From Sweden: all girl punk band “Kraa”Kraa Album 7:30 pm

The Nordic Arts Alliance made the connections that bring this special band of six young women to New York Mills from their homes in Sweden. This concert promises to be an amazing introduction to contemporary ScandiKraa Drumnavian culture, a musical treat not to be missed. Click the album cover image to visit Kraa’s Facebook page.

Tickets, call 218-385-3339.  Admission $12 advance sale, $15 night of concert.  Students free to this concert.  $2 discount for members and additional $1 discount if you donate a non-perishable food item.

Kraa, a punk rock band from Sweden, will perform in New York Mills at the Cultural Center on Friday, October 26th at 7:30pm.  The band is on tour in Minnesota from mid October to mid November.

The Kraa Band started nearly eight-years ago in a little northern city of Sweden called Härnösand. Since then the six-member group have driven through a landscape of progressive rock and folk music and on their way got inspired with disco, punk, and pop music. They gradually morphed into becoming entirely independent of any genre.

Kraa together creates an odd framework of music; Nordic pansar-violins in disco glitter or synths the color of dirty snowdrifts in Sunset Beach.  Kraa creates their own culture as they go. Kraa wants their music massive and energetic and their audience euphoric.

During the summer of 2010 Kraa began a collaboration with “Nordic Arts Alliance” in Minnesota, an organization that works to spread Nordic music in the United States. After two years of cooperation Kraa will make the same journey that so many Swedes did a century ago, the trip to Minnesota.

During a three-week tour gigs are scheduled on everything from roller derby matches, local pubs and mental hospitals. In the meeting of American culture and Scandinavian roots, we want to explore how environment and culture shape identity and music. We are also interested in preconceptions that we may meet about the Swedish identity, and also compare our own ideas about the country beyond the sea with the reality.

Getting the opportunity to experience and play our music abroad is an invaluable experience for an ensemble. Our partnership with Nordic Art Alliance has added a dimension in the renewing of cultural ties between music and people. Our goal is to create a meeting between contemporary Scandinavian musical culture and audiences in the United States.

Nordic Arts Alliance began in 2009 with its mission is to educate and connect people through tribal and contemporary Nordic Arts.  The group has brought four bands including the Krauka Viking Band and one performance artist to the US from Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, and Canada and has presented the Ordinary Vikings exhibit in the US which supports the work of Swedish American artist Jill Johnson from Minnesota.  The Alliance works to connect all audiences, especially the 18-34 year old audience to new forms of Nordic expression and to support US artists working in new cultural art forms.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through grants from the Lake Region Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage fund.

Sponsor: Trisha McCarthy, Pine Lake Township.

Kraa B&W