Norwegian sax player Kristin Sevaldsen calls her music eco-acoustics. Her new solo album The Sonic Experience –  Snøhetta is based on her sonic reflections, including field recordings, from her trips to the mount Snøhetta area, the highest mountain in the mythical Dovrefjell mountain range in Norway. This musical journey began when Sevaldsen hiked the mountain area in 2019 and later processed her field recordings from the area into five meditative soundscapes, that offer her awareness of climate change and an urgent call to protect this fragile environment.

The five pieces serve as a sonic retrospective of Sevaldsen’s trips to the majestic Snøhetta area. She says that the first meeting with the Snøhetta area was characterized by magical silence. The second meeting was deeply affected by the urgent awareness of climate change. Sevaldsen’s soundscapes mirror and comment on the human causes that affect this planet’s climate, especially in the Snøhetta area. These pieces are minimalist and melancholic and the sparse sax parts owe much to the seminal legacy of Jan Garbarek and his phrasing. The warm and innocent sound of Sevaldsen’s saxophone is employed mainly to color the soundscapes and is contrasted by the dark and chilly electronics and the unsettling field recordings, including tourist activities. These spacious pieces manage to capture the feeling of the constant decay of nature and the immediate tension one feels when observing it so close, and all invite the listeners to contribute their own associations and thoughts.

Eyal Hareuveni

Kristin Sevaldsen (s, field recordings, elec)