Die beiden Schriftsteller Paal-Helge Haugen und Nils Chr. Moe-Repstad verfassten eine Reihe von Texten, in denen es um abwesende Götter ging, und ihren Blues. Im ersten Set der Klanginstallation mischte sich die warme dunkle Stimme von Haugen mit Klanggespinsten von Arve Henriksen, Evan Parker, und ausgewählten Passagen einer Komposition von David Sylvian. Es war angenehm, der Märchenerzählerstimme des Norwegers zu folgen, ihr Klang transportierte mich an den Rand des Schlafes. Später dann, im zweiten Teil, strömten einige Stories über die unglücklichen Götter aus den Lautsprechern, mit dem dunklen Samt von Sylvians Sprechstimme. Sidsel Endresen trat ans Mikrofon, John Tilbury saß am Klavier. Das Album „Uncommon Deities“ ist wunderbar.
THE GOD OF CROSSROADS
In the one spot where all roads meet he is bound. He sees that there are more points to the compass than the heavens can hold. Curved behind His back, the universe encloses him. All roads dissolve into the dusk. He has deep Mongolian eyes that stay open as long as sight remains. He sees the light broken into Small fragments bevor his very eyes, shattered into a thousand colours that can never reassemble. All our desires converge in him, our longing to find the way, the one way. He can hear our questions, but He cannot answer. He stammers and falls silent. Under a coffee-brown sky He has lost his sense of time and direction, in the dwindling windless light. Above him there is a clashing of clouds, the rain soaks him, and his feet are cold. He paces, without direction, wanting to be replaced. He is dreaming of a long holiday, a heavenly break, He would prefer to leave all responsability to a senior official in a grey suit. He dreams of cycling off on an upright placid bicycle of unknown make, cycling into green roadless woods and disappearing.
The poems by two Norwegian lyricists are sensual explorations and mythical fantasies about the lifes of absent gods. A journey that might even please hard core atheists. A shangrila for agnostics, open ears, lyric lovers and other strangers. Sidsel Endresen is the singer here, not the the speaker. She nearly never sings conventional language. But The listener can detect more torch and passion in her performance than in any well-mannered, recycled love song. The landscape created by the musicians adds to the lyrics another layer, inspires an intimate approach to the verses. The voice of Sylvian in the center, calm, focussed, within these stories about twilight worlds, power, well, the loss of power, and alienation. And it is a voice that knows when to leave the stage for the spirits around him. The album was released in 2012. on the early September days 2011 all came into being, on stage. Great Punkt memory.