Karl Ove Knausgaard: So Much Longing in So Little Space review – smiles more than screams

★★★★★ KARL OVE KNAUSGAARD: SO MUCH LONGING IN SO LITTLE SPACE Ego-free portrait of Munch

Norway's epic self-analyst paints a refreshingly ego-free portrait of Munch

Around the works canteen, a dozen huge wall-paintings depict, in bright cheerful colours spread across radically stylised forms, happy scenes of women and men at work and play beside a sunlit sea. They till, pick, dance, chat, dream, wander or water flowers. In their shapes and shades, all play their harmonious part in this beautiful, neutral world of elements and creatures and objects which (as Karl Ove Knausgaard puts it) “doesn’t care about us, which doesn’t care about anything, which merely exists”. And that indifference of the universe makes you want, not to scream, but to smile.

CD: Sigrid - Sucker Punch

★★★★ SIGRID - SUCKER PUNCH You may have heard this one before, but it's worth revisiting

You may have heard this one before, but it's worth revisiting

You’d be forgiven for thinking, in the age of streaming, that the promotional single was a dying art. And yet there’s already something familiar about Sigrid’s long-awaited debut album.

The Lady from the Sea, Print Room at the Coronet review - freedom to choose?

★★★ THE LADY FROM THE SEA, PRINT ROOM Engrossing UK-Norwegian production

Engrossing Anglo-Norwegian production has some strong performances

Ellida (Pia Tjelta) has a choice to make, the outcome of which will bind her future to her past or her present, each represented by a man. On the one hand, there is the tempestuous seafaring Stranger (Øystein Røger) to whom, long ago and in a fit of delirium, she pledged herself; on the other, there is her devoted and rational doctor husband Wangel (Adrian Rawlins).

theartsdesk Q&A: Hedvig Mollestad, Norway's bridge between heavy metal and jazz

THEARTSDESK Q&A: HEDVIG MOLLESTAD Norway's bridge between heavy metal and jazz

The genre-busting guitarist talks about new album 'Smells Funny', a rotting eyeball and more

Norway’s Hedvig Mollestad Trio reset the dial to what jazz fusion sought to do when it emerged, and do so in such a way that it’s initially unclear whether they are a jazz-influenced heavy metal outfit or jazzers plunging feet-first into metal.

CD: Kim Myhr - Pressing Clouds Passing Crowds

The Norwegian guitarist collaborates with poet Caroline Bergvall in an enthralling reflection on transformation

If a new soundtrack for L'Année dernière à Marienbad was needed, Pressing Clouds Passing Crowds is it.

Erik Poppe and Andrea Berntzen: 'When white young men do stuff like this, we just shake our heads'

ERIK POPPE AND ANDREA BERNTZEN Director and lead actor of 'Utoya: July 22' on working with survivors to recreate the Norwegian terror attack

Director and lead actor of Utoya: July 22 on working with survivors to recreate the Norwegian terror attack

On 22nd July 2011, on a tiny island off the Norwegian coast, 69 young people were killed, with another 109 injured in a terrorist attack. It was the darkest day in Norway since World War Two, and one that is still evident in its news, politics and society today. But somewhere down the line, the victims became background noise to the circus around the aftermath and perpetrator.

The Wild Duck, Almeida Theatre review - meta, merciless and altogether brilliant

★★★★★ THE WILD DUCK, ALMEIDA THEATRE Altogether brilliant

Robert Icke reaches a new career plateau with his Ibsen adaptation

Beware the smile that Edward Hogg wears like a shield in the opening scenes of The Wild Duck, the Ibsen play refashioned into the most scalding production in many a year by Robert Icke, here in career-surpassing form. Playing James Ekdal, the photographer previously known as Hjalmar, Hogg disarms you from the outset with a bonhomie just waiting to snap.

CD: Jessica Sligter - Polycrisis: yes!

Disquieting commentary on Europe’s downward spiral

The voice of Jean-Claude Juncker does not habitually turn up on albums. Jessica Sligter's Polycrisis: yes! though features extracts from a 2010 speech by he, the President of the European Commission on “The Dream has Died” and “The State of the Union”.

10 Questions for singer Live Foyn Friis

10 QUESTIONS FOR LIVE FOYN FRIIS Charismatic Norwegian singer on her journey through genre

Charismatic Norwegian singer on her journey through genre

Norwegian-Danish singer Live Foyn Friis (for English-speaking readers, Live is her first name) has released six albums, and leads several different ensembles, scattered intriguingly across the divide between jazz and pop. Her voice is recognisably Nordic, with an ethereal quality that expresses yearning, in particular.