family tradition with new members.
The album Vayter shows the width of the klezmer music – Jewish folk music meets chamber music and cabaret in suggestive and playful arrangements. The music is reminiscent of a culture that was close to being destroyed, but still lives on. Vayter means “ahead, forward” in Yiddish – and is a tribute to all those who has walked this path with their songs and music.

Album release 2019|30|08

BUY LISTEN / VIEW / PRESS / REVIEWS • PRESS RELEASE (ENGLISH)ITUNES

HenriK Cederblom - ZOBOP

- "This is fusion of the highest rank!…/…a sympathetic, warm and passionate atmosphere” - Wolfgang Giese

KAKACD035 SOLODEBUT!
HENRIK CEDERBLOM • ZOBOP

Henrik Cederblom has played guitar behind a number of great Swedish artists such as Freddie Wadling, Daniel Lemma, Sofia Karlsson and Timo Räisänen, among others. He is also known for his work with the Swedish award winning band Den Fule. Zobop is his solo debute where he has written a collection of songs that focuses on melody and groove. An urban world music that draws its inspiration from dance in different forms. Zobop brings us new meeting points: Here are influences from style icons such as Zappa and Jeff Beck, Bill Frisell and Tony Allen, but basically the music is written as folk music for electric guitar, bass, beats, drums and saxophone. “I have always loved how fiddlers play together in Swedish and Norwegian folk traditions, and I also really enjoy playing for a dancing crowd” says Henrik, “so I wanted to focus on rhythm, melody and interplay.” Zobop is a meeting between those elements and improvisation – individual as well as collective. The soul of a tune, how it orchestrates the beat, the different worlds created by the melodies and interplay – this is what makes Zobop an entirely unique place to be.

Album release 2019|17|05

Reviews
Robert Silverstein / MWE3 (Florida) about Zobop
"Hemifrån" - Reviews for Zobop

BIO
BUY LISTEN/PRESS/MORE​ PRESS RELEASE (ENGLISH) ITUNES WEB

IDA&LOUISE

- "The way the northern flavor interacts with the Yiddish texts is the strength of the album." - In Geveb
- "Yiddish innovators" - Sounds Jewish Radio

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IDA&LOUISE • SHTOLTSE LIDER / PROUD POEMS

A hundred years ago, the Yiddish Culture was blooming, and there was a great movement of women poets who were driven by powerful, artistic visions. In the years after the second World War their works were forgotten, but thanks to feminist groups in the 1980’s, the works were rediscovered and translated into English. A new generation of readers could now enjoy the poetry around the world. In Shtoltse lider (Proud Poems), the duo Ida&Louise gives new life to this treasure of poetry. The duo has interpreted poems by five of the yiddish writers, by composing new music to the lyrics. “We want to build a bridge between a hidden cultural heritage and innovative female artists from the past and the future. Between languages and cultures, poetry and music“, says Ida&Louise. In their compositional work, Ida&Louise has found their inspiration deep within the lyrics, and their ambition is to create a close and moving connection between music and texts. On this album, the duo adds voice harmonies, glockenspiel, whispering and cello to their own, symbiotic sound, as well as an old recording by the poet Rokhl Korn, reciting her own poem. The poems can be read in Yiddish and English in the booklet of the CD.

Release 2019|08|03

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KAJA

Kaja presents dazzling world music that embrace a broad emotional range with a creative mélange of influences.
- "An album with a high degree of verve" 4/5
- Songlines

KAKACD033 / KAKALP004
KAJA • ORIGO (CD och LP)

Origo is a celebration of life and death, the journey and eternity. Kaja unleashes their distinctly personal approach once again to embrace a broad emotional range with a creative mélange of  influences.They still have their roots in Klezmer and other Eastern European folk music, but they’ve branched out and their latest album even features influences from pop, Afro and electronica. In addition to violin, accordion and double bass, the trio also treats us to cutting-edge guest performances on scissors (!), synth bass, percussion, kalimba, grand piano, live electronica and saxophones. A 12-minute long suite nestles with a deadly waltz, a dramatic unplanned road trip, vibrant Afro beats, and a trolley trip in. All with the cinematic chamber music sound of Kaja.

