"I am always looking for a sound where one note tells a story. One must find the right note, and play it." -- Ale Möller, 1997

Ale is a master of many instruments who has found his way home to Swedish traditional music by many devious routes. He is one of the major forces in the search for new sounds and expressions of Nordic music. His mastery of traditional Swedish folk instruments allows him to bring new instruments to the old music with stunning results.

In addition to his work with Frifot and the Nordan Project, Ale has just finished a duo project Fully Rigged with Shetland fiddler Aly Bain, mainstay of The Boys of The Lough, exploring the meeting places between Celtic and Nordic traditions.

Growing up, Ale dreamed of becoming a jazz musician and started out as a trumpet player inspired by Clifford Brown. An encounter with a Greek musician living in Malmö, Sweden signaled a sudden switch of allegiances. Smitten with rembetika, the Greek blues, Möller began to study the bouzouki; frequently spending extended periods in Greece.

Although Möller became very proficient in playing Greek idioms he was finally obliged to confront the reality that this music could never be his own. As he told journalist Cliff Furnald of Dirty Linen magazine, "Slowly I was realizing that for my own story I had to go back and try to understand where we come from, we crazy Scandinavians."

In 1980 he moved to the Dalarna region of Sweden and began a ten-year learning period, at first attempting to adapt fiddle tunes to the bouzouki. Later he settled upon the mandola as his main instrument, an octave mandolin with frets added to play the quarter-tones common to the Swedish tradition. But Möller's flutes, harps and hammered dulcimer are usually within reaching distance.

Links

• Whirlie Records, NorthSide's partner in producing Fully Rigged -- link for more on Aly Bain
• Frifot artist page