Music video from RORAIMA out today!

The video features a track from my upcoming album RORAIMA, out February 18th. RORAIMA was made as a commissioned work for Oslo World in 2020 and reflects themes such as ecological vulnerability and solidarity through listening in on the soundscapes of the Amazon rainforest. Several of these sounds became an important inspiration in the music - both through transcriptions of the singing of birds and other sounds, and in the direct musical interplay between the ensemble and rainforest field recordings.

RORAIMA is also a tribute to the ancient ecological wisdom of Indigenous peoples and brings together old and new ideas about ecology in the form of field recordings by soundscape ecologist Bernie Krause, texts by economic anthropologist Jason Hickel and the mythology of the Yanomami people as described by shaman Davi Kopenawa.

Sound is a fundamental part of how we experience the world around us. As the pace of extinction and loss of natural habitats around the world increases, the sounds of nature – of the animals, birds, insects, fish, trees and rivers – slowly fade away. We need to ask ourselves: what do we want the future to sound like?

I started composing the music for RORAIMA during the first lockdowns in March and April 2020. One of the things I enjoyed the most in the process, was delving into the soundscapes of the Amazon rainforest. In a period of great uncertainty for what the future might hold, these immersive sounds of nature were as much a comfort as they were an inspiration to never stop searching for a brighter future.

David Bowie once said: “Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming”.

Now is the time to start listening.

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Video credits

"The presentation dance"
Music by Sigurd Hole

Trygve Seim - saxophone
Håkon Aase - violin
Frode Haltli - accordeon
Helga Myhr - hardanger fiddle
Tanja Orning - cello
Per Oddvar Johansen – vibraphone
Sigurd Hole - Double bass

Sound recording, mix and master by Audun Strype / Strype Audio
Produced by Sigurd Hole and Audun Strype

Live visuals by Jan Erik Holto
Video by Millimedia AS and Oslo World
Edited by Millimedia AS and Sigurd Ytre-Arne

Copyright Elvesang 2022