Archive: Annika Norlin & Jonas Teglund
About the show
Last spring, Annika Norlin and Jonas Teglund released the joint album “A Time to Tear Apart”.
It is an album that explores a period of grief, bad news, a world in change – but above all, the glimmers of hope that get you through it. The result was a furious creativity and musical joy that has been praised by both critics and listeners.
During the spring tour, they stood in sold-out concert halls and welcomed people to their consolation mass, a place for grief and reconciliation even for those who do not go to church. Rhythmic guitars, soft organs, and lyrics about navigating in a rotten time.
“The feeling is that we have only just begun,” says Annika Norlin. “During the spring tour, it became clear what we were doing: that people needed to meet and gather, to mourn and laugh through all their losses and this twisted political time, but also to turn their gaze to all the beauty that actually exists.”
The concerts differ from what Annika Norlin has previously done with Säkert! and Hello Saferide – it is a calmer, more meditative performance where Teglund and Norlin are supported by the band – besides Teglund on guitar, jazz pianist Max Agnas, drummer Christian Gabel (1900, bob hund), Sweden's hardest-working bassist Paulina Mellkvist, and multi-instrumentalist Petter Granberg. The music lifts from the album and takes on a new, unique form.
“The sound world is soft and clear. I see music as a way to communicate with each other, not just a tool for entertainment. We wanted to focus on that, let the band take space and play out, interweaving instrumental parts with longer threads running through the concert,” says Jonas Teglund.
“The audience's thoughts are our dream. Imagine if someone goes home from a performance with a new thought in their head, imagine if someone's mind has found a new anchor or lifebuoy.”
“If people both cry and dance on the same evening, we will be satisfied afterward,” says Annika Norlin.
“There has also really been a feeling that each performance has differed quite a lot, that it builds so much on the venue and those who are there and listening, what they bring into the room. We felt that we had to do more performances and find out how this would work in the autumn darkness.”
Annika Norlin is a songwriter and sings in the projects Säkert! and Hello Saferide. She is also active as an author. Her debut novel Stacken was released last year.
Jonas Teglund has his own band Weils, but has also produced and written music with, among others, I.B. Sundström and Iiris Viljanen. He also plays guitar on all of Hurula's albums.
“They met at a party, realized what a crappy year they had, and agreed that they wanted to make comforting music. It is a difficult task, but Annika Norlin is the right writer in the right place. (…) (I) surrender to Jonas Teglund's sound worlds.”
DN on A Time to Tear Apart (4/5)
“Six-minute-long 'Mamma', where grief is really confronted in a series of strong images, triggers so many emotions that it might need a warning triangle… All that possibly needs to be stated is that Norlin, Teglund, and their fellow musicians find a somewhat sensational chemistry in these 13 songs.”
Aftonbladet on A Time to Tear Apart (4/5)
“The concert feels more like a conversation than any form of traditional entertainment.(…)
But Annika is not alone. There are many of us here tonight with our own neuroses, sorrows, and fears “of
committing social mistakes.”
Aftonbladet on Annika Norlin and Jonas Teglund on tour (4/5)
“I find myself zoning out, leaving my brain and just feeling the goosebumps come without having time to analyze why.” (…) “I want to stay there forever, the music takes over all of Idun.”
Västerbottens-Kuriren on Annika Norlin and Jonas Teglund on tour
Wheelchair seats can be booked via tickets@cirkus.se or via Ticketmaster: 0776 70 77 77
