This is me, Nils, trying to take a selfie at the train station in Dingle. Josef Kallerdahl, Christopher Cantillo and Daniel Ögren left me with the morning birds and a loney snail as company, after an intense week of playing music together. They’re halfway to Gardermoen now, I hope. Thank you for a grand finale of a spring together, packed with concerts, travels, meetings, lousy food, great meals, mountains and airports. I’m happy and thankful to do this together with you, it would be a sad life to live alone, and a meager music to play without your company.
And thank you, all of you who listened. Some of you were forced to listen (! We’ve played round about 40 gigs for students in the norwegian alps during the last months – concerts that you didn’t ask to hear, but still endured or enjoyed), and some of you came by free will. Thank you Thor Kvande at Den kulturelle Skolesekken for showing us all of Oppland. And to all you, kulturverter from the 40-ish schools, who helped us carry speakers, build movie theaters in gym halls, make loads and loads of coffee, learn how to pronounciate Cinemascope and to roll a microphone cable.
To Ernst Wiggo Sandbakk in Trondheim for putting on a fantastic show and inviting us to your vibey festival. To Jacob Collier for flying high in the sky. And to Oumou Sangare for connecting us to earth again. Elise Blanchard for being the coolest bass player and Abou Diarra for the best stone face (and funkiest Kamale n’gone) – ever. To Alexandra for waking up in time to get us up in the air.
Henrik and Karolina at Gerlesborgsskolan for bringing us home to the west coast again. Patrik Wingård for collecting all those loudspeakers. Axel Johansson and Trio Mallorca for the music. Kvitter for the veggies, the ginger and the fabulastic irish coffee.
Come tomorrow. Onwards and forwards. We’re preparing a bag full of new stuff, going pretty much all directions, including – Dina Grannar, a performance made by/in/for/with, the people of Västerås and Västerås Konserthus – Punjab revisited (featuring the one and only Balwinder Singh Laddi), summer gigs including collabs with friends Miki Anagrius and Ljus and a musical food fest featuring the kitchen skills of Christopher.
Vamos into the future, dear friends!