Knut Olaf Sunde

Knut Olaf Sunde

Knut Olaf Sunde (b. 1976) has studied composition at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and Musikkhögskolan vid Göteborgs Universitet in Sweden. Since 2006, he has been vice president in the Norwegian Composer’s Association, and in 2008 he launched the micro record company MERE, together with Jørgen Karlstrøm, concentrating on releasing contemporary music and other narrow music genres in a spirited and genial manner. What is perhaps most striking about Sunde’s production is his love for location specific compositions, written for concert locations with distinctive acoustic and tactical qualities, and hopefully outdoors, in the Norwegian spirit. An example of this is the concert Molladalen 160707 from 2007, an acoustic concert for trombones performed in the mountains at Sunnmøre, in which the long walk to and from the concert scene was an integral part of the piece. Fagervann 130909 during this year’s Ultima is, according to the composer, an outdoor and intimate happening with wind players, in which seven musicians gather around a pond during dawn, in a natural acoustic hall outdoors which is a phenomenon arising from the nightly temperature fall.