I am a Norwegian musician and composer, and I play ancient Nordic instruments such as the nyckelharpa, moraharpa, and hurdy-gurdy, with bands like Wardruna, Gåte and Bergtatt.

Photo: Denys Ganba

I play moraharpa live with in the band Wardruna, which extensively tours the world. I play nyckelharpa live with Gåte who will represent Norway in the ESC. I play nyckelharpa and hurdy-gurdy with Bergtatt and I’m also the driving force behind the band. I also sometimes perform live with Krissy Mary and Kalandra.

I am also a studio musician and have contributed to several recordings with well-known artists such as the experimental band Ulver, jazz pianist Andreas Ihlebæk, folk musician Jeff Wassermann and the alternative pop band Kalandra. I have also played nyckelharpa, moraharpa, and hurdy-gurdy on the song "Udyr" by film and game composer Christine Hals for the game League of Legends.

I have composed all the music for the play “Birkebeinerspelet” and one song on hurdy-gurdy for the major film Birkebeinerne (The Last King) starring Kristoffer Hivju from Game of Thrones and Jakob Oftebro from Kon-Tiki. I have also composed the music for the computer games Game of Gnomes and Z-files.

I have a wide range of musical experience and expertise, and my unique Nordic instruments gives the music a distinct Nordic character.

Collaborations?

I’m always looking for new exciting projects, so feel free to reach out if you want to collaborate with me.

nøkkelharpe-nyckelharpa-keyed-fiddle

Instruments

Here you can read about and listen to the instruments I play

Nyckelharpa

This is my 4-row chromatic nyckelharpa. It is tuned CGDA and has 12 sympathetic strings, one for each note in the chromatic scale that starts to ring whenever a tone on the 4 melody strings are played, just like on the Hardanger fiddle. This gives the instrument a rich and nordic sound. The lowest tone is a C 130Hz and the highest is a G 1568Hz.

You can read more about the history of the Nyckelharpa here: A Brief History of the Nyckelharpa or here: Nyckelharpa Wikipedia

Moraharpa

The Moraharpa has three strings, two chromatic melody strings and one drone string. It sounds very deep, dark and old. The Moraharpa is the oldest nyckelharpa in the nyckelharpa family. It evolved from the hurdy-gurdy and transformed into different versions of the nyckelharpa, like the kontrabasharpa and the silverbasharpa to the three and four row nyckelharpas we have today.

The lowest melody string is a D 146 Hz and the highest tone is a F 698 Hz.

You can read more about the Moraharpa here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moraharpa

Hurdy-Gurdy

This version of the hurdy-gurdy is a chromatic Groddelira from the island Gotland in Sweden. It has three strings, one melody string and two drone strings. All the strings lay over a wheel which work as a bow, and it sounds kind of like a bag pipe. The melody string is tuned to C 262 Hz and can play two octaves, and the drone string is tuned to A 110 Hz, and E 164 Hz or D 146 Hz. It can also be tuned differently to suit all kind of keys. Hurdy-gurdy is called dreielire in Norwegian and vevlira in Swedish.

You can read more about the hurdy-gurdy here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurdy-gurdy