Susanna brings Giovanna Pessi, Ida Hidle & Tuva Syvertsen to perform from her new album ‘Go Dig My Grave’ at Asker Kulturhus.
Norwegian artist Susanna has never been one to shy away from the great questions in her music. With ‘Go Dig My Grave’, her 12th album, she explores historic musical gaps by combining music from the Great American Songbook and old English traditionals with baroque instrumentation and her own, characteristic vocal interpretations. Add some Henry Purcell, some Lou Reed, and Susanna’s own composition, and the unique complexity of Susanna’s artistry is evident: ‘Go Dig My Grave’ is a profoundly personal collection of dark songs with deep roots through centuries of American and European musical heritage.
The album marks Susanna’s return to her collaboration with Swiss baroque harp player Giovanna Pessi. Pessi first appeared alongside Susanna on the album ‘Sonata Mix Dwarf Cosmos’, released on Rune Grammofon in 2007, and played a major role on the critically acclaimed ECM album ‘If Grief Could Wait’, a deep-dive into the sorrow-stricken music of Henry Purcell, Leonard Cohen and Susanna herself. The two invited the talented young accordion player Ida Løvli Hidle and the great Norwegian fiddle player and folk singer Tuva Livsdatter Syvertsen to premiere the music at Kongsberg Jazzfestival in July 2017 and record an album. The result is a dynamic band that easily masters subtle shifts from the simple folk feeling of songs like Elizabeth Cotten’s ‘Freight Train’ to the icy beauty of Purcell’s ‘Cold Song’ and the complex, centuries old lament of ‘The Willow Song’.