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”Claes Ottelid is a guitarist and singer conversant in various genres of music, but his most evocative talent lies in his renderings of Swedish folk and fiddle tunes on guitar.

A unique blend of classical and flamenco style fingerings and effects is almost mesmerizing and sounds like no other.

With the release of Claes Ottelid’s 2006 solo CD ”Gitarrpolska”, Ottelid introduced the rhythmic dimension of flamenco style guitar with Swedish folk tunes once voiced for fiddle.

His use of the Spanish guitar while maintaining that haunting voice of the fiddle have now changed forever how the rest of us hear Swedish traditional folk music.

With the February 2012 release of ”Alonso’s Tune”, Claes expands and evolves on the definition of ’traditional music’ without losing his balance. In ”Alonso’s Tune”, Claes and fellow musician Stephan Jarl show us both the versatility and enduring strength of this music by once again introducing the unexpected. Jarl’s tasteful use of different percussion instruments gives Ottelid the room to expand both his new and old melodies through the influence of jazz, flamenco and world music. The CD also offers beautiful guest appearances by ”Gisen” Malmqvist, clarinet, Filip Runesson, violin, and Mats Edén, viola d’amore.

Claes in this project has beautifully demonstrated  how, as our ’world’ grows smaller through the influence of other unique cultures, our own musical cultures continue to expand.”

Fox Watson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fM6ch3r0AI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4m859lt_L4

https://soundcloud.com/ottelid