VOKALIST, KOMPONIST OG PRODUSENT

Graatarslagjet at Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival


Song Circus is a Norwegian chamber ensemble of professional and improvising singers. The ensemble is specializing in the interpretation of contemporary music.

SONG CIRCUS PERFORMING GRAATARSLAGJET

SONG CIRCUS & FRØHOLM performing ABSENCE (2019) by composer THERESE BIRKELUND ULVO at ULTIMA Oslo Contemporary Music Festival. Interactive installation by TOVE KOMMEDAL. Commissioned by Song Circus. First Premiere 2019.

New lovely «Graatarslagjet» review!

Sebastian Wemmerløv has reviewed Graatarslagjet on scenekunst.no:

«On the one hand it was possible to perceive the work as descriptive and programmatic, with the sound of the inhospitable wind over the icy water, the screams of a human or animal and the coughing and listening sound of drowning people or ghostly spirits On the other hand, it could just as well be a disinterested nature we heard, completely detached from a descriptive or empowering human gaze. The sound of the hardening sound subtly weaved into the vocal sounds with gentle and gentle overtones and flake notes, responsive played by Britt Pernille Frøholm, elongated, cautious and searing tones were broken by sometimes subtle and sometimes violent vocal gestures.

It was also striking how the relationship between time and timelessness was almost blurred. Condensations and intensifications of textures and gestures, as if something would break out, gave a sense of linear, dramaturgical evolution in time. At the same time, it was also as if the work took place outside of time, where the bodily and extraterrestrial, presence and absence, event and non-event existed simultaneously in a long frozen moment. «

Birds!

This spring Song Circus did a tour with our project «Birds», a sensual and imaginative narrative performance for children inspired by the birdlife around us!

With: Song Circus, Odd Børge Sagland (percussion) and Marianne Stenerud (storyteller)

Song Circus/ Tarozzi/Walker – music by Criton at Only Connect Festival

Is it possible to mix spectral music with Pauline Oliveros and Salvatore Sciarrino? According to Bjørnar Hsbbestad and nyMusikk, we did so when we performed Pascale Criton’s music for the first time in Norway in May, together with violinist Silvia Tarozzi and cellist Deborah Walker.

According to 5 against 4 it was a nice experience!

«All five performers were involved in Soar II, receiving its world première, and to a large extent the music inhabited a related soundworld to the solo pieces. Close unisons abounded, notes jarring and buzzing in close proximity like same-charged magnetic poles repulsing each other. It was deeply mesmeric, exhibiting an incredible sense of simultaneous tension and rest; yet in almost every other respect the piece was similarly liminal, continuously caught between unison and dissonance, movement and stasis, noise and breath, and at the last, between sound and silence, voices and instruments alike interacting with air to create only the idea of sound, an idea made real in our imaginations. Absolutely stunning.»

Graatarslagjet – review by http://5against4.com!

What to say, except for feeling thankful? What a lovely review!

«One of the most beautiful works I heard took place at Kulturkirken Jakob in an afternoon concert given by the outstanding vocal quartet Song Circus (who had been so impressive at this year’s Only Connect festival).»
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«– the work, including hardanger fiddle performed by Britt Pernille Frøholm, was breathtakingly immediate, creating drama from the most microscopic of sounds and gestures. Soft, close singing was interspersed with articulated breaths and a plethora of tiny vocal tics and twitches, many of which seemed almost involuntary. Although its language was, from one perspective, a broken-up network of minutiae strung together into a loose-woven tapestry, there was at the same time a sense that everything we were hearing had actually begun life as a changeless, eternal drone, which was being modulated and disrupted by the quartet’s vocal actions. At one extreme, Ulvo practically destroyed the fabric of the music later on via an outbreak of stubbornly persistent coughs, while at the other extreme, she united the singers into small concentrations that vaguely resembled chant. Though it was in its own way just as wildly experimental as the rest of the music during the opening weekend at Ultima 2019, Absence had a focus, an intensity and above all an elegance that set it apart.»

Read the whole review here: http://5against4.com/2019/09/20/ultima-2019-part-2/?fbclid=IwAR3fu_K8STZJ3BnLP0JZnt51_QEnXRCFXJVrKfxiRsfgrT0dJSSqxDqF_m0#more-36758

World Premiere at Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival!

