New album from Kim Rysstad.
The songs
When Kim chose songs for his second album, he chose to mix traditional music and lyrics with newly written songs. He also dared to put on one of his own songs on the album, ”Aldri aleine”, and several reviewers praised the track , and this inspired him to write more of his own material.
On ”Timeglas” he has written either text or melody to five of eleven songs. Other contributors includes Elin Nygård, Trym Bjønnes, Anne Takle, Ingebjørg Bratland, Sinikka Langeland and Hans Olav Settem.
In the studio
”The third day we gathered in the studio, I’ve gotten a terrible cold ant that equals vocal crisis! But we started anyway, thinking I could always add new vocals later” , says Kim.
One of the songs they recorded was ”So e det no”, Kim’s reinterpretation of Billy Joel’s ”And so it goes”. It was only vocals and piano.
”We started, and played through. When it was done, we heard the producer Håkon’s voice in the talk-back, and he said: ’I think you should get in here and listen a little…’ And that was a recording that just had to be as it was. We felt that adding new vocals would have been wrong.”
During the time in studio everything was open, nothing was planned or decided, other than thoughts and unfinished ideas. With Hallgrim Brattberg on guitars and various string-instruments, Helge Lien on grand piano and Håkon Iversen as the producer, they had room to record with improvisation and explore the possibilities of each track.
It was difficult for Kim to find the title for this album.
”On previous recordings, the title was decided fairly quickly. This time I found it really difficult. One day the photographer Jens Haugen pointed out that many of the songs are about time. The time that elapse, the time that is and the time that was. One of the texts I’ve made the melody for is ”Sekund, Minutt”, and in that lyric I found the word ”Timeglas”. I knew right away that it was the right title”.
A voice for all times
Kim grew up with traditional music around him, but doesn’t hesitate to cross the genre boundaries. With his beautiful, sonorous voice, he conveys traditional songs as well as pop ballads with equal credibility.
For many he’s known for his participation in the Norwegian Eurovision (MGP), with the song ”Så vidunderlig”, which also was A-listed for months on NRK P1. His debut album was named ’Best Solo Album’ at Folkelarm, and his second album ”Vegen” was nominated for the Norwegian Grammy awards.
