Reviews

“Ingfrid Breie Nyhus grew up in a family where Norwegian folk music was all around. It may be in her DNA, but it’s her own imagination, painstaking research and passion that has fashioned this music into something that’s new yet also anchored in tradition. It’s difficult to pull off folk music convincingly on a piano but Nyhus possesses that rare skill. Her tone, her purity of sound, her ravishing ornamentation alone makes this album exceptional, but it really stands out for me because she never loses the essential earthiness, the honesty of traditional tunes. I can imagine that if Charles Ives (American composer, master of polytonality) had walked in the Setesdal valley this is what he might have written, betwitched by Hardanger fiddle tunes coming at him from different directions, those compelling, hypnotic motifs played over and over again. The extended track ‘Rammepiano III’ is like a journey into a misty fjord, high crags looming above, dripping with rain, and then the sun appears magically from behind dark clouds and the earth- bound harmonies reach upwards. This is music born of the soil with a vision beyond the horizons.”
Fiona Talkington, Songlines – Slåttepiano II

“Slått comes from Old Norse, meaning ‘hit, beat, strike, pluck’. Pianist Ingfrid Breie Nyhus is inspired by traditional Rammeslåtter from the Setesdal region of southern Norway – wild, percusive dances played on the traditional Hardanger fiddle. The first Slåttepiano album appeared in 2015 and featured the 17 slåtter that are the basis of Grieg’s Norwegian Peasant Dances op 72. Slåttepiano II is neither wild nor percussive, but minimalist and hypnotic. It is a haunting, delightful album. The pianist has explained how Misha Alperin, the Ukrainian improvising pianist who died in 2018, mentored her approach to playing folk music on the piano. “The piano awakens when it is allowed to be dry and near (as opposed to pedalled and grandiose), to be simple, and when focused toward timbre (rather than harmony)”, she explains in an online interview. Nyhus’ performance cloud the boundaries between improvisation, composition and tradition. ‘Forspill’ and ‘Rammepiano I’ are violin-like in being essentially monophonic with droppee bass notes – the bassline, if one can call it, is understatedm almost suppressed. ‘Rammepiano II’ and ‘III’ have more active basslines. This is a unique vision of folk music transformed into art.”
Andy Hamilton, Piano International – Slåttepiano II

“Mesmerizing stuff”
BBC Late Junction – Slåttepiano II

“With the pianist Nyhus, music becomes a ritual”
Alessandro Rigolli, Gazzetta di Parma

“It is all about leaning in and following the small variations. This is music that needs to be listened to for the listener to be transported away. Whereto, I don’t know.”
Egil Baumann, Klassekampen – Slåttepiano II

“This fine pianist knows how to create a slightly magical atmosphere, with a somewhat dark timbral overlay on the translated slåtts she is playing. Minimalistic traits might be emphazised, but first of all it is the sound of Norwegian folk soul – swept into Nyhus’ sensitive play. Close your eyes and enjoy!”
Trond Erikson – Slåttepiano II

“The atmosphere, despite singular glimpses of light, is as dark as it is hypnotic, as if the performance is made in a dark hall only lit by fire. Still, it all makes up exciting listening. Nyhus is a complete artist, whether it is as pianist or as composer, and Slåttepiano II possess a hypnotic quality that echoes long after the last note has faded away.”
Klassisk Musikkmagasin – Slåttepiano II

«Welcomes the listener into a timeless atmosphere by keeping things to the pure essentials of the sound. Merging the contemporary and ancient, Slåttepiano II features the exquisite ear of Ingfrid Breie Nyhus»
Beach Sloth – Slåttepiano II

«The uniqueness of Ingfrid Breie Nyhus: she has managed to create a bridge between folk and contemporary music. Nyhus thus has given birth to a music made of rhythmic and complex improvisation with unusual phrasing for piano music. Nyhus has a way of playing that is difficult to describe, already in Forspill the minimalism of Philip Glass coexists with the Continuous Music of Lubomyr Melnyk, a continuous flow of perfectly balanced notes.»
Radioaktiv – Slåttepiano II

«Had I not known better, I could have thought this was music improvised by f.ex Terry Riley. With Ingfrid Breie Nyhus I have a new piano favourite that I will follow closely the years to come.»
Salt peanuts – Slåttepiano II

“Slått playing masterly and distinctively transferred to the piano, utilizing the whole expression register of the instrument. … Placing this stylistically, it must be within a sort of minimalism, but not machine-like minimalism such as Steve Reich, Philip Glass and Terry Riley are known for. Morton Feldman’s serene style is a closer reference, but the rhythmicality here is much more active. In other words, it is difficult to describe this playing – and that is meant as a big compliment. Carrying triple traditional material – the folk music version, the Grieg version and the folk jazz tradition (the pioneer Jan Johansson must not be forgotten!) – she has succeeded in creating her completely own version. In totality, this is a masterly balanced project: Slåttepiano balances different styles, and Nyhus explores and uses the whole register of the dynamic monster instrument that once carried the name pianoforte.”
Sigbjørn Apeland, Folkemusikk – Slåttepiano

“The playing is near and warm. Rhythm and ornament are made as closely to the harding fiddle as I never heard on the piano before. The atmosphere on the opening track … gives me associations to the versions of Swedish folk tones by Jan Johansson, but still cannot be compared rhythmically and tonally. Several places, the glow and energy in the slåtts reminds me of Grieg interpretations by Percy Grainger … Her play and expression are still thoroughly distinct and personal.”
Stein Urheim, Dag og Tid – Slåttepiano  

