“kolonien”
The word Kolonien derives from Latin “Colonia”, meaning the cultivator and breaker of new grounds. But in Sweden it’s a term for community gardening, often just outside the cities.
A Koloni is a few square meters of land where urban people can grow some vegetables or flowers and create a sanctuary from city life.
“This Koloni concept sums up what the band means to us very well. A sort of sacred space where we can let things grow, whether it’s music, conversations or ourselves. We’re trying to break new grounds musically and cultivating a new story to grow into.”
Kolonien is a four piece family band.
The two brothers Erik…
…and Arvid Rask.
Their cousin Anna Möller.
And their only neighbour in the forest outside the small town Järna, Stockholm county; Mischa Grind.
(Fun fact: Mischa and Erik mixed blood as kids by cutting their hands and pressing them together and are therefore according to the viking tradition blood brothers.)
“We grew up together, and the Scandinavian traditional folk music was a natural part of our life passed on by our family members (our parents all being musicians). So music was always around and the spectra was wide.”
In his teens Arvid got an album from his father and the man on the cover had a great hairstyle that Arvid was not late to copy. It was “The freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” album.
Inspired by his political song-writing we started writing songs and left our countryside home to travel and perform as protest singers in the Swedish green movement.
“In 2010 we got invited to perform at a festival in Zanzibar, Tanzania. The island was out of electricity for the first weeks, which turned out to be the perfect conditions for song-writing and musical exploration. Sitting around the fire with nothing but the dark sky and our instruments to keep us company.
This journey really cemented the forming of our band, and we consider the winter of 2010 the real birth of Kolonien. When we returned back home we brought with us a whole pile of music, which became our first album.”
“In 2012 our debut album “Clockwise” was awarded “Newcomers of the year” at the Swedish Folk and World Music Awards with an encouraging motivation that in a beautiful way put words on our artistic ambition with the band”:
"Kolonien creates its own world on the folk music scene. A generous world of present and past times, of playfulness and seriousness. Kolonien (...) wants more with its music than just telling a story. This group has an opinion."
This award really propelled Kolonien onto the folk music scene and kicked off an ongoing tour schedule, only paused in 2017 and during the pandemic year of 2020.
“We love to travel with our music and try to do so as often as possible. In 2013 we released the EP Sammanhang and through a grant from the Swedish Arts Council we brought fourteen musicians from all over the world to Sweden to create a world music big band, and a festival in the center of Stockholm.
The outcome was greater than we could’ve ever imagined, and what was meant to be a one time project became a permanent band of its own; Världens Band, lasting several years and touring extensively across Europe.”
“2014 was a year of parliamentary election in Sweden. The political debate and development in society seemed increasingly polarized to us, more prone to petty finger pointing than cooperation. During this time we wrote our second album Drömmarnas Land (released 2015) which is a homage to the human ability of dreaming and re-imagining the world.
The album pays attention to the political power in the concept of dreaming, and urges us to dare dream the really big dreams.”
After nearly seven years of full time touring and various musical projects and collaborations, it was time for a full year off.
“We all had adventures and plans that were put on hold when the band took off, and in 2017 we decided to dedicate a whole year fulfilling those.”
Mischa travelled to Turkey, India, Japan, Cuba, Senegal, Spain and Brazil - seeking out and living together with percussion masters of their respective folk traditions.
Arvid built a house, and had a full year on paternity leave.
Anna spent the year finally having time to immerse herself in a great theatre project at Västanå Teater in Värmland, a very interesting region of Sweden bordering Norway.
And Erik spent the whole year bird watching in the entire Western Palearctic, seeing 734 different species of birds - thus becoming the “Big Year” world champion. Impressive ey?
“We met up again in 2018. Gently feeling out the new dynamic, what had changed? What was left and wanted to emerge as we once again sat down in our log cabin with our instruments. We had never been this long time apart before, since before we were born.
First nothing. Then hours and hours of conversations. And a lot of tea and coffee.
Then slowly song after song bubbled up.
We continued touring and, through a series of international showcases, made it across the pond and started to regularly tour the US and Canada in 2018 and 2019.
All the time also adding to the bulk of songs which was to become our third album, with sessions in cars, airports, dressing rooms and of course in our dear log cabin back home.”
“The crazy year of 2020; when the world turned upside down with a pandemic shocking our globe, we had our ten years anniversary. Although our planned jubilee world tour got put in lockdown, we feel very grateful. It is a privilege to see our music develop over time and to be able to dedicate ourselves to the many friendships formed. We hope to continue a couple more decades ahead together.
2021 will be the year where we celebrate our anniversary by releasing our third album!
The record will be a tribute to our home and the nature around it, which is voicing a wake up call. Loud and clear. Wounds in the soil, clear-cut forests and loss of species. It is no longer breaking news that we have to change, that a transition is needed. But how do we transform that intellectual knowledge into emotions anchored in our hearts? Do we really need our own house to be burning before we see the smoke rising?”
