Draumkvedet: concert with folk song, double bass and video

About

On Sunday January 5th, the West Telemark Museum at Eidsborg will open its new and permanent exhibition of Draumkvedet (The Dream Poem) – a ballad from the Middle Ages, discovered in the upper Telemark region of Norway, and written down in the years subsequent to 1840.

A part of the opening will be a concert in Eidsborg Stave Church. Folk singer, Ellen Nordstoga and sound artist, Natasha Barrett, will perform a new and previously unheard version of The Dream Poem which includes both song and live electronic music.

After the concert there will be a presentation of the exhibition. It comprises a sound installation by Natasha Barrett, based on a recording of Maren Ramskeid’s version of The Dream Poem, sung in Eidsborg Stave Church by Ellen Nordstoga and Halvor Håkanes. 

Natasha Barrett is an English-Norwegian composer who has worked extensively with sound art and sound installations. She also is a Professor at the Norwegian Music High School. Ellen Nordstoga is a folk singer and cultural heritage worker from Vinje in Telemark. She has performed versions of The Dream Poem over several decades, both in Norway and abroad. Halvor Håkanes is a silversmith and singer and as well as giving many other performances has toured the USA presenting his version of The Dream Poem.

Draumkvedet at the museum in Eidsborg can be heard in multichannel 17 loudspeaker “mobile” sound in a specially designed listening room. Here it is also possible to view reproductions of small parts of the famous, 55m long wall hanging made by Torvald Moseid in 1993.

This listening room and the Draumkvedet installation will become a permanent part of the folk-art exhibitions at Eidsborg and is accessible to the public from May 1st to the middle of September every year.

However, this special opening is on the 13th Day of Christmas, January 5.

Welcome!