Blog – Page 3 – Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje

5 skiver som har inspirert Maja S. K. Ratkjes nye album Vannstand (NO)

20/08/2021 / Blog, by Maja in Norwegian

Eugeniusz Rudnik – Studio Eksperymentalne Polskiego Radia / Polish Radio Experimental Studio Jeg var så heldig at jeg fikk arbeide med den polske pioneren Rudnik (1932-2016) på invitasjon fra Warzsawa de siste årene før han gikk bort. Det beste med musikken er at den er så tøylesløs. Han leker med alt fra feltopptak av underholdningsfjernsyn […]

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A Special Moment In Norwegian Music: Vriompeis 2021 Reviewed

14/08/2021 / Blog, Solo concerts

The Quietus: (…)On day two, the internationally acclaimed composer Maja Ratkje is headlining with a noise show. It’s still 40 people sitting on barstools. A person in the audience is doing fist-pumps, moving his closed hand up and down several times as a sign of victory. Nothing wrong with a good dose of Viking dancing.

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Motvind i ansiktet, spunk i ryggen (NO)

02/07/2021 / Blog, SPUNK / SPUNK

Salt Peanuts: Det siste tolvte punktet på dagsorden for denne sjette Motvind-festivalen er en konsert med improvisasjonskvartetten SPUNK. Lene Grenager på cello, Kristin Andersen på trompet og blokkfløyter, Hild Sofie Tafjord på valthorn og elektronikk og Maja S. K. Ratkje på vokale og elektroniske effekter. Det er godt og vel 25 år siden denne fenomenale

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To The Surface / Til overflaten

23/06/2021 / Blog, Multimedia/Installations

2021; Permanent 6 channel sound installation

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Maja S. K. Ratkje hever stemmen (NO)

10/06/2021 / Blog, Interviews in Norwegian, Danish, Swedish

Main feature in Jazznytt #257 Vinter 2021 Order at https://jazznytt.jazzinorge.no/

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Avant Joik: Live in Bergen reviews (in English and Chilean)

05/06/2021 / Avant Joik: Live in Bergen, Blog / Avant Joik

Loop: Avant Joik is the collaborative project of Norwegian Maja S. K. Ratkje on vocals and live electronics, Swedish Katarina Barruk on vocals and joik, and Finn Matti Aikio on live visuals. At first I thought that joik was an instrument, although Barruk uses it as such through the type of singing it is. The

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Full Moon reviews CTM (CZ)

05/06/2021 / Avant Joik, Blog / Avant Joik

Jan Starý, www.fullmoonzine.cz, 2019 Na obrovském projekčním plátně se jen lehce čeří voda. Přichází Maja Ratkje, dýchá, syčí, prská do mikrofonu a skládá z těch drobných zvuků členité, ale decentní a barvou vlastně obyčejné plochy. Připojuje se Katarina Barruk s lidovými nápěvy, které v nekonečných repeticích fungují jako zaříkávání. Ve vystoupení Avant Joik se sráží

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Interview in Loop (in English and Chilean)

05/06/2021 / Blog, Interviews in English, Interviews in Spanish

by Guillermo Escudero. Published at www.loop.cl May 2021 Maja S. K. Ratkje with her wide expressive range through her voice, this one becomes the main instrument and electronics are an extension of it and it is not only to accompany, but it changes and shapes it in real time. She is always active in the

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Simplicissimus

22/04/2021 / Blog, Chamber music with voice/Vocal music, Staged work

2021; dur: 2 x 60′; Theatre by Tormod Lindgren and Knut Nærum with music by Ratkje/POING

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Avant Joik: Live in Bergen

22/04/2021 / Blog, Full length album features, Mixed media/Vinyl/Other shapes, Recorded improvisation / Avant Joik, vinyl

Bergen Kunsthall: «Live in Bergen» captures Avant Joik’s two amazing concerts during the opening weekend of Joar Nan- go’s Festival Exhibition at Bergen Kunsthall in 2020. The album is based on the recordings from two con- certs held at Landmark, Bergen Kunsthall on 4 Sep- tember 2020 and presents for the first time the groundbreaking

