News and information about Hornorkesteret.
We are proud to announce that Hornorkesteret are confirmed for Nattjazz 2021 at USF Verftet in Bergen, Norway on June 4th. Also playing later that night, the eclectic folk virtuosos Gammalgrass. This evening is certain to cover the full folk spectrum from primitve to sophisticated!
Hornorkesteret will perform our latest album “Jehovas vinter” (December 2019), as well as a brand new tune commissioned by the festival.
Hope to see you there!
Tickets and info
Hornorkesteret has announced a new studio album, “Jehovas vinter”, to be released in december 2019.
The album contains seven dark folk instrumentals performed on stringed reindeer and moose antlers and percussion including timpani and logs.
The first public release from the album is “Den sorgfulle sjaman” (“The Sorrowful Shaman”) and comes with a video:
The band is also gigging again and performed the complete album “Jehovas vinter” on a solo bill during Ny Musikk Østfolds Høstriss 2019 at House of Foundation in Moss on november 10th.
Photos: Ole Peko Sørensen
Look out for live dates with Hornorkesteret in 2020!
Polnytt, Hornorkesterets weblog of polar news and curious has been on hiatus since november 2011, following the release of Hornorkesterets CD Fjær og Jern. In the meantime, the band has undertaken a school tour of Østfold as a trio, represented at the Roald Amundsen Memorial Lecture 2012 at the Fram museum, performed in Norway and Sweden a handful of times but also been very busy with other projects.
This blog used to have a mix of self created content and “cut/pasted” news articles, though always citing and linking to the source. In the future, we will post more articles about Hornorkesteret and their instruments and original content. We’ll try to do a weekly Polar news and curious roundup with links and comments.
Rumour has it Hornorkesteret is recording a studio album of all new material these days. You’ll hear about it here first!
Hornorkesteret will be performing in the pavillion in the Church Park in downtown Fredrikstad on December 14th in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the conquest of The South Pole, www.nansenamundsen.no reports.
In addition to the concert by Hornorkesteret, the celebration will contain live streaming audio from Antarctica with interactions from ambient musician Origami Antarktika, 17 sled dogs and sleds, free warm drinks, the animated short film “Fram og tilbake” about Roald Amundsen made at E6 Østfold Medieverksted with music by Hornorkesteret and the world premiere of Hornorkesterets epic song honouring Roald Amundsens achievements, “Roaldskvadet”.
Also, the long awaited CD “Fjær og Jern” is released on this glorious day, and Hornorkesteret will perform several tracks from the album live.
Born at Tomta in Borge just outside of Fredrikstad, Amundsen was the first man to reach both the South and the North Poles, and on December 14th 1911, he and his men planted the norwegian flag on the pole after a meticulously planned and executed operation. From his early days, he dreamt about becoming a polar explorer. Reading about the horrors Sir John Franklin and his men met while trying to navigate the North West Passage and reading about Fridtjof Nansen crossing Greenland on skis, inspired the young Amundsen to become a hero. Amundsen grew up in a shipping family and he had heard tales of faraway worlds since he was child. Nothing fascinated him more than ice and snow. He would sleep with his window open all year round to toughen himself to become a polar explorer.
Later, he would be part of the first expedition to spend the winter in the Antarctic with the Belgica, navigate the North West Passage as the first man on earth in 1906, use dogsleds for the South Pole in 1911, become an aviation pioneer, almost perish with two planes in the arctic in 1925 and finally cross the whole polar ocean of the Arctic in the italian-built dirigible “Norge” in 1926. Amundsen disappeared in June 1928 on a rescue mission to save his by then bitter enemy, Umberto Nobile, who had crashlanded with his new dirigible, the Italia.
Amundsens life is something to celebrate! Bring the kids -this is a fun family event. Wear something warm.
