“Kystnært” is an artistic collaboration between the award-winning Finnish/Danish/Swedish folk music group Floating Sofa Quartet (FSQ) and the Norwegian fiddle player Guro Kvifte Nesheim. In the project, traditional musicians from four Nordic countries meet together to delve deeply into their common musical traditions from their coastal regions.

The beginning of this project emerged during the Showcase festival Folkelarm in Oslo 2021 when the young Norwegian star violinist and Hardanger fiddle player Guro Kvifte Nesheim stepped in for violinist Clara Tesch in FSQ. Meeting the FSQ sparked Guro’s inspiration to explore the repertoire from the coastal areas of Agder in Southern Norway. This is a repertoire she has been familiar with throughout her upbringing.

Floating Sofa Quartet has worked with Nordic folk music across national borders for ten years. The vision has always been to bring together the cultural heritage of the Nordic countries and create music that both preserves a tradition but also renews it. The band received the prize ‘Folk Album of the Year’ at the Danish Music Award in 2019 for their album “Neighbourhood”.

Folk music has historically been clearly marked bytrade journeys between other countries and has many musical similarities with its neighboring countries. “Kystnært” originates in the regional folk music from the coastal region of Agder, a tradition with clear ties to its musical neighboring countries. With this music as a starting point, the group explores musical similarities with other Nordic coastal regions and creates a modern concert experience.

Come aboard and float along!