t has been more than fifteen years since a chance meeting at a jam session at a small folk festival in Copenhagen brought Nikolaj Busk (piano and accordion), Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen (violin), and Ale Carr (cittern) together. Since then, they have developed into leading international ambassadors for Nordic roots-based music. The band regularly tours and performs for audiences across Europe, North America, and Japan.

The enforced downtime during the COVID pandemic encouraged the band to compose a collection of tunes, which they compiled into book form and published under the title Handed On. As the band states: “We went back to go forward.” They returned to their roots, drawing inspiration from the traditional Nordic music that has guided and driven them since the beginning. A total of 58 tunes were published in both book and digital formats (see www.handedon.com).

Taking some of the best tunes from this collection, Dreamers’ Circus immersed themselves in Farvemøllen Studios in Copenhagen with producer Kristian Leth, seeking to capture live the spirit and energy that originally inspired them to play traditional music. Handed On reflects and celebrates the importance of oral transmission, community, shared heritage, and the vibrant, living contemporary tradition of Nordic music.

Listen, and you will hear the love and spirit in every note of this music.