17:30 – 18:00:
Live streaming sounds from the PALAOA Antarctic base
Mixed by Origami Antarktika – Ambient music
Serving of boullion and other hot drinks
Tents with polar stories
Dogsled riding/meet the dogs presented by Kennel Nairebis and their Siberian Huskys
18:00:
Opening speech
18:05:
World premiere of the epic hero song “Roaldskvadet” by Hornorkesteret
18:15:
Animated short: “Fram og tilbake” produced at E6 Østfold Medieverksted
18:30:
Concert with Hornorkesteret, The Norwegian Polar Orchestra
19:00:
Release of CD “Fjær og Jern” by Hornorkesteret
19:15 – 19:45:
Live streaming sounds from the PALAOA Antarctic base
Mixed by Origami Antarktika – Ambient music
Serving of boullion and other hot drinks
Tents with polar stories
Dogsled riding/meet the dogs presented by Kennel Nairebis and their Siberian Huskys
The event is listed on the official Nansen-Amundsen website:
http://www.nansenamundsen.no/no/events/des/jubileumskonsert-hornorkesteret.html
The event page on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=125153107592524
Hornorkesterets web page:
http://hornorkesteret.no
The event is made in collaboration with Visit Fredrikstad and Kennel Nairebis.
Hornorkesteret will be appearing as part of the line-up for Klubb Kanin at Sound of Mu in Oslo, friday april 29th, along with some fine bands including a reunion of eighties darkwave synth group Mørkelagt Bevegelse.
The show starts at 20:00 and the live music is over before 23:00.
The order of appearance is not given.
Line-up:
Mørkelagt Bevegelse
Origami Olympika
Hornorkesteret
Origami Republika‘s Klubb Kanin is an exciting evening of performances, presented back to back in almost cabaret-style from several different performers. Experimental music and improv as well as acts bordering on theatrical performance and conceptual art has been a main ingredient since the start, years ago, by Tore H. Bøe and the Republika. This concept has since gone world-wide, and Klubb Kanin events have been performed in a variety of venues across the globe.
Polnytt, 8. februar 2011
The unusual exhibition created by Carsten Hoeller contained living reindeer, mice and canaries, giant fly agaric mushroom sculptures, and was inspired by Hindu mysticism and Vedic writings, where a magical potion, a “food of the gods”, Soma, is mentioned. Scholars have looked at fly agaric mushroom (Amanita muscaria) for a possible natural explanation for the mythical Soma said to make people fly and “see the gods”.
Amanita Muscaria is considered poisonous, but has been eaten for food many places after parboiling. It contains the compound muscimol which is a hallucinogen. Siberian tribes reportedly drank the urine from reindeer that had eaten fly agaric mushrooms, and used the mushroom both for ritual and recreation.
On closing last sunday the exhibition had drawn close to 100, 000 visitors in the three months it was open. Visitors could even pay to camp in the installation overnight to fully immerse themselves in the experience.
AFP article here
Polnytt reposted article on the exhibition here
Carsten Hoeller website on the project here
Jonas Qvale/Hornorkesteret
Hornorkesteret’s Jonas Qvale made a proposal for a “National Monument to Roald Amundsen” in a contest earlier this year (he has a background in visual arts). A fund collected after Amundsens disappearence back in 1928 was now seeking proposals for a worthy monument to the world’s greatest polar hero. The entries were juried and later exhibited at the Fram Museum. Qvales proposal was not chosen, but he is still looking for financing and a place for this monument.
“Roald Amundsens Verden” (Roald Amundsen’s world) shows what could have been “Amundsens view of the world”, with an exaggerated emphasis on the polar regions, shrinking the continents except Antarctica to a narrow band around the planet’s waist. The continents would be polished Iddefjord granite with rougher surfaces on oceans. The ice caps would be inlaid and slightly raised in Rennebu ice green granite. Amundsens main expeditions would be carved and painted as red dotted lines crisscrossing the globe.
