Snow-hotel in Kirkenes

So now its time to go to Kirkenes, and for the snow-hotel.
Every year they build a snow hotel in Kirkenes. They have sround 10 rooms. This year some ice-artist from Tokyo had come to Kirkenes and helped bulding this hotel, so it had some oriental decor in there as well.
I think this is my second snow hotel I have been to. I have also been to a Ice-bar in New Zealand, but that was basically just a really big refigerator with bar in it made of ice.

Jørn Øien came to meet me today. He will be playing duo-concerts with me most of the tour. He is a jazz-pianist and although he plays synth on my CD "jiknon musihkka-frozen music" ha has never played with me live before.

It was once again the perfect setting for my frozen music i felt. I was surrounded by ice and snow, but still it felt very intimate. Ája and me played a short concert in the bar-area of the hotel. It was a magical feeling. And people loved it. And I really loved the setting!

Many of the people at the concert would be sleeping in the hotel that night. I wonder what it feels like to wake up in a snow-hotel. I have never tried sleeping not even in a lavvu in the winter, except for once, I belieive long time ago....
Here they had proper beds with reindeer sking, and sleeping bags, but you have to wear woolen clothing to go to bed, cause the temperature is below 0 I think.Dont really know, but I believe so....

I hope someday I will get the chance to sleep in a snow-hotel...

Snow-stage, Ice-art and duodji-sale in Tana!

So in the morning sunday the 13th of februrary I had to wake up early to start the long drive all the way to Tana. It took us about 7 hours to get there. My band went back to Oslo, and now it was back to duo concerts. after that great concert in hammerfest I really wanted my band to come with me, but they could not.

I was exhausted after the trip to Tana, so I tried to rest as much as possible. Outside our hotel it was packed with people. Alot of people were selling doudji/sami handcraft, and other clothing and arts and food and alot of stuff. It was fun to see so much people there, amongst the ice-sculptures, and the hill for children to play on. They had built a stage of snow, and the funny thing was that the dog-racers track was right on the stage, so every once in a while there would be a dog-sledge passing over the stage where the conferansier was standing.

Later in the evening the stage was used for music. Ája and me where playing on that stage. And just when Ája was playing their last song one of the dog-racers came and passed behind them, and waved to the audience. It was just the coolest thing!
I thought: "Wow, how cool is that! I want a dog-sledge come and pass over stage when I am singing too!! That didnt happen unfortunately, but it was so cool to se that anyway! :D

Later that night there was a acoustic Cyaneed (girl-punkrock band from Alta) concert at the hotel that I went to see. They always have such energy and power at their concerts. It was nice to hear them in a more quiet setting. I really enjoyed their concert. Their bass player did a few songs on her her own, wich was really suprising for me, and beutiful! :D

Hammerfest! Hammer-party!

Photos Andreas Fliflet


Friday 11th I did a few songs at the opening banquet for finnmarksløpet in Alta. This was at the hotel. The athomsfere was nice and i could tell people where excited about the next day, when the race starts.



And so the next day, saturday 12th of march just before the race started I did "Lihkku Niehku" at the start line before the racers took off. There wehere so many people who had gathered there to watch the racers when they went. The race had begin! :D



When I had done my song I had to hurry straight to the car and start driving to Hammerfest. It is just a few hours driving, so it wasnt so bad. I got there just an hour before my band landed at Hammerfest airport, so I went to get them from the airport, wich was not easy to find, actually, when you have never been there before. No signs anywhere.

Hihi anyway, we were playing at Arktisk kultuersenter in Hammerfest. A really nice new building. The sound was great, and the lighting was awesome, the whole thing just went perfect! I couldnt be more happy with our performance!
This time I had with me 2 new bandmembers. Andreas on drums and Jo Skaansar on bass, in addition to Juani Silvola on guitar and Ole Jørn Myklebust on synth and trumpet.


I am som happy , because this concert was recorded for NRK to send it on the radio at some point, and that concert was awesome. The people who had come where very happy with it! Everyone seemed to have had a great experience, which I was hoping for of course. Very very happy!! :D

Lihkku Niehku/Dream of fortune for sale on iTunes now!

http://itunes.apple.com/no/album/lihkku-niehkku-dream-fortune/id425236222

First day of Finnmarksløpet - tour

Photos Ken A. Brox















The start of my Finnmarksløpet tour was in Alta 10th of March for the opening of the Borealis vinterfestival as well as Finnmarksløpet.
Alta videregående skole had made this amazing play for this. I dont know where to begin descibing it. It was just perfect. The cotumes where great and the big stallo was the star of the play. It was teatre, musical, puppets, circus, karneval. All in one! Alot of different acts.

