Black Hauge:
Erlend O. Nødtvedt: samples, voice, electronics
Erlend Apneseth: Hardanger fiddle
Stephan Meidell: baritone electric and acoustic guitar, live sampling, modular synth
Øyvind Hegg-Lunde: acoustic and electronic drums, percussion
and Olav H. Hauge: recitation (sampled with permission from Mange års røynsle med pil og boge, Samlaget 1988/2006)
In 2021 writer/poet Erlend O. Nødtvedt collaborated with Erlend Apneseth Trio on the commissioned work named “Black Hauge” for Ulvik Poetry Festival. The work used the late Hauge’s own writing, based on recordings of the poet himself – one of Norway’s greatest.
Black Hauge represents a genuine innovative meeting between traditional poetry and experimental music. What the trio and Nødtvedt clearly have in common is a playful and bold approach towards tradition. As the band uses elements from the traditional folk music and (amongst other things) incorporate archival recordings of traditional song and poetry in their music, the writer uses tradition in shape of quotes, tributes, re-writes and pastiche. This both playful and respectful hommage to older works and expressions have never been clearer then here in Black Hauge.
The collaborations between the involved parties should be onteresting enough in itself, but when they get together to re-shape and re-contextualize the quite possibly most important Norwegian poet of all times, something truly unique happens. The focus on the sonic and rhythmic in Hauge’s poetry, and a close study of his audible qualities in his voice, the works open up for new interpretations of his poems. In a radical way of dusting old classics, the band transforms Hauge’s own recordings through sampling, morphing, cut-up techniques and effects, setting a solid mark on the structures of the songs. The poetry evolves in the music, for example through micro melodies found in Hauge’s readings, making the foundation for new songs in itself.