Thinking outside the box. In Gaza, in Oslo, in Johannesburg.
"It's a form of breaking free from the box we are placed in and
brainwashed to stay in. We think outside the box and use our environment
a little differently than we are programmed to. It's an art form, and a
sport. It pushes our mental and physical limits. " (Parkour in South Africa)
Gaza Parkour Team, 14th of November 2012.
Frikar Parkour.
The halling-way to do parkour. Filmed in Oslo.
Parkour in South Africa
All you need is a good pair of shoes and a free spirit.
"You fall and you get up and you learn from your mistakes."
Now, when I think of how the young people in Gaza are locked in there and can't get out, can't find any safe place when the bombs are falling. No force in the world seems to stop their free spirit to work on their art and sport, the parkour. I would guess it's a way of surviving.
Legen Mads Gilbert från Gaza i VG idag:
Derimot fortviler legen over at spesielt barn og kvinner blir hardt rammet av de israelske rakettene.
- Nå har det gått 6 dager. Det er snart 1000 skadde og 110 drepte.
Halvparten er kvinner og barn. I Gaza bor det 1,7 millioner mennesker og
1 million av dem er under 18 år. Dette er et barnefengsel og sånn går
det når du bomber i et barnefengsel. Dette må ta slutt, sier Gilbert.
Tirsdag sendte Israel ut flyveblader hvor de ba Gaza-beboere evakuere
ut av bykjernen. Det kan tyde på at de forbereder en bakkeinvasjon.
- Dette er ikke noe forsvar, dette er et angrep. Det er ikke slik at
palestinerne angriper, det er Israel som angriper. De må stoppes av det
internasjonale samfunnet. Det kan ikke fortsette sånn, sier han.
Today I was in the archipelago outside Göteborg, on the island Öckerö,
in the old small church. I sang with the choir Mareld in the service. It's the
final of a small project where I have visited them to teach some
folk songs. Among other songs I choose a lullaby from the island Hönö, very close to
Öckerö. It's a very special lullaby with no similar lyrics
found elsewhere.
Byss bysseli byss, jag vaggar dej nu,
likt vinden som en blomma blir du vaggad nu.
Sov en stund, en liten blund,
jag vaggar dej hoppfulla blomma.
By by by, I comfort you now,
like the wind as a flower I comfort you now.
Sleep a little while, sleep a bit,
I comfort you, flower full of hope.
Before the service started I shortly introduced the songs: One of the
songs is very local and I would gladly like to hear if anyone have
further knowledge of the person who kept this song in his tradition, Åke
Bårman. I don't know if it is an old or young lullaby, when this man
Åke lived or if he's still alive.
We sang our songs and when the service was almost at the end the priest came to the point
where he announces if anyone in the parish has died. So he announced
that Åke Bårman just died.
Time stood still for a moment.
This
was a total surprice to me. On our way out afterwards I talked with two
women who knew that the lullaby came from the father of Åke who
just died. So they both had the name Åke, but the younger was more known
as Lenny.
I can imagine the father was singing this lullaby to his small son around the time of 1940.
Sleep well Åke Lenny.
By by by, I comfort you now,
like the wind as a flower I comfort you now.
Sleep a little while, sleep a bit,
I comfort you, flower full of hope.
Today I got a short message from someone who bought my book Bröllopssånger och kärleksvisor. She says the book brought her happiness in her time of illness.
I can't imagine there's anything more precious to hear.
Vi segla ut på livets hav ifrån vår ungdoms strand,
vi stego nyss i samma båt och lade ut från land.
Utöver vida rymdens fält vårt segel flyger ut,
vi veta ej vart färden bär och ej när den tar slut.
Vi veta dock att var minut vi föras fort framåt,
vi veta ock att vredgad våg skall slå emot vår båt,
vi tro att det skall bliva storm när dagen byts i natt,
och mången ros skall vissna bort och minskas mången skatt.
Min fröjd är din, din sorg är min och så vi dela allt,
det är så gott att vara två, då blir ej livet kallt,
för du och jag, och jag och du vi stå med hand i hand,
och när det stormar luta vi oss tätt intill varann.
Då fruktar jag ej stormens hot, ej böljans vreda brus,
vi äro två och hjälpas åt och det gör färden ljus,
mot samma mål, mot samma strand, mot samma hopp och tro,
mot samma prövningar också, mot samma frid och ro.
sjungen av Anna Sjöbom, Enviken, Dalarna
We sailed out on the ocean of life, the shores of our youth to leave behind,
we embarked just now in the same small boat and soon we set out from land.
And under the wide and open sky we spread our sails in the air,
we don't know where the journed ends, don't know where we are bound.
But we know that every minute we are sailing forward so fast,
our boat may meet the stormy waves, and rain and snow and ice.
And when the day is shifted to night, we may in storm go astray,
and many a rose shall die away, and treasures will decay.
My joy is yours, your pain is mine, we care, we share it all,
in sun, in rain, what we may meet, together we don't fall.
You and I, I and you, we're standing hand in hand,
and when the storms of life may come, then even closer we stand.
Then I don't fear the stormy threat, nor the fiery sea,
we are two that cooperates and a light we have to lead
A guiding light towards the shore, towards our hope and faith
when dark clouds are hovering in the sky, our light we have inside.
In english, see below.
Idag har jag tagit fram ett stort kuvert ur bokhyllan. De innehåller partitur till ett nyskrivet verk, Trackways of the wind. Text av den samiske multikonstnären Nils Aslak Valkeapää, 1943-2001. Musiken är skriven av min gode vän Paul Hanmer, pianist och kompositör i Johannesburg, Sydafrika. Han påbörjade Trackways of the wind hösten 2007 när han var stipendiat i Visby på International Centre for Composers.