"An album with a high degree of verve" 4/5 - Songlines

Latest album release 2019|01|03

BUY LISTEN/PRESS/MORE ITUNES WEB PRESS RELEASE (ENGLISH)

KAKACD016 / KAKALP001
KAJA · TRE TRAPPOR UPP (CD and VINYL!)
Upstairs, ”three stories up”, you find dark nooks and crannies that open up on spacious ballrooms shimmering with light. Swaying waltzes merge into acoustic loops, improvisation, chilly sound-scapes and then into uncompromising, full-throttle folk. Unique brand of daring and dazzling chamber folk, full of edgy twists and turns.
Release 2013|18|11
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KAKACD002
KAJA · RUST
Klezmer and other Eastern European Folk music is the foundation, adding layers of film and contemporary music, Tango, Swedish folk tunes and improvisation. The music finds its fuel in Eastern European Folk music traditions, but the experimental parts makes the genre Kaja´s very own. Rust is outspoken, deep-rooted, wide and meandering.
Released 2010|20|09
BUYLISTEN / PRESSITUNESWEB

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KAJA · KRACKEL Album debute!
Carefully wrought from two years of interplaying, Kajas first full-length album Krackel saw the light of day! There is magic, nerve and absolute presence when trio Kaja present their compositions with the musical language of Klezmer as the main ingredient.
Influences of Tango, Jazz and Balkan Folk music is some of the compo-nents in this “new klezmer” of Kaja. This is young, innovative and absolutely fabulous music.
Released 2007|31|03
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Sara & Samantha

"It's hard and raw, full of earth and bark and at the same time brimful of excellent fiddling and sheer beauty." - Lira Music Magazine
 

KAKACD029 / KAKALP002
SARA PARKMAN & SAMANTHA OHLANDERS • MATRIARKERNA (CD och LP!)

The matriarchy has for over 500 years been an important part of the Scandinavian herding system - but pretty excluded in the history books. With the record Matriarkerna the praised folk music duo Sara Parkman & Samantha Ohlanders takes back their traditions. Parkman and Ohlanders have invited their idols, heroines and some of Swedens biggest folk musicians to play with them on the record. The meeting between generations and discussions on the topic roots and traditions is the solid foundation on which the production stands.
Sara and Samantha are two of Swedens most interesting musicians on the folk scene today. With their feministic and anti-nationalistic folk music they have opened up for a bigger understanding of what folk music is and can be.

Release 2017|03|11
BUY •  LISTEN / PRESS​ • ITUNES  WEB

PIREUS

”Pireus knows their  Rebetika. That metropolitan music that is the Greek style of music that is closest to blues, fado, tango or flamenco.”
- LIRA Music Magazine 

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PIREUS • REBETIKA IN SWEDISH

Pireus is a quartet with two bouzoukis. Brilliant string orchestra with vocal just like it sounded 1950. The group was formed in 1987 to play and sing rebetika - Greek metropolitan music in both Greek and Swedish. On this album the songs are translated into Swedish. Live they have performed at Greek taverns and associations, jazz clubs, music festivals andother musical cultural events. Pireus also find it fun to teach some of the simplest dances when performing. They have extensive experience in workshops in singing, music and dance, and have been involved with Falun Folk Music Festival, Re: Orientfestival, Grepan etc. Over the years they have not only worked as a musician in Greece but also invited famous Greek artists such as Manolis Pappos and Melina Kaná. They have participated in SVT1 and SVT2 as well as Sweden's Radio P1, P2, P3 and P4, as well as in the Greek all state channels ET1, NET and ET3.

Release 2016/28/10
BUY​ •  LISTEN / PRESSITUNES WEB

SWING TARTURO

Rebellious swing, roaring blues and playful improvisation! ”...inventive, humorously spiced, gives an unconventional collection of songs that easily reaches my heart!" - Orkesterjournalen

KAKACD025 • Album debute!
SWING TARTURO • OPERATION VISION

With rebellious swing, roaring blues, playful improvisation and hopeful lyrics about a solidary and equal world Swing Tarturo generously delivers both seriousness and joy. Their unique contemporary swing is sharp, fresh, experimental and surprising. The band has brought to life and renewed the traditional and almost entirely stagnated jazz of the 1920s. Swing Tarturo’s music sounds like an old crank gramophone or a crazy, derailed cabaret from the 1930s spiced up with a handful of punk. Their repertoire has in the recent years developed towards an emphasis on the compositions in the same tradition by the band's singer Julia Stokes and on the album Operation vision the old classics have been phased out with the exception of one song. The 1936 song Strange fruit with it’s anti-racism protest being still very relevant. The fusion between the bold and honest lyrics about equality, empathy and the anxiety of everyday life, and the inventive and often humorous music creates an exciting and striking collection of songs.