“In her piano playing, she sensitively captures the peculiarities of the slåtts’ character, each slått has its own pulse and variation. Ingfrid Breie Nyhus has an ability by her elegant piano technique, to curl and season them, making it possible to melodically discern the similarities of  harding fiddle playing. … In an intimate and beautifully embellished musical universe, the small world of old slåtts where it all began, is widened.”
Gunder Wåhlberg, Lira Musikmagasin – Slåttepiano

“Humbly attentive and boldly innovative”
Emil Bernhardt, Morgenbladet – Folk piano trilogy

“The very ornate and elaborate articulations of each piece are taken much into consideration and Ms. Nyhus “pianizes” these so that the results are in the end quite pianistic, but complex and rhythmically/phrasingly most unusual for piano music as we ordinarily encounter it. The performances-adaptations are wondrously detailed, bravura, invigorating, like a plunge into an icy cold stream. To take a rough analogy, the bends, glides and ornamentation of Afro-American blues vocalists and guitarists have over the years developed into a special piano style that has developed pianistic means, grace notes and such, to make the expressions of blues language translate pianistically. Ms. Nyhus has developed a comparable pianistic language to capture musically the elaborate double-stops, trills and embellishments of fully developed traditional Hardanger fiddle virtuosos. The results are beautiful and rather startling in Ingfrid’s capable hands. The music captures the essence of the Norwegian fiddle style to the needs and talents of Ingfrid’s piano brilliance, but in so doing gives us a music that sounds like no other piano music I’ve heard. It is a very absorbing album, quite fascinating and satisfying on all accounts. You need to hear this one! Ms. Nyhus is a phenomenon!””
Gapplegate Classical-Modern Review – Slåttepiano

“Puzzling folk playing. …Nyhus’ own piano versions of a set of fiddle dances – the same as Grieg used as base in his Slåtter for piano, op 72. …Nyhus’ thorough approach puts unexpected articulations and the dance rhythms’ characteristic asymmetry in the center. …There is something intimate and honest over the expression. Slått playing is characterized by the personal variations of the fiddlers, but instead of imitating others, Nyhus uses the features of the piano to create her own character. After 17 tracks it feels like one has become well acquainted – and that with a musician one would like to spend more time with”
Maren Ørstavik, Aftenposten – Slåttepiano

“Whispering with the piano. Refined folk music inspired contemporary music.”
Sjur Haga Bringeland, Dag og Tid – Abstraction in Folk Art 

”Lasse Thoresen’s ’Solspill’ resounds enthrallingly beautiful, in its abstract world of sound, gorgeously realized by Nyhus. Simple patterns unfold, not weighed down by extra meaning, but stands there to be viewed, entirely in its own right”
Ståle Wikshåland, Dagbladet – Abstraction in Folk Art

”Schaathun’s often contemplative study …coalesce the piano playing of Nyhus and the electronics in a remarkably poetic way. …Nyhus plays magnificent the whole way, surrounded by super clear sound catching every click of Torvund’s cassette player on stage. An exciting album.»
Guy Rickards, Klassisk Musikkmagasin – Abstraction in Folk Art

”…Genuinely fascinating, a total loss of seeking for effect, but a love to the Norwegian, the wild, the undisturbed. …Nyhus with fine, expressive capacity dresses these mini suits of imagery in finely chiseled piano play. Recommended determinedly.”
Jan-Erik Zandersson, Universum Noll – Abstraction in Folk Art

“Ingfrid Breie Nyhus is a magically poetic pianist who specializes in repertoire that combines modern classical and folk idioms. …Nyhus internalizes the Kielland ethos and gives it back to us with beautifully evocative performances. If Satie was Norwegian and became enthralled with local forms, his music might have sounded something like this. …The snippets of recorded vocalizations come at us in a quietly, ghostly sort of eerieness, as if the past were communicating to us from a distance, very much still alive. …It is thoroughly beautiful, still, quiet, yet with a movement through to the present, like water rippling forward inexorably but gently in a quiet rural stream. This is a program of great beauty. Ms. Nyhus gives us ideal performances. Strongly recommended.”
Gapplegate Classical-Modern Review – Stille-stykkje

“A virtuoso of timbre”
Morgenbladet – debut concert 

“Secuctively wonderful. The pianist Ingfrid Breie Nyhus plays on Grieg’s piano at Troldhaugen and embarks on a musical journey of great format. With luscious touch and theft for the Griegiesh character, she places herself among the young that really have something on their heart.”
Idar Karevold, Aftenposten – Grieg Peasant Dances

“through Ingfrid Breie Nyhus’ good folk music familiarity we hear a recording that swings incredibly. …Breie Nyhus does not stylize the dance forms, but she lets the rythms stay unusally alive, and she has a far broader palette of accentuations. …Breie Nyhus creates a freedom that rather reminds of folk musical playfulness than raw virtuosity. And she plays pensively and beautifully.”
Magnus Andersson, Morgenbladet – Grieg Peasant Dances

“I find a freshness in Ingfrid Breie Nyhus’s playing that is captivating (…) and the rhythms come naturally to her. I would especially like to point out the ‘cool’ playing of Bruremarsj fra Telemark (tr. 3), where the syncopations and the overall pulse are executed with a jazzy elegance worthy of Erroll Garner. I will have this disc close to the CD player for months to come.”
Musicweb International – Grieg Peasant Dances

“Ingfrid is an extraordinary sensitive musician, observant on the colours of the piano … – also capable of infusing sudden fire sparks when it flames. …Highly recommendable!”
Klassisk Musikkmagasin – Grieg Peasant Dances