New Album by Tone Åse and Ståle Storløkken: SNU JORDA (Øra Grammofon)

Snu Jorda (“Turn the Earth”) takes its title from one of the poems in Bibeldikt (“Bible Poems”), a collection in which Norwegian authors write in dialogue with biblical texts, with complete artistic freedom. A selection of these poems inspired the creation of new music in a genre-open landscape that combines composition, improvisation, and sonic exploration.

The melodies and soundscapes seek to preserve the core and intimacy of the texts while also giving them resonance and the freedom to move, and to move us, through open, multilayered musical spaces.

The music was originally commissioned for the Pilgrimage Days Festival at Dovre in 2015 and was later reworked for a concert in the newly restored Dombås Church in autumn 2024. The album was recorded at Øra Studio in Trondheim and Sakshaug Church in Inderøy, and will be released on Øra Grammofon on September 1.

Reviews Rooms& Rituals , Trondheim Voices

ROOMS & RITUALS, ALBUM

-Collectively and cumulatively, these pieces move and unsettle the listener, bringing a sense of dislocation, and disorientation. It creates a space for pondering. This is art.  Auralaggravation.com, GB-Voices like no others.. a vast universe of sound, which the ensemble and Karstad explores with a result that is both amazing and overwhelming.
– Founded on creativity, bravery and great vocal skills – it is a triumph of true originality. Terje Mosnes, Jazzinorge, NO 

-The eerie vocals of Trondheim Voices with the live electronics of Asle Karstad come together in the haunting “Rooms & Rituals”. This impeccably sound designed album sends chills up your spine.  New Sounds/NPR.org, USA

-filled with mystique and mystery, borrowing aspects from hypermodern theatre and abstract opera, bringing on multilayered non-vocalisms, slow electronica pulses, modular twists and other unusual proceedings which all fall into place .. to create an album like no album you ever heard. Nitestylez.de, DE

-Gregorian Choral 2000. Björk’s Sweet meets Meredith Monk’s nude art, in bright moments it has the dreamy-playful of Sigur Rós, in gloomy moments the endless blackness of Deathprods’ “Morals & Dogma”. Dramatic, theatrical, daring. Musikkultur, Skug.at, DE

-haunting, ethereal sounds that explore the voice in its different manifestations. Even though some of the pieces seem to balance on the edge of a pure electronic music, there is never a loss of the natural intimacy that’s never more effectively communicated than through the human voice. Avantmusicnews.com, USA

-Extremely good listeners discover ways to new worlds.
This is high level vocal art, and the music brings associations to both Björk og Meredith Monk.  Morgenbladet, NO

-These singers have an incredible register, and they explore it to the maximum in cooperation with «the world´s best sound designer», Asle Karstad, on this album.  All the way through, this is almost divine music. Jan Granlie, Salt-peanuts, NO

-The short pieces on Rooms & Rituals offer a spectrum of moods, emotions and atmospheres. All have a lasting effect on the listener mental state of mind, promising to rewire the brain’s neurons to a more enlightening and peaceful configuration. Eyal Hareuveni, NO

-A hurricane of creativity.. Each piece is a kind of bubble that houses a micro-universe in which supernatural events take place. The twelve performers master perfectly their formidable instruments (voice and Maccatrols). A huge bravo for their sense of detail and their musical sensitivity. It’s great art, it’s innovative and it’s extremely beautiful. A real rough diamond.Chromatique.net, FR


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