Ingfrid Breie Nyhus: Slåttepiano II (Album launch)
Ecstatic folk update from a pianist with an addictive slått-machine
Norway’s piano sensation Ingfrid Breie Nyhus shreds Norwegian folk tunes into frenzied piano minimalism. Tonight she unveils her second album of Slåttepiano music.
The ‘slått’ and the ‘rammeslåttt’ are unique elements of Norwegian folk music – wild, percussive dances played on the traditional Hardanger fiddle. Pianist Ingfrid Breie Nyhus became so fascinated with this traditional form, she first adapted the style into a unique contemporary sound for the piano in 2015.
Using the ‘Rammeslåtter’ from the Setesdal region of inner Norway as a base, and after listening to many Norwegian folk archival recordings, she allows the piano to transform the idea of the slått, loosely guided by the music’s own improvisatory approach.
She updates the music into an environment shared by her personal style as well as wider developments in contemporary music. The rammeslått was believed to send the fiddler into a trance, and Nyhus attacks these pieces with full force, bringing out their hypnotic ecstasy and pushing them into abstract, minimalist territory.