Release 2016|13|05
BUY​ •  LISTEN / PRESS​ • ITUNES WEB

MIDNATTSORKESTERN

“Dreamy, nocturnal, poetic and with a cool metropolitan sensuality” - Lira Music Magazine
 

KAKACD020
MIDNATTSORKESTERN
• ÖVER STADENS TAK - Sånger av David Löfberg


In 2009, eight musicians purchased a night ticket and stepped on the tram which would become Midnattsorkestern (The Midnight Orchestra). After five years and several tours the album Över stadens tak (Over The Rooftops) is released, containing thirteen new songs by David Löfberg. The music is a kind of mixed brew of chamber music and chanson, with additional influences from folk songs, tango and jazz. The resulting sound might be described as a beautifully over- grown genre palette, coloured by the featured musicians’ diverse backgrounds. Singer Elina Ryd
takes centre stage. With the classic four part voicing of the string quartet as foundation, supported by rhythmical accompaniment in bass and guitar, the narrating song creates a dialog with instrumental solo efforts. Everything originates from the tunes, and everything is about atmosphere. Sea and moon, evening and dawn, dream and longing, city and country road. A nocturnal landscape where the world is a giant sphere, and sea, space and melancholy infinite.

Release 2014|22|09
BUY​ • LISTEN / PRESS​ • ITUNESWEB

KAJA & TETRA - MIDVINTERVAKA

A vibrant colorful multilingual Midwinter brew made of Caribbean, Scandinavian, English, Greek, Arabic and East European music influences and traditional tunes.

KAKACD012
KAJA OCH TETRA · MIDVINTERVAKA

With saffron fragrant songs and cinnamon flavored tunes a vibrant Christmas brew is made of Caribbean, Scandinavian, English, Greek, Arabic, South American and East European music influences and traditional tunes. With the album "Midvintervaka" canvases Kaja & Tetra up a sumptuous Christmas dinner for everyone. It sounds ranging from Staffan Supervisor and Santa Lucia in Italian to the brand new midvinter tango and Haitian comfortable swinging Christmas music. Midvintervaka is created as a show by the two swedish folk/world music groups Kaja and Tetra. The musicians are also performing in a number of different Swedish groups and projects, such as New Tide Orquesta, Ale Möllen Band, Kultiration, Amanda and many other.

Released 2012|05|11
Other albums with musicians from Midvintervaka: Krackel, Rust and Tre Trappor Upp.
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GOODLAND TRIO · Album debute!

In Goodland, a place to be found somewhere in Sweden, the three musicians Hanna Wiskari Griffiths, Jonathan Larsson and Oskar Reuter met in the fall of 2009. Sweet music, with roots in traditional Scandinavian music, was born! The members are known from many other bands and projects such as NID, Horn Please, Habbadám, Kultiration, Agrin, Björn Kleinhenz Trio, Downtown Ramblers, The Gentle Act Incident and Västanå Teater. Their debute album prese mainly original tunes composed by the members of the band, with a distinct nordic sound. Polskas, waltzes and schottises are played in arrangements that wavers between the traditional and the contemporary, with influences of pop and improvised music. "Music to get lost in. To loose yourself and float away through time, through forest, through life." (Henrik Wallgren)

Released 2011|08|22
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LUCAS STARK SJUNGER JOE HILL · STREJK I PARADISET

Joe Hill emigrated from Sweden to the USA in the beginning of the 20th century. With his poems and songs he became one of the most important voices in the early years of the USA’s trade union movement. For the first time in almost 40 years his songs have now been given a holistic approach in Swedish. The singer Lucas Stark has selected thirteen of the most satirical, well-aimed and important songs which he has brought up to date and, in some cases, translated into Swedish for the first time. In the studio some of Sweden’s best-known musicians have helped him mould the
tunes in new arrangements with a whiff of blues, jazz, country,
rock and Viennese waltz.

Released 2010|08|11
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Contact

Kakafon Records Ek. För.
Bortasgattu 12
793 60 Siljansnäs
SWEDEN

Contact: Livet Nord
T: +46 (0)704 414 001
E: info@kakafon.com

MORE INFO