VOKALIST, KOMPONIST OG PRODUSENT

Vårnytt

2014 begynte med en knippe eventjobber og 15. januar feiret Psykiatrien i Rogaland 100 år med festkonsert i Stavanger Forum. Vi var flere artister som ble invitert til å spille hver vår avdeling. Sverre Kvam hadde satt sammen et orkester med blåsere, korister og band, og jeg skrev en ny folkemusikk-komposisjon for anledningen. Tidligere på kvelden medvirket jeg i Randy Naylors kunstinstallasjon «Carnation – Incarnation». Det er alltid fascinerende å samarbeide med Randy. Ellers har årets fire første måneder bydt på konsert med verk for klaver og sang av Berlioz, Debussy og Faure. Deilig musikk. Jeg har hatt en kirkekonsert med verk av Telemann, og to solo impro-konserter med utgangspunkt i religiøse folketoner, vinglassorkester og diverse lydkilder.

Høydepunktet til nå i år har uten tvil vært Song Circus sin urframføring av Ruben Sverre Gjertsens verk «Landscapes with figures IIa» (arr. Ny Musikk) i mars og premiéren på «Til Norge» (arr. Sølvberget / MaiJazz / Eldrerådet) i samarbeid med Jan Erik Vold og Henning Rød Haugland i mai. «Landscapes with figures er et prosjekt» vi har arbeidet med siden 2010. Les gjerne mer under «prosjekter».

«Til Norge» er en kommentar til Grunnlovsjubiléet, formgitt av undertegnede etter bestilling fra Eldrerådet i Stavanger. Jan Erik er en poet jeg har vendt tilbake til mange ganger, og det har vært et privilegium å få dykke inn i forfatteskapet hans igjen. Det er ikke uproblematisk å sette musikk til tekster som står så sterkt i seg selv. Det var en glede å dele scene med en forfatter og kulturpersonlighet jeg har stor respekt for. MaiJazz-konserten på Sølvberget Kulturhus var fylt til randen av publikum.

Da jeg skulle legge ved bilder måtte det bli fra disse to konsertene:

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Spring News

2014 is the 200 year anniversary of the Norwegian Constitution, celebrated all over the country. My contribution is the performance «Til Norge» (To Norway). The project was comissioned by Eldrerådet (The Council for Elderly). I invited the Norwegian poet Jan Erik Vold into the project, together with the pianist and percussionist Henning Rød Haugland.

During 25 years Jan Erik Wold has written more political poems than probably any other Scandinavian poets. This year he celebrates his 75th birthday. With a sharp eye and an eloquent tongue he considers the nation and the Norwegian society. Vold is a poet I have returned to many times and it has been a privilege to dive into his authorship again. It is not unproblematic to compose music to lyrics that are so strong in itself. http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poet/item/21631/17166/jan-erik-vold)

The first premiére of «Til Norge» was at the 9th of May during the MaiJazz Festival www.maijazz.no . The concert was a great sucsess, the litterature house was completely crowded with audience, and the atmosphere was electric. The project is now awailable for booking!

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March 16th 2014: First premiére «Landscape with figures IIa»

On the 17th of March was the first premiére of «Landscapes with figures IIa» by the Norwegian composer Ruben Sverre Gjertsen. Song Circus and Gjertsen have collaborated since 2010.

The name and music of Ruben Sverre Gjertsen surfaced internationally in 2006 when his work ‘Circles’ was commissioned and performed by Pierre Boulez and the Lucerne Festival Academy. He is one of the most articulate compositional voices of his generation. His work is characterised by a virtuosity on the micro level that distorts expectations as to how instruments and ensembles should sound. The minute detail in his scores evoke a particularly vibrant musical material, where the richly textures appear almost as solid objects, tempting us to reach out and touch them. The music appeals to many aspects of our senses, not only to that of listening, as the sound revolves around rubbing, rasping, and scratching sounds. Sometimes these rough, grainy sounds are violent and intense, at other times they are fragile and tender or sparkling and transparent.

In this Norwegian interview Gjertsen speaks about “Landscape with figures” and his approach to composing music:

http://www.ballade.no/nmi.nsf/doc/art2012032009361766061341

Listen:

http://songcircus.no/?page_id=17

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And yet they sing

 

This is the world

More beautiful than we want to know

and more delicate

More fragile than we can abide

 

The music is composed by Liv Runesdatter and the poems are by Mansur Rajih (Jemen/NO).  The concert piece was commissioned by ICORN and performed at Kapittel, Stavanger International Festival of Literature and Freedom of Speech.

The poet Mansur Rajih (Jemen/NO) express himself with a rare poetic fervor. His poems holds a universal tone. In his deepest darkness, he writes about his longing for light. He writes about life’s fragility. The poems affect us all, and they appeal to us in different ways, depending on our experiences, the situation in which we hear them and our personal perception.

Runesdatter compositions are build on musical structures of classical traditional music from regions of the former Ottoman Empire and Norwegian ancient spiritual folk music. «And yet they sing» is performed by a powerful chamber ensemble of outstanding soloists:

Liv Runesdatter (vocals, NO), Mansur Rajih (resitation, Jemen /NO), Snorre Bjerck (percussion), Abdulrahman Surizehi (benju, Iran/Balouchistan/NO), Ilmari Hopkins (cello, FIN/NO), Rolf-Erik Nystroem / Tor Yttredal (saxophone, NO), Henning Rød Haugland (piano / percussion, NO), Magnus Rød Haugland and Ivan Savgoroniy (double bass)

And yet they sing will be released on cd in Desember 2018. Photo 1: Liv Runesdatter. Photo 2: Signe Christine Urdal

DSCF2026mansur rajih_urdal svart kvitt

Mansur Rajih has been described as the national poet of Jemen. A radical writer and political activist from the time he was a student, Rajih spent fifteen years as a prisoner of conscience, during which time his poems were smuggled out of prison. In 1998 he was released after a long international campaign involving the Norwegian government, Amnesty International and International PEN. He joined his wife in Stavanger, Norway, where he continues to live with his family, and has had several poetry collections published, including Horoscope: Prison (2000), So Far: So Close (2003), My Brother’s Pain (2008) and From there (2010). Rajih has been the subject of several short films, and in 2010 he was awarded the regional human rights prize for Northern Jæren, Norway.

 

 

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