Last weekend was the world premiére of our new performance «Graataralagjet», a new vocal song cycle and a themed concert based around one of Norway’s grisliest folk tunes. We have commissioned new works from Norwegian composers Therese Birkelund Ulvo and Nils Henrik Asheim, and together with us, as a guest musician, was the wonderful fiddle player Britt Pernille Frøholm.

Kulturkirken Jakob was the perfect stage, and Tove Kommedals visual installation became the immersive and expressive artwork we wished for. Nils Henrik Asheims and Therese Birkelund Ulvo have both composed music we will bring with us and perform a lot. The last piece in the Graataralagjet trilogy, Stones by Tyler Futrell, will be premiered in November, another beautiful piece of music! Thank you Thorbjørn Tønder Hansen and the Ultima festival team. You were professional to the fingertips!

Yet another new and lovely review!

5 of 5 stars in http://www.chaindlk.com:

«What you will actually hear here subtly takes sound beyond the confines and preconceived notions of what you’ve ever experienced before.»
«The best way of describing «Landscape» is an aural dreamworld that sometimes mixes natural ambient with snippets of other-worldly elements, and also whispers. Vocally, the composition ranges from onomatpoetic utterings to seductive, siren-like glissandoes.»
…..
«I readily admit that most of my interest in avant-garde modern music stemmed from an earlier time when I was ever so curious about music that did not conform to convention and transcended traditional form. ‘Anatomy of Sound’ however has rekindled a spark for this kind of thing, being some of the best «new music» I’ve heard in a long, long while.»

Songbook of Breast – under development

Live art theatre.

The project is centring around western society’s unarticulated relationship with the women’s breast, through research about the female breast in literature, art, politics, history, popular culture and through transcriptions of interviews with women who have had cosmetic and medical based breast surgery.

Song Circus (ensemble) / Laura Bowler (komponist) / Lavinia Murray (dramatiker) / Kate Lane (designer / scenograf) / Valentina Ceschi (regissør)

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Song Circus, Laura Bowler and Kate Lane in residence

Song Circus are developing a fascinating new project, together with Laura Bowler, Lavinia Murray and Kate Land (UK) and cultural studies researcher Birgitta Haga Gripsrud (NO).

Together we are looking at the (un)articulated breast; through literature, history, art, religion, politics, psychology, popular culture, feminism, and social antropology.

The project will have shape as a music installation / music theatre and will be premièred in autumn 2018.

Billedreferanser Bryst

We just discovered this live recording from our concert at Classical:NEXT this year. Enjoy!

And here our short film Anatomy of Sound:

The video is available in different formats and can be customized for screening. The music is originally recorded and produced in Auro 3D.

Contact for screening: Song Circus / Liv Runesdatter – liv@songcircus.no

Concept & idea: Liv Runesdatter and Maja Friis
Film director: Maja Friis
All sound performed by Song Circus (www.songcircus.no)
Music composed by: Ruben Sverre Gjertsen
Sound production: 2L / Lindberg Lyd (Morten Lindberg and Jørn Simenstad)
Producer: Liv Runesdatter
Cinematographer: Anders Nydam
Visual consultant: Lys og Trolddom / Rasmus Møbius

SONG CIRCUS
Artistic director: Liv Runesdatter
Vocalists: Stine Janvin Motland, Anita Kaasbøll, Liv Runesdatter, Eva Bjerga Haugen and Maria Norseth Garli
Conductor: Jonas Rogne Skartveit
Logo design: Werksemd / Nina Elisabeth Børke

LOVELY REVIEW IN NUTIDA MUSIC

SONG CIRCUS IN NUTIDA MUSIK

Nutida Musik has written a very nice article and a great review about Song Circus and our album “Anatomy of Sound” (2L).

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FIVE STAR REVIEW IN THE SCOTSMAN!

“the three ensembles closed with a blisteringly visceral account of the budgeoning dissonances of Louis Andriessen’s notorious De Staat. It proved a fittingly powerful, provocative and confident, internationally focused conclusion to sound’s thrillingly ambitious weekend.”

http://www.scotsman.com/…/music-review-sound-festival-aberd…

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FREEDOM O(R) SPEECH

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I Solisti del Vento, Red Note Ensemble, Song Circus
Actor: Jan Decleir and Simon Callow
Conductor: Etienne Siebens
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Angela Merkel is a Wagner enthusiast, Barack Obama listens to Bob Dylan and Vladimir Putin enjoys Russian folk music. Still sounds are seldomly a point of concern for politicians. But if choirs can topple a government and symphonies can discourage an army, then music is more than purely pleasure. In ancient China the first emperor of a new dynasty determined which pitch was in harmony with the cosmos. And in his ‘Republic’ Plato regarded only Phrygian and Doric scales to be politically correct: all others threatened the ideal civilisation.

