Monday, April 8, 2013

Nils Økland at Troldhaugen





One of the really good things about living in Bergen, is that you (without much fuzz) on an ordinary Sunday afternoon in April, may go to a concert with the fiddle player Nils Økland in Edvard Grieg´s home at Troldhaugen, some kilometers outside town!
On Friday 7 April Økland played a concert called "Pas Des Deux", focusing on his solo album "Monograph" (ECM 2009), in front of (or rather surrounded by) 50 people (that is a sold out house here).

Økland played fiddle, Hardanger fiddle and viola d´amore, and even if the music is obviously folk based, he also explained and showed his inspiration from punk, rock (Jimi Hendrix), blues and hip-hop (Swedish Timbuktu) (believe it or not!).

And while it was snowing heavily outside (it´s called spring over here) he also played some Grieg for us, in Grieg´s own living room. Way to do it!

Please check out Nils Økland´s solo albums and his records with the trio 1982 (Økland, Sigbjørn Apeland, Øyvind Skarbø) and other projects, and make sure you see him live if you can!

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