Scott and Johanna Hongell-Darsee
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Scott and Johanna Hongell-Darsee

Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2001 | SELF

Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States | SELF
Established on Jan, 2001
Duo World Traditional

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"Press Page"

Our performances have been described as magical, inspiring, haunting, mesmerizing.

Here are a few quotes:


"What to praise first? Johanna’s lovely alto and her storytelling skill? Scott’s evocative guitars? Their arrangements that mold ancient melodies to modern ears? The performances have a stylized, almost ritual quality, as the Hongell-Darsees summon ancient characters from the depths of our collective unconscious and bid you take leave of the modern world and join your ancestors, huddled together in a hut around a fire as the storyteller makes the hair on your arms stand straight up." (Mel Minter, Musically Speaking, Albuquerque, NM) - Scott and Johanna Hongell-Darsee


"Roaming the Collective Unconscious in Songs Centuries Old"

The repertoire of Johanna Hongell-Darsee and Scott Darsee includes the most popular songs of all time, though few of them have ever appeared on a Billboard chart. Their longevity and their near universal presence around the globe, however, attest to their
appeal. On The Wandering Ballad, available via iTunes, CD Baby, and Amazon, the duo presents ballads that have formed the heart of their last three live productions. Some of the tunes were first written down in the 12th
century, by which time some of them had already traveled halfway around the world, accreting scores of verses from different cultures and attaching local melodies along the way.

The album presents songs in English, French, Finnish, and Swedish, in spare and beautiful arrangements that conjure a medieval atmosphere. Modern and ancient instruments weave the spell, with Hongell-Darsee on vocals, flute, clarinet, härjedalspipa (Scandinavian wooden
whistle) and Darsee on acoustic and electric guitars and bass, with assistance from Christopher A. Carlson on violin and octave violin, Sharon Berman on recorders, and Juan Wijngaard on
hurdy-gurdy. At the CD release party, presented by AMP Concerts at the Outpost this Friday, these artists will be joined by Larry Otis on guitar and saxophone and Tej Bhavsar on sitar.


Ancient stories
On a more or less annual basis, the duo creates a live production around a collection of
similarly themed ballads. Since relocating to New Mexico from Scandinavia in 2001, they’ve
performed over 300 times at festivals, theaters, arts councils, colleges, schools, libraries, and
radio stations around the country.

For each project, says Hongell-Darsee, she finds a medieval ballad that has variants across a
variety of places around the world. “I research the story behind it,” she says. “Sometimes it’s very clear. Sometimes you have to do a bit of research back into legend or myths or folk tales to find the common thread. Then, we have basically told these stories and used these ballads to tell the story.”

Hongell-Darsee fronts the duo in their multimedia live presentations, singing, playing a variety of instruments, masking, dancing, and storytelling. Born into a Swedish-speaking minority on an island off the coast of Finland, she studied mime and theater in Paris and Indian classical dance in India, led a dance and theater company in Malmo, Sweden, and performed across Europe and in the United States. - Mel Minter


"Medieval Runes:"

See Link - Albuquerque Journal


"Dynamic Duos: An Enchanted World"

See link - Albuquerque The Magazine, March 2013


"Ballads From Long Ago"

See Link - Albuquerque Journal


Photos

Bio

Scott and Johanna are a duo who perform early traditional Scandinavian/Celtic ballads and tales.

Their wanderings have led them from Finland and Iowa respectively - through Europe, Scandinavia, India, and the U.S. On the way they have picked up tales and songs that they perform together with the stories behind them, in particular exploring the links between Scandinavian, Celtic, North American and other story singing traditions.

Their performances have been described as magical, inspiring, haunting, mesmerizing ...

"... the Hongell-Darsees summon ancient characters from the depths of our collective unconscious and bid you take leave of the modern world and join your ancestors, huddled together in a hut around a fire as the storyteller makes the hair on your arms stand straight up." (Mel Minter, Musically Speaking, Albuquerque, NM)

Their recordings have been nominated for 3 New Mexico Music Awards. They are currently in and have had multiple hits on The Top 40 World Music Charts by Ethnocloud consecutively for 12 months. Their songs can also be found on several traditional music compilations..

 

After relocating to New Mexico from Scandinavia in 2001, Scott and Johanna have performed all over the U.S. and in Scandinavia at festivals, theatres, arts councils, universities, schools, libraries, and live broadcasts including:

 

·       Metronomen, Copenhagen, Denmark

·       Mix Musik, Malmö, Sweden

·       Provincetown Playhouse and Scandinavia House, NYC

·       Outpost Performance Space with AMP Concerts, Albuquerque, NM

·       Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, NM

·       Renaissance Faires: Medieval Fair of Norman, OK, Midsummers Fairytale Celtic Ren Fair, CA, Albuquerque Renaissance Faire, NM Renaissance Celtic Faire, NM

·       Folk/Celtic Festivals: Traditional Music Society, Los Angeles, CA; and Albuquerque, NM, Rio Grande Valley Celtic Festival, NM

·       Scandinavian Festivals: Estes Park, CO; Atlanta, GA; Los Angeles, CA; Thousand Oaks, CA; and Lindsborg, KS

·       Storytelling Festivals: Los Angeles, CA; Four Corners, NM; Taos, NM; and Albuquerque, NM

·       Universities: NYU; UNM, ENMU, San Juan College and College of Santa Fe, NM; UA; Coe College, IA

·       NPR Affiliates, KUNM, KSFR, WFHB

·       TV 2KASA Morning Show

·       New Mexico Humanities Council – Inducted as scholars in 2005

 

Johanna (vocals, woodwinds, stringed instruments, arrangements) was born in Finland. Apart from music she has a background in theater and dance. She studied theater in France and Bharata Natyam dance in India. She has worked as a performing artist for over 40 years in Scandinavia, Europe, India and USA and led the dance and theater company Teater Bava in Sweden for 10 years.

Scott (stringed instruments, arrangements, composer) was born in USA. Since 2000 Scott has performed music throughout the US from New York to California. Before relocating to New Mexico, he spent 16 years in Europe, where parallel to his artistic work he worked with ballet companies such as Dance Theatre of Harlem, London Festival Ballet, English National Ballet, The Royal Danish Ballet and Hamburg Ballet.


Band Members