Roggen/Nyhus is a voice and piano duo with Ingfrid Breie Nyhus.
The two of us started up in 2016, exploring interpretation as such. By 2020 the searching had developed into improvisation and re-composition.

Our processing often starts with learning songs - mostly late romantic lieder - by heart, before we begin experimenting through a set of methods to unlearn and internalize the stories in new ways. Our respective backgrounds from jazz, improvised music and songwriting (Live Maria) Vs classical, contemporary music and folk music (Ingfrid), play along in the interaction. Performing, recording, and thus retelling the musical stories through the reconnected remains that we carry in our bodies, feed back into the ongoing work.

Our explorations so far have resulted in various musical landscapes, from minimalistic, bone dry ones, to lushious, flavish, noisy ones. 

The EP "Demanten" was released in 2022. In 2024 we plan to release more music, plus a web exposition with videos from our process 2021-24 - experiments and dialogues.

TU'BA

Lars Andreas Haug and I started playing together in 1994. Tu'ba was my very first "band". After releasing our debut album in 1998, we toured extensively for a few years. Then followed a pause of almost 18 years, before we got together again during the pandemic. A reunion tour is booked for 2024. 

JULIA HÜLSMANN OKTETT

German pianist and ECM recording artist Julia Hülsmann formed this international octet - or, as she calls it: double trio and 3 voices - in 2015. 

With: Julia Hülsmann on piano, Aline Frazão, Michael Schiefel and me on vocals, Héloïse Lefebvre on violin, Susanne Paul on cello, Eva Kruse on bass and Eva Klesse on drums. All the music we play is arranged by Julia.

In September 2023 our first album will be recorded, including beautiful arrangements of two of my songs, plus one of Julia's compositions with my lyrics. 

Collective works, 

with  WILD AT ART

Wild at Art creates long-durational, site- and situation-specific, inclusive, unstable, exploratory situations. So far I've participated in six of their works: Popludium (2013, in Trondheim's abandoned main post office), Love Letters (Molde Jazz Festival 2013, in an amphitheatre in the woods), Gaven (2013, in Vår Frue open shelter church), Gjestehus (Olavsfest 2015, in Lademoen church), Saturns Hage (2020, Rosendal Theatre), and Saturns Platz (2022, Rosendal Theatre in K•U•K exhibition space).

I find the Wild at Art-strategies immensely inspiring. Every time I've had to pack up and leave one of the situations that we've built collectively, I've wished that they could just go on, that life and art would always be intertwined like this.

TRONDHEIM VOICES

I have been part of this improvising vocal ensemble since the very beginning, 20+ years ago. Trondheim Voices now consist of a pool of singers, and the lineup and roles changes from one project to the other. In addition to being one of the singers, I have sometimes had strategic and artistic leadership. I've developed improvisational toolkits, made framework for collective musicmaking, and composed music. I've also produced the ensemble on three albums. 

Some Trondheim Voices-works I've taken part in:
Bingo (premiere 2008 with Cirka Teater), On Anodyne (premiere 2015 with Jon Balke and Batagraf), Rooms&Rituals (with Asle Karstad), A World of Daughters (premiere 2019, by Jon Balke/Yusuf Komunyakaa), Driv (premiere 2021 with Cirka Teater), Valen Remixed (project 2022 for Fartein Valen Festivalen), Trehagen (premiere 2022, by Ellen Lindquist and Ane Aas), Circles (projects 2023 with Nils Henrik Asheim), and Bedrock (2023 with Asle Karstad, Tone Myskja, Oscar Udbye and Ingrid Høsøien). 

LIVE & LIEN

Pianist Helge Lien and me have been playing together since 2011. We work out imaginative and intuitive cover versions of songs by our favourite artists and bands, whether these be world famous or unknown. Our duo collaboration has resulted in two albums so far.

Jazz quartet Come Shine started as a student band in 1998 and quickly became popular for our loving, yet unruly, interpretations of jazz standards. 

During our active years (1998-2004 and 2012-19) Come Shine released five albums, to wide critical acclaim. Touring we would meet packed venues and dedicated listeners, of all ages. We performed with most of Norway's symphony- wind- and string ensembles, and we staged productions with legends like journalist Knut Borge, poet Jan Erik Vold, artists Jan Eggum, Tuva Syvertsen, Knut Reiersrud and more.

The long term development, the efforts and the artistic achievements of Come Shine have been important elements in my own development as a musician and performer. 

With: Erlend Skomsvoll/Sondre Meisfjord/Håkon Mjåset Johansen

In 2022 Come Shine released a concluding double/triple album, with 25 unique tracks, recorded live in small venues: "Coming Home". 

Apokaluptein means to reveal, to uncover. This was the main commission work for the Vossajazz festival in 2015. I wrote it during autumn of 2014, with the emerging climate and refugee crises in mind. I wrote and composed, from my perspective, about the unbearable human tendency to deny and adapt no matter how bad things turn out. I wrote about acceptance of death, and the fear of not being able to protect your loved ones.

The album recorded in Kulturkirken Jakob in 2016 was a developed version of the original work; more spoken words and poetry had been added. 

With: Hilmar Jensson/Eivind Lønning/Lene Grenager/Sondre Meisfjord/Audun Kleive.

Read in Norwegian: interview about Apokaluptein 

LIVE MARIA BAND

WIBUTEE

1998-2000 with Håkon Kornstad/Per Zanussi/Erlend Skomsvoll/Wetle Holte.
Album "Newborn Thing", Jazzland 1999.

DINGOBATS+

with Eirik Hegdal/Njål Ølnes/Fredrik Ljungqvist/Fredrik Lundin/Øyvind Brække/Thomas T Dahl/Mats Eilertsen/Sverre Gjørvad. Album "Pöck", Bergland 2002.

DENNE LILLE PYTTEN ER ET HAV

Commission work by Sverre Gjørvad, with lyrics by Jan Kjærstad and Peter Handke. With Eirik Hegdal/Øyvind Brække/Ståle Storløkken/Nils-Olav Johansen/Mats Eilertsen/Sverre Gjørvad.
Album of the same name, Curling Legs 2001.

STABAT MATER

Commission work by Kjetil Bjerkestrand for Arve Tellefsen/Øystein Moen/Bjerkestrand himself/me/strings - such as Sara Övinge/Atle Sponberg/TrondheimSolistene.
Album of the same name, KKV 2019.