Description
Pianist Ketil Bjornstad interprets poems by critically accliamed author Kjersti Annesdatter Skomsvold's collection "Litt trist matematikk" and performs them together with the vocalist Eva Bjerga Haugen.
Transforming poetry and other writings into music is an important part of musician, composer and writer Ketil Bjornstad's work. Most well-known among his works are the interpretations of Harry Martinsson, Knut Hamsun, John Donne and Edvard Munch.
Earlier this year he released the critically acclaimed album, "A Suite of Poems" with Anneli Drecker on ECM, where poems by Lars Saabye Christensen was the source of inspiration.
Kjersti Annesdatter Skomsvold debut was in 2009 with the novel "Jo fortere jeg gar, jo mindre er jeg". For this novel she was awarded Tarjei Vesaas' debutant price for 2009, and was short listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary award in 2013. She has released a collection of poems and multiple novels. The books have been translated to more than 20 languages, and are published in USA, Great Britain, Russia, China, Germany and France.
Eva Kristine Bjerga Haugen is a jazz vocalist, musician and song writer. She teaches jazz vocal and vocal ensemble at the Jazz program at the University of Stavanger. Her debut was as a classical pianist with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra (KORK) at the age of 15, but she gradually started focusing on French and jazz studies. She is a singer that effortlessly shifts between genres. She has contributed in a theatre production about Marlene Dietrich and Edith Piaf, collaborated with Espen Eriksen Trio, and is a part of the projects Amigo Tom, Cirrus and Song Circus.
Ketil Bjornstad has been one of Norway's most productive artists since his debut as a pianist at only 16 years old, balancing parallel careers as a writer, composer and musician. To date, he has published over 60 albums and more than 40 books, and he has a big audience, both reading and listening, home in Norway as well as in Europe. He has written rock operas and ballet music, and his music has been used in movies by Ken Loach and Jean- Luc Godard (among others).