Memnon - Sound Portraits of Ibsen Characters Ruth Meyer & Helge Lien

• 1Hedvig (The Wild Duck)04:03
• 2Ellida (The Lady from the Sea)05:19
• 3Hedda (Hedda Gabler)04:48
• 4Memnon I (Peer Gynt)03:03
• 5Anitra (Peer Gynt)02:25
• 6Peer and the Mountain King (Peer Gynt)06:22
• 7Åse (Peer Gynt)04:34
• 8Memnon II (Peer Gynt)01:22
• 9Nora (A Doll’s House)05:28
• Total Runtime37:24

Info for Memnon - Sound Portraits of Ibsen Characters

'Memnon' is built around an equally simple and striking ambition: Keeping the music as pure as possible. Relying on nothing but voice and piano, Ruth Wilhelmine Meyer and Helge Lien are eliminating the delay between the moment of creation and an emotional response in the listener. The very moment their music is released into the world, it is immediately perceptible as a tangible physical sensation.

For their first joint release, the duo have set themselves the challenge of sonically portraying selected characters of Norwegian writer Henrik Ibsen. It has taken them to the darkest corners of the soul and to the pinacles of human thought. While Helge Lien is delineating the contours of these musical psychograms on his piano with clear blackand- white brushstrokes, Ruth Wilhelmine Meyer is filling in the basic shapes with rich, intense colors. Both artists are tapping their personal sound worlds in an effort of making these characters shine as brightly as possible. Listening to them draft, express, re-phrase and finalise their ideas is as exciting as a mystery, with the plot unfolding in the act of listening. Memnon is an impressive testimony to the overwhelming power and multidimensionality of sound: These sonic portraits reveal far more about their subjects than words ever could.

Could music ever aspire to a higher goal?

Ruth Wilhelmine Meyer, vocals
Helge Lien, piano

Recorded at Pettersens Kolonial Sound Studio, Hønefoss, Norway, 20–21 June 2012.
Mixed on 22 June 2012
Piano: C. Bechstein Grand, C-234
Mastered by Audun Strype at Strype Audio, Oslo, 5 July 2012
Produced by Dagobert Böhm

Ruth Wilhelmine Meyer - Vocalist
was born in Tromso, Norway, in 1961 and received her master degree in music from the Grieg Academy in Bergen. She also studied for two years at the ‘Mozarteum’ in Salzburg, which is the Academy for Music and Performing Arts in Austria.

Meyer is a freelance performer and explorer of sound, and does concerts and vocal perfomances in Norway and throughout Europe. 2009 saw the premiere, and several following presentations, of the work ‘R’arier for en kjole – changing identities’ in Lillehammer and Bodø. It was also performed at the Bergen International festival 2011.The work is a non-verbal a capella mini opera specially written for Meyers solo voice and a youth choir, composed by Synne Skouen. Voiceperformer: Ruth Wilhelmine Meyer. Choreografer/ regisseur: Solvi Edvardsen.

Meyer has had a close collaboration with Grzech Piotrowski and his ‘world orchestra’ since the spring of 2010. Together they have recorded CDs, and toured Poland, Slovenia and Russia. Ruth Wilhelmine is the performing vocal soloist, while the Norwegian percussionist Terje Isungset, is among the other collaborating soloist musicians.

Ruth Wilhelmine is also a member of the group AKKU, which consists of Lars Andreas Haug (tuba), Elfi Sverdrup (vocal), Grzech Piotrowski (saxophones) and Knut Aalefjær (percussion). The group frequently tours schools in Norway, in arrangement with Rikskonsertene. A new CD: AKKU5 has been released 2011.

She also did performances with the project ‘Fugl’ which is a collaboration with Norwegian folk singer Agnes Buen Garnås. The performance is an adventurous concert for people from 0 to 100 years of age. In addition, Meyer toured with the scenic concert of LJOD together with percussionist Marilyn Mazur, folk singer Agnes Buen garnås and harpist Helen Davies Mikkelborg.

Helge Lien - Jazz Pianist and Composer
holds a master degree in music from the Norwegian Academy of Music, where Russian pianist Misha Alperin was an inspiring mentor and teacher of improvisation.

The core of Lien’s work has since 1999 centered on the Helge Lien Trio, consisting of the classical jazz constellation piano, bass and drums. In 2008 the trio won the Norwegian Grammy for their album Hello Troll, and has achieved international acclaim following tours in Japan, Germany and Canada, among other places.

With Tri O’Trang (1998–2006), consisting of piano, saxophone and tuba, Lien has cultivated a more structural music with strong melodic as well as abstract features, in which composed and improvised elements are interwoven.

The duo HERO (2005–6), with saxophonist Rolf-Erik Nystrøm, focused on “contemporary music,” emphasizing atonal and arhythmic elements and extensive experimentation with timbre. During this period, the two musicians participated in folksong artist Jørn Simen Øverli’s project Prøysenvisene som forsvant (The Prøysen songs that disappeared).

Helge Lien has shown himself to be a musician who is not afraid to explore the borders between different musical genres, but whose basic sound as a jazz pianist is always a distinctive feature. Originally influenced by Bill Evans’ lyric-dynamic style of playing, he also shows affinity with Keith Jarrett’s narrative inventiveness and the subtle strophic expression of Brad Mehldau. Lien is a technically brilliant player, with a solid and rich sound. His resourcefulness and briskly responsive playing comes in extremely handy as a “composer of the moment” in all of his work.

Booklet for Memnon - Sound Portraits of Ibsen Characters