Fjeld was a pop group from

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. The group reached spots between #43 and #60 on the

Swedish Singles Chart Sverigetopplistan (, lit. "the Sweden top list") is the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from IFPI Sverige. It was formerly known as Topplistan (1975–1997) and Hitlistan (1998–2007) and has been known by its current name s ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

with the song "The Emigrants". Their album ''Coming Home'' charted for four weeks, peaking at #29. The song spent four weeks on ''Billboard'''s

Dance Club Songs The Dance Club Songs (also known as National Disco Action, Hot Dance/Disco Club Play, and Hot Dance Club Play) was a chart published weekly between 1976 and 2020 by ''Billboard'' magazine. It used club disc jockeys set lists to determine the mos ...

chart, debuting on 7 November 1998 and making its last entry on 8 January 1998, and peaking on #40. The group played pop music blended with

Swedish folk music Swedish folk music is a genre of music based largely on folkloric collection work that began in the early 19th century in Sweden. The primary instrument of Swedish folk music is the fiddle. Another common instrument, unique to Swedish traditio ...

. The producer Pär Lönn first tried a blend with

techno music Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...

before settling on ethnical inspiration such as

Enya Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin (born 17 May 1961; anglicised as Enya Patricia Brennan) known mononymously as Enya, is an Irish singer and composer. With an estimated equivalent of over 80 million albums sold worldwide, Enya is the best-selli ...

. He recruited a singer he had previously heard in a

Jönköping Jönköping (, ) is a Urban areas in Sweden, city in southern Sweden with 112,766 inhabitants (2022). Jönköping is situated on the southern shore of Sweden's second largest lake, Vättern, in the province of Småland. The city is the seat o ...

studio,

Ellinor Franzén Ellinor Franzén Almlöv (born 11 April 1978) is a Swedish singer who has participated twice in Melodifestivalen first in 1996 with the song "Finns här för dig", and then in 2001 with the song "Om du stannar här". She has also been the leadsing ...

Reception

Their 1998 album ''Coming Home'' received several reviews that graded the album 2 out of 5. Critics noted Fjeld's use of " Ack Värmeland Du Sköna", comparing the band to

Nordman Nordman is a Sweden, Swedish duo founded in 1993, that mixes folk music with rock and pop. This genre is called etnorock or folk rock in Swedish. The group consists of Håkan Hemlin, as singer and frontman, and Mats Wester, who plays the nyckelh ...

as well as

. ''

Svenska Dagbladet (, "The Swedish Daily News"), abbreviated SvD, is a daily List of Swedish newspapers, newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. History and profile The first issue of appeared on 18 December 1884. During the beginning of the 1900s the pap ...

'' found the refinement of Sweden's musical heritage "penurious". Fjeld played too many "sluggish eurodance rhythms" and showed a "lack of imagination beyond permission". ''

Göteborgs-Posten (), abbreviated GP, is a major Swedish language, Swedish-language daily newspaper published in Gothenburg, Sweden. History and profile was first published in 1813, but ceased publication in 1822. It re-appeared in 1850. Publication seven day ...

'' gave credit to the music as being "neat and captivating", but asked if the listener would be disturbed by "exquisite cuteness and thefts from new and old". A couple of tracks were decent, wrote ''

Expressen (''The Express'') is one of two nationwide evening newspapers in Sweden. Describing itself as independent liberal, was founded in 1944; its symbol is a wasp and its slogans are "it stings" or " to your rescue". The newspaper awards the cultu ...

'', but otherwise, Fjeld was marked by "an annoying poise that turns several tracks into inflated Enya-inspired blue-yellow power ballads". ' named two tracks as their favourites, whereas the rest of the album was "some sort of tame

ambient pop Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes Musical tone, tone and atmosphere over traditional Musical form, musical structure or rhythm. Often "peaceful" sounding and lacking Musical composition, composition, beat, and/or structured melod ...

, completely without suspense".{{cite news, type=review, last=Stark, first=David, date=9 October 1998, work=Länstidningen Östersund, language=sv

Discography

Albums

*1998 – ''Coming Home''

Singles

*1998 – "The Emigrants" *1998 – "Mother of Devotion" *1999 – "So Far Away"

References

Footnotes

Swedish pop music groups