2022 is fading out, and what a year!
2022 came with a lot of concerts and new projects, inspiring meetings and collaborations, and finally some of my covid-postponed projects finally came to life.
I wrote some new music for Njål Sparbo, CRAS Ensemble and Stemmeklang. My two pieces Morgon and Kveld was finally performed, in the very special Hardanger Skyspace in Øystese, after two and a half year of failed attempts. My piece Sound/In Light had a comeback as well, after a long covid-break, and in the middle of lock downs I even manged to do a live streaming of Vår - The Story of Hervor together with Mimesis Heidi Dahlsveen.
I started a new collaboration and duo together with Zoe Efstathiou, played a solo concert in Copenhagen, and was lucky to perform together with Pieces of Juno here in Oslo. I also did som extra concerts together with Stemmeklang this year, as part of our celebration of our Grammy nomination. It was such a blast to do the silent film concert Metropolis again, and to premiere the brand new silent film concert "Lyden av Méliès".
This year I also dived into film making, creating 5 art films together with Signe Fuglesteg Luksengard, and this project had it's premiere at the cutest art gallery in Trondheim.
I feel so lucky that I can work with so many interesting and inspiring projects, together with so many skilled and wonderful people, and to be given trust and new opportunities in my career.
A FEW THINGS TO COME:
SOUND / IN LIGHT: new concerts AUGUST 24, SEPTEMBER 22 and 29.
SJU VERS is performed at INN:PUST festival SEPTEMBER 2.
MORGON / KVELD: finally premiere of these two pieces happening SEPTEMBER 10 and 11.
STEMMEKLANG: our annual concerts happens OCTOBER 22 and 23.
MÉLIÈS: silent film concert with three film by Georges Méliès OCTOBER 27.
SOON VACATION... but first a sum up...
GRAMMY-CONCERT with Stemmeklang. To celebrate our nomination for GRAMMY awards we did some concerts, and stayed up watching the show. We are so proud that our album was nominated in the category "Best Immersive Audio Album", and are grateful for being a part of this huge and prestigious show - even if the price didn't go our way.
METROPOLIS silent film concert in march at Teknisk Museum in Oslo. What a bliss to do this wonderful, exhausting and beautiful concert again!
SOUND / IN LIGHT finally happened again with two concerts in James Turrell's Ganzfeld: double vision. So fun to do this again, look forward to more concerts in the autumn.
TEACHING at the Volda University College in the extraordinary course "Intuitiv improvisasjon/komposisjon og musikkfilosofi".
PLANNING several new projects and cooperations! More new music to come, records, concerts, singing, composing, travelling. Excited for what's waiting on the other side of the summer....!
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.
