2011 kind of rushed away for me with the preparations and releases of the three albums. I must admit that there have been some challenges (with deadlines and so), but also much fun! I am very impatient to get ahead with the next one! But wait! There is one more in line before that. The Autumn Whispers’ debut record will be out on February 2012. We are very excited about it, after many months of recording and preparing. Feel free to have listen at Autumn Whispers MySpace. I will keep you posted about the progression of this release, as well as other things I want to share with you in the year to come!
I wish it will be a happy one, with inspiration, growth and joy – for all of you!
I know this is not the best production – and some of you have heard this arrangement before. But I love this old tune, and I think the recording still has a kind of charm to it. So here it is, a version of the 16th century traditional tune from England; Autumn Comes. A winter solstice gift from me to you.
Saturday 10th of December (soon, oh soon) I will show up together with Oslo Rockantikvariat (the most charming old record shop in Oslo), at their stand at NORGES CD- OG PLATEMESSE. I will be signing vinyls and cd’s from 10 am to 4 pm. There will be a nice “førjuls” – discount on the albums this day, which will definitely pay back the 40 kroner entrance fee. AND the hall will be filled with rare and beautiful vinyl and cds for you to explore.
To give you a feeling of how the cover artworks look like (I am not huge fan of downloading digital albums myself; I still prefer the physical ones!) The albums are now available at Big Dipper (Torggata Platebar) and Oslo Rockantikvariat – for those of you who live in Oslo and prefer to shop from a real record store. The newest cd is also available for sale at Asker Bibliotek.
Our WEBSHOP is still the solution for internet purchases.
..is here! And we want to celebrate it with this new video clip. The images are from Coole Park and other places relevant to Yeats’ life and work. The song is based upon the poem Before the World was Made, from The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933).
The web shop is now open for safe and easy purchase of the physical albums! For digital download, Amazon is the first one being on schedule!
We hope that you will enjoy the music!
Only 5 days left till the 20th! And what will happen then? Let’s reveal some if it: There will be no huge release party that day, but a brand new video clip will be published, and the web shop will be open for orders. For those of you who live in Norway, I will have to remind you that because of Norwegian music distribution politics, this album will not be for sale in the ordinary record shops. But I will keep you updated on events where you can come, and where the cds and vinyls will be sold. And of course, you can buy them safely on the webshop anytime. The albums will be available for download from over 130 digital music stores.
Presentation of the releases:
Tales from Tranquil August Gardens
Nine and Fifty Swans
October is not only one of the most beautiful months, it is also a great time to release albums! At least it is for us hyperboreans, that need some good music to warm our souls with as the winter sets in. And here are two albums I would recommend for that particular use: Finn Coren’s “Mitt hjerte – dikt av Jens Bjørneboe” and White Willow’s Terminal Twillight. The albums are being released these days.
means bow in Greek, and is the name of the string quartet I had the pleasure of listening to a few days ago. The quartet consists of musicians from France, Greece and Norway, playing the traditional instruments nykkelharpe, cello, Cretan lyra and Hardanger fiddle. Together they create an intercultural, yet impressively authentic sound of folk music.
The songs are composed and arranged by the members of the group, and each song has its recognizable signature from the nationality of the particular songwriter. The band is touring frequently in Europe. If they pop up in your neighborhood, you wouldn’t want to miss them! Tokso
And this summer I had the pleasure of experiencing two very beautiful baroque performances. The first one was Henry Purcell’s “The Fairy Queen”, a libretto written in 1692 based upon W. Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. It was performed in the most wonderful garden theater at Ramme Gård in Hvitsten. The scenery changed place more than once, and the audience 
was guided and lured around by a flock of dancing fairies to the appropriate stages. And then there were music! And how beautiful was the sound of original baroque instruments outdoors, in combination with the spacy, elvish sound landscape coming from different amplifiers in the garden. This was certainly taking place on a midsummer night, with the warm breeze blowing through the trees, mixing into the sounds of the play, under a quite light evening sky that you only see at this time of the year. But whether it was all a dream or not, I am still not quite sure.
The second experience was in the beautiful baroque church of Sts. Peter and Paul in the city of Krakow. I don’t know if this baroque architecture was somehow made in order to reflect the sounds of that time, but I have never heard the acoustics of baroque instruments being reflected so well before. It gave a very soft, but still clear sound. Like a mix of velvet and diamonds.
I would never imagine that my next post would contain of anything related to terror. Most of you have probably heard of the happenings in Norway. It was a very shocking and surprising attack, for all of us. Though, if you were in Oslo right now, you would see a huge amount of people gathering for a peaceful meeting in the city center, and you would see them spreading the word of love, support and openness. Not fear or hate. I would be very grateful for anyone out there who would join and support us in this way towards healing. For everyone involved.
is as time-consuming as it is funny and creative. At least when you are doing three of them simultaneously! Soon the summer will have passed by like an express train, and all I will remember of it are templates and fonts, pictures and resolutions, calculations and a lot of emails.
I love the summer. But the autumn has it’s own way of sorting things out. I believe that we will be satisfied with the results.
Parenthesis has made a remix of June’s Flowers, which will appear as one of the bonus tracks on the re release of A Dance with the Shadows. (Now called Tales from Tranquil August Gardens – available on CD, vinyl and MP3 download from October)
..to announce that the release of “Nine and Fifty Swans” will happen this autumn, through my own label FairyMusic. As some of you already know, the CD will contain 10 songs based upon the lyrics of W.B.Yeats. The cover artwork will have an Irish touch to it, with images from places relevant to Yeats’ life and work. The CD will be available through the web shop to- come on this site, from October 2011.
