SONGS TO THE GREEN LAND
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Songs to the Green Land is a new work based on personal Greenlandic stories for choir and jazz orchestra composed by Helge Norbakken (NO) and Jakob Buchanan (DK). A musical portrayal of the longing, the despair and the dreams of Greenlandic people.  Basil Hogios was invited to create atmospheric visuals using photographic material and interview footage gathered by the composers on their trips to Greenland. He also combined the images with animated text by Iain S Thomas, in sync with sung lyrics, spoken poems, and field recordings.

The work is inspired by a series of personal conversations with Greenlanders in Denmark and Greenland about themes such as childhood, nature, family, and friends. The conversations recorded by the two composers were explored further into aesthetic detail in order to bring to life the uniqueness of the Greenlandic language. Together with recordings of rhymes, chants, and magic songs that the Greenlandic writer and visual artist Jens Rosing recorded in East Greenland in the 60's, as well as sound recordings from the Danish Folklore Archives, the rhythm of the language has become rhythmic structures in the music and statements from the conversations have become the text of the work. It is a magnificent, poetic, and very exciting work that combines Norbakken's and Buchanan's Nordic lyrical tone with elements of Greenlandic drumming and choral music as well as more open musical movements. The concert offers a fantastic line-up, where the Aarhus Jazz Orchestra and the two composers are accompanied by the Greenlandic choirs, Aavaat and Anningaaq, and two guest soloists Jonas Westergaard (bass) and Simon Toldam (keyboards). 

Aarhus Jazz Orchestra featuring
Choirs: Aavaat and Anningaaq 
Jakob Buchanan (flugelhorn)
Simon Toldam (piano)
Jonas Westergaard (bass)
Helge Norbakken (percussion)
Conductor: Carsten Seyer-Hansen 
Visuals: Basil Hogios

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