Knut Buen

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Knut Buen is a Norwegian fiddler, composer, folklorist and publisher, born in 1948 in Kongsberg. He is the son of the folk musician Anders Buen and Margit Tjønn and the brother of Hauk Buen, Agnes Buen Garnås and the artist Kari Buen. He thus grew up in a family in which Norwegian folk music was a matter of course. In 1983 and 1986 he won the national music competition Landskappleiken.

Music and breakthrough

Buen is known for his collection of traditional songs and melodies. With Hauk Buen he made the album Fykerud'n, with which he won a Spellemannprisen, the Norwegian music prize, in 1992. In 1994 a second prize followed for Bjølleslåtten, together with Kåre Nordstoga and Leif Rygg. He runs the publishing house Buen kulturverkstad and the record label Nyrenning, so that he collects, records and publishes the music himself. In 1999 he was appointed Knight First Class of the Order of St. Olav.

Influence

His own recordings include Stev og slått from 1996, Seljordsmarsjen from 2004 and Nordafjølls from 2012. The last of these contains folk songs and lydslåttar, dance melodies from the Norwegian region of Setesdal. Buen shows how alive that old music still is, and how a single fiddler can carry an entire tradition and pass it on to new listeners.

Listening

• 
  Gangar etter Myllarguten · Knut Buen, 1988
• 
  Nordafjølls, lydarslått frå Setesdal · Knut Buen, 2012

Discography

Studio albums

• 1996As Quick as Fire
• 1996Stev og slått
• 2004Seljordsmarsjen
• 2008Tonebod
• 2012Nordafjølls – folkeviser og lydslåttar
• 2023Kjenslevev
• ?Det spelar og syng - Familien Buen
• ?Edvard Grieg: Slåtter / Norwegian Peasant Dances, Op. 72

See also

• Norwegian Hardanger fiddle