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These two guys are great together, and the sound is superbly balanced between the two instruments… Dashing melodies that migrate between the instruments, then at other times trade off with a virtuosic counterpoint”
American Record Guide
extreme jumps between heartbreakingly beautiful melodies, wonderfully played, and awkward, rhythmical ostinato, deliciously performed. It´s alive, breathing, technically perfect. The Bard with Nisse Sparf is a wonderful thing, as well as Minimetti by Eberhard Eyser, in which Härenstam playes with clang and explores how far he can reach in all ways of expression, and how much time the music can grab, and how freely you can tell the story. Why not listen to VERY GOOD, creative music, like that on this CD, than to another one, containing ´Classical Favourites´?
Gitarr & Luta
Two eminent Swedish musicians working togheter... Having heard him on many occasions in a wide range of music, I knew his capacity but rarely have I heard him play with such glow…The rapport between Sparf and Härenstam is also that of two twin-souls’. This is now my preferred version of Histoire du Tango...For the sonata Sparf, who is the leader of the Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble, changes to baroque violin. This is an instrument he handles to perfection. He has a fuller, rounder tone than many period instrument players …full-blooded performance, characterised by speedy fast movements and tasteful embellishments... Sparf combines the fiery temperament of an Italian with his own Nordic coolness – an ideal partnership. Technically he is up to all the requirements with excellent double stops and creamy tone... The disc goes a long way to prove that really good musicians are not hampered by boundaries between, tonal and atonal, new and old, high and low. The only boundaries are between good and bad. This disc is good. It will have a honoured place in my collection.
Classical Cd Musicalweb International Göran Forsling
Effective, mix of folk, jazz, classical and other styles. Harenstam is a talented guitarist from Sweden who performs regularly as a classical musician. He plays clean, piercing notes on his acoustic guitar and easily moves from style to style… it is the crisp sounds that he nutures from the acoustic instrument. She (Moleta) has a low-key, moody style. Her closest musical kin is perhaps Margo Timmins of the Cowboy Junkies. Both have beautiful voices and slow, haunting deliveries. “What happened in Fremantle?” also includes several instrumental numbers, which have classical and Latin influences. Each song features a different ensemble of musicians. The song “Oblivion,” for example, has guitar, violin and accordion. Other songs have saxophone or drums. The disc officially closes with Harenstam and Moleta performing Bob Dylan’s “Buckets of Rain.” It’s a sparse, beautiful treatment. Moleta’s tender vocals are a perfect fit for the bittersweet lyrics. Although “Buckets of Rain” is the last song listed on the CD, there is a surprise that follows. This is an album full of surprises, mostly good ones.
Jazz Review
"Håkan Johansson ´Ingenting´ is a six-minute solo guitar work with some toecurlingly-sexy Danish recitation by the gorgeous Gunnel Fred. I haven't a clue what she was saying but I enjoyed it nevertheless! 'Suite for David´ is a very tonal, original too, and wonderful music, ... this set is very good indeed, the music is never less then interesting... brilliantly inventive... do buy it!"
Classical Guitar
"I never heard such a perfect pitched play on acoustic guitar in neither classical nor other musical environment... Here you find tango played with passion, force and humour, and a totally wonderfully beautiful ´Suite for David´, especially written to the artist... Everything becomes so real that you imagine both of them, Sparf and Härenstam, sitting in your listener's room. How many classical guitar players are capable, want to and dare offer their public a repertory filled with so many smiles?"
Värmlands Folkblad
"A man and his guitar. The skill is there. The technique is perfect. The fingers run totally untroubled along the neck of the guitar. Not a shadow of technical obstacles. A mastership, that is. Everything is right. (---) With what do I compare? Segovia. Williams. They are comparable notabilities when it comes to performance. This is the level of Härenstam´s: He knows it all!"
Norrtelje tidning
"This is a CD with very strong profile and atmosphere with six world premieres!"
Kammarmusik-Nytt
"More Swedish and a little Uppsala on one hand. The guitarist David Härenstam offers us not less than six world premiers on the album The Bard. (---) Equally skilful as beautifully played (---) Uplifting CD, with the exact right proportion tango as well!"
UNT
"This is a colourful debut breathing self-confidence and whets your appetite. (---) Härenstam plays with a sensitive colour gamut (---) a presence that rarely disappears."
Nya Wermlands tidningen
"The young David Härenstam breaks the solitude of the classical guitar player collaborating with combinations of musicians (---) Some of the most pleasant pieces of the CD are two by Franz Liszt, where accordion and guitar are united in a wondrous minimalistic arrangement. Tango, samba, waltz - fulfilled with ideas of the un-orthodox kind, not to say brave, is carrying the production together with the strong centre of the guitar playing of Härenstam - pregnant and varied!"
SvD
"Some CDs just gives you that euphoria to lend your ears to. He is a master in guitar playing. The Bard is a ´must have´ for all lovers of acoustic guitar music, ya´ bet ya´!!!"
