Kalle Almlöf

Swedish fiddler, born 24 February 1947 in Malung. He known, among other things, for having put Västerdalarna on the Swedish folk music map in the 1970s. Before Almlöf retired, he worked for a long time as a teacher at Malung's Folkhögskola. In the 1970s, Almlöf released the album Västerdalton together with Anders Rosén. This record set the style for new players during the green wave. The two threw away many of the art music conventions that had greatly changed the norms of the folk violin playing with the public attention it had received during the 20th century; following the pattern of some older fiddlers, they held the violin to their chests instead of using shoulder supports, using so-called "quarter tones" and using drone tones to accompany themselves. Almlöf has later partly returned to a more art music influenced playing style, preferably with finely carved detail work.