A contemporary collage of Scottish and American traditional music, Hildaland is a duo that approaches geographic borders as markers of exploration rather than boundaries to be wary of. Fiddle player Louise Bichan, originally from Orkney, Scotland, and mandolinist Ethan Setiawan, originally from Goshen, Indiana, have taken their duo from traditional Scottish roots through to progressive bluegrass and jazz, with music inspired largely by places and the journeys between them, both physical and musical.  

Bichan and Setiawan met during their time at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. Setiawan has made a name for himself as a virtuosic mandolin player, winning the National Mandolin Championship, and performing with the likes of Darrell Scott and Julian Lage. Bichan says, “Ethan always has really interesting musical ideas, and takes things in directions I wouldn’t think to go. He writes brilliant tunes, which are often challenging and push me out of my comfort zone, which I appreciate.” Bichan is an award-winning fiddle player, who has appeared on the BBC and at the Edinburgh Castle and Cambridge Folk festival among many other places. “Louise has a beautiful sense of melody and harmony. She often comes up with ideas that seem perfect, and so totally not what I would have come up with. She plays with a lot of drive, and derives beautiful arcs of storytelling within a melody” explains Setiawan.

Bichan and Setiawan began making music together as part of a four-piece outfit, Corner House. Now the two instrumentalists have taken the opportunity to see what a stripped-down duo sound can manifest in the form of their project Hildaland. Their debut album “Sule Skerry” is a collection of traditional tunes reworked, some original tunes, and a few songs, which ”act as accents to an instrumental piece of work.”, explains Bichan. Setiawan and Bichan both penned original tunes that appear on the collection. Their new EP, “Fiddle Tunes”, finds the pair in pure instrumental form, exploring the many possibilities of context for the international language of fiddle music.

While Hildaland currently call New England home, they maintain a strong connection to the music scene in Glasgow. “We have been lucky to be able to travel back to Scotland fairly often in the past couple of years and plan to continue doing so.  We often find ourselves in the Glasgow pubs playing Scottish, Irish, Scandinavian, and even old-time with friends old and new,” says Bichan. Regardless of their physical or musical location, the duo has an unmistakable sound. In defining their goal within traditional music and refining the scope of their musical territory, Hildaland has honed in on a specific, innovative, and beautiful voice as a band.