Night Lives

By Kristine Tjøgersen for Cikada ensemble.

Premiere ULTIMA Oslo Contemporary Music Festival 21.9.2023

When the sun goes down, a whole new world comes to life that most of us know little about. Although we share physical space with these creatures, we rarely meet them. Evolution has given them senses that we humans do not have, senses that allow them to rule the night just as we rule the day.

Created by composer Kristine Tjøgersen, lighting designer Evelina Dembacke, set and costume designer Ellen Jerstad and biologist Hanna Bjørgaas. Together with Cikada Ensemble, who comissioned the work, they have explored the nocturnal animals and their sensory world. Ellen Jerstad and Colin Eccleston perform alongside Cikada.

The most impressive theatrical work i experienced at Ultima 2023 was Night Lives, from the irrespressible Kristine Tjøgersen. Equal parts mischievous and childlike, Tjøgersen’s responses to and inspirations from the natural world are always as mind boggling as they are imaginative, and in recent years have been treated to stunning realisations. From 5against4 music review.

Photos Signe Fuglesteg Luksengard

Night Lives was akin to becoming an anthropologist, watching a newly discovered group of species doing their thing, revealing sedate and energetic sides to their personalities, the acoustic warmth of the ensemble being blanched by cool sharpness from synthesizers. To write about Tjøgersen’s work is always to do it a disservice; it really needs to be experienced, and considering the amount of effort (and time, and money) it must take to put on performances of her work, one can only hope that her bold, ambitious pieces aren’t one-off triumphs like this but will have the opportunity to travel and be experienced by as many people as possible. Full review by 5against4 music review.

Let your eardrums grow on your ribs.

Tongues under the soles of your feet. 

Put your hands behind your ears. 

There you go. Now you're ready for the night.

From the moment we entered Oslo’s Kulturkirken Jakob church – through a tunnel festooned with tassles – we were in an interior transformed into a strange, nocturnal habitat. This was populated by almost nothing familiar: an array of alien, arcane and absurd machines and objects being wielded by an equally eccentric array of inhabitants enacted by members of Cikada. Full review by 5against4 music review 

Photos: Håkon Borg

Det er vanskelig å ikke la seg rive med og fascinere av dette altoppslukende universet. Cikada spiller med uovertruffen virtuositet, vedvarende intensitet og spektakulære soloer, og flettverket av logistikk i alt fra drikkeservering til omorganisering av utøvere og sopphoder fungerer tilsynelatende knirkefritt. From reveiw of Night Lives by SCENEKUNSTBRUKET

Welcome to Night Lives – to the lives of those who sing in the dark and communicate on different frequencies