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Botschaft des Ridicolas
Jon Øivind Ness, Helmut Lachenmann, Rolf Wallin

Elisabeth Holmertz

Botschaft des Ridicolas

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Lawo Classics
UPC: 7090020182391
Catnr: LWC 1217
Release date: 06 May 2022
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Label
Lawo Classics
UPC
7090020182391
Catalogue number
LWC 1217
Release date
06 May 2022
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN

About the album

When the uncompromising duo Elisabeth Holmertz and Kenneth Karlsson finally release their long-awaited album on LAWO Classics, we find Norwegian and German contemporary music on the menu. On “Botschaft des Ridicolas” we hear “Got Lost” by Helmut Lachenmann - a 30-minute long wild and poetic work that has become a modern classic, and which is supposedly one of the composer's own favorites; the quiet, sensual, melancholic “Meditasjon over Georges de La Tour XVII” by Jon Øivind Ness; and finally Rolf Wallin's desperate, punk work “...though what made it has gone.” The texts performed here are by eminent poets such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Fernando Pessoa, Paal-Helge Haugen, and Osip Mandelstam.
Holmertz and Karlsson have closely collaborated for many years: first and foremost as a duo, but also in their more experimental group, Vollen United, where they perform a mixture of baroque, improvisational, and contemporary music.

Elisabeth Holmertz elegantly jumps between styles and expressions, her repertoire ranging from classical lute ballads to opera and avant-garde contemporary music. In 2020, she completed her PhD in artistic research at the Norwegian Academy of Music.
Kenneth Karlsson has been the Artistic Director and pianist of Cikada since 1989. He has also performed in a number of improvisation groups over the years, most recently in the quartet Point 4 with Jon Balke, Ingar Zach, and Bjørn Rabben. He has toured all over the world, both as a soloist and with various ensembles.

Artist(s)

Elisabeth Holmertz (soprano)

The art of Singing and Elisabeth Holmertz chose each other after an 8-year-old Elisabeth saw Rossini’s La Cenerentola at the Grand Theatre in her hometown of Gothenburg. Her goal and dream was to become an opera singer, stand on stage in fancy costumes, and sing otherworldly, beautiful music. The path was a pretty straight one, through music lessons, music high school, musicology studies, a conservatory (Oslo), and a conservatory again (Cologne). Somewhere, the dream of becoming an opera singer waned and was transformed into becoming “just” a singer and, later, an “Actor Singer” – a singer who also acts, but not necessarily on the opera stage. As a young and a little bit lost singer she met Henrik Hellstenius for the...
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The art of Singing and Elisabeth Holmertz chose each other after an 8-year-old Elisabeth saw Rossini’s La Cenerentola at the Grand Theatre in her hometown of Gothenburg. Her goal and dream was to become an opera singer, stand on stage in fancy costumes, and sing otherworldly, beautiful music. The path was a pretty straight one, through music lessons, music high school, musicology studies, a conservatory (Oslo), and a conservatory again (Cologne). Somewhere, the dream of becoming an opera singer waned and was transformed into becoming “just” a singer and, later, an “Actor Singer” – a singer who also acts, but not necessarily on the opera stage.
As a young and a little bit lost singer she met Henrik Hellstenius for the first time in 2005 when she sang the title role in his opera Ophelias: Death by Water Singing. Here she was challenged to go beyond classical vocal ideals and experiment with different techniques and theatrical expressions, things she’s carried with her for the rest of her career.
She also found her voice mainly in the improvisational music of the 17th century and the complex music of today. It’s there, in the space between these extremes, she balances. Or better, she jumps between genres, styles, and expressions: singing not only lute songs and baroque opera, but experimental opera, opera for babies, and avant-garde contemporary music.
She has been a soloist with Concerto Copenhagen, Cikada, and both the Norwegian and Danish Broadcasting Orchestras, however she cherishes most her own projects: ensemble Odd Size, who, among other things, performs a version of Handel’s Messiah for only four musicians; crossing the boundaries between new and old in Vollen United with Kenneth Karlsson; ongoing collaborations with flute and drum artist Poul Høxbro and lutenist Fredrik Bock; and new music and improvisation with harpist Sunniva Rødland and percussionist Sigrun Rogstad Gomnæs. Elisabeth also sings in Rolf Erik Nyström’s ensemble, Oriental Winds of the Baroque, which explores the origins of European baroque music. We should also mention here her close collaboration with composers such as Rolf Wallin, Rebecka Ahvenniemi, Jenny Hettne, Tansy Davies, Julian Skar, Maja Ratkje, and Eivind Buene, among others.
In 2020 she completed a PhD in artistic research at The Norwegian Academy of Music. Here she explored her own varied artistic roles, while striving to expand the boundaries of what is expected from a classically trained soprano by performing all the roles in Monteverdi’s opera, L’Orfeo.
On this recording Hellstenius and Holmertz have continued the work they started in 2005.

