‘Remembrance’ – In the Country, Slettahjell, and Reiersrud with new music to texts by the Brontë sisters and Emily Dickinson.

Solveig Slettahjell – vocals
Knut Reiersrud – guitars
Morten Qvenild – piano/efx
Roger Arntzen – bass
Pål Hausken – drums/percussion.

The collaboration between In the Country, Solveig Slettahjell and Knut Reiersrud is a musical stroke of luck. They came together for a concert at the Berlin Philharmonic in 2014, which resulted in the Spellemann-nominated live album Norwegian Woods. The following year came the studio album Trail Of Souls and now, finally, a new release: Remembrance. Here, Solveig Slettahjell has made a selection of Emily and Charlotte Brontë’s and Emily Dickinson’s poems, which Morten Qvenild has set to music. The music was also recorded in Qvenild’s studio Ugla Lyd over a period of two years.

Nearly 200 years ago, the three English sisters Emily, Charlotte and Anne Brontë and the American Emily Dickinson wrote poetry on each side of the Atlantic. We now consider these poets among the greatest poets in history, but because they were women, their great output was never published under their own names during their lifetimes. It has therefore been powerful to see how they nevertheless know about each other and in one of their poems also write about each other. These poets lived in a time when life was fragile and grief was a familiar accompaniment for many. The Brontë sisters all died early from what is believed to be tuberculosis. The lyrics are characterized by recognition and loss, but also by hope and a will to live.

Songwriter Morten Qvenild has set these lyrics in a beautiful and deep dialogue with and in the music. This dialogue takes on a deeper dimension when two of our leading vocalists, Solveig Slettahjell and Sidsel Endresen, are voices in the project. Qvenild has composed grounded songs in a modern expression and has ingeniously connected and contrasted lyrics and music. With Reiersrud, Arntzen and Hausken on the team, this comes together into a very special whole, where the music consistently reflects a deep connection with the relational texts of Brontë and Dickinson.

'This is my letter to the World
That never wrote to Me —
The simple News that Nature told —
With tender Majesty'

– Emily Dickinson

In the Country, Slettahjell and Reiersrud have since started playing to sold-out houses in both the USA, Germany, Austria and elsewhere on Norwegian festival and club stages. With Remembrance there will be release concerts throughout 2025.

Arr: Dokkhuset Scene