A musical call to action and community
The violinist Inger Hannisdal has been an essential composer, musician and scene maker in the Norwegian underground for the past decade. She combines a tireless grassroots approach - politically and culturally - with high-level instrumentalism and has been involved in a number of different ensembles in addition to her own projects. What they have in common is the exploration of common ground between Arab and Norwegian musical traditions - in addition to collaborations with musicians from jazz and European art music. In 2022, she played a release concert for the brilliant album North South East West at Oslo World, and in 2025, she released both the poignant conceptual solo album To long, longing, I have longed for so long // Saltwater Songs, in addition to a debut album with the quartet Spove, who also played at our festival.
This year she presents new music with her group, which consists of Khalid Laaouam on saxophone and percussion, Frode Haltli on quarter-tone accordion, Adrian Myhr on double bass and Andreas Winther on drums – prolific musicians that seek out the same meaningful common spaces and frictions that we know from Hannisdals work. The music is entitled Defiant Joy, Untempered Enthusiasm, and Hannisdal herself has the following to say about it:
«Uncomfortable questions arise from living in the age of tech-bro fascism and live-streamed genocide. What is art in times like this? Pretense of beauty, obnoxious self-expression, for whom, by whom, where, why?
Our solidarity statements and album launch announcements on their platforms, the same that track our every move, track our thoughts, change our thoughts, sell our information to A.I. and war machines. Our music on their platforms, our thoughts on their platforms. The inability to escape, even acts of protest transform into self-promotion, content, clicks, likes. The remaining truth, some people are free to move while others are stuck.
Around us: deportation, remigration; incarceration, ecocide, urbanicide, genocide, white phosphorus in the soil, villages destroyed, cities destroyed, neighborhoods destroyed, lives turned to ash, occupation, annihilation, erasure, buzzing drones and airstrikes, the crushing rule of the strong, our helplessness, a wave that can eventually swallow us all.
The illusion that social media represents real human interaction, that Claude has the answers, that Chat is our friend.
Let’s be angry. Let’s say no. Let’s be happy when we can, and gather energy and strength from being together. Let’s gather. Let’s learn each other’s languages. Let’s listen to each other’s music, let’s play together. Let’s say: fuck that, fuck them, fuck all of you, and take pleasure in saying it out loud, shout it. Let’s approach what we don’t understand with curiosity and interest. What concerns you, concerns me too. We are people living side by side, our lives are mirrored in the lives of others. Let’s live together.
Let’s believe in things, like the necessity of justice, because life without it is bitter and sour. Let’s believe in right and wrong. Let’s reject. If the choice is between naivety or paralysis from cynicism, or compliance through indifference, I’d rather be naive. Let’s be angry. And when we can, let’s be happy together. Defiant joy, untempered enthusiasm.»