Rather than as a stone monument at Bygdøynes outside of Oslo, the work “Roald Amundsens Verden” is now being presented in styrofoam and papier maché as a miniature at the origami republika run MICROGALERIA SUR in San Fernando, Gran Canaria, Spain. Thanks to Tore H. Boe for running both the gallery and the republika, you are an inspiration to a lot of people!
The exhibition opened December 14th 2010, on the 99th anniversary of the conquest of the South Pole. At the modest but festive vernissage, the Norwegian emissiaries met with the directors and local MICROGALERIA SUR staff and officially unveiled the Amundsen monument proposal as well as additional rooms with fascinating miniature art by fellow Origami artists Origami Kanaria A195/A242, Jens Stegger Ledaal A178, Origami Boe A22, and Magne Rudjord A286. See all of it here.
We are still seeking funding to realize the piece “Roald Amundsens Verden” in the anniversary year of 2011 -contact us at hornorkesteret@lavabit.com if you can help.
Fjær og Jern
Norwegian antler music 1999-2009
66 min CD in digipack with 16 page booklet
With contributions from Johannes Bergmark, Tore H. Bøe, (origami republika/boe/ka) Alan Courtis and Roberto Conlazo (Reynols), Joakim Solvang and Fridtjof Nansen. Mastered by Kai Mikalsen (Kobi, origami ka)
To be released in late february/early march 2011, “Fjær og Jern” (Feather and iron) is a collection of mostly live material but also some studio tracks by Hornorkesteret. Using stringed and bowed reindeer antlers, bones, rocks, coffee percolator, drums, flutes and field recordings, the group has made their unbelieveable music since 1999, and this is a collection of some of their best tracks. The material includes an hommage to Roald Amundsen with vocals by Fridtjof Nansen, field recordings of black grouse courting rituals in Klæbu, close miced campfire sizzle and pop, a norwegian version of the traditional “Bury me not on the lone prairie” set on a boat in the arctic, sheets of ambient polar soundscapes, impressions of Norwegian nature and collaborations with Tore H. Bøe, Johannes Bergmark, Alan Courtis and Roberto Conlazo.
The sneak peak will be available at www.hornorkesteret.no for a limited time only, so be sure to check it out!
Hornfar
A few days ago, we reached an all time high of 100 daily visits to this site, and over 1600 monthly visits! We must be doing something right – mostly re-posting bits of polar news we find interesting and adding the occasional comment, as well as writing an original entry once in a blue moon. We try to post environmental information that becomes more and more important as the ice melts under the polar bears feet, and stuff that lies within Hornorkesterets sphere of interest.
At this point, we’d like to thank all or readers for staying with us for this long!
Do you feel you could contribute to Polnytt? Articles on current polar issues, polar history, environmental issues, norwegian identy, sami culture, inuit culture, early music and experimental acoustic instruments are welcome – drop me (Hornfar/Jonas) a line at hornorkesteret@lavabit.com and I may add you as a contributor to this blog. No racists or tree-hugging neo-folk nazis, please!
For those of you who long for more Hornorkesteret news, there will be more exciting information coming up as we close in on the 99 year anniversary of the conquest of the South Pole in December 2010, and even more as we work our way towards the centennial anniversary in 2011. But before that, new instruments, new stage costumes and props, new videos, the release of our CD anthology, new collaboration projects and concerts, so stay tuned!
Our main site, http://www.hornorkesteret.no is down at the moment and we are working on getting a new server space for it. For now, keep your eyes on Polnytt, our Myspace page and the unofficial Hornorkesteret fanpage on Facebook.
Hvalrossjakt (Walrus Hunt) is available as part of the live soundtrack recording “Nanook”, an 80 min. CD-R by Hornorkesteret and on the upcoming Hornorkesteret “Fjær og Jern” compilation CD.
Music:
Hvalrossjakt
Qvale/Oxem/Lien/Krey/Benjaminsen/de Gier 2002
Film: Walrus hunt scene from Nanook of the North
Robert J. Flaherty 1922
Hornorkesteret 