Nordlysfestivalen mixes stormy Arctic weather and colourful music

The wind is blowing fiercely, and the rain hits you in the face as soon as you leave the airport building. Even the approach to Tromsø was anything but pleasant with all the turbulence in the air. Yes, winter is not always predictable, even in northern Norway. It's not a dreamy winter landscape that greets you, but rather miserable weather. But two hours later, it feels like all is right with the world again. You sit comfortably in the large hall of the city's cultural centre and listen to the catchy, folk-pop songs about love and life by singer-songwriter Marit Larsen, which she performs with a guitarist at her side and the string quartet Ensemble Noor. Larsen became famous back in the 1990s as part of the duo M2M. The Norwegian, who perhaps chats a little too much during her performance, and then exclusively in Norwegian, has also achieved great fame as a soloist, even internationally. No wonder the hall is full, and everyone is totally enthusiastic at the end, even if the one-hour concert offers little variety.

But overall the festival does, because it has far more than just concerts in its programme. For example, there is experimental dance or an intimate play in duo format, presented by a musician and an actress, with electronic music and visuals, which focuses on the persecution of witches and sorcerers in the 17th century in the northern Norwegian province of Finnmark. And then the Sex Magick Wizards play in a small club. A wild Norwegian quartet led by singer, guitarist and composer Viktor Bomstad.

Marit Larsen – Photo by Knut Åserud

Inspired by a Sami poem, the listener experiences a punk-rock-jazz, energetic work with experimental joiken (traditional Sami singing), electronically distorted vocal interludes, banging and exciting drum beats, fat electric bass runs and trenchant flute and saxophone lines. Over the course of the concert, the Norwegians are a little overwhelming with their consistently high energy level. But with their unusual mix, this band is a real discovery!

A discovery - that is also the Kaipu project by the Nordnorsk Jazz Ensemble together with Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen. "Kaipu" means longing, and the concert project, which was developed over several years and has now celebrated its premiere in Tromsø, sheds light on the culture and music of the Kven, an ethnic Baltic-Finnish minority in Norway. The eight musicians involved sit in a large circle in the foyer of a theatre, with the audience right in the middle and close around them. This unusual setting and the magnificent all-round sound alone make the concert an experience. And listening to the old, traditional Kven music with a modern twist, interspersed with jazzy improvisations and electronic effects, is a colourful, exciting experience. 

The duo Arvvas with the Norwegian bassist and singer Steinar Raknes and the Sami Joik singer Sara Marielle Gaup Beaska is also well worth listening to. The two present a wonderful crossover programme with just their voices, the double bass, whose sound is sometimes spiced up with electronics and then sounds more like a screeching electric guitar, with singing in English and Sami at the same time, successfully combining archaic Joik tradition with pop-folk or Americana.

For more than two decades, the midnight concerts in Tromsø's city centre cathedral are a good tradition. During the Nordlysfestivalen – The Northern Lights Festival they are integrated into the festival. Late at night, listen to the enchanting soprano Anne-Berit Buvik, accompanied by Tore Nedgård on church organ and piano and Sondre A. Kleven on saxophone - pure soul food. The acoustics in Norway's only wooden cathedral and one of the northernmost cathedrals in the world are excellent, and the programme of Norwegian and Swedish folk songs, a Sami joik or a lullaby is just right for this late, contemplative hour.