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Annbjørg Lien (geboren 15 oktober 1971 in Ålesund en getogen in Mauseidvåg) is een Noorse muzikant. Ze speelt de hardingfele (Hardanger viool), viool en nyckelharpa . 
Ze kwam voor het eerst nationale bekendheid in 1986. Kort daarna kreeg een platencontract met de Heilo label en bracht haar eerste album op dat label in 1988. Ze heeft talloze onderscheidingen ontvangen, zowel in Noorwegen en de Scandinavische landen, waaronder Gammleng Prize in de klassieke volksmuziek in 2004 en Hilmar Prize in 2006. 
In haar werk maakt Lien veelal een combinatie van traditionele Noorse muziek met jazz -en rockmuziek . Ze heeft reisde naar Afrika , Azië , Australië , Argentinië , Bhutan , Groenland , IJsland , Sri Lanka , Noord-Amerika , en andere delen van Europa , en werkte samen met muzikanten uit vele landen. In 2006 speelde ze op Loreena McKennitt's album An Ancient Muse nyckelharpa en speelde Hardanger viool op Mairead Ní Mhaonaigh 's album Imeall in 2008. 

Deze cd bevat opnamen van haar tour door Noorwegen in 2001.




Behind every traditional hardanger fiddle tune there is always a story, always a fairy tale, and you actually tell the stories when you play the fiddle.  — Annbjørg Lien

 Annbjørg Lien finds, in folk music, everything from fairy tales to science fiction. Indeed, the title of her previous album, Baba Yaga is drawn from a fairytale. Aliens Alive is a selection of live performances culled from Annbjørg Lien’s 2001 Norwegian tour.
For those who don’t know, Lien is Norwegian, from Sunnmore; cites Emerson, Lake, and Palmer as a primary influence; and is fluent in the idioms of jazz, folk, new-age, and progressive rock. She’s been a hardanger fiddle player from six years of age, playing concerts abroad since her teens (Italy at 14), and released four albums in the eighties before finding international fame in the nineties. She also plays nyckelharpa and violin, and has an orchestral background with folk and classical training.

Note: A hardanger fiddle (hardingfele) is smaller than a violin, has a flatter fingerboard so that playing multiple strings throughout a piece is the norm, and has sympathetic steel strings beneath the top strings that resonate when certain top notes are struck, yielding a kind of reverberation when tuned, as it usually is, to notes prominent in a particular piece. It’s an exclusively Norwegian instrument, usually quite baroque in ornamentation — like the mediaeval viole. The fractally ‘harmonics’ are also most pronounced at close range.

Annbjørg is a consummate collaborator, working on projects ranging from being an official Olympic Musician to an appearance on an album by The Chieftains. She seems to have even taken the stage with Deep Purple on their Concerto Tour 2000. One of the most interesting projects in which I’ve encountered her is The Man from God Knows Where. Do listen, as the audio is magnificent.



Tracklist:

1  The Rose 5:11
2  Loki 5:36
3  Origins 14:35
4  The Water Lily 5:13
5  Morning Mood 0:31
6  Knepphalling 4:12
7  Larry Goes Log-Driving 5:30
8  Luseblus 5:02
9  Astra 5:12
10  Inoque 4:40
11  Aliens Alive 9:58
12  Fykerud's Farewell To America 4:41





Annbjørg Lien – hardanger fiddle & nyckelharpa
Roger Tallroth – guitar
Rolf Kristensen – guitar & electric guitar
Bjørn Ole Rasch – Jew's-harp, keyboards & sampling
Hans Fredrik Jacobsen – flute, Jew's-harp & vocals
Rune Arnesen – drums & percussion
Per Hillestad – drums & percussion