Concerts
Alasdair Roberts + Fredrik Rasten
Friday, January 29, 2027 · 7:30 PMHandle Bar Cafe · Oxford
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- The duo of Scottish folk musician Alasdair Roberts and Norwegian experimental musician Fredrik Rasten is touring in the Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales in early 2027, in support of their forthcoming album release on Drag City Records.Fredrik and Alasdair's first encounter was in the septet Alasdair Roberts & Völvur, which released the LP The Old Fabled River on Drag City in 2021. After discovering a strong musical affinity, they decided to create some new music together in a more distilled duo form.Their duo live show and forthcoming album focus on traditional Scottish narrative ballads, typically of long duration, where slowly evolving musical materials build up throughout the strophic verse-structure to emphasise the storytelling. They choose their material with care, favouring time-transcending narrative themes that both bear witness to the day and age of their origin and are relevant to our times, be that politically, culturally or ethically. Alasdair and Fredrik both sing, taking turns to lead and harmonise, and both play a variety of acoustic and electronic instruments. Roberts’s clear and unadorned vocal delivery blends seamlessly with Rasten’s sensibilities of just intonation tuning and timbral qualities of sound.Over the past few years Alasdair and Fredrik have enjoyed concerts in Glasgow, Berlin, Oslo, Prague, Motvind Festival (Norway), Fanø Free Folk Festival (Denmark), ne:ar Festival (Slovakia) and Frequency Festival (Chicago, USA). Their duo album is scheduled for release in January 2027, coinciding with the start of their tour.