{"id":42317,"date":"2025-09-05T13:57:46","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T12:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/?post_type=product&p=42317"},"modified":"2026-01-06T22:43:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T21:43:32","slug":"kassandra","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/albums\/grappa\/kassandra\/","title":{"rendered":"Kassandra"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The two unusually boundary-breaking and genre-defying artists Juliana Venter and Rolf-Erik Nystr\u00f8m, originally from opposite ends of the globe, are releasing their long-awaited debut album Kassandra<\/em>. Here, the duo takes us into their unique musical universe and presents their years-long collaboration and intimate interplay between voice and saxophone.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The album also features exclusive guest appearances from some of their closest musical partners over many years\u2014leading figures on the internationally acclaimed Norwegian music scene for decades: Paal Nilssen-Love on gongs and drums, Nils \u00d8kland on violin and Hardanger fiddle, and Mats Eilertsen on double bass. The record is produced by composer Rolf Wallin, mixed by K\u00e5re Vestrheim, and recorded by Morten Qvenild\u2014making this an album of unusual encounters between musical powerhouses, some of whom are working together for the very first time.<\/p>\n

The album is titled Kassandra<\/em> after the Greek legend of the Trojan princess who was granted the gift of foresight by the lovestruck Apollo, but who, after rejecting his advances, was cursed never to be believed. The record also includes music set to poems by Georg Trakl and South African poet Wopko Jensma, as well as Rolf Wallin\u2019s remix of all the musicians\u2019 interpretation of Tchaikovsky\u2019s achingly beautiful Hymn of the Cherubim<\/em>. The cover art is an original painting by Wayne Barker, one of South Africa\u2019s most renowned artists. Juliana Venter met saxophonist Rolf-Erik Nystr\u00f8m in Cape Town in 2012. Since then, they have performed countless concerts together in Europe and South Africa, as well as in Morocco, Lebanon, the USA, China, and Japan.<\/p>\n

The duo also won the Golden Chair<\/em> for Best Film\u2014where they improvised dialogue and music\u2014at the International Short Film Festival in Grimstad 2024, competing against 3,500 other films, and they recently premiered a commissioned work at a concert exclusively for Haruki Murakami, Liv Ullmann, Ji\u0159\u00ed Kyli\u00e1n, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and the Norwegian Queen Sonja.<\/p>\n

Through their studies and musical explorations around the world\u2014often in Africa, Asia, and South America\u2014they have gradually developed an organic relationship with a wide range of musical styles. On the album, one can encounter music from the early Baroque, jazz at its most intimate, works derived from ancient Greek myths, the musicians\u2019 own musical heritage from Norwegian and South African traditions, as well as music inspired by ancient Chinese and Japanese forms, contemporary music, and Dadaist poetry. Birdsongs, too, serve as a recurring source of inspiration\u2014sometimes quiet, at other times erupting in cascading bursts of sound and interference. Yet the expression they possess is always unmistakably their own.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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The two unusually boundary-breaking and genre-defying artists Juliana Venter and Rolf-Erik Nystr\u00f8m, originally from opposite ends of the globe, are releasing their long-awaited debut album Kassandra<\/em>. Here, the duo takes us into their unique musical universe and presents their years-long collaboration and intimate interplay between voice and saxophone.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":42336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[6],"product_tag":[8130,8129,8131],"class_list":{"0":"post-42317","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-grappa","7":"product_tag-juliana-venter","8":"product_tag-juliana-venter-rolf-erik-nystrom","9":"product_tag-rolf-erik-nystrom","10":"product_shipping_class-cddvd-shipping","11":"uni_artist_tag-juliana-venter-rolf-erik-nystrom","12":"uni_main_artist_tag-juliana-venter-rolf-erik-nystrom","13":"uni_artist_genre-art-music","14":"uni_artist_genre-contemporary","15":"uni_artist_genre-contemporary-classical","16":"uni_artist_genre-contemporary-jazz","17":"uni_artist_genre-jazz","19":"first","20":"instock","21":"taxable","22":"shipping-taxable","23":"purchasable","24":"product-type-variable"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/42317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=42317"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=42317"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grappa.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=42317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}