I went and saw Gjallarhorn perform last night and found the experience to be well worth my time. The songs were sung in several languages, none of which I could understand. I'm willing to bet that nobody else in the audience could understand Old Icelandic either, or Swedish or Finnish for that matter. One of the instruments used was new to me as well - the contrabass recorder, which looked something like a small telescope and had a very satisfying sound. The drummer was interesting to watch too. He drummed with one drumstick and one hand, using his fingers to good effect. Lots of little bells and other percussive bits filled out his small kit. The singer, in fine scandinavian tradition, often emitted those shrill, shiver-inducing cattle calls that were originally meant to call the cows home from several time zones away. In the confines of a small venue it sounds quite nice. They played for two hours, but it seemed like much less. That's the way it should be. During that time, they played their versions of a couple of songs I'd heard before. One is a mediaeval Norwegian song (I think I've heard Agnes Buen Garnas sing it, but I'm not sure) and the other was a scandinavian version of The Two Sisters (aka The Cruel Sister or The Bonny Swans), which struck me as interesting because the following night (tonight) on the same stage, John Renbourn is playing. Back when he was in Pentangle, he played on the first version of this song that remember hearing.
At work today we discovered that the Rattlesnake was still at home. They kids were thrilled - most of them, anyway.
Now it's just damn hot. I'm ready for winter.
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