Norwegian experimental composer-sound artist-vocalist performer Stina Stjern began her musical career as a vocalist in the local rock band Supervixen while studying jazz in Trondheim, continued in unpredictable ways by composing left-off-center psychedelic pop music, commissioned to arrange songs by the legendary Norwegian band Motorpsycho for an orchestra in the Trondheim JazzFest, and composing music for dance groups.
Vivid Peace Restored is perhaps Stjern’s most radical musical statement yet, as the entire album was made using cassette tapes and cassette players as a compositional tool and as a primary source of sound in creating and performing music. Stjern worked with the cassettes and their inherent limitations, possibilities and analog hiss giving the compositions a unique timbre. Stern has created cassette tape music for the albums of Susanna (Wallumrød), Elevation and Baudelaire & Orchestra (SusannaSonata, 2022 and 2023). The album was recorded at Susanna’s Sonata Studio in Oslo and co-produced by her and Stjern.
Stjern creates sensual, left-off-center 12 concise songs with found sounds, tape recorders, synths, and her own voice, subtle noises and feedback and field recordings. These sounds were looped, cut-up, re-arranged, layered and weaved into a surreal and thought-provoking, cryptic-labyrinthian yet cohesive tapestry, with a John Cage-tinged egalitarian concept of no hierarchy of sounds, including Stjern’s voice (listen to «Rewind Beethoven» and «The Wild Woman Archetype» to get an idea). These enigmatic songs tempt the curious listener to surrender and immerse into Stjern’s bold, imaginative sonic vision, a place where nothing is forced or overstated, but many strange wonders are revealed through repeated, attentive listening.
Stjern says that this process of work gives her music an intimate quality to her music that feels like coming home, a process similar to the tangible act of hand-writing. She wants Vivid Peace Restored to act as a meditation, a state of mind, a sonic healing in a world that often feels too brutal and unforgiving. We all need more brilliant, seductive songs like the one of Stjern.
Eyal Hareuveni
Stina Stjern (cassette tape recorders, walkmans, effects, synthesizers, vocals)
