|
|
|
It is a true honour to play with Sverre Jensen, a remarkable man who builds medieval instruments for whole ensembles, creates the most beautiful arrangements of medieval music and performs all sorts of instruments himself. I have learned so much from him. Norwegian national newspaper Aftenposten published a nice article on his work in connection with our Aurora Borealis concert, premiering our programme with songs by Wizlaw von Rügen (1265-1325). 
0 Comments
 My new solo album, Strimur, has been released on ta:lik records. Strimur is solo album of traditional hardanger fiddle tunes from Telemark in four different harmonies. The tunes are a mix of tunes I learned from Einar Løndal (1914-2006) and tunes I have found on old tape recordings or in Hardingfeleverket, a seven-volume work with transcriptions of thousands of hardanger fiddle tunes.
It's a joy to finally share this album with those who are interested in listening to it! You may order the album here: www.platekompaniet.no Or download the album here: https://shop.klicktrack.com/musikkonline/506781 "Tune playing. A tangle of filigree from which one can never unwrap oneself, nor indeed would wish to. Playing never came easily to me – from when I first began as an eleven year old, I remember battling with the fiddle. I wanted my playing to sound like that of my fiddle teacher, Einar Løndal, but, in my hands, more unpleasant rather than pleasant sounds came out. Yet, with time, music emerged." On March 23rd Tokso performed our new concert performance "Som best jeg minnes" with percussionist Bijan Chemirani. The concert is a series of pieces composed to the Norse creation myth Voluspá, with text extracts and photos on screen. Here are a couple of videos from the concert! Tokso: Kelly Thoma - Cretan Lyra Anne Hytta - Hardanger Fiddle Eléonore Billy - Nyckelharpa Sigrun Eng - Cello with Bijan Chemirani - Daf Light and Screen design: Evelina Dembacke and Tilo Hahn Produced by Transnational Arts Production, Norway Concert video: Magnus Bugge Music by Anne Hytta Photos: Arvid Sveen www.toksoquartet.com A few days before christmas celebration, I had the pleasure of going to India to perform a solo concert at the Tansen festival in Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh. A huge honour, and a memory for life. Here are some photos from the journey! I have just finished recording my new solo album of traditional hardanger fiddle tunes from Telemark at Rainbow studio in Oslo with the great hardanger fiddle player Tore Bolstad as producer. I use four different fiddles with distinctive different timbre qualities, each fiddle tuned in different tunings / modes (scordatura), and I am really impatient to share the album with you all!
The album release is due to be released spring 2017 on label ta:lik records. American website Pastemagazine.com has listed me and my Draumsyn album as on of 7 artists worth listening to among Nordic Noir Artists: "Norwegian fiddler Anne Hytte [a slight mistyping] is one of the best young hardangfele players, and her work has dived much deeper into the tradition than most. She’s brought up the old tunings of the hardangfele which used to have names based on colors like “light blue,” “grey lightening,” “half grey,” etc, and ties to certain times of the day that were best for playing. With her new work Draumsyn, she touches on the minimalism of medieval monophony or modern classical chamber music, drawing the drones and timbres of the hardangfele into new territories." Pastemagazine.com is, according to themselves, a leading online arts and lifestyle brand, covering music, movies, TV, games, comedy, books, design, tech, food, drink, travel, style, comics and soccer. It's a great honour to be mentioned with such nice and positive words, and among such fine other Nordic artists. I am very proud.  I have had the pleasure of spending two days in legendary Rainbow Studios in Oslo, recording my upcoming solo album of traditional tunes from Telemark, to be released on record label ta:lik spring 2017. Sound engineers Jan Erik Kongshaug and Per Espen Ursfjord created great sound for the tunes, and super producer Tore Bolstad did the most perfect job with his notes and good sense of studio humour! I am really looking forward to sharing this music that I have been working on for so long.   I am proud and happy to be part of the trio Kaldestad with singer and composer Gyrid Nordal Kaldestad and guitarist Are Lothe Kolbeinsen. Our debut album "Stille, stille" (Quiet) is released in November 2016 on label Atterklang, and we are performing release concerts in Trondheim, Oslo, Moss and Stord 5th to 10th of November.   Slagr won the Norwegian Grammy at the Grammy awards (Spellemannprisen) on Saturday 30th of January; we are thrilled!! We won the prize of the open category for our album "short stories". The other nominees were Morten Qvenild for the album "Personal piano", Geir Sundstøl for the album "Furulund", Erland Dahlen for the album "Blossom bells" and Jaga Jazzist for "Starfire". Check them out! Five years ago I started working on composing a musical response to the short story "On an old farmstead in Europe" by Hans Herbjørnsrud. Today, I think the music has its own life regardless of the short story, but Herbjørnsrud's unique literary universe has been essential for the atmosphere of the music. We would like to thank author Hans Herbjørnsrud for his timeless short stories, Therese Asker for helping us out for so many years, Jonas Niederstadt for excellent sound work, Hoff church for a wonderful recording room and atmosphere, Our label Ozella, Norsk kulturråd (Culture council Norway) for financial support. Thank you to Lars Henrik Johansen, Andreas Mjøs and Nils Økland for their contributions to our music, which means so much for us. And thank you to the jury for listening to short stories and picking it out among such incredible artists. Photos: Kjell Bitustøyl  |
