With Sam Amidon

Photos taken by Thor Brødreskift at Bergen International Festival May 30th 2025. A new project with Sam Amidon, Helga Myhr and Frode Haltli’s Avant Folk with 10 of Norway’s finest creative musicians: Frode Haltli, accordion; Erlend Apneseth, Hardanger fiddle; Hans P. Kjorstad, fiddle; Rolf-Erik Nystrøm, saxophone; Hildegunn Øiseth, trumpet, goat horn; Ståle Storløkken organ, synthesizer; Juhani Silvola, guitars, Oddrun Lilja Jonsdottir guitar, voice;, Fredrik Luhr Dietrichson, double bass; Per Oddvar Johansen, drums.

With Norwegian medieval ballads and English/US relatives as starting points, the twelve musicians created a new program with original compositions, improvisations, music based on Norwegian and American traditional ballads, as well as new arrangements of some of Sam Amidon’s songs based on traditional ballads such as Pretty Polly, Golden Willow Tree and The Old Churchyard (Three Five).