Commissioning work: Area 51 – Morten Qvenild
The innovative pianist, composer and band leader Morten Qvenild is engaged in writing new music for a brand new band that unites some of the greatest jazz musicians Kongsberg city has fostered; Hanne Hukkelberg on vocals and the two guitarists Ivar Grydeland and Tom Hasslan. As the icing on the cake, he has also engaged one of our leading writers; Frodo Grytten.
The Jazz Festival and Energimølla are together the clients for the commissioned work with a common idea of honoring the unique music environment in Kongsberg.
Area 51
Area 51 is the name of a secret area in Nevada where the US military tests aircraft and weapons systems. It is also the control center for advanced drones. Here, the legendary U2 aircraft was tested and important parts of the technology behind the lunar journeys were developed. The music will take place in this landscape, a place where desert country and techno live side by side. The Ordering Authority will reflect the division between the natural and the man-made, the dynamic and the controlled.
We see today how human-directed control leads to climate crisis and conflicts. We see how the activity at a top-secret site in the Nevada desert affects the lives of millions of people around the globe. How do we face a time that is divided between tradition and technology? What are we talking about when we talk about this new world? And what do we never talk about? What lies behind the facade and the official phrases, both in the bunkers in Area 51 and the houses in the small town.
Energimølla as a place represents the meeting between new and old, between nature and technology. Through a long history as a mill in the 1800th century, as premises for power production beyond the 1900th century and now as a cultural centre, the building has united natural forces, people and technology.
- This meeting inspires me as a composer, and plays directly back on the instrument I have constructed myself, a piano where acoustics and technology are two united dimensions. It is this instrument that constitutes the compositional tool in the project, and around which the music will revolve, says Morten Qvenild.
All the musicians have their origins in Kongsberg, except for Frode Grytten, who will be able to shed light on the theme from his Odda perspective, a town which in terms of history and extent is comparable to Kongsberg.
What audience will be served in this commissioned work can hardly be predicted in advance, but it is reasonable to guess that the music will be both lyrical, beautiful, rhythmic and expressive!
Morten Qvenild (composition, vocals, keys), Hanne Hukkelberg (vocals), Ivar Grydeland (steel guitar, acoustic guitar and banjo), Tom Hasslan (electric guitar), Frode Grytten (text and reading), Stig Gunnar Ringen (sound design)
The concert is supported by the Norwegian Composers' Association and forms part of their 100th anniversary.
