PREMIERE: What is it to be Norwegian? What is Norwegian music in 2020? A new super-band created by Norwegian composer Gisle Martens Meyer consisting of Ugress, Krakow, 9 grader nord, Nasra Ali Omar and Annlaug Børsheim redefines national romantic classicism by creating and performing a brand new live score to THE Norwegian cultural classic: Brudeferden i Hardanger.
The work is comissioned by Cinemateket USF and the premiere is a collaboration with Cinemateket USF, Bergen International Film Festivaland Vill Vill Vest music festival, on Sunday September 29th.
The film from 1926 by director Rasmus Breistein was a huge hit and launched a cultural round of romantic national classicism in Norway. Made on location in the epic Hardangerfjord region, the film follows the life of Marit Skjølte, a rural woman and her struggles to navigate love, class, poverty and emigration, in a country and region going through fast changes.
Almost a 100 years later, we are again in a time of fast change and questions regarding nationality, culture and belonging. We are in period defined by migration, globalization and digital culture. As individuals and as artists we exist more as complex beings in a global, mediated reality, than geographical ethnicities.
What is it to be Norwegian in this context? What is “Norwegian music” in our times?
The work explores this by creating a constellation of Norwegian bands and artists from typical and popular west-Norwegian genres like metal, rock, urban, pop, electronica, and folk, and creating a musical framework that both supports the film and its story, and also allows each band and musician to express their individual sound and art.
Premiere is at Røkeriet USF, Bergen on Sunday September 29th. The music is performed live to the film with musicians playing in subtle lighting under the screen. This is the fourth live-music-to-silent-film project by Norwegian artist and composer Gisle Martens Meyer. Previous works are The Passion Of Joan D Arc, Aelita – Queen of Marsand Häxan – Witchcraft Through The Ages.
