The Frieze of Life Sanne Rambags

• 1 Starry Night 08:20
• 2 The Voice 06:56
• 3 Madonna 02:30
• 4 Woman in Three Stages 06:50
• 5 The Dance of Life 03:50
• 6 Melancholy 06:13
• 7 Anxiety 03:01
• 8 The Scream 01:29
• 9 Death in the Sickroom 05:29
• Total Runtime 44:38

Info for The Frieze of Life

'One rainy day in May 2024, our friend Morten drove us into Oslo. Leaving the car park to walk to Edvard Munchs Plass we get caught in a terrific storm. There’s lightning, a loud crack of thunder! A torrential downpour. We run to a building and attempt to shelter with others, sheets of rain blurring our first sight of the imposing, angular, contemporary museum on Oslo’s waterfront. Minutes later we’re standing in the entrance lobby, water dripping off our waterproofs, soaked through. Could anything more dramatic have prepared us for our introduction to The MUNCH museum? You will be ready. You will feel!

Then we are amongst the paintings. So many air-conditioned rooms on seven floors, such a well curated exhibition too, so many vivid paintings in strong colours. Everything from small early charcoal sketches Munch did when he was young, to paintings so enormous you can’t begin to imagine how you would go about executing one. The paintings are displayed in a specially designed, double-height gallery. Having visited the original Munch museum in Oslo a couple of decades ago, we are staggered this time by the sheer volume of work and not just paintings but beautiful sculptures too.

Sanne Rambags is an incredible vocalist and composer. Several times walking round the exhibition we are struck by similarities in the way Sanne speaks when reading texts that accompany Munch’s paintings.

Munch often celebrates human interaction with nature. Sanne talks of being ‘connected with the mystery’ and being ‘all connected’. With her voice she seems to get to connect with one’s very soul. Artist Edvard Munch based a series of his work on every aspect of human existence using themes such as love, fear, death and jealousy. Together he gave this collection the title: ‘Frieze of Life’: A Poem about Life, Love and Death and exhibited it for the first time in Berlin in 1902.

Inspired by some of the paintings from this collection Sanne Rambags has written nine compositions on the different themes from the work of Munch. The suite includes, Madonna, The Dance of Life, The Voice, Melancholy. Sanne also creates The sceme by repeating Munch’s own words of the moment the painting came to him, by repeating his description of the event on the bridge over and over in an ever more insistent and disturbing way.

Rambag’s unique voice, laid over space, atmospheric arrangements echo the brooding landscapes and scenes of melancholic figures that define Munch’s work. Her voice soars, cries, sobs...a barely audible whisper, or a repeated word like a tribal song over a drumbeat and viola and all the while conjuring up brooding painted landscapes.' (Text by Julie and Mark Wilkinson)

Sanne Rambags, voice
Roosmarijn Tuenter, viola, voice, effects
Jeroen van Vliet, piano, effects
Joost Lijbaart, drums, percussion

Recorded 9 and 10 December 2023 by Frans de Rond (Sound Liason)
Mixed 18 March and 29 April 2024 by Frans de Rond (Sound Liason)
Mastered 26 August 2024 at MCO by Frans de Rond (Sound Liason)
Produced by Peter Bjørnild, Joost Lijbaart & Sanne Rambags

Sanne Rambags
Singer and composer, has shared her voice with audiences across the globe. From collaborating with musicians from different musical traditions, she has found her own genre-transcending way of improvised singing. She draws inspiration from traditional folk music from around the world and combines this with her background in experimental jazz to create soundscapes never heard before.

She is passionate about the role of music in meaning-making and belonging and how this can answer the lack of meaning that people may feel in life. By using her voice as an instrument she aims to open the doorway to the space beyond – where we remember that we already belong.

This album contains no booklet.