Dorthe Højland Group + Einar Már Guðmundsson
The Moment & Eternity
music & poems
The words have always been there. The music has always been there.
It starts with the word, and it all starts with the sound.
The poems can stand on their own. The music can stand on its own. Cojoined as a synergy they float and are magical.
The Moment & Eternity is a meeting between music and poetry, a Danish saxophonist and an Icelandic poet who were immediately fascinated by each other's forms of expression.
The music is composed to accompany poems from the collection
"To Whom It May Concern".
The poems
from "To Whom It May Concern" explore endings and beginnings, eternity and the moment, light and dark, memories and oblivion. Or as stated in one of the poems, they are "about time and words, words and the world, and everything in between."
The music
supports, provokes, and expands the experience of the poems' various worlds and meanings.
Einar Már Guðmundsson
Iceland's great storyteller has received numerous awards, including the Nordic Council Literature Prize, the Karen Blixen Medal, and the Swedish Academy's Nordic Prize. In 2016, his complete works were published in Danish. His authorship includes novels, short stories, poems, and essays, and is internationally recognized as a milestone in the Nordic narrative tradition.
Einar Már Guðmundsson has previously collaborated with musicians in various contexts.
Einar Már Guðmundsson and Dorthe Højland met for the first time at the Nordic Culture Week in Rödding in the fall of 2021. Inspiration struck both Guðmundsson and the group immediately, and since then, Dorthe Højland has been composing music to accompany the poems, creating a symbiosis of music and poetry in a joint project: The Moment & Eternity.
Concerts with Dorthe Højlund Group and Guðmundsson are intimate, sensory experiences featuring music that is at times structured, at other times improvised, but whose constant mission is to support, provoke, and expand the experience of the various worlds and meanings of the poems.
"Einar Már Guðmundsson's voice is the most soothing I have heard in a long time. It was as if a thick fog over the Icelandic tundra had enveloped us in the hall. It was as if a crevice had opened, from which centuries of storytelling and thick, warm lava flowed out. The words, whimsical, unfathomable, and playful, curled in the air and mingled elegantly with the saxophone, piano, bass, and drums in Dorthe Højland Group's divinely beautiful lyrical melodies and musical landscapes. Thank you for a great experience."
— Helle Solvang, radio host and cultural communicator. Founder and leader of Jordens Skole.
“It was not just good Nordic jazz accompanying and underpinning the various expressions of the poems, for Dorthe Højland Group and poet Einar Már Guðmundsson truly engaged in dialogue, and together they created something entirely new—a both atmospheric and playful interplay between tones and words, music and poetry, that clearly captivated and delighted the audience in the sold-out hall. It was simply sublime!”
— Birgir Thor Møller, program director at Nordatlantens Brygge
“We were blown away by an outstanding concert from Dorthe Højland Group and Einar Már Guðmundsson. The format – jazz music combined with Einar Már's lively, humorous, and insightful poems – worked incredibly well. High quality and beautiful tones! Thank you for coming and sharing your music with us at the North Atlantic House in Odense.”
— Annette Lyberth, Director of the North Atlantic House & The Greenlandic House Odense
The following is a description of a memorable event at Musikhuset in Aarhus: On Friday, October 6th, 170 attendees experienced a captivating afternoon organized by the NORDEN Aarhus association and Musikhuset. The event featured the Dorthe Højland Group and Icelandic author Einar Már Gudmundsson, who collaborated on a project titled "Øjeblikket og Evigheden" (The Moment & Eternity) - a blend of music and poetry. The result was an enchanting afternoon where music and poetry intertwined, offering the audience an exceptionally intimate and sensory experience.
— Arne Nielsen, Foreningen Norden, Aarhus
"Hi Dorthe. I attended your concert on Mors. The music went straight to my heart and brought tears to my eyes, something I don't usually experience. Thank you from the bottom of my heart."
— Best regards, Carsten (audience member)
"Thank you for a truly fantastic evening. It was a great experience. Please let us know if you would like to come again."
— Stefan Hollænder Kvamm, Principal of Ry Højskole