Norwegian master guitarists and string instrumentalists Knut Reiersrud and Geir Sundstøl have known each other since the early nineties, but rarely performed together. Purcell, sannhet, løgn og dårlig hukommelse (Purcell, Truth, Lies and Poor Recollection), is their first collaborative album, obviously interpreting some of the famous compositions of the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell (1659-1695). But as the album’s title suggests, they are doing it in their own special way, taking Purcell into pastoral, Nordic folky songs and Ry Cooder-tinged bluesy porch-style duets.
Reiersrud and Sundstøl took from Purcell’s well-measured pieces whatever they could work with, sometimes a quote, and at other times. the whole melody. They learned Purcell’s pieces by ear as they are not great readers of notated music, and reinterpreted and recomposed them on the go. They found in Purcell’s music many inventive ideas that would inspire the British pop music centuries later. Purcell’s symmetrical, well-tempered scales were given a microtonal spin thanks to pedal steel, dobro and bottleneck slide guitar. The album was recorded at Sundstøl’s home studio, Studio Intim, in the centre of Oslo in March 2025. «Basically, we are like elephants in a warehouse full of rare china, trying not to trample all over everything», Sundstøl commented.
Reiersrud and Sundstøl took Purcell’s «Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary» (made famous by synth wizard Walter – later Wendy – Carlos, in the opening title sequence of Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange) and turned it into «Sørgemarsj» (Mourning March), a touching, bluesy tribute to our late King Harald. They mention that Purcell also wrote music for the funeral of Queen Mary II, who had no children of her own, but her sister Queen Anne is a princess of the Norwegian Royal House. This humble spirit characterises the whole album. Purcell’s grandeur is brought down from its royalist heights to a more human level, as Reiersrud and Sundstøl transform his stately music into tasteful, openly emotional, folk-like musical food for the soul.
Eyal Hareuveni
Knut Reiersrud (guitars, resonator guitar, oud, harmonica), Geir Sundstøl (guitars, pedal steel, mini-moog, bass guitar, mandolin)
