It feels a bit like the end of an era for Passepartout Duo. In 2017, we started a project called Skammdegi/Náttleysi that set us out to commission works by composers from the Nordic Countries and to discover what were, for us, completely unknown music scenes. In mid-February, when we finish our residency here at Leveld Kunstnartun, we’ll finally be done.
Our Nordic Project took us to Denmark, Iceland, Finland (twice), Norway (twice), Sweden, and the Faroe Islands. With support from the Nordic Culture Fund and Nordic Culture Point, we were able to premiere works by nine composers and perform at the Summartónar Festival (FO) and Dark Music Days (IS). Hafdís Bjarnadottír wrote us a piece called A Northern Year - we think it’s also a perfect title for our journey. Here are some of the highlights from each stop:
Stop #1: Hjørring, Denmark
What we were doing here:
We collaborated with the Snow Mask Composers Group on a concert for the Round the Piano Concert Series at the beautiful Vendsyssel Theater in Hjørring. We premiered works by Filip de Melo and Eirik Moland, alongside some older Berio and Aperghis!
Personal Discoveries:
The last stop before we arrived in Denmark was Havana, Cuba. Nothing can quite capture the disparity of quality of life between the Nordic Countries and just about everywhere else in the world quite like that juxtaposition. In Denmark, people are taken care of in a way that we didn’t think was possible before we saw it for ourselves. Also, we got to eat many memorable meals at this brand new theater’s restaurant courtesy of chef Uffe!
Stop #2: Ólafsfjördur, Iceland
What we were doing here:
We spent 9 weeks on an artist residency based at Listhús Artspace in the north of Iceland. We kept super busy with many musical projects: recording and writing our debut EP alongside visual artists and new friends Yannis Zhang and Yumo Wu, filming Lansing McLoskey’s new piece, filming Bryan Jacobs piece “Piano + Electronics”, and performing all of the above at the Dark Music Days Festival.
Personal Discoveries:
Being isolated from society as an artist is sometimes a privilege - especially now when it’s so easy to be in touch with the outside anywhere you go. Iceland is known for being naturally beautiful, but these short dark days of December with just two hours of twilight were other-worldly. We are extremely thankful to Teresa Cheung and Alice Liu for making us discover the art scene in the area, and organizing our first house concert tour (now a staple of the duo), and to Hafdís Bjarnadottír for taking us to wool centers and swimming pools!
Stop #3: Eckerö, Åland
What we were doing here:
We had a 15-day residency at the Eckerö Post and Customs House. We received the first drafts of a piece from Hafdís here, started experimenting with our brand new portable instrumentation, and had our first open studio event.
Personal Discoveries:
We’re not ashamed to admit we couldn’t point to Åland on a map before May. Everything here was a discovery, but I think the most vivid memory will always be our boat ride to the Islands: the ferry isn’t so much a mode of transportation, but rather a place for Swedish people to enjoy duty-free alcohol priced on the Euro. We were so surprised when, on our arrival, no one was getting off but us! The light was gorgeous and the long bike rides from island to island helped work off those special Åland pancakes.
Stop #4: Fiskars, Finland
What we were doing here:
We were here on an artist residency created by Onoma, an Art Co-op in Fiskars. We filmed Florent Ghys piece Poor Margie, and Andy Akiho’s piece Stop Speaking. That was the start of a new program idea of ours called “As We Speak” that focuses on the human voice in the composition process. We also got to share a gig with the local musician, Laura Airaksinen, and learned about Finnish pop music!
Personal Discoveries:
The midnight sun is super beautiful and fills you with energy, until you release you haven’t slept in weeks and just crash. That was us in the end of June, around the time of the Midsummer party. Fiskars is also the self-declared Twin Peaks of Finland, and we can tell you its just one crime away from a TV series.
Stop #5: The Faroe Islands
What we were doing here:
We performed three concerts at the Summatónar Festival! We premiered Hafdís’ piece alongside four brand new works by eclectic Faroese composers.
Personal Discoveries:
In a country with 50,000 people, one person can completely transform the music scene: we’re talking about the awesome human being, Kristian Blak! Also, there are so many intriguing and unexpected things we learned about this place in our almost-one-week stay there! Life on these islands was really difficult for a long time, and this background of resilience and self-reliance is very inspiring to us. It’s probably the most beautiful place we’ve ever been, with dramatic natural landscapes everywhere you look. A fellow pianist, Oluf Dam, took us on a midnight boat ride through Sørvágsvatn, the islands’ largest lake. It was cold, dark, and wet, but we enjoyed every second, and got to try all sorts of Faroese food specialties afterward. Smoked fish sausages? Surprisingly delicious!
Stop #6: Ålvik, Norway
What we were doing here:
We were on a residency at Kunstnarhuset Messen. We filmed Hafdís’s piece at James Turrell’s Hardanger Skyspace in Øystese (still pinching ourselves that we got to spend a whole day in one of Turrell’s installations). Many thanks to the museum Kabuso!
Personal Discoveries:
Norwegian folk music is seriously underrated. We were staying in the Hardanger fjord region, which is the birthplace of the Hardanger fiddle. We learned a lot about the folk traditions, and it was super inspiring. Check out the folk museum in Utne! Besides that, we got to record at the Wallcon Lydstudio, a recording studio stuck between the fjord and the mountains in Ålvik, thanks to Bjørn Otto - there’s nothing more inspiring than making music right in nature.
Stop #7: Stockholm, Sweden
What we were doing here:
Speaking of studios, here we were working in one in the land of Abba! We spent a few days workshopping ideas for a new piece that Marta Forsberg was writing for us. The piece is called Gentle Acts, and it’s written for electronic instruments and LED light strips.
Personal Discoveries:
We had wonderful hosts who shared lots of music and culture with us. Some highlights include our discovery of Systembolaget (government-owned chain of liquor stores) and knäckebröd.
Stop #8: Rauma, Finland
What we were doing here:
We were artists in residence at RaumArs. Here we did a tour of house concerts throughout Rauma (13 in total), and created our new project called Sound Envelopes. They’re 5 small musical postcards that we gave to people in Finland with one direction: “give this to someone else further east”. Slowly but surely, we’re directing the postcards towards Nakanojo where they’ll be on exhibition in September 2019.
Personal Discoveries:
There are outdoor ‘forest churches’ where people celebrate Christmas outside in sub-0 temperatures. We saw our best Northern Lights display of the year, way further south than expected!
Stop #9: Leveld, Norway
What we were doing here:
This is our final stop: we’re on a residency at Leveld Kunstnartun spending time dotting our i’s and crossing our t’s on the two films we’ve made of Marta’s and Hafdís’ pieces and hoping to release them before February closes out!
Personal Discoveries:
We heard a lot of stories about long-distance skating over frozen lakes… A local told us that Norwegians are “born with skis” and we certainly believe them! Even the school children impressively ski down the slopes just outside the school here in a way that our nevering-having-skied-selves could never dream of.