Interview: Axum Folk Ensemble

Axum Folk Ensemble return with Crossing Borders, a new EP that sees the eight‑piece North East outfit step beyond their home turf to explore tunes from Norway, Scotland, America and Ireland. Known for their beautifully crafted arrangements and rooted in the tradition of the “Axum Reel,” the band bring their warm, collaborative energy to five pieces that travel across centuries and continents.

We caught up with the group to find out more…

Tell us a little about the Axum Folk Ensemble. How did you get together?
The band emerged from two places: the Folkworks classes at The Sage, Gateshead, now The Glasshouse, and Pheonix Folk, then based at Ouseburn Farm. We got to know each other by playing tunes together and coming up with new arrangements. But if you are learning tunes in a classroom environment, then you tend to play each one a few times then move on to new material. This frustrated us, so we put the band together to develop the arrangements further and share them with a wider audience.

How would you describe your sound?
A reviewer once said that we performed traditional tunes in beautiful arrangements. We wouldn’t argue with that.

The band is named after the Axum Reel — how does that dance-tradition spirit shape the way you arrange and perform tunes as an eight-piece?
The vast majority of traditional folk tunes – jigs and reels – were written for dancing. So, we try to respect that. Even tunes played slowly need to have a ‘groove’. As a band we try to emulate dancers in a troupe. We realise that we don’t all need to move all of the time. That way you get to hear each individual instrument and all the layers up to the whole ensemble.

Your new EP Crossing Borders pulls tunes from Norway, Scotland, America and beyond. What drew you to the idea of exploring music from outside the North East for this EP?
The way trad tunes survived before written music existed was by being learnt ‘by ear’ and then passed-on down the generations. Good tunes, especially, would ‘travel’. Roving musicians would bring new tunes to a town or village and if they were liked, local players would pick them up and add them to their own repertoire. That’s the way tunes became ‘popular’ before recorded music was a thing.

Each track on the EP has its own story. Which tune was the spark for the project, and why did it feel like the right place to start?
The opening piece on Crossing Borders is called “Da Lounge Bar”. It was written by Norwegian fiddle player Annlaug Børsheim on a visit to Shetland. She became stranded there by poor weather and composed this piece in the Shetland style in honour of a famous folk music pub in Lerwick – the one that now features regularly in the BBC TV Shetland drama. But she also gives the piece a jazz ‘swing’, so it draws on more than one genre. That made us want to examine the interplay between place and musical style.

How did you go about selecting songs to feature on the EP?
We wanted to represent the breadth and variety of what we play, but also to have some fun. So, pieces like Ashokan Farewell and Westmoreland are serious and beautiful, while The Gamekeeper’s Cottage is more experimental with lots of fresh musical ideas – it’s a bit like a 12” remix.

As an eight-piece, how do you balance clarity and space in your arrangements while still keeping that rich, layered sound?
In all forms of music, the ‘whole’ is greater than the sum of the parts. This principle applies even in the stripped-back sections. As soon as you have more than one instrument playing in a live situation – and we performed the whole EP live – they begin to influence each other and the texture and context of the sound changes. At different points on Crossing Borders, you can hear anywhere between one and all eight instruments at play. The strings remain silent while the wind section develops the theme. The rhythm section dips in and out. You can hear the unique voice of each instrument, but also the richness of the ensemble in full flight.

What’s next for Axum Folk Ensemble?
We are currently lining up more concerts in the north-east following our EP launch at St Geroge’s Venue, Hartlepool. Next, we play Ushaw Historic House on 12th April. We are looking to perform in other UK regions and countries too – so literally crossing borders.