NEW YEAR AND NEW POSSIBILITIES!
COVID seems to fade out, and my calendar starts to fill up with projects that actually seem to happen! 2022 has so far been good, and it looks like it's going to be even better.
The second workshop together with CRAS Ensemble was held in January, digitally though. I finalized my piece for them, and hopefully it will be premiered sometimes during the year. "Circle O Line" is my first, but hopefully not last, guitar sixtet. What a wonderful ensemble with skilled and dedicated musicians!
February came with two weeks of concerts with silent films together with Kjetil Schjander Luhr in Bergen. All restrictions was removed, and Norway was suddenly "back to normal" again. I probably did as much these two weeks as I did the last two years. Going to the theatre and to concerts, swimming, eating/drinking, go to spa/massage, playing billiards and drink cocktails, visit museums and exhibitions, and just stroll about in the town of Bergen. And playing concerts, off course. Busy weeks!
In February we also had a new performance of VÅR-the story of Hervor in collaboration with Adverse Camber and Carn to Cove. It was so much fun to do this project again, even with a digital audience from around the world.
- 2021 -
Despite of the corona pandemic with all its restrictions and lock downs, I manage to do some concerts and projects. Mentally it was still hard to keep my motivation going, and to stay positive and go all in. My website was not updated at all in 2021, so here is a short summary of what happened:
SILENT FILMS:
The highlight of the year was playing together with Matti Bye (SE), Lau Nau (FI) and Leo Svensson Sander (SE) at the legendary film festival Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna (IT) in July, and even at the main stage at Piazza Maggiore. It felt like a miracle to be there in the middle of a pandemic, and it gave me so much energy, gratitude and motivation for to keep going no matter what. I felt like being part of a film myself, playing at this high prestige festival and stage - being part of the amazing Matti Bye Ensemble. What an experience!
Most of my silent film concerts together with Kjetil Schjander Luhr back in Oslo where cancelled in the spring. In the autumn everything was a little bit more promising, so we were able to do most of the concerts. It was so fun to play more regularly, and really cozy with only 60 persons in the audience.
The silent film serie "Lyden av Méliès" was finally released as part of the digital programme of the Cinemateque in Oslo. Together with Kjetil Schjander Luhr, as always, making music, sounds and sound effects to three marvelous films by the legendary film maker Georges Méliès, along with minidocus that also reveals how we worked through the prosess of creating new music and sounds to these adventurous and imaginative silent films.
VÅR - the story of Hervor:
Developing this storytelling performance together with Mimesis Heidi Dahlsveen, with me composing the music and sound scapes, and performing live in the performance with vocal, electronics, objects and instruments. First we did a live stream as part of Fortellerfestivalen in March, and then we developed a site-spesific digital performance in collaboration with Adverse Camber (UK) that was performed as part of Beyond the Border storytelling festival i July.
STEMMEKLANG:
In 2021 our concerts with Stemmeklang was cancelled, so it was really nice to do this again! It was a relief that we made it before the third lockdown hit, we felt so lucky to share this wonderful space and music with an audience again. This year we premiered a new piece, "Vindefugl".
It was also a huge surprise that our album "Tomba sonora" was GRAMMY-nominated as "Best Immersive Audio Album". Due to the pandemic the nomination was postponed from 2020. We really look forward to the ceremony in 2022, and plan to do some concerts in the same period, to celebrate.
OTHER STUFF:
My piece "Eg er ein frosk" was performed several times as part of nyMusikk Innlandet's concert series, and the piece is now NyNorsk Messingkvintett's most performed piece!
Finally it was possible to start the project and collaboration with the danish guitar sixtet CRAS Ensemble, and the 4-day workshop together with the five other nordic composers were held in Copenhagen (DK). Such a nice project, and a lot to learn from each other. Exciting to finally be back on commisions again!
Another piece of mine, that also has quite many performances, "And Nobody Gets Everything Right", was performed as part of Oslo Quartet Series. Zora Quartet did their best to make people get their coffee swalloed the wrong way, screaming the best they could.
NEW PIECE FOR STEMMEKLANG AND FOLEY TO THE PEOPLE!
Two calm, but productive, months have gone. I took a break from COVID-19 and spent some weeks at my family's cabin, spending the time writing new music for Stemmeklang. Inspired by the nature and the birds this piece will represent something new in this project, a live-field-recording in vocal version. I also managed to do some concerts with live foley and music for silent films together with Kjetil Shjander Luhr, before everything closed down again, Now looking forward to concerts with Stemmeklang in late November - fingers crossed!
STILL CANCELLATIONS
This month I was to perform two of my site-specific projects in two of James Turrell's light works: Sound/In Light for the Ganzfeld Double Vision in Ekebergparken (Oslo) and Morgon/Kveld for the Hardanger Skyspace (Øystese). Both projects have been canceled due to COVID-19, and with that 7 concerts, including a premiere, will not happen. Nothing to do about that but still sad and frustrating. I cling to the few projects and events that actually will happen this autumn, and hope for better times. In the mean time you can IMAGINE vocal music in the amazing spaces of James Turrell.
