The grand opening of the Red Bull Music Academy Weekender this past weekend started off with three of the most prominent Norwegian musicians in today’s music industry. All three completely turned an evening at the Stockholm City Hall from just an event into a magical memory. Blå Hallen, where they performed, is normally where the Nobel Prize dinner is yearly held, but for this night, Norway took over and turned the venue into a spectacular explosion of different musical expressions.
Arve Henriksen, Morten Qvenild and Sigbjörn Apeland combined their forces and together they created something new, interesting and innovative.
The influence from jazz, created a frantic lump of turmoil inside, whilst the post rock genre made us feel like we were made out of steel. The electronica genre wrapped the event up into a nice bow and the performance overall made us feel like we were part of something bigger.
The trio is considered Norway’s prime modern avant-garde musicians and is constantly looking for new ways of exploring music beyond the contemporary and mainstream. They make instruments such as the harmonium, guitar, trumpet piano and the organ translate into spectacular expressions, and awaken those dormant emotions resting deep inside your soul. Looking around during the performance people were spell bound, closing their eyes, smiling and nodding their heads and moving their bodies to the music. All of the sudden vocals were introduced into the busy music, and the crowd was asked to sing along. Without trying, the trio generated a stage presence like never seen before.
The night continued at City Halls’s, Gyllene Salen, where the German composer Hauschka took his seat behind the piano. Hauschka, aka Volker Bertelmann, plays with avant-garde expressions and manipulates sound with different objects. His aim is to create a new concept of classical music.
The night wrapped up in the gold shimmering Gyllene Salen, a perfect ending to a perfect evening. It was the ideal atmosphere to set up Stockholm for a energized Red Bull Weekend.
Words by Derya Aktas
