Collage

Collage was nominated at Danish Music Awards - Folk 2005 as Folk Artist of the Year - Traditional and Folk Vokalist of the Year

"More than a live album, this offers a real introduction to the new-look, four-piece version of the band. They're an energetic lot in concert, but they keep a good balance between instruments and Karen Mose's very pure voice, with Jesper Falch's intricate percussion the ground of their sound as accordion and clariet bounce off each other to push the tunes. All excellently arranged and lovingly performed, and it's easy to see why they're making waves internationally. " - Global Village, Jan 2005

Collage is a album with songs recorded in the summer and autumn of 2004. The recordings have been made in places so different as Copenhagen, Brussel, Bielefeld, Chicago, New York, Montreal and Toronto.

The repertoire on Collage is new and old material in the well-known Phønix style - with the intimate and intense atmosphere that a concert brings.

01. Fantegutten (The Dissembler)

(Text: Trad. Mel: Jesper Vinther Petersen)

The dissembler wanted to go courting too
folderol ree, folderol ra
So he borrowed a set of livery
folderol dee ra

He rode up to the great mansion
Where he saw a maiden combing her hair

When she saw a young man so fine
She offered him food and sweet wine

He had a glass, I think he had two
Then he asked the maiden for her troth

"I have fields and gardens fair
Twelve maidens to lay our table

I have a leaden castle
For you to do your sewing

I have a chest full of gold
Where you can go when sorrow takes hold"

They walked to her father's green meadow
There to lay as married people do

The dissembler turned his hat back to front
"This is all I own in the world

I have neither gardens nor fields
I never sat at an honest table

I have no leaden castle
And never wore a shirt brand new

And neither have I a chest full of gold
My clothes are full of lice and fleas"

The maiden stood and settled her thoughts
"Oh, how I wasted my maidenhood!"

^

02. Skoven Grøn (The Forest Green)

I went into the forest so green, there to meet a wonderful girl
Will you be my friend and come home with me?

I will answer in eight days, once I have asked my mother and father
If it is still your wish, then you shall be mine

Sing folderee, sing folderolol, sing folderee and folderolol

When the eight days had passed, the girl found another love
She sent me a farewell letter, she has broken her friend's trust

Goodbye father, goodbye mother, goodbye my sister and little brother
I'm leaving for a foreign land, never to come home again

^

03. Melgven II

04. De To Kongebørn (The Two Children Of The King)

(Text: Trad. Mel: Karen Mose)

They were two royal children of the king
two roses and lovely flowers
They were stolen away by robbers
from the coast of England they came

And this went on for fifteen years
The youngest started to yearn for his home

The youngest took the oldest by his hand
And they travelled home to England

"Oh Queen so lovely and so fine
Will you take us into your court?

For we can weave gold in tubes
For the Queen herself and all of her ladies"

The youngest wove gold in tubes
The oldest gave gold to the Queen and her ladies

"And to recompense you for weaving
I shall give one my brother, the other my son"

"It is forbidden by Christ the Lord
That brothers and sisters should marry"

That brought happiness all over the court
The Queen finding her two lost daughters.

^

05. Syv Brødre (The Seven Brothers)

It was a Saturday morning before the clock struck two
Before the lark broke out in song
The knight arose, cheerful and merry
And let his people dress him
In the summertime

He rode over fields, he rode through forests
He rode over the wild moors
There he met the seven brothers of the maiden
All of them hale and angry

"Goodmorning, good morning, fair knight
Where have you been for so long?
Oh, you have slept with our sister tonight
And we would repay you for that

Either you must hang or else take flight
And wander alone in the woods
Or you may fight all seven brothers
Only for our sister"

Immediately there was a bloody battle
Between the seven and the one
And the one slew all of the maiden's seven brothers
Ending their young lives

"Now I have overcome my sorrow and suffering
Now I have overcome my peril
I shall go to the maiden so sweet
From her I will hear my destiny"

The fair maiden said: " I can see of your pale face
And your heads red with blood
That you have slain all seven of my brothers
And ended their young lives

