Core Team
Erasmus Talbot
Erasmus is a film and games composer as well as sound designer with over 10 years of professional experience in the industry. He has produced scores for a number of games including ”Elite Dangerous”, ”Gauntlet”, ”Planet Coaster” as well as a string of films and TV-series, including ”Too Beautiful: Our Right to Fight” and ”The Asterisk Wars”. More recently he produced the album "Nordic Drama I" for Skandinavian Sound, delving into nordic music writing and recording traditional nordic instruments and musicians.
Mårten Hillbom
Mårten is a versatile composer, percussionist, and mix engineer. While primarily dedicated to live performance as a percussionist, he has also composed music for short films and commercials, as well as created music and sound design for games. With years of experience performing worldwide, Mårten has built an extensive network of collaborators across the industry. He is also one of the founders of PERC. Studios, a specialized percussion studio located in Stockholm, Sweden.
Rasmus Faber
As a pianist graduating from one of Sweden’s most respected musical colleges and a father who was a professional jazz musician, Stockholm born and raised Rasmus Faber had a unique beginning to an illustrious two-decade long career in the vibrant world of electronic dance music (and latterly as a composer of TV and film music).
Musicians
Lena Johnson (Violin, viola)
Lena Jonsson is a renowned Swedish fiddler whose style captures the rich traditions of Swedish folk music while also pushing its boundaries with a distinct personal touch. Coming from Hälsingland, a province deeply steeped in folk music, Jonsson's approach to the fiddle is firmly rooted in the unique rhythms and melodies that define Swedish fiddling. Her style is particularly recognized for its rhythmic drive and expressive depth, bringing an infectious energy to every performance. Jonsson’s compositions transcends traditional boundaries, incorporating elements from genres such as jazz, classical music, and contemporary improvisation.
Her talent has earned her significant recognition within the music community, including a Swedish Grammis award, two Swedish Grammis nominations, the prestigious Manifest Prize, and the title of Artist of the Year at the Swedish Folk Music Awards. These accolades reflect both her mastery of the Swedish fiddle tradition and her ability to innovate within it, cementing her as one of the most influential fiddlers in Scandinavia today.
Maija Kauhanen (Kantele)
Maija Kauhanen is a Finnish kantele virtuoso, singer, and multi-instrumentalist as well as a talented composer and lyricist. She is known to be a charismatic performer with an entrancing stage presence. She plays self-penned music as a one-woman orchestra simultaneously playing the kantele, percussion, and singing on top. She is a versatile musician who makes music as a solo as well as in several projects.
Erik Rydvall (Nyckelharpa)
Nyckelharpa player Erik Rydvall has steadily risen to stardom on the Swedish folk-music scene. His personal expression, virtuosity, and drive to seek out new challenges has made him a highly sought-after musician, often for cross-genre collaboration.
While at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Erik Rydvall was one of the founders of the folk-music trio Nordic, winner of multiple prizes. Later, with Norwegian Hardanger fiddler Olav Luksengård Mjelva, the Rydvall/Mjelva duo was formed. Most recently, Erik Rydvall, Olav L. Mjelva and British violinist Max Baillie banded together to forge new ties between Scandinavian folk and baroque music in Lodestar Trio.
Erik Rydvall is ever venturing into new territories. He toured with the Flamencos en route dance company, performed with the Danish National Girls’ Choir, the NorrlandsOperan Symphony Orchestra, Dalasinfoniettan and world music’s primary promoter in Sweden, Ale Möller and the award-winning recorder player Kristine West.
Erik Rydvall’s most recent project, playing Baroque music on nyckelharpa, has attracted an audience beyond folk music and interest the world over.
During the last years Erik has featured as a studio musicians on movies and video games like: Lord of the Rings - The rings of power, Loki, Obi Wan Kenobi, Vikings Valhalla and The Witcher - Blood Origin, God of War and Assasins Creed - Dawn of Ragnarøk.
Kristine West (Flute)
After graduating from Falun Conservatoire of Music, Kristine was accepted as a 17 year old to the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, where she studied recorder and baroque flute. Kristine received her Masters Degree 2012, and has been working as a freelance musician ever since.
She has been active in a number of her own ensembles, touring as a soloist as well as working as a flute player in numerous orchestral productions.
Kristine has several times performed as a soloist with orchestra under her own guidance and with concert masters as Rachel Podger, with Swedish Radio Orchestra, Gävle Symphony Orchestra, The Swedish Wind Ensemble and others.
Kristine has won fine scholarships from The Royal Swedish Academy of Music and Swedish Arts Grants Committee, within the fields of Early Music and Folk Music. Kristine has released 3 albums at the label Daphne Records which have been rewarded by Swedish as well as international press.
Johannes Geworkian Hellman (Vevlira)
The Swedish musician Johannes Geworkian Hellman is considered as one of the most prominent hurdy-gurdy players of today. As a musician and artist, he is known for his captivating live performances whether playing solo or together with his ensembles.
My own musical expression is a crossover and a mixture of the music that inspires me and the music I have studied. I mainly play music that I have created myself or, often together with musical colleagues. For me the most important aspects of music-making are the musicians I play with and also that the music and performances feels meaningful, in one or another way. I want to be touched by the music I play, because then I believe in it and I want to share it with others.
Music became a way of living, a language to communicate with, and a therapeutic state of mind for me, my feelings and my thoughts. The power of art and music continues to fascinate me and I know that music can change peoples life, because it has changed my life. I am grateful for everything that music gave me!
Per Runberg
Runberg works as a freelance musician with Nordic folk music as his foundation. He is also a master folk musician (riksspelman) on both the fiddle and the cow horn. As a musician, he has worked to integrate older folk music instruments that were on the verge of being forgotten into contemporary folk music.
Runberg’s main instruments are the fiddle, Jew’s harp, cow horn, and horsehair harp. Still, he also plays other instruments such as the Hardanger fiddle, Swedish bagpipes, moraharpa (a traditional keyed fiddle), spilåpipa (a type of Swedish wooden flute), and Swedish hurdy-gurdy. He is one of the few musicians in Sweden who performs melodic playing on the Jew’s harp, a tradition he has adopted from Norway.
Runberg has participated in several album recordings, the most notable being the albums Alder and Andor. These were part of a project aiming to recreate music as it might have sounded in the Nordic region during the Viking Age. The albums are a collaboration between Runberg and other musicians.