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Kenneth Karlsson (piano)

Kenneth Karlsson was born in Åmål, Sweden. He started out playing impro/rock with a few friends in his youth. He went on to develop an interest in classi­cal music, and after a few years he became a student at the Music Academy in Oslo, followed by further studies in the Netherlands. Since then Karlsson has been active as a pianist specializing in the areas of contemporary and classical music, and improvisation. During the 1980s and 90s he was a member of groups such as Ensemble K4, Oslo Sinfonietta and Aquari­us, and has collaborated with mezzo-soprano Hilde Torgersen for more than 20 years. He has also played in various improvisation groups over the years, in­cluding the quartet Point 4 with Jon...
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Kenneth Karlsson was born in Åmål, Sweden. He started out playing impro/rock with a few friends in his youth. He went on to develop an interest in classi­cal music, and after a few years he became a student at the Music Academy in Oslo, followed by further studies in the Netherlands. Since then Karlsson has been active as a pianist specializing in the areas of contemporary and classical music, and improvisation. During the 1980s and 90s he was a member of groups such as Ensemble K4, Oslo Sinfonietta and Aquari­us, and has collaborated with mezzo-soprano Hilde Torgersen for more than 20 years. He has also played in various improvisation groups over the years, in­cluding the quartet Point 4 with Jon Balke, Ingar Zach and Bjørn Rabben.
Since 1989 Kenneth Karlsson has been pianist and artistic director of Cikada, and is still active in several smaller ensembles. He has toured all over the world and recorded several albums. In 2001 he received a Spellemannpris (Norwegian Grammy) for his solo album sofferte onde serene, and in 2005 Karlsson’s ensemble Cikada was awarded the Nordic Council Music Prize.
Karlsson has worked with video, dance, multime­dia and is responsible for a considerable number of commissioned works and premier performances. He has collaborated with other musicians and compos­ers including Klaus Lang, Clara Ianotta, James Dillon, Christian Wallumrød, Carola Bauckholt, Liza Lim, Bent Sørensen, Richard Barrett, Lasse Marhaug, Elisabeth Holmertz, and Rolf Wallin. In addition to the piano, Kenneth Karlsson plays Indian harmonium and syn­thesizer.

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Composer(s)

Jon Øivind Ness

Jon Øivind Ness (b. 1968) studied guitar (1987—89) and composition (1989—1995) at the Norwegian Academy of Music with Olav Anton Thommessen, Lasse Thoresen and Ragnar Søderlind as his mentors. Ness won the Norwegian Society of Composers ‘Work of the Year’ award in 1993 for his orchestral work Schatten. He was nominated for the Edvard Prize in 1997, 2000 (2 nominations) and 2002, winning in ‘97 and ‘00 for Cascading Ordure and Dangerous Kitten, respectively.   Ness was composer of the year for Trondheim Symphony Orchestra (2002—03), Oslo Philharmonic (2012—13) and Bodø Sinfonietta (2012). Ness’s music has been nominated three times for “Spellemannprisen” (Norwegian Grammy Awards), and he won in 2010 with the CD Low Jive, together with the Oslo Philharmonic. Ness’s tonal...
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Jon Øivind Ness (b. 1968) studied guitar (1987—89) and composition (1989—1995) at the Norwegian Academy of Music with Olav Anton Thommessen, Lasse Thoresen and Ragnar Søderlind as his mentors. Ness won the Norwegian Society of Composers ‘Work of the Year’ award in 1993 for his orchestral work Schatten. He was nominated for the Edvard Prize in 1997, 2000 (2 nominations) and 2002, winning in ‘97 and ‘00 for Cascading Ordure and Dangerous Kitten, respectively.
Ness was composer of the year for Trondheim Symphony Orchestra (2002—03), Oslo Philharmonic (2012—13) and Bodø Sinfonietta (2012). Ness’s music has been nominated three times for “Spellemannprisen” (Norwegian Grammy Awards), and he won in 2010 with the CD Low Jive, together with the Oslo Philharmonic. Ness’s tonal language is based on the use of bi- and polytonality developed structurally (or sometimes only coloured) with quarter tones. He tries to approach microtonality from different angles — spectral, untuned, melodic (especially from Arabic traditional music). In recent years he has devoted himself more to arranging music in other genres. His project in 2012 together with Diamanda Gálás and KORK was singled out by Wire editor Rob Young as the third most important international musical event of 2012. Since then he has tried to create artistically challenging arrangements in which classical instruments replace rock instruments using various contemporary music techniques, something which culminated in the Bowie project that he undertook together with Bård Bratlie, Peter Estdahl, Thomas Rimul and KORK in January 2020. He has also arranged/adapted music of Sibelius, Grieg, Sæverud, Clash, Burt Bacharach, Javid Afsari Rad and Harpreet Bansal.

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