Väsen

folk · roots

Väsen is a Swedish folk group formed in 1989 in Uppsala, playing music rooted in the traditional repertoire of the surrounding Uppland region and in the sound of the nyckelharpa, the keyed fiddle particular to that province. The founding lineup paired Olov Johansson on nyckelharpa with Mikael Marin on viola and Roger Tallroth on guitar; percussionist André Ferrari appeared on the fuller-band records but stopped touring internationally with the group after 2002, and Tallroth left in 2020. Väsen now tours as a duo of Johansson and Marin. The group has released 22 albums since its self-titled 1990 debut, eight of them in the strings-only configuration it has favoured abroad since 2002, most recently Vågor, Swedish for waves, a 2025 set of water-themed pieces named for islands, watermills and currents. Väsen has worked repeatedly with the American string players Mike Marshall and Darol Anger, appeared on the Finnish group JPP's String Tease, played on Nordman's 1994 debut album, and featured on Snarky Puppy's Family Dinner Volume 2 in 2016. Its touring is supported by the Swedish Arts Council, and it continues to appear in mixed billings across Europe, including recent German dates with Gudrun Walther and Jürgen Treyz.

Subscribe to this calendar

Upcoming shows