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Vannstand

22/04/2021 / Blog, Full length album features, Mixed media/Vinyl/Other shapes, Recorded compositions / vinyl

Motvind records: ’Vannstand’ (Sea Level) is a tribute to the slowly pulsating tidal shifts along the length of the Norwegian coastline. In Vannstand children are given the opportunity to reflect and respond musically to their relationship with the coast, the water and the sea. The composer, Maja S. K. Ratkje states: What could be more

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20 Norwegian Piano Miniatures

22/04/2021 / Blog, Recorded compositions

Twenty piano miniatures by some of the most trendsetting composers in Norway around the year 2000 — it has been a joy to be able to be part of it! This project was initiated by Viktor Mjøen of the music publisher Blåmann Musikkforlag. The idea was that limiting the length and complexity of the pieces

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Sound Chronicle of the Warsaw Autumn 2010 cd No. 7

19/03/2021 / Blog, Compilations, Rare stuff, Recorded compositions

Audio documentation for Warsaw Autumn 2010. Includes a piece by Ratkje: Chopin’s Mazurka, Op. 17 No. 4, recomposed

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Works for String Orchestra, other reviews in Norwegian

17/02/2021 / Blog, Works for String Orchestra

Ukens anbefaling (Spellemann spesial): Maja S.K. Ratkje – Works for String Orchestra av Ola Nordahl 13.02.21, Musikkskriverier Det pågår noe så sjeldent som en liten estetisk debatt (eller krangel om du vil) i det norske samtidsmusikkmiljøet for tiden. (…) I anmeldelsen lar Emil Bernhardt det tydelig komme fram at plata stryker ham mothårs, og han

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Interview in TQ Zine

10/02/2021 / Blog, Interviews in English

by Rory Carr, TQ38/39/40, a TUSK Virtual special triple issue, published Jan 2021 “It’s hard to keep up the mood and inspiration in these times, but it helps to keep myself busy with taking on unfinished tasks and being flexible enough to jump onto new possibilities that may appear suddenly because of the situation changing

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Corona lockdown concert for TUSK Festival 2020 reviewed in TQ Zine

10/02/2021 / Blog, Other album reviews

by Rory Carr, TQ38/39/40, a TUSK Virtual special triple issue, published Jan 2021 “There’s a clichéd joke about watching live electronic music shows which says you might as well be watching someone read their emails. The physical gestures required to make music with laptops and other digital devices are the same as those for office

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Can music be “true”?

09/02/2021 / Blog, by Maja in English

Text written for Nordic Music Days 2019. Festival theme is “truth”. How true is art? Should art be true? The answer lies already in the semantics! The word ‘art’, present in ‘artificial’, even so in Norwegian translation, ‘kunst’ in ‘kunstig’. Thank god that we artists are not responsible for facts the way they present scientific research!

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Svar til Emil Bernhardts kritikk i Morgenbladet (NO)

08/02/2021 / Blog, by Maja in Norwegian

Svar til Emil Bernhardts kritikk i Morgenbladet (link for abonnenter). Mitt sammendrag: Komponisten driver også med improvisasjon. Derfor viser verkene hennes stor idérikdom. Når de komponerte verkene hennes ikke fungerer, er det fordi den utemmede improviseringa tar overhånd. Når de fungerer er det fordi det er et konsept der hvor improvisasjon får betydning på et

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Corona lockdown concert for TUSK Festival 2020

07/02/2021 / Blog, Electronic music

2020; dur: 33′; Voice and live electronics

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Works for String Orchestra reviewed by Dagens Nyheter (SE)

01/02/2021 / Blog, Works for String Orchestra

5/5 (…) I händerna på denna stråkorkester blir det en allvarsam lek där det destruktiva – verket är inspirerat av såväl myten om Atlantis, översvämningarna i Venedig och den rådande klimatkrisen – är en förutsätting för det konstruktiva. En mirakulös musik som tjuraktigt stångar sig igenom vår tids dystopier och pessimism. Bästa spår: hela albumet.”

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