New works 2025

In addition to composing for my own ensembles (this year including parts of the new concert for Avant Folk with Sam Amidon at the Bergen International Festival in May), I also occasionally compose chamber music for other instrumentations.

September 2025 sees the world premiere of my new piece ‘FENGHUANG’ for brass quintet, vibraphone and accordion. The Fenghuang is a bird from Chinese mythology. The first free reed instrument, the sheng, was said to be constructed to imitate this bird. While the sheng is depicted in images dating back to 1100 BCE, the first accordion, also a free-reed instrument, was invented only in 1822. But I have no ambitions to create imitations of the imaginary bird Fenghuang in this piece. I have tried to look at the brass quintet as a counter part to the accordion: Two big musical organisms breathing together and against each other. The vibraphone is for the most part played bowed – working as glue between the two other instrument groups.

The piece is 10-12 minutes long, and will be a part of a program I will do with NyNorsk Brass Quintet (NyNorsk Messingkvintett) and percussionist Geir Strande Syrrist, together with other new works by composers Jonas Skaarud, Anders Hannevold and Hans Blok. Concerts will be at in Bergen, Gjøvik and Oslo autumn 2025, with further concerts coming up in 2026.

In october 2025 another piece of mine, the duo ‘Fruits of Labour’ for recorder and nyckelharpa will premiere. The piece was composed 2022-2023, and consists of 8 parts, all together 40 minutes of music. The premiere of the full version of this piece will be at the wonderful Osa Festival at Voss, Norway in October. Ingeborg Christophersen will play four different recorders, and Ingvild Habbestad will play both the ‘normal’ and a tenor version of the Swedish national instrument nyckelharpa. The title ‘Fruits of Labour’ refers to my idea of composing as an extension of my work as a musician; I’m working on similar musical ideas as a performer, arranger and composer. Making music is a life-long practice, and when work flows, ideas and new music occur. ‘Fruits of Labour’ is published by Edition Polaris.