Ketil Bjornstad turns 70 this year and celebrates with a brand new album, 'New Morning', packaged as a CD with a DVD of the concert recorded in the Ivory hall (Marmorhallen) at Sentralen.
Throughout what is soon to be 50 years as a musician, Ketil Bjornstad has published over 70 albums. Either as the main artist, composer, or musician in close collaboration with other top Norwegian artists. Ketil made his debut on the 10th of January in 1969 with the Philharmonic only 16 years old and became a full-time musician.
The country was put under lockdown in the spring of 2020. Creative forces became gradually more important when exploring options for culture during this rather grim situation. Christer Falck showed the initiative to arrange a streaming festival from Sentralen in downtown Oslo, and Bjrnstad agreed to participate, which also sparked the start of this new album project.
I prepared for a concert in which I thought was to be quite introverted, without any consequences, like an echo from the time we experienced at the time, so often alone only with our thoughts. I asked to get started as quickly as possible, and when I got started, it was for empty halls, with an improvisation. I sat alone in a beautiful ivory hall, with one camera pointed right at me and two covering my sides, alongside microphones where I am used to having them. I only knew that I was supposed to play for five quarters uninterrupted and that the concert would not be as introverted as I imagined. Covid would not stop the music. The music made everything stronger. The grand piano was excellent, Bjrnstad explains.
At the same day as the CD-release, Ketils new poem collection, "Sommernatt ved fjorden - Kaerlighetsdikt gjennom 50 ar", will also be released, through Aschehaug. Bjornstad has been writing poems since the age of 10, while he explains how this was more of a play with words for him in the book's preface. First, when he became involved in the musician and author environments surrounding Ole Paus at 18, things became more serious, and Bjornstad made his debut with the poem collection "Alene ut" in 1972. He explains how he began with a different writing approach, where also much of what he wrote further evolved into music. What came first: The word or the music? "Sommernatt ved fjorden" is a collection that consists of poems that never made it to the music and poems that were used in musical arrangements. In this book, the poems can be read on the premises of the words. The book is illustrated by the graphic designer Gro Mukta Holter. lter.