KNUT REIERSRUD & GEIR SUNDSTÖL

🎸 Knut Reiersrud and Geir Sundstøl will release the album "Purcell, truth, lies and bad memory" on September 25th. But first they will come to Olavsfest in a unique collaboration between two of Norway's very best guitarists!

Knut Reiersrud and Geir Sundstøl have known each other for over 35 years. Yet the two string masters have hardly ever played together. Only on the occasional recording for other artists. Fortunately, there are people in this country who can count to two!

Former Sildajazz manager Andreas Meland, the man behind record label Hubro, has dreamed for several years of letting the two meet for four-handed guitar magic.

It may have come as a surprise to Meland that the two guitarists have chosen to make a record based on the works of the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell.

However, there will be no servile guitar duets, performed with a footstool and a jacket. Here we get bold improvisation and detours to the Wild West, Indian mysticism and Swedish sin.

Reiersrud and Sundstøl both have a long history of adapting musical works: Franz Schubert, John Coltrane, LV Beethoven and David Bowie have all passed through the two gentlemen's musical mill.

Now it is Henry Purcell's music that is in focus. Why does the world need a "Knut and Geir twist on Purcell" album?

Let's answer a little pompously, something they liked in the 17th century:

Purcell's music possesses an emotional depth of its own. The works are often grandly arranged for large orchestras. At the same time, it possesses a depth that has created some of the strongest moments in film music.

It is this deeply human and warming core of the tonal language that the two want to convey with their guitars. Through Reiersrud and Sundstøl's interpretations, it is as if one senses the roots of the universal quality of British pop music. Combined with the fact that both musicians fell into the African/American music cauldron early on, there is room for unheard of and cosmic string magic on stage.

Photo: Marthe Vannebo