Sättningen är rätt unik. Det blir en utmaning att få fram så många klarinettister!
Förutom mig på sång och Jonas Sjöblom på slagverk är det
3 klarinetter
tenorklarinett
basklarinett
kontrabasklarinett
harpa
stråkkvartett
kontrabas
pukor
Nu börjar en stor utmaning, att försöka hitta ett forum att få detta uruppfört i. Är det någon som har idéer? Alla tips och all hjälp tas tacksamt emot. Nästa år på Göteborg Art Sounds festival kanske? www.gas-festival.com
Paul Hanmer är som sagt upphovsmannen bakom musiken. Hans
partitur är helt handskrivna med mycket vacker handstil. Jag har pärmar
fulla hemma med hans långa handskrivna brev där vi under årens lopp har diskuterat musik och livet som musiker i två olika länder. Det är en mycket viktig
vänskap fastän det är så långt emellan där vi bor.
Nils-Aslak Valkeapää är en av de poeter och multikonstnärer jag gärna återkommer till. Det händer ofta att jag drömmer om fjällvärlden i norr, och jag har även mött Nils-Aslak i mina drömmar. Jag kan inte vänta tills jag får sjunga detta. Jag har läst hans lyrik i snart 20 år, och lyssnat på honom live i Kautokeino år 2001. Den konserten är en av mitt livs största händelser. Det ska jag berätta om vid ett lämpligt tillfälle.
*********
Today I have taken out a big envelop from my book shelf. It's the score of a musical piece, contemporary music, not yet performed: "Trackways of the wind". Lyrics by the sami multiartist Nils Aslak Valkeapää (1943-2001). Music by my good friend Paul Hanmer, pianist and composer who lives in Johannesburg, South Africa. He started to write this music in the autumn of 2007 when he had a scholarship to be artist in residence in Visby for some time. International Center for Composers.
It will be a challene to find so many clarinettists...
It's me on vocals and Jonas Sjöblom on percussion, and then an ensemble of
3 clarinets
tenor clarinet
base clarinet
sub base clarinet
harp
string quartet
upright base
timpani
And the big challenge is also to find a venue to perform this. I would gladly recieve ideas from you, dear reader of this blog. Next year at www.gas-festival.com maybe?
It's Paul Hanmer who is the composer of this music, as I mentioned. His music scores are hand written with a beautiful style. I have piles of hand written letters here at home where we during many years has discussed music and what it is to be a musician in our two different countries. It's a long friendship and very important even thou it's a long distance between where we live.
Nils-Aslak Valkeapää is one of the poets and multiartists I often return to. Sometimes I've been dreaming at night I'm in the mountains of the north and I even met Nils Aslak in my dreams. Can't wait until I can sing this piece of music. I've read his poems for over 20 years and I've listened to him live in Kautokeino in 2001. That concert is one of the biggest memories I have. I must write about it later on.
It's been more than a month since the song book was released, and Irmelin has recorded songs for our new album. It's been phonecalls, emails, new applications, rehersals. I've almost forgot how it is to have free time. So I experience the classical signs of post production stress. I'm finding mysef in a time of emptiness. Too much happened in very short time. My life journey has taken me to some unknown roads. Some days it's a bit hard to navigate forward but it seems like this is what it is to be a person 2012 on earth, I see lot of this around me too.
In the middle of this emptiness I know something new is going to happen. A change of view. An adaption. I already see some of the patters of the old are fading away and leaving me with a new sense of light. Can it be that I became looked in my own old thoughts and ambitions?
Oh, this evening was a pearl, to sing with the children and go in there with the full aim of having a good time together. It's all about sing together and enjoy it. No need to prove anything. No need to worry. It's actually a great gift to see the faces of the children and see their families gathering. Beautiful it is. Simple as that, in a smaller church on the outskirts of Göteborg, on a November dark evening.
I just want to express that in the middle of my tiredness I feel a great thankfulness too. On the bus travelling home from this event I found a poem that spoke to me:
"Gift" by Czeslaw Milosz (1971)
En dag så full av lycka.
Arbetade i trädgården, dimman lyfte tidigt.
Kolibrierna stod stilla över kaprifolens blom.
Det fanns på jorden inte en sak jag ville äga.
Jag visste inte någon värd att avundas.
Vad ont som hänt hade jag glömt.
Skämdes inte för tanken att vara den jag alltid varit.
Kände i kroppen ingen smärta.
När jag rätade på ryggen såg jag blå hav och segel.
A day so happy.
Fog lifted early I worked in the garden.
Hummingbirds were stopping over honeysuckle flowers.
There was no thing on earth I wanted to possess.
I knew no man worth my envying him.
Whatever evil I had suffered, I forgot.
To think that once I was the same man didn’t embarrass me.
In my body I felt no pain.
On straightening up, I saw the blue sea and sails.
It's now happening for the first time after the book of wedding songs was released. I've heard from a couple who are going to marry that they found a song in my book Bröllopssånger och kärleksvisor that they will have in the wedding ceremony.
This makes me so happy to know. The purpose is to share the songs through the book and make them more accessable again.
Now it's a cold and dark season. I have so many memories of light that I can make my day shine.
Here's one of the great memories from the book makeing. Photo session day, Eva Petrén is preparing one of our models.
Today I'm delighted to have an interview about the book for a magazine in Dalarna. We'll meet at Dalarnas Museum. On my way there I plan to see an art exhibition where Emmeli Malmqvist shows her work of kurbits from Dalarna in meeting with Göteborg. Sounds like something for me.
