Event

Kolonien

Kolonien is a four piece family band. A big year champion birdwatcher, his brother a housebuilding father of two sons, their neighbor a percussion explorer of four continents and their cousin Anna Möller, the star fiddler of the band.

THE BAND GREW UP with the traditional music scene, deeply embedded in the family. As Kolonien they reinvent their roots with their rich Swedish harmonies, both instrumentally and vocally.

THEIR JOURNEY STARTED IN THEIR TEENS, when they left their countryside home to travel around Sweden as protest singers in the Swedish Green movement. When they got invited to perform at a Zanzibar festival in Tanzania in 2010, things really started taking shape.

IT WAS MEANT AS A ONETIME GIG, but the songs and the conversations of change fell in place unexpectedly well and they decided to start a band and write their own songs.

KOLONIEN HAVE RELEASED TWO ALBUMS. Twice prized and awarded at the Swedish Folk and World Music Awards. Also twice nominated for one of their offspring projects Världens Band for which theyve gathered thirteen musicians from six countries.

Music Director Bob Weiser says,'I first met guitarist Arvid in the elevator at a hotel in Kansas City at a music conference, so I had to see the band perform.'

Guitarist Arvid Rask introduced a song he wrote about one of his forebears who emigrated from Sweden to the U.S at time when Sweden lost a third of its population. He dedicated the song to the people from Sweden who traveled here for a better life. And to the people coming to Europe. And the people now coming from the south to your country.

"We start with a song about tearing down walls and building bridges....."