| |
Ketil Bjørnstad
Ketil Bjørnstad made his debut with the Oslo
Philharmonic in 1969, 16 years old, playing Bartok nr. 3.
Listening to Miles Davis' "In a silent way" made him want to
create his own music. Thanks to the very lively milieu around
the Oslo music spot "Club 7" in the seventies, he met with
poets, painters, jazz-musicians, and was encouraged to find his
own style. Onthe first recording in 1973, called Åpning, he
played with the drummer Jon Christensen for the first time. Jon
was extremely important for Ketil, playing on three more
albums, including the two The Sea albums for ECM. The meeting
with Manfred Eicher (ECM) was also of big importance. The
recording of Water Storiesin 1993 started the collaboration with
the guitar player Terje Rypdal and was the first step towards
The Sea, that also includes the American cello-player David
Darling.
Among Ketil Bjørnstad’s most important
musical influences are Bach, Ravel, Prokofiev, Stravinskij,
Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk and folk music. In his time he has
collaborated with some of Scandinavia’s most distinguished folk-
and rock-singers, like Ole Paus and Cornelis Vreeswijk. In the
classical milieu he has collaborated much with the mezzo-soprano
Randi Stene and the viola player Lars Anders Tomter. For his
efforts he has had the honour of receiving a Norwegian Grammy
award.
The duo-projects with David, called The River
and Epigraphs were searched inspiration from composers like
Orlando Gibbons and William Byrd. The Nest is very much
developing aspects from that collaboration, but now includes
the human voice and the viola. Working with the singer Anneli
Drecker both on Grace and The Nest was a privilege for Ketil.
For years he had admired her work in the "Bel Canto"-duo. She is
a very special talent, able to go on stage with pop sensation
A-Ha and at the same time collaborate with Ketil on these songs
with very complex texts.
As an author Ketil is drawn towards poets
like John Donne and Hart Crane. He finds much of today’s song
texts quite monotonous and very narrow in the view towards life.
The text is seen to be as important as the music, and there is a
search for a certain identity on every album, reflecting our
time and the questions we have to ask as human beings.
The sound-scapes of Eivind Aarset and Kjetil
Bjerkestrand have been extremely important, as has his
collaboration with the viola-player Nora Taksdal, the solo-viola
player in Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. Nora is also able to
improvise a special gift in the classical milieu. Ketil’s 2002
release on
November records Before The Light brought
these people together in a special techno-influenced soundtrack.
John Fordham in The Guardian wrote "...kind of chilled
north-Euro dance-grooves version of an Ennio Morricone score for
SergioLeone".
About his work as an author, it should be
mentioned that Ketil’s book The Story of Edvard Munch is
published by Arcadia in London. He has several books translated
into German
published by Insel/Suhrkamp in Frankfurt. They are "Edvard
Munch", "Ballade in g-moll", "Erlings Fall" and "Der Tanz des
Lebens". This Autumn Insel/Suhrkamp will publish the novel Villa
Europa. As an author he participated on the Hay-on-Way-festival
in Wales 2002, and received the Norwegian language-prize
Riksmålsprisen in 1998. Quite a few of his novels have sold over
50.000 copies. As an author he is influenced by Saul Bellow and
Thomas Bernhard.
As a performing artist Ketil has in the last
few years given concerts on the jazz-festivals in Frankfurt,
Neuwied, Ingolstadt, Hamburg, Stans, Vienna, Voss, Molde,
Modena, Ravenna, Nancy, Porto, Montreal and London, a.o. and
touring in Asia with Terje Rypdal and US with David Darling.
His latest album Seafarer’s Song (2004)
evokes the kind of hypnotic beauty that had critics reaching for
superlatives on albums such as Grace or The Sea. Recorded live
at the 2003 North Norway Festival in Harstad with group he
describes as “the finest musicians I know,” this sixteen piece
suite continues Bjornstad’s quest of investigating, as he puts
it, “The possibilities of melody at a time when melodic elements
are often reduced to fragments.”
Seafarer’s Song brings together the special
talents of singer Kristin Asbjørnsen, trumpet-player
Nils Petter Molvær, cellist Svante Henryson, guitarist Eivind
Aarset, bassist Bjørn Kjellemyr and drummer Per Lindvall.
With only a few days of rehearsal, their
remarkable performance and the intensity of their live
collaboration lingers in the memory long after theCD has been
returned to its sleeve.
Performed in Harstad, one of the most
beautiful settings on the Norwegian coast, it inspired
Bjornstad’s thoughts to turn to the dangerous splendor of the
local coastline and its history of shipwrecks. In many ways
Seafarer’s Song is an ode to the sea, yet it is something more.
“ I wanted to portray the happiness of finding a safe harbour,
and the tragedy of those who don’t,” says Bjornstad,.
Using the north and south as political
metaphors, “Dreaming of the North,” and “Dying to Get to Europe”
explore the emotional trauma of African refugees in search of a
better life in the industrialized north. It is an album of
floating, hypnotic moods, with Bjornstad’s piano mediating the
flow of the music that somehow captures the anxiety and drama of
the fleeing refugees on “I’ve Been Hungry All These Years” and
“Refugee’s at the Rich Man’s Gates.”
Asbjørnsen’s haunting diction illuminates
both libretto and melody as Bjornstad succeeds in translating
meaning from the eternal dichotomy of the human condition, the
gulf between the haves and the have nots. Climaxing with a
reflection on the Arab/Israeli conflict, “I Many Times Thought
Of Peace”, he creates an album of stark, desolate beauty.
There is something of the Renaissance Man
about Ketil Bjornstad who is recognised as a unique figure in
the arts in Norway. Trained as a concert pianist, he has
recorded over thirty albums since 1973, including five volumes
of solo piano and collaborations with both jazz and rock
musicians. Alongside his music career, he has been equally
prolific as a writer, with over 20 novels plus collections of
poetry and books of essays. In addition, he continues to write
for newspapers and periodicals as a critic of literature
and music.
Recorded by award winning engineer Jan-Erik
Kongshaug from the famous Rainbow Studios in Oslo, and
co-produced by live sound engineer Sven Persson, Seafarer’s Song
is an album that’s very much of its time, a musical odyssey that
depicts man’s eternal search for security in today’s traumatic
world. “Seafarer’s Song" is ultimately an ode to all people
struggling to find a harbour & a safe place to live,” says
Bjornstad.
Early Years
Emarcy 013 271-2
Grace
Emarcy 013 622-2
New Life
Emarcy 017 265-2
The Bach Variations
Emarcy 017 267-2
The Nest
Emarcy 067 153-2
Seafarer's Song
Emarcy 986 577-7
|