Mirra

Description

On the album Mirra, the creative and innovative folk musician Benedicte Maurseth once again invites us to the vast Hardangervidda plateau, this time with a focus on wild reindeer. When the album Harr was released in 2022, the visionary Hardanger fiddle player was hailed for creating a masterpiece. Her blend of the distinctive sound of the Hardanger fiddle and concrete sounds of wildlife immersed listeners in a unique soundscape. For Harr, she received the prestigious Nordic Music Prize, and the album was ranked among the top ten global folk releases of the year by The Guardian. She is now releasing her long-awaited new album, Mirra. Like Harr, it is a concept album where concrete sound plays a central role in the compositions. This time, the focus is on wild reindeer, native to Eidfjord, Maurseth’s home region in Hardanger. The work is inspired by the distinctive sounds of the reindeer and its annual cycle, as heard in "The Calf Rises," "Summer Grazing," and "Hunting March," as well as its behavior and masterful adaptation to the nature with which it lives in harmony. Mirra is an old, forgotten word from the Hardanger dialect, referring to the period when reindeer run in circles, both to warm themselves and to protect against predators. This word was also used to describe a time when reindeer "swarmed" in large numbers. The music is repetitive and marked by the hypnotic repetitions of folk music, also inspired by American minimalism, krautrock, and free improvised music. The concept and music are presented and composed by Benedicte Maurseth, then developed and arranged in collaboration with her remarkable fellow musicians: Håkon Stene on melodic percussion, Mats Eilertsen on bass and electronics, and Morten Qvenild on keyboards. The album was recorded by Morten Qvenild at Ugla Lyd studio in Nesodden in 2024, and produced by Benedicte Maurseth and Jørgen Træen.