Doors open 18.30. Entrance via USF Verftet's Main Entrance.
The evening starts inside in Røkeriet, followed by a collective move out to the brand new Hallen USF, where the second half of the evening will unfold.
NB: Hallen USF has no isolation and can get chilly – so wear your prettiest and warmest outerwear.
The bar in USF Verftet and in Hallen USF open. We will serve hot Hardanger cider.
After the Anniversary Concert there will be a boat going from USF Verftet to Håkonshallen where you can experience:
Dewa Alit & Gamelan Salukat (separate ticket)
Sjøforsvarets musikkorps (SFMK) play
Maja S. K. Ratkje – 69 Marching Bars of Leftovers From an Old Century 4'
Ørjan Matre – Instant Music 6'
Rebecka Ahvenniemi – FruSSSna kviSSStar 8'
Knut Vaage – Lydfabrikken 4'
Halldis Rønning – conductor
Sigbjørn Apeland/Berit Opheim/Nils Økland play
Ruth Bakke – Wolf Winter
Else Olsen S. – Kompass
Øyvind Skarbø – Men altså 5'
Jostein Stalheim – Sjå – attom dauden
Electronic piece
Amber Ablett – My Fathers Left
Randiane Sandboe – light design
Photo: Helge Hansen/Montag
Around 100 years ago in Paris, some surrealists were inventing a party game, where each player contributes some words to a poem, but they don’t know what the previous participant wrote. The improvised poem, “The exquisite corpse shall drink the new wine” gave the game its name – Exquisite Corpse – and over time the game moved from words to drawing. A single piece of paper folded in four – someone draws a head, then folds the paper down so that the next player must draw the torso without knowing what the head looks like, and so on – a way to create something exquisite from radically different imaginations.
About 80 years later in the city of Bergen, Borealis was founded. A new festival for the city celebrating contemporary composition, improvisation, noise, and everything in between. It was founded by a group of enthusiasts, still members of Borealis today, each contributing ideas and resources, with the aim to bring the city and the community together in celebration of new musical experimentation. Wildly different musical expressions; performers from round the corner, or half way round the world all sat side by side in a festival programme that would over the years become a highlight in the European and Scandinavian festival calendar.
Tonight we celebrate many of those who make the exquisite corpse of Borealis. In sound we will make our own musical drawing, stitching together different musical body parts to create something bigger than any one vision. Bringing together brand new commissions with pieces from the festival’s history, we’ll be highlighting just some of the dynamic voices from within our festival community: Jostein Stalheim, Else Olsen S., Øyvind Skarbø, Ruth Bakke, Amber Ablett, Rebecka Ahvenniemi, Knut Vaage, Ørjan Matre and Maja Ratkje, with new works commissioned with our excellent collaborators Avgarde and BEK – Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts.
Drawing on more tradition, we’ll be celebrating our anniversary in one of the city’s newest cultural spaces, the Hallen at USF Verftet, with our celebrated opening night ensemble the exquisite korps SFMK, and a brand new trio of Vestlandet experimenters who channel both tradition and the future, Sigbjørn Apeland, Berit Opheim and Nils Økland. And toasting the whole thing with our very own special cider from Hardanger Økologiske Sideri – heated for the occasion!