Nils Økland Trio @ St. Audoen’s

Improvised Music Comany supported by The Royal Norwegian Embassy present

From Norway

Nils Økland Trio

Nils Økland- Hardanger fiddle

Sigbjørn Apeland – harmonium

Hakon Stene – percussion

with special guest

Caoimhin O’Raghallaigh - fiddle

8pm Wednesday 13th February, St Audoen’s Church, Cornmarket, High Street Dublin 8

Adm €20 tel IMC 01 670 3885 & Claddagh Records Cecilia Street Temple Bar, Dublin 2

Like the best traditional musicians, Nils Økland wears his role with grace and intelligence, not burdened but stimulated by the creative prospects his own music offers up. Deeply rooted in the Hardanger fiddle music of Western Norway’s remote fjord communities, he’s proved a vital and energising force in Nordic music, most recently with the landmark CD Bris (Rune Grammofon).

The instrument of his childhood, his return to the Hardanger came at the end of a long musical journey that started with classical training at The Norwegian State Academy and onward into everything from tango, punk and rock bands to Balkan and chamber ensembles. Today, his lengthy creative partnership with the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble places him at the centre of Norwegian contemporary jazz, and he’s also recently appeared at St Martin-in-the-fields as soloist with the BBC Concert Orchestra, performing classical repertoire for the Hardanger.

This enigmatic instrument, ostracised and often destroyed in the 19th century for its alleged ability to summon the devil, is among the great jewels of Europe’s musical instruments. With its hybrid tuning and drone strings, a skilled player can summon bright, singing top lines countered by rich dissonance beneath, and in the hands of the adventurous Økland, it creates music that reaches deep inside the human experience.

Few places in our Viking city seem as appropriate to hear Økland’s original, almost futuristic take on Norwegian folklore than in the marvel that is St Audoen’s, its 11th century design so similar to the stave churches of Western Norway.