Hommage aux Frères Pigeon

Today I’m offering a collaboration between a folk big band and a choral quartet. The instrumentalists call themselves Spöket i Köket, which is Swedish for Ghost in the Kitchen. (Literally, the spook in the cookhouse.) If you think of a 50s dance band playing traditional folk tunes, you’ll get an idea of what they sound like. The singing ladies are known as Åkervinda, and they are also from Sweden.

The song they performed together is a single with the peculiar title of Light Is Dim / Hommage aux Frères Pigeon. I’m not even going to speculate on where that comes from or what it means.

The picture this 14-strong ensemble paints is a romantic one. The lights are low, the setting is intimate. The woman at the table is charmed by the mysterious gaze of her dinner date. She knows the danger, but she wants to be swept away on a tide of emotion. And the music rushes her along, never pausing for a moment, as if to make sure she doesn’t change her mind.

I assumed the characters in the lyrics are human, but my eyes may be dim. Perhaps the lady is feathered and her beau is looking at her with birdy, beady eyes.