Prize winner Anja Lauvdal ready with new commissioned work

"If we could talk" is one of three works, which the festival's prize winner Anja Lauvdal will perform at the Kongsberg Jazz Festival 2022. The work is both activist and spiritual, and is about the river Numedalslågen that flows through Kongsberg. The project has been given the appropriate name "Cosmic River".

The work springs from a desire to explore local nature, and the idea that the better you know the nature around you, the more you will want to take care of it. "If we could talk" is a fictional conversation with the river, and is about going in to listen to those who don't speak the loudest, both non-humans and humans. The work seeks to explore and challenge how we choose to listen/not listen in a world full of noise. In a short interview with Anja Lauvdal, we asked how the idea for this work came about: 

- Over a long period of time, I have had a collaboration with climate journalist Ingerid Salvesen. She is keen to listen to those who do not speak the loudest, but still have something to say. We made a podcast together that was, in short, about the relationship between music and nature, and wanted to continue this collaboration by creating a sound walk, which asked some other questions. The purpose was to create a dialogue about what things are noticed in such a setting, whether there are other things than usual. I believe that local nature, what we walk around on a daily basis, is something that perhaps unconsciously arouses a number of emotional reactions in us, and perhaps it is this nature that we miss the most, when it is gone. I once heard a story, which the philosopher Arne Johan Vetlesen told. It was about going on a trip with his son. When the son was small, he said hello to the trees, rocks, and other things on their way. A few years later, when the son was older, Arne asked why he no longer greeted the trees and rocks. The son thought he was completely stupid, because you couldn't go around doing that! In other words, what is socially accepted changes over time, perhaps causing us to move further away from nature as we grow up. I feel that there may be a kind of eco-mourning, if you can put it that way, in that our relationship with nature becomes more distant over the years. We want to challenge this with "If we could talk". says Anja. 

This piece asks: If the river could talk, what would it say? What experiences has it had, how does it see itself, those who live in it and around it? What role do the stories we tell, and the influence of culture, play in how people see themselves in relation to nature? What relationship do we have with the natural resources around us, what do we want to take care of and in what way can we as humans contribute positively to the diversity in nature? During the interview, we got into Anja's own relationship with nature: 

Cast: 

Idea and concept: Anja Lauvdal and journalist Ingerid Salvesen 

Visual portrait: Line Ørnes Søndergaard

Cosmic River 

Anja Lauvdal – composer / piano and synths

Elsa Bergman – double bass

Veslemøy Narvesen – drums

Henriette Eilertsen – flutes

Johanna Scheie Orellana – flutes

Heida Karine Johannesdottir – tuba

Amund Storløkken Åse – vibraphone/percussion

Lighting: Ingrid Skanke Høsøien

Sound: David Solheim

Concert start 19:00

The doors open at 18:00