Aurora Records is proud to present Night Lives, Kristine Tjøgersen’s second album on Aurora Records and the follow up to the critically acclaimed debut album Between Trees from 2024. The scenic concert productions was premiered at Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival in 2023. Night Lives is a co-production with the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation as part of the Composer Prize 2025 to Kristine Tjøgersen.
When the sun goes down, a new world comes to life that most of us know little about. Although we share physical space with its inhabitants, we rarely meet them, since 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. Kristine Tjøgersen’s Night Lives (2023) is an excursion into this shrouded world of nocturnal creatures. Produced in a multidisciplinary collaboration with the Norwegian contemporary music ensemble Cikada, biologist and writer Hanna Bjørgaas, scenographer and performer Ellen Jerstad, visual artist and lighting designer Evelina Dembacke, and artist and designer Marie Payan, Night Lives offers a fantastical imagining of how bats, moths, owls, micro-organisms, and other nighttime dwellers communicate, immersing audiences in wonders that are beyond our human eyes and ears.
"It is difficult not to be carried away and fascinated by this all-consuming universe. Cikada plays with unparalleled virtuosity, sustained intensity and spectacular solos." (https://scenekunst.no)
"It unfolded as a bizarre, fantastical mix of ritual and play, Tjøgersen’s imaginary fauna playing alone, calling to each other…… 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 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." (https://5against4.com/)