Experience Norwegian traditional folk music and contemporary music written for folk musicians - in one concert! Bjørn Kåre Odde - fiddle/viola Ole Nilssen - accordion
A ‘multi-artist’ is often something of a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none, but Bjørn Kåre is of a different kind; as someone who has spent most of his waking hours immersing himself in several genres of music, he aims to incorporate the best of each into his own form of expression.
It is nonetheless the folk music traditions from his home village of Garmo and the wider area of Gudbrandsdalen that lie closest to his heart. He has a deep love for - and an in-depth understanding of - the language of folk music, and he therefore feels free to be both bold and innovative in his folk music.
- The language of folk music is the anchor in everything I do. However, the qualities of tradition can function equally well in a contemporary landscape, and it is very challenging to combine traditional craft with modern compositional forms of expression. We threw ourselves into the unknown and it felt good!
Ole Nilssen
The accordion is a multi-faceted instrument and, in the hands of Ole, it is equally both a "daring" solo instrument and a humble instrument of musical interplay. The language of folk music intertwines with Alf Prøysen (Norwegian author, playwright, songwriter and musician) just as easily as it does with Paganini.
In Ole’s family tradition, the dance music from Løten and the flatlands of Hedmark takes centre place. There, Norwegian farmers' culture has met the European upper class for over 200 years. Ole is where new impulses meet tradition.
- What’s nice about playing new music is that there is no blueprint. There are no old recordings of old masters to imitate. We therefore just play. And, in doing so, a lot arises spontaneously, which influences the music to a huge degree.