Sweden s proffered a strange conglomerate of people and products to the outside world: Abba, Volvo and Mats Wilander. The world stage has been only thinly peopled by Swedes, but Martin and Jenny Schaub of West Of Eden have designs to change all of that.
Their sound is a full, sweeping parabola of Enya-like proportions, with Jenny s vocals providing the centrepiece for what is essentially a pastoral sound that conjures up images of Timotei ads.
The two recently paid a flying visit to Dublin for a gig in HQ to celebrate the launch of Celtic Woman 2, a compilation album, on which they appear alongside the likes of Maire Brennan, Capercailllie, and Altan.
Both Martin and Jenny nonchalantly recount their first encounters with Irish traditional music, a sound which seduced them utterly.
It was in 1992, Martin explains, when we visited Ireland for the first time that we really fell in love with the music. We could hear it everywhere, in the pubs and in concerts. It struck us as a very alive and vivid music culture, with very beautiful songs.
West Of Eden s involvement in the Celtic Woman album was as much of a surprise to them as it might be to an audience unfamiliar with this Swedish sextet.
It was the record label here in Ireland, Tandem Records, which signed up our own CD, Martin explains. Then, I m not sure how they did it, but they put us on their Celtic Woman 2 CD. When we saw the list of people on it, we knew we were in very good company!
A surprising side effect of meeting Martin and Jenny Schaub is to hear their impressions of Abba s music and how it related to Swedish folk music. Much as we d like to think that Dancing Queen and Waterloo were simply the product of the Eurovision age, they insist that Benny s and Bjorn s writing was heavily influenced by their cultural past.
Abba used Swedish folk melodies to write great pop songs, Martin avers. and I think there s a kinship between the Swedish and Irish so it wasn t difficult for us to write with an Irish or Celtic sound. It came naturally to us.
With their own eponymous debut due for release in Ireland later in the year, and their appearance on Celtic Woman 2 helping to chisel out an identity, West of Eden are bracing themselves for a full frontal assault on Irish audiences early next year. Meanwhile they hope to let the music do the talking.
We re very excited by this opportunity to appear on the Celtic Woman 2 album here, Martin offers, and who knows? Hopefully when we come back with the full band, we ll meet people who know our music even a little bit of it! n