Time to finish what we started in Oslo last month..
OPENING CONCERT – with the great “Nordic Sound Folk Orchestra”
Aarhus – Copenhagen – Oslo – Førde
Rehearsal time
Stage is being prepped…
Just about there.. general rehearsal
BOOOM…. action time:
(pictures by Karl-Johan Ankarblom o.a.)
—
… and the press said:
”
The air in the hall reverberated, like when an aircraft taxis along the runway to take off. The force became gradually stronger. With many generations of primordial force and strength it took off. With folk music’s magical power of love, the festival launched and flew off into the world. We were all caught up in the turbulence and elevated to another dimension.
The festival has come of age
It has grown steadily the whole time. Everyone who has followed the festival has seen it: A management who has worked hard and with a mission throughout these years, with a force of accomplishment only those who possess a grand vision can have.
They have defied all critics. There have been mumbles of purism and preaching to the choir on several occasions, but the management has never been tempted to promote commercially-based musical solutions for short-term financial gain. They have known that the force inherent in folk music itself is strong enough, and at one point everyone else would recognize that too. It is this that has gradually happened, and which detonatedthis year.
In addition, they have always been creative in every way, both with regard to new premises, concert arenas, information work, festival topics and in the selection of artists.
At the opening concert many of the top Nordic folk musicians were gathered on one and the same stage. Through symphonic force and strength, folk music was elevated to an entirely new level. One may think that now the folk musicians have employed symphonic effects and instrumentation to achieve greater importance and gravity. But that’s not what happened.
This wasn’t constructed art music, but a pure folk music primordial force arranged and presented in such a professional and forceful way that everyone in the hall was impacted by this force and intuitively recognized that folk music is the mother of all music genres.”
Over and… well not quite out yet. I got two more gigs left, with the worlds best band “Helene Blum & Harald Haugaard Band”
GIG I:
PR GIG:
GIG II:
We even had time to see our good colleagues in “Väsen” – the true godfathers of nordic contemporary folk :)
And out – Thank you Førde!
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