Sigurd Hole
Exploring listening as a way of deepening our experience of landscape, memory and the living world.
“Composer of sonically expansive, thoughtfully paced music”NY Times
Sigurd Hole is a Norwegian composer, double bassist and sound artist whose work is rooted in attentive listening and the relationship between sound, place and memory. Drawing on contemporary composition, improvisation, field recording and visual forms of notation, he creates music that moves between concert works, installations and interdisciplinary performance.
Central to Hole’s work is an interest in how landscapes shape human experience. Whether inspired by the Amazon rainforest, Nordic landscapes or observations of cosmic phenomena, his projects explore the connections between sound, ecology, history and imagination. His music often combines composed structures with improvisation, inviting performers and audiences into a shared space of attentive listening.
Hole’s works have been presented internationally at venues including Carnegie Hall, Malmö Live and De Roma (Antwerp), and performed by ensembles such as Trondheimsolistene and Cikada, as well as in projects under his own artistic direction. His music has received international critical acclaim, and in 2022 he was awarded the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik for Roraima, a large-scale work incorporating field recordings from the Amazon rainforest.
Alongside his concert activities, he presents exhibitions of graphic scores and sound installations exploring the visual and spatial dimensions of musical experience. He also curates long-running concert series in Oslo and Hamar, and Laboratory at Sørum Farm, an ongoing process-oriented platform where audiences and fellow musicians are invited into the development of new artistic work.
“An overlap of the ancientness of folk music, and the ancientness of landscape”BBC Featured work
Selected projects available for booking
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Roraima
Roraima was commissioned by Oslo World in 2020. The work is inspired by the Yanomami creation myth, and utilize field recordings of the incredibly rich natural soundscapes of the Amazon rainforest as a vital part of the music. Roraima was awarded the prestigious Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik in 2022. Originally written for 7 musician, the work was adapted for chamber orcehstra in 2025 in collaboration with the Trondheim Soloists.
Duration: 30 - 80 min (flexible)
May be performed with live visuals -
Cikada String Quartet & Sigurd Hole
Requiem for a Star - Cosmic Soundscapes of Destruction and Creation is a new work for string quartet and double bass in collaboration with the Cikada String quartet. The work is inspired by different visual aspects and processes seen in observations and images of dying stars in the Milky Way galaxy. 1st performance was in January 2026.
Duration: 45 min
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Extinction Sounds
Extinction sounds was comissioned by the festival Tron Talks in 2023. The work draws inspiration from cildhood memories of the natural soundscapes surrounding the family cabin “Gammelsætra” in Rendalen. Written for an ensemble consisting of four string players, piano, one wind player and percussion.
Duration: 50 min
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Solo
Sigurd Holes solo double bass project has served as an important artistic foundation in his work ever since the release of the solo bass album Elvesang in 2018. The music is based on a combination of composed textures and improvisation, and is imbued with a calm, meditative quality.
Duration: flexible
Additional projects
Trio with Trygve Seim and Frode Haltli
Exploring the meeting point between composition, improvisation and traditional music from Østerdalen, this trio features both lyrical melodies, playful rhytms and more abstract musical landscapes.
Available in 2026 / 27 / 28.
Trio with Frode Haltli and Helga Myhr
Pusteøvelse for tre musikere is a new work by Sigurd Hole, commissioned by Nordic Poetry Festival and inspired by Rolf Jacobsen’s poem of the same name. Exploring breath, silence and attentive listening, the work treats respiration as a fundamental musical material.
Available in 2027 / 28. More info here.
Collaboration with Arve Henriksen
Reflections in light - WAVE/PARTICLE is inspired by the changing nature of light and it´s dynamic presence in time and space. Co-written with Arve Henriksen for Festspillene in Elverum 2022, the work may be presented by both the original ensemble with Ståle Storløkken, Vilde & Inga and Ane Marthe Sørlien Holen as well as in smaller constellations.
Availability on request.
Graphic scores and installations
Alongside his concert activities, Hole presents exhibitions of graphic scores and sound installations exploring the visual and spatial dimensions of musical experience.
Solo exhibition of graphic scores, Harpefoss hotell 2025.
Laboratory at Sørum farm
Since 2021, Hole has curated Laboratory at Sørum farm, an ongoing process-oriented platform based at his rural studio in Eastern Norway. Through open work sessions, artistic experiments and informal presentations, audiences and fellow musicians are invited into the development of new works, exploring listening, place and artistic process as shared practices.
