Article published in the book A Sound Word Almanac, edited by Bernd Herzogenrath, 2023. To read, order the book at Bloomsbury Academic. This almanac of sound words important to artists and scholars highlights words that expand the way we speak (and write) about sonic experiences. Why write about sound, and how? If sonic philosophy is […]
Tracing Arne Nordheim in the digital archives of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) First published in a pamphlet published by Arne Nordheim’s Composer’s Prize 2022, Hild Borchgrevink, editor and translation, with support from Arts Council Norway. The original article in Norwegian Opus 1 In a TV studio, inside a white pavilion scenography, surrounded by dried
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!
Can music be “true”? Read More »
Unbelievable? Perhaps. This image shows the Norwegian Girls’ Choir at the general rehearsal in the UN hall practicing my piece, – right before the authorities stopped the whole thing. Composer Maja Ratkje said she was shocked that the piece had been struck off the programme in New York. “As far as I’m aware, this is
UN censoring work by Ratkje in New York! Read More »
-In my opinion, music is so far from language, it is actually incorrect to say that music is a language of it’s own. It is entirely different by nature. Language is however connected to the way we look at scores, and the academia on music is often so connected to the way music is represented in language/score that sound is often forgotten.
On Henri Bergson and Improvisation Read More »
A generally curious attitude to life is essential for an inspired existence. There is no contradiction between retaining a childlike or childish curiosity whilst simultaneously acquiring and cultivating knowledge.
Nine Prerequisites for Inspiration Read More »
What is experienced is unique for each person participating in what we create together, in this space, in our shared experience of now!
Klipp fra en hverdagsparallellitet, hentet fra et nettintervju, notater til en forelesning og en e-postsamtale. publisert i RETT KOPI, filosofisk tidsskrift, 1/2004
Kutt kutt! (NO/EN) Read More »
Every Friday, Dusted Magazine publishes a series of music-related lists determined by our favorite artists. This week: 25 Suaves and Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje. (…) Norwegian singer, improviser, and composer Maja Ratkje has worked with such artists as Merzbow, Jazzkammer and Otomo Yoshihide. She plays electronics with the free improv group Spunk and has also
Listed: 25 Suaves + Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje Read More »
-I don’t think about emotions when I perform. The associations you get when listening to it afterwards obviously connect to certain emotions, but that is happening in the listener. I try to leave open as much ambiguity as possible.
Edited from an interview with the Greek zine Strange In Stereo Read More »
-Why not be more surrealistic or irrational? The world becomes boring if you don’t see as much potential in new things as possible. The child’s curious view on the world is easy to lose, it’s however not a contradiction to gain experience. ‘Open-minded’ is not the same as being naive.
With cyberspeed we stumble around in the universe of today, only to find that to a high degree it is constructed for individuals. Everything is so strangely made to fit that we tend to forget what we wanted to say in the first place.