These two Norwegians bring their extraordinary talent and originality to OTO for an evening of extreme violin music.

Outsiders in even the most open-minded of academic music circles, Rønnekleiv's and Moe's kin are more likely sound artists like Deathprod, Maja Ratkje and Lasse Marhaug or composers like Scelsi, Feldman and Varese. Their recent double CD on Rune Grammofon contains some of the most extreme solo violin music ever written, performed and recorded. Two pieces lasting 40 and 43 minutes, both pushing the performer to the edge when it comes to endurance and concentration.

Tonight Rønnekleiv will play Moe's piece 'Ciaccona' and they will perform an improvised set as the duo 'Sheriffs of Nothingness'

Kari Rønnekleiv

Kari Rønnekleiv was born in 1972 in Trondheim, Norway. She studied violin with Levon Chilingirian at the Royal College of Music, London, and with Bjarne Fiskum in her native town. Kari Rønnekleiv was a co-initiator of the chamber-orchestra "The Trondheim Soloists", in which she played for many years, sometimes leading, and sometimes playing as a soloist with. The last years she has focused her work on different solo-projects, collaborating closely with different composers. She has also worked with improvised music, with her husband Ole-Henrik Moe in "The Sheriffs of Nothingness", and the last year as a member of the Trondheim Jazz-Orchestra, touring in Norway and Canada.

In 2007 was her solo-recording "Ciaccona/ 3 Persephone-Perceptions awarded with the norwegian "Grammy", the "Spellemansprisen". The CD has made her a guest at different festivals in Vienna, Zürich, Usedomer and London.

Ole-Henrik Moe

Ole-Henrik Moe was born in Oslo, Norway, in 1966. He has studied violin and composition in Oslo, as well as composition in Paris, where a year with Iannis Xenakis at Sorbonne was of utmost importance for him. As a composer, Ole- Henrik Moe has worked closely with different ensembles and soloists, among them his wife, Kari Rønnekleiv, who has recorded two large solo pieces by him. Moe has also worked as an improvisator, and, again with his wife, has been playing in the duo "The Sheriffs of Nothingness" since 2004.

Programme:
Ciaccona (2002) for solo violin by Ole-Henrik Moe / performed by Kari Rønnekleiv
Sherrifs of Nothingness (Improvisation)

Ciaccona (2002)

The Ciaccona was written by Ole-Henrik Moe in 2002 in remembrance of his late teacher Iannis Xenakis. The 40 minutes is a continuous row of variations, based on the phonetics of a fragment by the "presocratic" philosopher Heraklit (quoted in Hippolytos): "Harmonie (a)phanes phaneres kreiton", which means somthing like: "A hidden structure is stronger than a visible one".

Ole-henrik Moe feels often that great music (and art in general) often contains underlying elements that are "hidden", but yet giving fruit for thought. The Heraklit-fragment was for him the starting-point for different musical preparations, like the analysis and use of phonetic qualities, up to the construction of the form of the entire piece. (Usedomer Musikfestival 2007)

The Sheriffs of Nothingness

The Sheriffs of Nothingness is the name of the improvisation duo with Ole-Henrik Moe (composer and violinist) and Kari Rønnekleiv ( violinist ). It startet out with small performances at openings of art exhibitions in 2004 and the summer 2009 they played at Kongsberg Jazz-festival and in2009 at the Wien Modern. They also work with dance performances , actors and poets, and with rock musicians. They have played with several constellations of electronic and jazz musicians working in the noise-tradition.

Ole-Henrik is the one in the duo with the long experience with improvisation, Kari enjoy to play with him and they work with some of the techniques and esthetic world as she has got to learn by recording some of Ole-Henrik's solo-violin compositions.

They do not plan their performances in detail, but since they both play the violin and know the same techniques they almost sound as one instrument. They often try to make life in their music by playing little games, gradually going into the same sound or leaving each other...

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