Nils Økland
is a renowned master of Norway’s national instrument the Hardanger fiddle. However, his musical outlook is far wider than just traditional music and his contributions diverse. Both as an instrumentalist and as a composer he interlaces elements of classical and contemporary music as well as jazz with traditional Norwegian expressions, finding common traits and not least common expressive mindsets across genres and time periods. Økland belongs to the category of musicians who have come to represent an individual sound and a musical sensibility that is completely their own.

Nils Økland er en av Norges fremste felespillere, en fornyer av tradisjonell folkemusikk, også kjent for å bygge broer til klassisk og moderne musikk. Nils Økland komponerer det meste av musikken selv, fra vakre melodiske ballader og atmosfæriske eksperimenter, til de mørkere lydbilder.

“Lysøen: Homage à Ole Bull”, the brand-new album by Norwegian violinist and Hardanger fiddler Nils Økland and countryman Sigbjørn Apeland (piano, harmonium) is off to a flying start with a major review in Germany’s leading weekly Die Zeit, where writer Volker Hagedorn praises the duo’s sensitive tribute to Norway’s iconic violinist-composer, Ole Bull (1810-1880). Økland and Apeland are the first musicians to have recorded at Bull’s home on the island of Lysøen. Nils uses, amongst other instruments, Bull’s old Guarneri; Sigbjørn employs, among other keyboards, the harmonium once played by Bull’s young American wife, as the old violinist lay dying in the music room of his villa.

“Once, someone was happy here. Anyone who hears these pieces understands that there can be no happiness untouched by melancholy. As Franz Liszt said about Bull, ‘His playing moved me. It’s a long time since that last happened.’” ECM.