The ticket provides access to the pool, sauna, and changing rooms from 10:00 AM.
Concert: 11:00 AM–12:00 PM.
Free entry for season pass holders at Nordnes Sjøbad.
Benedicte Maurseth – hardanger fiddle, vocals, ideas and composition
Håkon Mørch Stene – rhythmic and melodic percussion, synthesizer, electronics, compositional idea development and arrangement
Thorolf Thuestad – sound design
Silje Sandodden Kise – scenography
Bergen-based Hardanger fiddle player, composer, and award-winning performer Benedicte Maurseth, Kode’s Composer-in-Residence for 2026, brings her unique musical universe to the historic outdoor bath Nordnes Sjøbad to create a special session for floating listeners – Borealis’ annual concert ritual, Music for Sea Bathing.
In recent years, Benedicte Maurseth’s creative work has largely focused on themes related to biodiversity and ecosophy. The inspiration for her previous works has often come from her home region at Hardangervidda in Eidfjord, where sounds from mountain folk and wildlife have been key elements in the compositions, with roots in Norwegian folk music and inspired by minimalism and free improvisation.
In this Borealis commission Paragorgia, Maurseth explores aquatic biodiversity connected to the Hardanger Fjord, Norway’s second-longest fjord, an environment that is both vulnerable and under high pressure. Paragorgia is the name of the slow-growing, colorful sea tree considered near-threatened, which lives in deep fjords and seas. The tree can grow several meters tall and form coral forests that are important habitats for other species.
Maurseth combines Hardanger fiddle, vocals, and compositional ideas with rhythmic and melodic percussion, synthesizer, and electronic sounds, and works in collaboration with one of Norway’s leading percussionists, Håkon Mørch Stene. Together, they honour and interpret the horn coral, as well as other vital ecosystems such as coral reefs, bamboo coral, plankton, and other species native to the Hardanger Fjord.
With the audience moving in the water, mirroring the aquatic creatures, this performance reminds us that humans live in coexistence with nature, not above it. By highlighting familiar and unknown plant and animal species, both those rich in sound and silent, visible and less visible under the water surface, it may foster a stronger sense of belonging, and consequently, a deeper sense of admiration and responsibility.
The scenography for Paragorgia is created by Silje Sandodden Kise, known for her expressive and emotionally attuned visual language, while sound design is by Thorolf Thuestad, whose extensive work spans stage productions, films, installations and many non-traditional stagings. Together they add another dimension to this unique sonic journey.