In October 2016 ethnomusicologists from Sweden, Denmark and Finland met to discuss and reflect over the development of ethnomusicology in the Nordic countries during the last 30 years – the themes that have been elaborated and the results that have been won; the current themes, theories, trends and tendencies; and the near future, how and in which directions the field may continue to develop. 

The eleven papers here collected present a broad range of perspectives on the roots and development of ethnomusicology in the Nordic countries, music archives and historical sources, the role, position and identity of ethnomusicology and ethnomusicologist in Academia at large, and within the fields of musicology, ethnology and anthropology in particular. A conclusion of the colloquium is that even though there is no ethnomusicological department in Nordic universities, the field nevertheless has become quite firmly established as an academic field of its own in the Nordic countries. 

The nyckelharpa-player Eric Sahlström (1912–1986) is one of the most prominent folk musicians in Sweden. This article investigates how Sahlström got this position by examining the many gramophone records where he appears. In fact, from a relatively early age he played in the Swedish radio, which in turn led to an early debut as a record artist and thereafter to many gramophone recordings for a number of companies. The gramophone recordings are analysed as phono-graphic works, which means that they are regarded in their own right. The method contains three steps: listening to the recordings as technological constructions, investigating the circumstances under which the recordings were made, and, finally, considering the production ideals that governed the studio sessions, including the post-productions. The results show that Eric Sahlström was intro-duced as a prominent folk musician already in the recordings from the late 1950s. His music was presented with good sound quality, and he played traditional tunes as well as some of his own compositions. This concept was more or less repeated by several producers. In the 1970s, he was recorded several times at live sessions in his own neighbourhood. These gramophone records present Eric Sahlström as another kind of musician: an everyday performer in his local milieu.