fribo

Fribo is a unique collaboration between three musicians from Norway, Scotland and England, who are rapidly gaining recognition and acclaim for blending their own musical styles together with sensitivity and an exuberant feel for contemporary sounds and rhythms.

After first playing around an old Edinburgh kitchen table in 2003, Anne Sofie Linge Valdal, Sarah-Jane Summers and Ewan MacPherson decided to pursue their beautiful collision of music to seek out the very threads, which connected them in such a natural yet unexpected way. 

Since then their graceful blending of Anne Sofie’s pure beautiful Norwegian voice, Sarah-Jane’s rich Scottish Highland fiddle and Ewan’s sympathetic guitar backing has become a sound in itself. Fribo are now joined regularly by top Scottish percussionist Paul Jennings (Fred Morrison Band, Croft No5, Old Blind Dogs)

Fribo’s sound is quickly becoming widely noticed, the band has been picked up and regularly played by BBC Radio 3 programme ‘Late Junction’ and radio Scotland’s ‘Global Gathering’, not to mention Norway’s number one radio station NRK. Their debut album was one of Music News Scotland's Top 4 Albums of the Month (What's Hot!) in June and was also voted no 9 in the May fRoots World/Roots Music Chart.

Fribo have recently completed extensive tours of both the UK and Norway where they have been really well received, gaining four star reviews from both countries.

Performance highlights to date include: Telemark Festival (Norway), Celtic Connections, Orkney Folk Festival, Nordlys Festival (Denmark), Skye World Music Festival and Edinburgh’s Ceilidh Culture.

The band recently won a Creative Development Award from the Scottish Arts Council, which they have used to record a debut album (produced by Fraser Fifield), now being released on the popular Fellside Recordings label in January 2007.

Fribo are represented by Stoneyport, Scotland’s premier roots music agency.

Fribo at the forefront of the European ‘NU-NORDIC’ scene.

Making waves in two countries…The historical links between British, Irish and Nordic Countries are well known; many of our own traditions have extended family all over northern Europe. In fact the word Nordic,  now used to collectively describe Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Faroe Islands and Greenland, may have been used before the 19th Century to describe all of Northern Europe, including Britain and Ireland. Little surprise then that from today’s ever-expanding, diverse music scene a growing number of British, Irish and Nordic musicians are exploring these old musical links, exchanging traditions and expressing them anew. One of the bands at the forefront of this burgeoning scene is Fribo.

In one main respect these acts also including Anglo-Swedish band SWAP and Newcastle/Finnish band The Auvo Quartet all have something in common; namely they all comprise Celtic/Anglo and Nordic musicians, each has a very different angle on what they do. But somehow or other they are finding new and interesting ways of blending traditional music from the UK and Ireland with traditional Nordic music, then taking the concept a lot further than that. They are discovering much in common and the result is a new and vibrant, multi-national, North Sea sound described by some as ‘Nu-Nordic’; whatever you want to call it this music it is attracting a great deal of interest from a widening audience.

"They are FABULOUS!!!"   
Genevieve Tudor - BBC Radio Shropshire

“Fribo have emerged with a sound that’s entirely their own, a hybrid where all the parts create equal tension. What can seem low-key is subtlety, a less is more ethos that works beautifully. Welcome Fribo to the world of folk”
Sing Out!

"...music with a refreshing tang and a keen edge." Living Tradition

“…What immediately strikes you is the freshness and zest
emanating from the trio." Rock n’ Reel ****

“Fribo is for me one of the discoveries of the year” New Folk Sounds

"There are a growing number of groups covering the sort of material which Fribo perform. But I’ve yet to hear anyone with the variety and finesse of this young trio... Above all it’s an album that’s brilliantly produced fun, moving, engaging, adventurous and a sheer delight from start to finish..."
Songlines ****