They had some poi-fire dancers there, and I was so lucky that they actually agreed to do some fire-dancing under my act as well. I was really proud. I think poi is the coolest thing. I tried to learn it at some point, but just havent practiced, so no progress with that....

This snow/ice-artist Laila Kostyak had made lots of sculpures and also the huge stage of snow. It was up to 7 meter over the ground, I belive. Such a artwork!
I started singing quite high on the sculpture and for the third verse I went down from it. I was so terrified of falling down! I saw all the people from up there. They said it could be a few thousand that had come to see the opening. It was the strangest feeling ever. Just to see the heads of people, and when I looked up there was the northern lights! It was the perfect opening of my tour I must say. I knew it was going to be a special experience to sing under the northern lights every day!

Så trøtt for tiden!Har sovet 12 timer igjen.Ka hjelper mot trøtthet?//So tired!Slept for 12 hours again.How do I to get more energy?

My songs at Foto.no

Frank Hesjedal from foto.no has used my music for their slideshows on Youtube.
Foto.no is a page for photographers, a page where they can put their pictures for people to look at and buy, share comments and so on.

I saw the slideshows today and thay where amazing! I was almost in tears cause the pictures where so beutiful and my music just seemed to be used for something good, and that was a wonderful feeling.

More at http://foto.no/cgi-bin/articles/articleView.cgi?articleId=43615

My first Music Video is in the making!

Photo by Sveinung Gjessing

WOW this year will be my first at a lot of things! Including my first music-video... This is something I have wanted to do for a long time and finally I had the chance!

This music video is specially made for Finnmarksløpet this year. I will be touring with finnmarksløpet as well, following them and singing everywhere they run! :D hihi

So I came back to Oslo from Nordklang sunday night at 11 and monday morning at 9 I was back at the airport to go to Alta for the recording of the music video to Lihku Niehku/Dream of Fortune.
We filmed it at the mountain house Jotka Fjellstue, just outside of Alta. It was a really beutiful place to be. The owner, Steinar, who is participating in Finnmarksløpet had a huge part in the video. He was so helpful and sporty about being on this video, so a HUGE thank you to him! He even lend us his dogs! Tusen takk, Steinar!

...and of course his wife who made us the best reindeer food we could ask for!
We stayed there for 2 days, so we got to spend the night there as well, witch was nice. :D

The story of the video is about this husky who had one of his dogs injured. I am a mythical creature that lives in the wild. He goes to see a shaman and the shaman warns him about me. I heal his injured dog, and in the end I transform him to a wolf.... so thats the story in a few words. I love the fact that I transform someone so they become my wolfs under my spell for ever. :D Awesome!



I cant wait to see the outcome! I trust the guys at Sedendu film to make a awesome video, so I dont have any doubst there. I just cant wait to see it....




Photo by Linn Henriksen

Nordklang, CH 2011!!

After the by:Larm concerts Juhani Silvola and me woke up at 4 in the morning to go to Switzerland for the Nordkland Festival. We were booked for an hour long duo concert there. We were very much looking forward to it, and it met all our expectations! We had such a warm welcome there and all the people where so helpful and nice to us. Even the grass was green there, and we were both longing for spring.

I have never been to switzerland before. There were so many old buildings there with such an interesting history. The typical arcitect-style from switzerland, Jugend-style and so on. I of course forgot my camera, but next time I will remember, I promise!

This festival takes place in St. Gallen every year, and its a nice half an hours train-trip from Zurich. Juhani and me couldnt believe that we suddenly where in Switzerland. On saturday when we arrived I did a radio Interwiew with the swiss radio station toxic.fm, and we had some time to rest before our concert. The concert went just awesome! The venue was in a a basement in the famous library in St.Gallen. It was concrete all painted white. The audience were so welcoming to us, they looked spellbound, witch is a good sign, and we also did a extra song cause the audience where applauding. The venue was full, 300 people approximately. Me and Juhani were extactic about this concert. We had never thought we would get such a response there. It was so great!

The rest of the night we went around and looked at other concerts. We saw "Polkabjørn & Kleine Heine" who are from Norway as well. It was just fantastic! They were jodeling, singing ballads, and just making comedy! We were laughing the whole time they where on stage and after the concerts we also got to meet them. It was just a fun night there in Switzerland!
The next day we were ready for a sightseeing in St.Gallen. It was so good to have some extra time for a look around the city, and the guide told us many stories from the city. We also went to this old library where they have handwritten musicnote-books from the middle ages! About 2000 books with hand written notes they have; from the oldest one on europe and up to newer times. It was fascinating to see those treasures from the old times. The beginning of written music....

In the evening we flew back to Oslo. I got some swiss chocolate and cheese while I was there, but that is gone already. Ate it all in a few days... Danke schoon!!