Dutch composer Louis Andriessen took Plato’s text as the initial concept for a cantata which forms a fist against rigid forms of government with energetic rhythms and recalcitrant chords. Andriessen’s ‘De Staat’ (The Republic) is both a accusation against the soulless and suffocating totalitarianism which Plato defends and a reflection on his musical convictions. Andriessen seems to say with his explosive minimalism: everything a composer puts to paper is filled with political, social or religious meaning.

Thereof Mauricio Kagel was also convinced. Everything this Argentinian German composed is a politically tinged mockery of musical history. In ‘Der Tribune’ (The Tribune) – an audio play for political orator, marching sounds and speakerphone – Kagel twists Andriessen’s rhythmical tightness to a virtuously absurdist monologue, soaked with comical rage and disdainful indignation. Demagogy, misleading the people and egotripping are merged with marching band music with oom-pah-pah coppers and tickling woods.

We place both these analyses of the political system – one razor sharp, the other viciously joyful – right next to each other. A new text by writer Dimitri Verhulst to Kagel’s music hurrays the dawn of a new political age with malicious merriment: ‘The future beckons, the sky is clearing and even the roses are turning blue. Tomorrow, tomorrow is mine and yours.’

A production of I Solisti del Vento in collaboration with Red Note Ensemble, Song Circus and Sound Festival with concerts Scotland, Belgium and The Netherlands

With the kind support of: Aberdeen City Council’s Made in Aberdeen programme, Creative Scotland National Lottery Funding, Music Norway and Arts Council Norway
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YET ANOTHER LOVELY REVIEW OF OUR ALBUM!

This time in German Magazine Bad Alchemy:

http://www.2l.no/anm/2L-117-124_Bad-Alchemy.pdf

GREAT REVIEW IN VITAL WEEKLY!

“An extraordinary work. What impressed me immediately is the immensely detailed and microtonal spectrum. A world full of nuances and small gestures that make up one giant musical construction in twelve movements. One can dwell endlessly in this strange world. Complex, and above all utterly beautiful.”

http://www.vitalweekly.net/1059.html

Programme release SOAC!

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I am curating Sound of a Cage. The triennale is build up around the legacy of John Cage and his fellows, and it combines presentations of art, music, design, performance, workshops, lectures and topical discussions. This third edition of set focus on sound poetry. Sound of a Cage take place at Tou Scene on 6.- 8. of October. Welcome to Stavanger!

Explore the program and our websites!

Great review in Nieuwe Noten (NL)

«A simply unique performance by Song Circus on this album, “Anatomy of Sound”. Years of preparation is presented to us this incredible piece, and in such an exemplary manner. This piece requires an incredible amount of these five vocalists. There is alternately sung and spoken, but the human voice is also used by all other means, literally as an instrument. From whisper soft to icy raw and between all possible nuances, an unreal diverse spectrum of tone colours. A whole fairytale; poetic, terrifying and ghostly time. As a musical poem in which each note will be extremely detailed in the spotlight. Gjertsen’s music sounds remarkably transparent, and his musical language very detailed and full of nuances. This is music that begs to be listened extremely concentrated. Only then his world reveals itself fully…»

Listen to the music: http://phonofile.link/anatomy-of-sound
Hybrid SACD and Pure Audio Blu-ray: https://shop.klicktrack.com/2l/1001457

Read the whole review in Dutch:

The program of Sound of a Cage will be released on the 15th of August

Jaap
I am the curator of Sound of a Cage, a triennial is build up around the legacy of John Cage and his fellows. SOAC combines art, music, design, performance, workshops, lectures and topical discussions. This third edition of Sound of a Cage set focus on sound poetry.

Sound poetry is an artistic form bridging literary and musical composition, in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded instead of more conventional semantic and syntactic values; “verse without words”.
– Wikipedia

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CLASSICAL:NEXT ROTTERDAM

Song Circus had an amazing and busy week during Rotterdam in May, attending seminars and meetings, establishing new collaborations, booking concerts and performing a successful showcase concert in deDoelen! Thank you for inviting us Classical:NEXT!

