Norwegian traditional musician, currently with the String Sisters group at the North Atlantic Fiddle Convention taking place in Derry and Donegal, fiddler Annbjørg Lien has released her latest album Khoom Loy (Thai for ‘Paper Lanterns’) on Compass Records. Her eighth solo album, it features a variety of traditions from her own Norwegian folk to Irish and Asian music, with Lien playing her native Hardanger fiddle as well as a keyed fiddle.

A first for Lien is the fact that she sings on this album, on the title track and on ‘Den Storste Daarlighed’, (‘a fusion of the Indian tabla with Celtic whistles’ according to the publicity material). The album features musicians Bjørn Charles Dreyer, Hans Fredrik Jacobsen, Bjørn Ole Rasch, Per Elias Drabløs, Per Hillestad, Orsa Spelmän, the Kristiansand String Quartet, and Pat Broaders.

Winner of the Garmeleng Prize for classical folk and the Hilimar Award in her native Norway, Lien is also is a member of the international music fiddle group String Sisters (with Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Liz Knowles, Catriona MacDonald, Liz Carroll and Emma Härdelin) and has collaborated with American fiddler Bruce Molsky amongst many others. Lien comes from a musical family and learned traditional music from her father and classical music at the music school in Ålesund.

compassrecords.com.