The map of northern Europe reveals a lot about Denmark and its population. The low-lying country of 5.5 million people is located in a strategic position between the Baltic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, and no town or village is more than 70 kilometres from the ocean.

“Two hundred years ago, it was quite easy to reach Denmark from Scotland, or France, or Poland,” says Harald Haugaard, fiddle player in the folk duo Haugaard and Høirup, reached at his home on the island of Fyn. “So Danish music was very influenced by traditions from abroad—in the 18th century, they were above all French, then came this huge British influence, and later a Central European influence from German, Czech, and Polish music. The strong thing about our own traditions is they’ve been able to open up and receive all of this without losing their own identity.”

Though he started out playing classical violin at the age of seven, Haugaard’s main focus quickly shifted to Danish folk. His grandfather was a popular—and dedicated—accordionist and his mother was a dance teacher. “There was no way out,” says the 32-year-old Haugaard, laughing. “I had to play for her classes and dance evenings. But what I loved was to go to the dance halls with my grandfather and play for the ceilidh [dance] band on summer evenings, sitting next to him and picking up his music. You also learn a lot of things about life when you’re playing and watching people dance.”

Haugaard was a prodigy, one of the most natural-sounding, bright, and adventurous folk fiddlers anywhere. Still in his teens, he worked with Sorten Muld, a legendary Danish band that took the old songs and gave them radically new settings, equal parts techno-rock and folk with an electronic shimmer.

Ten years ago, Haugaard got together with one of Denmark’s leading acoustic guitarists, Morten Alfred Høirup. The duo has released seven albums and done some 850 gigs, mostly outside their homeland as de facto ambassadors for Danish folk. Haugaard and Høirup’s stock in trade is razor-sharp musicianship and an uncanny sense of the subtleties and dynamics of a tune, whether traditional or of their own making. In concert, the pair’s mutual respect, intuitive collaboration, and playfulness are compelling.

“We have some special ways of arranging the music,” Haugaard says. “One trick is to take a dance tune—a polka or march, say—and slow it down in a way you never would for a dance. Too much folk music uses only one dynamic. It’s fantastic to play very loud one moment and the next second be quiet, and change the tempo—something you find a lot in classical music. That’s always been a part of what Morten and I do. And we improvise a great deal, stretching out tunes and doing different ornamentations. The tempos will vary from show to show too. It’s great to be loose and open to those influences.”

Haugaard and Høirup play St. James Hall next Thursday (May 22).