A Vardøger is traditionally seen as a protective spirit or companion that precedes a person, warning of their arrival or impending dangers. Today, it often refers to a premonition indicating someone is about to appear.
A group of songs within folk music consists of prayers for good weather for bountiful crops, or chants believed to have magical effects on nature. These are the types of texts that Jorun Marie Kvernberg has drawn upon for her new work for Song Circus. The piece also includes texts taken from the aquaculture industry’s own propaganda apparatus, as well as academic texts of various kinds.
The overarching idea behind the work is to mirror these texts in our time, where we, modern and enlightened individuals, have placed ourselves in a situation where we once again must ask Mother Earth for good weather.
Vardøger is a piece that gives us as an ensemble a large space for co-creative expression. The form and theme of the work have been developed in close collaboration between Jorun Marie and Song Circus, led by Liv Runesdatter.
Vardøger is a musical defense of nature and the protection of fish stocks in our seas. In developing the work, Jorun Marie focuses more on sound fragments than on written music. The music springs from fiddle playing, but also from Jorun Marie’s singing and vocal sound play. Vardøger also incorporates sounds from her father Kvernberg’s silversmithing. Lush, beautiful, and imaginative music!
Når fiskane flotnar
og røtene rotnar
og ingenting botnar
i graver me grev utan vit.
Kor skal
songane sveva og
draumane leva og
menneska streva i
luft utan von?
Svar, måne, svar!
Svar, måne, svar!
English translation:
When the fish float
and the roots rot
and nothing buds
in graves we dig without knowing.
Where shall
the songs soar and
the dreams live and
humans struggle in
air without hope?
Answer, moon, answer!
Answer, moon, answer!
Jorun Marie writes:
“The music should reflect the drama of this obvious truth that again demands our attention: that we are dependent on nature, and that weather and climate both give and take life – even in our modern time. In ancient times, they used magical rituals and songs to awaken the fields in spring. Where do we turn today when the poles are melting and temperatures are rising?
Both musically and thematically, I will try to reflect the span between the past and the present, folk music and contemporary music, the struggle for existence in pre-industrial society, and the fight for repair and redress of our own destruction in our time.”
Live excerpts:
REWIEWS:
Vikene, Ballade.no – Song Circus` concert at Only Connect 2025:
«Rooted in a recontextualization of the folk song tradition—both aesthetically and thematically—Kvernberg’s piece echoes ancient prayers for bountiful harvests, now placed “in our own time, where we as modern, enlightened people find ourselves in a position where we must ask Mother Earth for good weather,” as described in the program notes.
A quick word on Scene 1 at Tou before I go on: through the large window behind Song Circus and Nyland Johansen, we gaze out over the Gandsfjord and into the Ryfylke mountains—a truly national romantic backdrop, one might say.
The four vocalists of Song Circus sing their way steadily into the folk tradition, weaving together fragments of traditional music and crafts (both via tape and live from Nyland Johansen’s accordion), along with bits of language from aquaculture industry advertising. The result is a soundscape that feels both authentic (as in: it really is folk music, with typical phrasing and intervals) and modern (as in: this is happening now, with playful and exploratory use of voice and song).
These industry marketing clichés—touting the purity of production—simultaneously offer a subtle critique of the romanticized idea of purity and origin, so often used to elevate traditional Norwegian culture in a conservative light.
Furthermore, the contrast between industrial romanticism and nature-romantic vocal expression adds a layer of humor I deeply appreciate—present as well in several other performances at Only Connect Stavanger.
But perhaps the most vital quality of Kvernberg’s work and its performance is this: it is strikingly beautiful. And while the beast is never far off, it’s the human quality of the music that captivates me.»
Rewiew by 5against4.com, 2025
A more cohesive example of group dynamics came in the concert given by Song Circus, particularly Jorun Marie Kvernberg‘s Vardøger (a world première). The quartet of voices moved between reverie and a kind of ritual chorus, fuelled by folk elements to form a communal melodic action, enlivened – as if touched by some mix of divine inspiration and madness – by recurring eruptions of vocal tics.