Hazelius Hedin (Sweden)
- 5 days ago
- 1 min read
Hazelius Hedin is a Swedish folk duo formed in 2008 by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Esbjörn Hazelius and Johan Hedin, a master of the nyckelharpa, a bowed Swedish string instrument with wooden keys that change pitch and sympathetic strings that give it a distinctive ringing quality. Both grew up in southern Sweden, where the traditional couple dance polska is central to folk culture. Their debut album Om du ville människa heta (2011) earned them Group of the Year at the Swedish Folk and World Music Gala, and their second album Sunnan (2014) was voted album of the year in Sweden across all categories. In 2012 they performed at the Polar Prize ceremony in Stockholm, honoring Paul Simon & Yo-Yo Ma.
Featured Song:
“Wrångel” is a 17th Century Swedish song from their 2022 album Silverdalen in which a farmer named Wrångel attempts to hire a maid, only to be met with a string of outrageous demands: a speckled ox with one horn reaching to the sky, fifteen gold rings, twelve loaves of bread with twelve marks of butter each, and twelve farmhands to share her bed. Wrångel rides off in exasperation, leaving her to the devil. “You must give me twelve jugs of ale every night I go to bed / And you must keep me bedfellows with twelve bold farmhands.”
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