This music has been specially chosen to celebrate the 200th anniversary in 2014 of the Norwegian Constitution. As well as being compelling in its own right, the works featured here serve as a musical history book, offering an insight into parts of the Norwegian saga. Several songs are clear examples of how a "national song" can be a way of marking and remembering the nation's history. In this recording we give the national anthem in its complete form, something that is seldom done, and, through many fresh arrangements of familiar melodies and a splendid "outdoor" sound, offer a new and invigorating listening experience.

With Fastlandet, Torun Eriksen breaks new ground and does most things for the first time: The lyrics are Norwegian; the format trio; the soundscape electro-acoustic; and the music improvised and through-composed side by side, layer upon layer and simultaneously.

Songs Of Love is Mezzo-Soprano Marianna Beate Kielland’s 13th album at NativeDSD Music. On it she is joined by Baritone Halvor Festervoll Melien and Pianist Nils Anders Mortensen on this album from Lawo Classics.

This new programme offers poems by Jan Erik Vold and Henrik Wergeland, with music by harpist Ellen Bødtker with string quartet and percussion. This great interaction has resulted, among other things, in the recording "Sommeren der ute", which has received rave reviews from the Norwegian and international press.

Kari Bremnes is a Norwegian singer and songwriter from the Lofoten Islands, based in Oslo. Nordic, European, open, powerful, personal and melancholic - are the words that describe Kari's music. For "Gåte Ved Gåte", her fifth studio album, she has written all the lyrics and most of the music.

The Gambian / Norwegian Friendship Orchestra (established 1980 in Bergen) was a jazz group with musicians from Western Norway and The Gambia, known as one of the first national initiatives in world music.

An amazing-sounding album, a talented musician, original and rich-sounding tracks.

"Glare" is an album The Band has been brewing for a long time, which has resulted in a cross-genre, holistic work with inspiration from many corners of the world. Nils is interested in music's travels and dialogues across time and place, a music without borders of country and tradition.

Like Father, Like Son is the Christiania Mannskor's fifth release on the LAWO Classics label. Christiania Mannskor, established in 2009, is Norway's professional men's choir. It is made up of 18 singers under the direction of conductor Marius Skjolaas. The ensemble has regular engagements in Oslo and countrywide and has performed at the invitation of, among others, the Norwegian government and parliament.

Jonas Kilmork Vemøy (trumpet, vocal, percussion) is a musician and composer living in Oslo. He´s known from several projects, bands and collaborations, among them his own chamber jazz trio Maridalen and in duo with Kristiansen//Vemøy, the trendsetting indie jazz band Pixel and the pop/folk sensation Marthe Wang.

Elisabeth Misvær has taken the initiative to revive several old joiks and to publish these in an album. These traditional joiks have been taken from several valuable sources, including sound files and transcriptions from Karl Tirén's records and documentation of joik from the years 1909-1913. In addition, she has gained access to sources that include old private recordings from Nils Lennart Ranberg from Fauske. Elisabeth is concerned with generational and tradition transmission and has brought her son Trygve along in this work. The album mainly contains Pit Sami joiks (vuolle), but also joik from Ume Sami and Lule Sami areas, two Sea Sami joiks from Måsøy in Finnmark as well as two new joik compositions.

Ever since he was a child, Norwegian composer Henrik Hellstenius has sought to explore music more freely than by simply mastering the classics. His language, which draws its inspiration from the modes of expression of his time, takes shape in the course of his work through sound, movement, rhythm and silence, as well as in his encounters with musicians and their instruments. Here, much of what is expressed is part of an intense inner monologue: a litany of doubt, affirmation and frustration being whispered, said, sung and shouted. Everything about these two works, from their titles to their modes of expression, suggests that they are directed outwards towards society in general and towards individuals in particular. Public Behaviour is about how we act together in an age of extreme individualism.

The songs on this release – volume 2 – continue the chronological list from volume 1.The album begins with the remarkably special cycle Wartburg, encompassing an enormous range of singing pathos. The text by Theodor Caspari has to do with Wartburg Castle, with its sweeping history. Martin Luther sought refuge there from May 1521 to March 1522. Saint Elisabeth of Thuringia resided there from 1211 to 1228, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe visited the castle several times, and, notably, the famous "minstrel contest" at the castle was an inspiration for Wagner when he composed his opera Tannhauser. So it is not so unusual that Theodor Caspari was also inspired by the castle's history and reputation when he wrote his Wartburg texts.

The annual Christmas concert series at Oslo Cathedral, ‘Klinge skal et jubelkor’, has long been a highlight of the pre-Christmas period in Norway’s capital city. Once every year, all of the choirs associated with the cathedral come together to perform a programme of Christmas music, from the youngest fledglings in the boys’ choir to the veteran choristers who have sung at the cathedral their whole lives. Together with brass, timpani, harp, and two organs, the choirs perform Christmas carols central to the traditions of the Church of Norway.

We've got a number of talented Norwegian composers to arrange well-known and lesser-known Christmas songs - there are a total of 11 new arrangements for male choirs! "I signet juletid" offers a beautiful and powerful male cross slang with a warm tone, rich harmonies and precise rhythms. The album includes the most traditional Christmas carols, but also modern classics. It is both solemn and traditional at the same time as it is hearty and relaxed! Listen to the album where music is streamed or follow the link in the bio. We wish you a good listening experience.