Phoenix review - Norwegian family tragedy with an autobiographical slant

Mesmerising child performers but Camilla Strøm Henriksen's debut doesn't quite deliver

“You’re so meticulous,” says Astrid (Maria Bonnevie) to her teenage daughter Jill (impressive newcomer Yvla Bjørkaas Thedin) as they create a batik artwork together at the kitchen table. Little son Bo (Casper Falck-Løvås) looks on as he munches a jam sandwich. A happy domestic scene? Anything but. “Meticulous” isn’t even really a compliment, coming from this chaotic, mentally fragile mother.

CD: Jenny Hval - The Practice of Love

Genre-busting Norwegian co-opts trance music to examine the impacts of ageing

On a first pass, The Practice of Love seems to be an electropop album in thrall to trance music’s tropes: the synth wash, repeated musical phrases, a whooshy programmed percussive pulse, an otherworldly atmosphere. But the lyrics invite further inspection. On the first track “Lions”, a narrator invites the listener to look at grass and trees, ants on the ground, flowers, mushrooms.

CD: Gard Nilssen Acoustic Unity - To Whom Buys a Record

★★★★ GARD NILSSEN ACOUSTIC UNITY - TO WHOM BUYS A RECORD Energised yet structured reconfiguration on free jazz archetypes

Energised yet structured reconfiguration of free jazz archetypes

To Whom Buys a Record roams through 12 crisply recorded pieces confirming that jazz which isn’t shy of acknowledging its heritage can still have an edge. Though structured and tight, each composition is defined by an attack positing this as an unmediated music: not so much improvisation, but still free-flowing.

theartsdesk in Oslo: Øya Festival 2019 review

A musical communion in Norway’s capital

The timing seemed odd. Sigrid is internationally successful. She’s Norway’s highest-profile musical ambassador since a-ha. Yet instead of headlining at 2019’s Øya Festival, she hits the stage at 6.45. Has she been demoted in favour of Tame Impala, who are given the final slot at 9.30?

Blu-ray: Lords of Chaos

★★★ LORDS OF CHAOS Unpleasant yet humorous account of heavy metal's darkest true story

Jonas Åkerlund's bloody, unpleasant, yet sometimes humorous account of heavy metal's darkest true story

“All this evil and dark crap was supposed to be fun,” complains exasperated Norwegian black metal overlord Euronymous, played by Rory Culkin, as his world spirals out of control in a cataclysm of murder, suicide and church burnings. The true events that inspired Lords of Chaos are some of the most bizarre and twisted in the history of popular music. Fun they are not. Freakish, depressing and horrific, certainly.

theartsdesk in Svalbard: cultural excellence at the top of the world

THEARTSDESK IN SVALBARD Cultural excellence and polar bears at 78 degrees north

At 78 degrees north, polar bears outnumber people - but Norway's musical flag flies high

You should not die or be born on Svalbard, 1,985 kilometres above Norway's northernmost coast, and at 18 you work or leave for the mainland. Hunting is over, mining nearly so. Tourism, carefully managed, and Arctic research are the future; the Global Seed Vault is also here, and Syria has been the first country to take from it. Excursions outside the biggest settlement, Longyearbyen, are advisable only with an armed guard; dangerous polar bears outnumber inhabitants and occasionally crash into town.

theartsdesk in Bergen: Gothic shocks and Romantic treats

THEARTSDESK IN BERGEN Tradition and modernity at Norway's premier arts festival

Genres and periods mix and match in style at Norway's premier arts festival

Ole Bull sounds like some legendary gun-slinging hero of the Wild West. A legend he definitely was, and he spent long enough in the US to found a migrant community in Pennsylvania. But the Norwegian virtuoso (1810-1880) made his name not with a rifle but a fiddle. Back in Bergen, his birthplace, Norway’s first global superstar bought an entire island, Lysøen. He commissioned a fantasy mansion there from the architect Conrad von der Lippe.