Lira
"(---) extreme jumps between heartbreakingly beautiful melodies, wonderfully played, and awkward, rhythmical ostinato, deliciously performed. It's alive, breathing, technically perfect.
Gitarr & Luta
The audience was amazed by the duos improvisational skills. Music of the highest class there the joy of playing was put in the first room.
Dalslänningen
"This is a colorful debut breathing self-confidence and whets your appetite. (---) Härenstam plays with a sensitive color gamut (---) a presence that rarely disappears."
Nya Wermlands tidningen
"Amazing technique. The trust between the quintet and the soloist (Härenstam) was built from the ground and up. They are all professional musicians from the heart till the top of there fingers. There is never a single mistake."
VF
Instead of fitting neatly into one musical genre, the David Harenstam Band’s “What happened in Fremantle?” fits into none… effective, mix of folk, jazz, classical and other styles. Harenstam is a talented guitarist from Sweden who performs regularly as a classical musician. He plays clean, piercing notes on his acoustic guitar and easily moves from style to style… it is the crisp sounds that he nutures from the acoustic instrument. She (Moleta) has a low-key, moody style. Her closest musical kin is perhaps Margo Timmins of the Cowboy Junkies. Both have beautiful voices and slow, haunting deliveries. “What happened in Fremantle?” also includes several instrumental numbers, which have classical and Latin influences. Each song features a different ensemble of musicians. The song “Oblivion,” for example, has guitar, violin and accordion. Other songs have saxophone or drums. The disc officially closes with Harenstam and Moleta performing Bob Dylan’s “Buckets of Rain.” It’s a sparse, beautiful treatment. Moleta’s tender vocals are a perfect fit for the bittersweet lyrics. Although “Buckets of Rain” is the last song listed on the CD, there is a surprise that follows. This is an album full of surprises, mostly good ones.
Jazz review
"Cheeky mix of musical styles! Who cares about genres anymore? Not the guitarist David Härenstam, who with youthful cheek blends jazz, classical, folk, and world music. And gets it to swing enormesly."
Stockholm City
Without a shadow of a doubt, David Härenstam is one of the most intressting musicians in Sweden right now and had his repertoire been focused on one style instead of many he had allready been a big internationell star... David Härenstam second CD is starting up in my CD player and I fasten my seatbelts couse you never now what is going to happen when that man is playing! On this record you find a numer of varied songs that from David Härenstams startingpoint, the classiscal guitar, stretches over beatiful singer/songwriter songs with Sophie Moleta, some tango, freeform jazz and beyond.
Folkmusic Magazine LIRA
A great mixture of everything. Silhhouette is played so sensitive... Embreceable you is sunged very straight forward by Collins but underneth the band is boiling with improvisations and soon the music brakes free with impros lead by Jonny Wartel and Collins... Moleta and Härenstam performnce just so sensitive in there duos..
OrkesterJournalen, Nordic Jazz Magazine
"(---) ...so delightful. We are sitting there, in the shadow under the trees, listening to David playing the guitar, Sophie Moleta sings and the accordeon playing from Håkan Johansson makes us believe we are in Argentine. As a whole it is totally brilliantly played and sung... David´s acoustical guitar playing has a transparent shine, just listen how he makes his very own the very often played La Cumparsita, or the Silhouette by Lars Gullin, a breathtaking beauty with guitar, accordeon and bass, or the very fine, reffined version of Bob Dylan´s Bucket of rain... David Härenstam is a totally shining guitarist, totally regardless the ways of expression."
Värmlands Folkblad
“The guitarist David Härenstam is refreshingly unpredictable. He is classically trained, and a couple of years ago he released the chamber music CD "The bard" with among others the violinists Nils-Erik Sparf and Anders Inge, containing newly written music by for example Mauro Godoy, Eberhard Eyser, and Christer Karlberg. And now, he releases a jazz CD that contains more than just jazz. Piazzolla, Gullin, Mulligan, Gershwin, Dylan, Härenstam-the repertoire can appear paradoxical, but the groove is consistent. Here, the fresh wind of boundlessness blows in every way, with recordings from studios in Perth, Wellington, London, Stockholm, and the Western Swedish town of Kil. "Featuring Sophie Moleta & Tinnitus Therapy Trip," the subtitle of the CD, presents Härenstam's sextet: a jazz singer along with a both wild and sophisticated experimental music group. Some of the most lyrical and sensitive tracks are Piazzolla's "Oblivion" (guitar, violin, accordion),"La cumparsita" (guitar), and Dylan's "Buckets of rain" (Sophie Moleta, song/ whistling and Härenstam, guitar). "
Swedish Daily News (SvD)
Heavily steeped in folk of different kinds, I can identify Irish at least, but also with a bit of traditional vocal jazz and some classical instrumentation the David Harenstam Band cover a lot of ground. However, they do stay within a certain slow, vocal jazz-type, meditative pace but they always throw a little curve ball to keep things interesting... very well done. See if that sounds good to you.
It´s a trap!
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