Silje Nergaard - For You a Thousand Times (2017)

Silje Nergaard is without question Norway’s all-time best selling Jazz artist worldwide with 15 albums released over a career that spans 20 years. From the first moment she entered the music scene at the age of 16, Silje established herself as one of Norway’s strongest songwriters.

In her album ‘For You A Thousand Times’, Silje Nergaard presents short stories about the unique power arising from memories. Just like music, memories are capable of connecting people regardless of time and space. In every song Nergaard portrays people or scenes who inspired her and describes past encounters or personal experiences from images in her heart.

One of the most intimate moments of the album can be found in the song ‘Hush Little Bird’, a lullaby for her Ethiopian adopted son Jonah, who babbles in the language from his earlier life just before falling asleep. His words can be heard as an intro to the song. Nergaard also used the recording of an African coconut seller advertising his produce in the summer ballad ‘Cocco Bello’. “This is a meeting between two very different cultures but for a brief moment they melt into one”.

With ‘For You A Thousand Times’ Nergaard enters into a more electric world. Her rousing melodies are placed into subtly arranged soundscapes made of warm analogue keyboards, electric bass, funky drums and African percussion. A long musical journey through landscapes spanning from tropical heatwaves to the winter nights of Norway in which Silje is accompanied by Andreas Ulvo (keyboard), Audun Erlien (bass), Sidiki Camara (percussion), Wetle Holte (drums and percussion), Mathias Eick (trumpet), Håkon Aase (violin) and Håkon Kornstad (saxophone).