Just a big thank you to Felix, Daniela, Aino and the guy who only told me his name once, so I dont remember...he made soup like my mums and brought me other good stuff I wanted! :D You saved our trip, and it was just fantastic! I will never forget this trip! AWESOME!

www.nordklang.ch


Hope to get some pics soon from the festival!

By:Larm 2011!

Wow this year so far has been such an experience! I played at John dee, and now By:larm and Nordklang!

My first concert at By:Larm was in Teltet at Youngstoget. There where 2 stages so that there would be music palying all the time. This concert went pretty well, but the next one at Gamla was the best concert so far! I was so afraid that there would be no audience since I was the first band playing at that venue, but there where lots of people there watching the whole concert, so I was really really happy and content about our concerts at by:Larm. I cant believe that we actually did that, that is such a big thing for me, it has been like a unachivable dream for me such a long time, and now it became reality. It is a fairy tale!

The days went by so quickly. I spent most of the day just being nervous and preparing for the concerts. Get dressed, go to rhearsal and paly the concerts. And after the concert it was time to get ready for the next one. I was so excited that I couldnt even sleep prooerly. Anything would wake me up...

We got our reviews from the concert in Teltet the next day. I wish the reviewer had come on out concert at Gamla, but it's good I got reviewed. The review was at the 5th page in the by:Larm paper, witch was kind of suprisingly good place to have it!

I was confused by some of the statements in the review though, but I will learn from this, and try to make my expressions even clearer to the audience... About what my music and perfomance is about.

I have to also tell you about my bass player for these concerts, Jo Berger Myhre. He is such a hero! I am so happy with him, he always plays excellent, everything sounds just complete when he plays. I feel so lucky to have him in my band with the other guys. It says in the review that he stands almost with his back to the audience. Unfortunately, the week before by:Larm he had hurt his shoulder. It had popped out of his place and he had been to the doctor to put it back in its socket, but he was still rehabilitating the shoulder while playing at by:larm. He could only move his hand to under his chest, and the first concert at John Dee he had to sit, just because it was to painful to stand. And the poor guy was playing and rehearsing with a few other bands as well who where playing at by:Larm so his arm did not get much rest...

Showcase at John Dee!

Yeah! My first concert at John Dee took place on the 16th of february 2011. This is one of my favorite places to see concerts, and one of best known places in Oslo for cencerts, so I am really proud that I got to play there! :D

This concert went relly well. The stage was small, but just enough room for me to move and dance just a little bit.
Scene Finnmark made this evening happen, as a northern-Norway warm-up for By:larm. I was first up, and the place was already half-full even so early as 20:00, so I was really happy. I had my supporters from Karasjok there so make me feel welcome at this famous stage, and had so good feedback after the concert! It was fun to meet some of my supporters after the show, and I got to see the rest of the bands. FirstImpression, Violet Road and Cyaneed. All are great bands from northern Norway. :D




Photos by Linn Eirin Paulsen

Samefolkets Dag/ The Sami Peoples day

Lihkku Beivviin! Håper alle har feiret samefolkets dag! :D Today was the offical sami peoples day, you should yoik a little, everyone! :D
The 6. of february has been celebrated by sami people i Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia since 1993.
It has become bigger and bigger each year, and each city have their own traditions of how they celebrate.
In kindergardens and shcools all over the country they learn about the sami people and some of them cebrate as well. The Sami kindergarden in Oslo have a party where they ask parents, a sami artist, and guests from the government, or other guests to come and spend time in the kindergarden. They make a Sami dinner with reindeer meat, and have sami games with lasso's and sing The sami peoples song. Its a nice way to remember that once we actually werent even alloud to speak sami, or wear sami clothing...

Lihkku Niehku vocals are recorded

Today Juhani Silvola and I went to studio to record the vocals for Lihkku Niehku/Dream of Fortune. I am really happy about how it! It sounds great! I really hope you guys will like it. This is a song about being free, and letting oneself be happy, like I hope you all do! :D

I have been to the Sami kindergarden and celebrated the Sami people day with them. I danced and got some reindeer dinner and cake! :D

AUCH! I bit my tongue.

I had made dinner with some bacon and I was talking about how I dont eat much pork meat. I was saying that the pig is kind of a grouse animal. And then I bit my tongue.
It reminded me of my mother who would say "That's what you deserve for talking badly about other people."

One time when I was making fun of one of my former class-mates occupation, I hurt my elbow in the table, and she said those words to me. Now whenever I hurt myself like that, I always stop and think about what I have said or done, just when it happend.


These small signs are guideline for you to remember whats important, I think... So when I bit myself in the tongue while talking badly about the pig, I just remembered how lucky we are who can choose of any foods we want, and that this pig actually has given its life so that I will not starve today. I respect that alot. '
Another issue is how these pigs where treated. I can only hope they got treated with the respect they deserve.

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