About

It may be a bit drastic to say that ILIOS calls the public onto the carpet, but that is actually what we do. We have laid Persian carpets on the floor in gallery Nord-Norge and let loose a well-reputed jazz musician on bass clarinet with roots in Harstad, and a sitar player from Solbergelva with roots in India.

Mathilde Grooss Viddal is a musician, composer and band leader. She has long belonged to the top echelon of creative and performing artists on the Norwegian music scene and won prestigious awards internationally for her work as a composer and arranger. Browse the work Out of Silence in connection with the UN's 70th anniversary of Human Rights with an award ceremony in Rome.

Rohini Sahajpal, is one of the country's leading performers of the Indian traditional instrument sitar, who has made a name for herself for her interpretation of Indian raga music. Each raga has its own essence, which the performer must try to capture and express. Rohini Sahajpal was born and raised in an Indian, musical family in Solbergelva near Drammen.

The meeting between free jazz and Indian raga is a stunning cultural collision that has more in common than you think.

Harstad has the status of the world's first free city for persecuted musicians. It is natural for ILIOS to contribute to ensuring that our Freeby musicians can meet both the public and other performers. That is why we have invited Ghawgha Taban from Afghanistan as a guest at the concert. She is joined by Norwegian folk musician Åsmund Reistad on guitar, and Nepalese-Norwegian Sanskriti Shresta on tabla, Indian drums. She is a rawhide on percussion and has a rising star in Norwegian music circles.

ILIOS is about new music, and new music is not only that which is composed new on a score sheet, but also that which arises when people and music move around the world. Instruments were built and music was made while Norway was still under a blanket of ice, and all the music we listen to today has at one time or another come to us along the Silk Road or from Africa. In today's world, most things move faster than just 100 years ago, and therefore stunning cultural collisions can occur even in small northern Norwegian coastal towns.

Guests: Ghawgha Taban, Åsmund Reistad and Sanskriti Shrestha