Scott and Johanna Hongell-Darsee
Scandinavian/Celtic Songs - From ancient epics to medieval and traditional ballads
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Our performances have been described as magical, inspiring, haunting, mesmerizing.
Here are a few quotes:
"The song carries a quiet strength and a sense of ancient tales being told anew. It's quite moving and feels deeply rooted in tradition." (Ethno Cloud Listener)
"Haunting blend, echoes of ancient balladry." (Ethno Cloud Listener)
"Hauntingly beautiful, really captures the narrative essence." (Ethno Cloud Listener)
"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)
"As always, you wow the crowds who come year efter year to partake in the worlds you unfold and reveal to them" (William Pentler, Albuquerque Open Space Educational Coordinator)
“Best live performance I have seen in 25 years of booking.” (Tim Wadham, Maricopa Library System, Phoenix, AZ)
“Fabulous program! You couldn't hear a pin drop (over 80 ladies in attendance). Johanna's voice and Scott's music transported you to another time and place.” (Four Hills Neighbors, Albuquerque, NM)
“… delightfully magical and eerily contemplative.” (NYU Student)
“Through song and verse, charming bells, finger cymbals, drums, tambourines, and the accompaniment of three kinds of stringed instruments, Johanna and Scott set the mood for the telling of this old tale. With voice and music they forged a narrow path into the woods and broke through a massive and high wall of stone to reveal the mysterious underworld. Johanna’s performance was hypnotic. Her simple gestures, whispers, and lilting melodies echoing through the dark theatre, and the plaintive lonely sounds of three kinds of flutes, seduced us into a dreamlike state. During the hour or so we spent at the theatre, it felt as if we were inside the story oblivious to time and place. We were hardly even conscious of who else was in the audience. Just like May and her sister, inside the “cave” of the Provincetown Playhouse, time had stood still: we lost all “sense of self and all of our thoughts” as we walked with them through the mountain for what seemed like years.” (NYU Student)
“Highlight of the 2009-2010 Season” (Diane Wolkstein for Scandinavian House, NY)