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Anders Trabjerg (accordion)
Anders Trabjerg was born in
Denmark in 1976 and
grew up in the village of
Hee on the west
coast of Jylland.
His home was
full of music and his parents were part time musicians for local parties
and dances during his childhood (his father is a continental accordion
player/composer and his mother plays the drums). Anders started learning to play
the accordion at the age of 7 and he was out playing with his parents a
few years later. He also
played with a local accordion player – Arne Simonsen for Danish ceilidhe
while his parents took to the dance floor.
Soon after he
got interested in the folk music of Scandinavia, especially
the fiddle music from Østerdalen/Røros in
Norway and started
travelling to these areas, sometimes with his parents to festivals or
sometimes on his own. The
local people and musicians were very accommodating and helpful to this
young Danish lad who wanted to learn their traditional
music.
In 1994 Anders
received the Titano Prize at Titano Festival in
Norway for his work
with Norwegian Traditional music.
It was in the
same year that he became interested in Irish traditional music. He then spent the next 2 years
learning the tunes from Danish/Irish musicians in
Aarhus,
Denmark. There were only a couple of places
in Denmark where he could
find an Irish session. One of
these places was Aarhus where sessions
had been going on for more than 10 years when Anders joined in. An even older session had been
running in Copenhagan – the Danish capital and
he was greatly inspired there.
But it wasn’t
enough and in July 1996 at the age of 20 he moved to
Galway and found the
music and culture that he was fascinated by. Although he has been away from
Ireland a number of
times since, he has always come back and has lived in
Galway permanently
since 2000.
In 2001 Anders
recorded his first solo album ‘Boxed’
containing
mostly Irish music and some Scandinavian tunes. Niall Mc Quaid (Bodhran) and Verena Commins (piano) also
played on the album, which was well received
in Ireland and
Internationally. In 2002 it
was awarded the Best Roots Release, 2001 at the Danish Music
Awards.
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Tak Tamura
(fiddle)
Takuji
Tamura was born in Yokohama, Japan in 1974.
His family didn’t have a strong musical background but were always
interested in music and Tak and his older
brother played guitar as most teenagers do. He didn’t come in contact with the
fiddle for several years later when he was 19.
At the age of 18, he left
Japan and travelled to Sheffield, England. He
first heard Irish traditional music there - in Fagan’s bar,
Broad
Lane, which
was a popular venue for Irish music at that time. He started to regularly go to
sessions to listen to talented local fiddle players – Patrick Walker and
Nick Farrelly and his interest in Irish music
grew. After hearing
“Julia Delaney” played by
Tommy Peoples (on the Bothy Band’s first album) he made up his mind to
purchase his first fiddle.
This was a life changing experience for him
At the beginning he taught himself to play fiddle by
listening to some Irish music recordings and learnt about the basics of
the instrument from a young man called Coleman Furey.
Three months after buying his first fiddle, he went to a session
and was able to play a number of tunes, to the surprise of the locals at
Fagan’s.
Nick Farrelly an
experienced fiddle player and renowned teacher in Yorkshire saw potential
in Tak and became his fiddle tutor and
mentor. Tak steadily progressed and it became obvious that
Sheffield was not the place for him to develop further. As Nick Farrelly said - if you really want to learn the art of
Irish music, don’t stay here go to Ireland.
In April 1995 he arrived in Galway and immersed
himself in the music. He is
fascinated by the music of Co. Sligo, East Galway and Co. Clare and has
studied the styles of these areas – by observing and listening to many
fine fiddle players and of course with many hours of practise!
His first recording was in January 1996 when he
became involved with a band “Pangaea” and recorded a number of tracks with
them.
He has been living in Galway since 1995 and regularly
plays with the local musicians there. Tak is
one of the few foreign musicians – like Anders who has integrated into the
music scene in Galway.
He is due to leave Ireland and move back to Japan at
the end of 2004 where he will pursue a career in traditional Irish
music.
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Comment from
Noel Hill
Tak Tamura and
Anders Trabjerg are two wonderful musicians of
diverse musical, geographic and cultural backgrounds but whose respective
musical compass brought them to Co. Galway in
Ireland.
Both deeply
touched by the passion of Irish Traditional music, their common desire was
to seek the true source and pulse of this music, Both Tak and Anders settled in the west of Ireland so that
they could perfect their art, playing and learning the music directly form
local musicians – from the heart of the tradition.
This new Album
truly reflects their work and sincere dedication to that Tradition. It echoes with sounds of legendary
figures within the tradition. – echoes of the late Joe Cooley, (Co.
Galway), Paddy O’ Brien (Co. Offaly) and the fiddle music of Co. Clare
and north Connaught.
This amalgam of
styles comes naturally to them.
Their music is idiomatic and evocative. Their repertoire consists of great
dance tunes, Reels, Jigs, Hornpipes and Waltzes.
This is hearty,
sincere music – some of the strong stuff!
Noel
Hill
26th
May 2004
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