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VIDEO RELEASE!

I am so proud to present our new video «Anatomy of Sound»!

Concept & idea: Maja Friis and Liv Runesdatter
Film director: Maja Friis
All sound performed by Song Circus (songcircus.no)
Music composed by: Ruben Sverre Gjertsen
Sound production: 2L / Lindberg Lyd (Morten Morten Lindberg and Jørn Simenstad)
Producer: Liv Runesdatter
Cinematographer: Anders Nydam
Visual consultant: Lys og Trolddom / Rasmus Møbius

The video is awailable in different formats and can be customized for screening. The music is originally recorded and produced in Auro 3D.

Contact for screening: Song Circus / Liv Runesdatter – liv@songcircus.no

UPSWEEP-WHISTLE-BLOOP AT NORDISCHER KLANG

Upsweep-Whistle-Bloop at Nordischer Klang, Greifswald. Concept, visuals and music by Jasmijn Visser and Stine Janvin Motland. Performed and created with Song Circus (Liv Runesdatter, Signe Irene Stangborli Time, Anita Kaasbøll, Eva Bjerga Haugen, Stine Javel), Costumes by Altinstark(Esra Altin, Samy Celler) photos by Eva-Fiore Kovacovsky
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«AND YET THEY SING» AT NABLUS CULTURE FESTIVAL

Unforgettable, beautiful and outrageous at the same time. Touching and thought-provoking meetings, especially among people in Askar Refugee Camp. Adults and children living in anything but security and hope for the future, and who struggle for dignity and freedom every single day. I am deeply grateful that I got to experience this, thankful for the people I´ve met and can I can not wait to go back.

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A very good documentary about Palestina and factors that makes a sustainable development of the Palestinian state extremely difficult. In English. https://tv.nrk.no/program/KOID28002115/gazas-upaalitelige-hjelpere

Thank you Nablus Culture Festival / Hakim – Project Hope, Nablusforeningen and The Municipality of Stavanger.

French review «Anatomy of Sound» OPUS HD

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Le groupe vocal Song Circus composé de six artistes, Stine Janvin Motland, Maria Norseth Garli, Liv Runesdatter, Anita Kaasbell, Eva Bjerga Haugen et Ronnaug Bakke, est spécialisé dans la musique contemporaine et l’improvisation. Il propose ici deux œuvres, « Landscape With Figures » de Ruben Sverre Gjertsen, sur des textes de Damian Vitanza et James Joyce, puis « Persefone » de Ole-Henrik Moe JR. Ruben Sverre Gjersten a étudié la composition à l’Académie Grieg de Bergen auprès de Morten Eide Pedersen et James Clapperton avant de suivre les Masters classes de notamment Brian Ferneyhough, Klaus Huber, Salvatore Sciarrino, Philippe Hurel. Ole-Henrik Moe JR fit ses études de violon et de composition en Norvège, en France et en Allemagne. Sa rencontre avec Iannis Xenakis, à la Sorbonne à Paris fut, pour lui, déterminante. Comme au temps de la chanteuse et muse de Luciano Berio, Cathy Berberian dans les années soixante, c’est une technique vocale nouvelle que l’on aborde ici, faisant la part belle à la virtuosité. Dans une mise en espace particulière, la musique se déploie avec rigueur et force, laissant l’auditeur à la fois spectateur et acteur d’un univers aux repères déplacés qu’il faut reconsidérer à l’aune d’un partage émotionnel totalement nouveau lui aussi. Avis aux amateurs.
Jean-Jacques Millo

http://www.opushd.net/article?article=2293

Song Circus is selected for Classical:NEXT!

We are very proud to share with you all that Song Circus is selected as one of six curated showcases at Classical:NEXT in May 2016!

«Norwegian ensemble Song Circus is comprised of five vocalists, and the music they make is thrilling, demanding, and light-years removed from traditional choral music. ‘Anatomy of Sound’ showcases the work of two composers, Ruben Sverre Gjertsen and Ole-Henrik Moe. Their pieces are jangled and nervous. Thick vocal textures are interwoven with washes of digital sound. A singer’s whisper morphs into a full-throated roar, then yields to near-subliminal mouth percussion. Just as unique, Song Circus’ stage setup surrounds the audience, positioning them within the ensemble so they can act as co-conspirators in the performance.»

http://www.classicalnext.com/program/showcases/live_showcases

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