There will also be a re release of my previous record “A Dance with the Shadows”, which has been out of stock for several years. It will contain two bonus tracks, new cover and even a new name, “Tales from Tranquil August Gardens”. The reasons for this change are several, but the most important one is a longing to get back to the original idea of the visual expression of this album. Time of release will also be this autumn.
…a Happy and Inspired New Year with this photographical jurney of Winter Roses
This summer we can expect a beautiful fairytale compilation coming from Germany. Several bands from different parts of the world are participating with a music fairytale. You will find more info at Maere Music
It has begun quite cold here up North; cold an very beautiful with pure, glimmering snow; pink and frosty sunsets and moonlit, white nights – as you rarely see them anymore. I love a real winter – because it is real, and because its strength gives a wider dimension to things. You can not delete it, or push a button to remove it. King Winter is strong, he’ll just come, as the ambassador of nature itself, to shake us up from our sleepiness, and awaken our presence . It makes the errors of humanity seem smaller. I love it. Come, King Winter, shake the bones of us sleepy Northerners “not to be disturbed”. I think we need it.
Happy Wonderful New Year, folks!
A Dance with the Shadows is now available digitally at CD Baby!
The present issue of the greek music magazine Metronome contains Aleksis Vakis’ interview from the music trip to Athens in December last year. It was also a pleasant surprise to see the portrait of Katerina Papadopoulou in the same magazine, as I find her voice and expression fabulous.
The songs for the Yeats album are taking new shape with the contributions of Johanne Gallagher and her Gaelic “vocal spices” and Nils Einar Vinjor and his eminent guitar work. Demos of this work will be added on MySpace as soon they are presentable. The first song out is The Fisherman/Carolan’s Ramble to Cashel, which is a combination of Yeats’ famous poem about his images of a Connemara fisherman, and the Irish harp player Carolan’s lovely tune. The tune itself is performed by flutist Audun Kjus.
The interview that was recorded in Athens two weeks ago, was broadcasted yesterday afternoon in Greek radio. 1,5 hour with many new songs presented 
I am finally back in Norway, having so many impressions to digest. I really had an enriching time there, in many ways. Hope to be back soon.
Αδέσποτα
This day started with an appointment with the stray dogs in Athens. They seem much healthier and happier than they did just a few years ago, and people seem to care more about them, letting them inside their shops while it is raining; feeding and appreciating them. For the first time I truely enjoyed my walks in Athens.
Κατεύθυνση
I was just a few hundered meters from my destination, a bazaar for stray dogs, when my map suddenly began to look different than my surroundings. I had to ask for help, and it turned out that those couple of hundred meters were not possible to pass by foot (that was not visible on the map). I would have to walk the same distance back again, then take the metro one station, then change, and one station further with another train. Only for 300 meters! I still enjoy my walks in Athens, but the city is far as logic as the greek grammar.
I always thought I had a bad sence of direction. Therefore I must sometimes rely on some help from above when travelling around. After the appointment with the angels of the city, I needed to get to the total opposite of the town. Therefore needed to do some relying. And what happens? A direct bus pops up in front of me, and takes me directly to Vironas, my destionation this afternoon. But why would I want to go there?
To be continued. 
I was happy to finally meet with Aleksis Vakis, composer, arranger and music critic in several Greek music magazines and radio. Luckily my CD ended up with him a few years ago, which lead to the most wonderful reveiw in one of the largest Greek music periodicals ΔΙΦΩΝΟ (Difono). Later on we cathed up on internet, and meeting him here in Athens was truely an enriching experience. We ended up at the local radio station, doing a broadcast on ” A Dance with the Shadows” in Greek
The concert was as wonderful as I dreamed of. The band contained of 10 amazingly steady musicians playing basic instruments as keyboards, bass, drums and guitars, as well as different kinds of wonderfully played flutes and a bagpipe. A psaltery like instrument called κανών (canon) was the ultimate sound spice during the concert, and the steady and expressive violin was in great balance with the extremely attractive λάουτο (laouto). The inevitable τουμπερλέκι (toumperleki) bound it all together and lifted the atmosphere up to beneath the roof. The voice combination Pantelis Thalassinos and Melia Kana was very successful. Kana is a wonderful singer. Pantelis himself is simply an endless source of good energy and wonderful melodies and arrangements, expressed through his wonderful voice and playing. He is a rarely inclusive, warm hearted and vivid musician! The sound was AWESOME!!
I arrived Syntagma yesterday evening. The streets were so empty you would believe they were haunted. Only a few stray dogs and a bunch of police buses and men from the fire department would witness my careful steps towards my hotel in Plaka. They helpfully showed me the way, and ensured me there would be nothing to worry about, for the moment.
Arriving Plaka was another world. I enjoyed this warm December evening walking the narrow streets where the cafe tables are still standing outdoors with candle lights. Akropolis is lightened up at night so that one can enjoy the sight of it at any times.
I have come here to listen to one of my heroes, Pantelis Thalassinos, who is playing tonight and tomorrow evening here in Athens. I am also here because of my own music. And it is like the whole town is whispering “change”, both on behalf of itself and me.
Finally my new web pages have come true! And I am glad you are dropping by to take a look. The site contains info, photos, a video clip, and useful links with possibility to either listen to or buy music. A huge thanks to Trond Thorbjørnsen for creating them!
I hope to see you here from time to time; the diary will be kept posted with small or big news from my musical corner of the world…
So long,
Tirill