There are seven lilies in my father's garden
Next to them the red rose stands
Let the lilies wilt, so that I may have only the rose
For I do not mourn the dead"

^

06. Alle Mand (All the Men)

All the men wanted to go riding, my man wanted to go, too
All the men had new hats, my man had none
I took the skin of two cats and made for my man new hats
Cat-hats for my man

All the men wanted to go riding, my man wanted to go, too
All the men had new shirts, my man had none
I took the sheet of our bedding and made for my man new shirts
Sheet-shirts for my man

All the men wanted to go riding, my man wanted to go, too
All the men had new waists, my man had none
I took the skin of two horses and made for my man new waists
Horse-waists for my man

All the men wanted to go riding, my man wanted to go, too
All the men had new trous, my man had none
I took the skin of two oxen and made for my man new trous
Oxen-trous for my man

All the men wanted to go riding, my man wanted to go, too
All the men had new shoes, my man had none
I took the udder of a sow and made for my man new shoes
Sow-shoes for my man

^

07. Melgven I

08. Den Bagvendte Vise (The Reverse Song)

I bridled my boot, I saddled my sword
I tied my horse at my side
I travelled out to catmother's home
For the dangerous fights

I promise, I fell, and I dreamed this night
I thought this song was written backward

And the fox is red, and the squirrel shrewd
And they are two animals in the forest
There were two squirrels breaking in a bear
They wanted it for ploughing

I walked to the church house
Two masses there were priesting
A bell was alight, two candles were singing
And two red painted horses were ringing

^

09. Den Store Mand (The Great Man)

(Text: Trad. Mel: Trad./Karen Mose)

I walked out to Hallebygård
one, two, three, four and twenty
Meaning to go shear sheep,
Five, six, seven, eight, nine and twenty

There I met an old man
His beard was 18 yards long

I looked into his long beard
There was a goose with fourteen eggs

I looked to the tip of his nose
There was a smith, blowing his fire

I looked at this eyebrow
There was a girl sifting grain

I looked into his wide mouth
There was a tinker skinning a dog

I looked at the back of his neck
There was a ship sailing on the seas

I looked at the small of his back
There two girls were milling barley

And I looked at his wide behind
Where a cow was chewing the cud

I looked at this long heel
A farmer boy was having a drink

I looked at his big toe
All chewed up like a tobacco stick

I looked at his rear
There a devil was looking out

I kicked the devil in his face
Out came 15 loads of swearwords

^

10. Den Døde Hest (The Dead Horse)

11. Livsvandet (The Water of Life)

(Text: Trad. Mel: Karen Mose)

The count blows his golden horn
all through the night
Queen Ellen in her room heard it
True love is fording me

"Christ the Lord make it so my king were dead
You would wear the red golden crown"

"Hush my Queen, do not speak this way
The King is outside, listening"

"And let him hear what he will hear
For all I say to you is true"

The King of Danes calls a little boy
"Ask the Count to come to me"

And they slew the Count in pieces as little as fish
And left him on the desk of the Queen

She fainted and feared as she saw the blood
Down below she found the little fingers

She collected the fingers, she collected the bones
Then she went to the water of life

She washed the fingers, she washed the bones
"Stand up, dear Count, and become a man"

And the count was reborn, a handsome man
Standing on the floor with his sword in his hand

"Now my king lies as dead as you did
And now you will wear the red golden crown "

^

12. Rævens Arvegods (The Heritage Of The Fox)

The farmer had a single goose
tiri liri lee said the fox
Every night he would shut her up
for hee, for haw, for the sneaky backside
for the farmer's daughter, the little pretty child
luring the fox into the bush and inside

One early morning as the farmer came out
The lock was broken, and the goose eaten up

That the fox was the thief was clear
The farmer found Foxy under the lilies

"Please let me live a while longer
Give me time to divide my heritage

The priest is to have my legs
For he walks to the altar so often

And the girls are to have my tail
For they often play and dance with the boys"

The bushes moved, there was a rustle
And foxy got away through a bush.

^

13. Polskuet