Is there a more ambitiously inventive acoustic band in the Nordic musical sphere than Dreamers’ Circus? Formed following a live jam session in Copenhagen more than ten years ago, this talented trio’s sound is based on virtuosic and incendiary musical ability across a range of instruments that includes fiddle, accordion, piano and cittern.

Endlessly exploring new challenges, for themselves and for audiences, Dreamers’ Circus mine their solid backgrounds in traditional and roots music to present a genre-bending amalgam of folk sensitivity, jazz improvisation and classical complexity distilled through an openness to popular music influences. The outcome is a music that is resolutely contemporary and rhythmically and melodically engrossing.

Piano and accordion player, Nikolaj Busk, has a background in folk music but his performance and arranging skills have seen him in great demand in the pop music and jazz world also. Violinist, Rune Tonsgaard Sorensen, while reared in a folk-music loving family emerged as a prodigiously talented classical player and by his early twenties was leader of the Copenhagen Philharmonic orchestra. The Swedish born, Ale Carr, is also from a folk music family and his rhythmic cittern playing underpins the bands overall sound.

Since their inception they have established themselves as among one of Denmark’s leading musical ensembles as evidenced by their recent recognition from the Danish Arts Foundation as a “Special Ensemble.” A busy touring schedule in Europe, the USA and Japan has seen Dreamers’ Circus emerge as international musical ambassadors for Nordic and Danish music.

Photo credit: Caroline Bittencourt