News & Updates
Siwan´s lates release Hafla has been nominated to the “Spellemann” award. This is Norways highest annnual prize for the recording industry. Ceremony on 15th april in Oslo.
May 2022: “More Than Ever” the new film by Emily Atef with music composed by Jon Balke, was part of the “Un Certain Regard” program at Cannes Film Festival and was screened on 21 may followed by a long-lasting standing ovation by an enthusiastic audience.
Quotes from international reviews of Hafla, Siwan´s latest on ECM:
Allaboutjazz.com (US): David Bruggink:
”Hafla is an enthralling document of cross-cultural collaboration, of distinctive artistic voices presenting a singular, compelling vision”.
Le Monde, France:
“Un album d´un melancholie belle et penetrante”
thejazzworld.com
Siwan – Hafla is a celebration of an amalgamation of many cultures and styles. The Middle Eastern influence is exotic, and the multiple languages add richness. Balke’s music vision is concise and transfers beautifully to this tapestry of colors and emotions.
Kultkomplott.de:
Kultkomplott.de: Man glaubt sich in einem musikalischen Niemandsland zu befinden, das jedoch vertraut und organisch klingt. Es greifen Melodien und Rhythmen, Gesänge und Instrumentalmusik, erratische Harmonien, Kunstlieder und Straßenkolorit wie von selbst ineinander. Hier umkreisen uns Klanglandschaften von ebenso karger wie sinnlich aufreizender Ästhetik. Und über allem der sirenische Gesang Mona Boutchebaks.
Financial Times:
Hafla centres on the words of an 11th-century Umayyad princess of Cordoba, Wallada bint al-Mustakfi, and of her lover Ibn Zaydun, Al-Andalus’s greatest poet. Wallada was criticised by imams but beloved by her fellow poets, not least Ibn Zaydun, who she encountered at a poetry competition and with whom she had a clandestine and ultimately doomed relationship.
Upcoming:
The new extensive Siwan podcast by Emily Naylor is published on Spotify, Amazon and more platforms.
Pratagraf, The hilarious collaboration between standup comedians Are Kalvø and Espen Beranek Holm and Batagraf featuring Hedvig Mollestad and Ole Mofjell will tour southern Norway in october/november
Siwan will also perform at Cosmopolite, Oslo on their 30 year jubilee on 17th november, plus additional concerts in Lillehammer, Hamar, and Gjøvik
Jon Balke performs solo at the Norwegian Academy of Music 30th november 19 hrs, presenting his research collaboration with Anders Tveit, named Spectraphone, a harmonic extraction soundware.
