Susanna: Baudelaire & piano

Artist and composer Susanna Wallumrød has composed music to poems by Charles Baudelaire (1821-67) from the once forbidden collection of poems called “Les Fleurs du Mal”.

The song cycle aptly named “Baudelaire & Piano” is a stripped down concert with just vocals and piano. She is accompanied by Stina Moltu who has composed music to be performed on a cassette player. There will also be elements of scenography made by the talented Thale Kvam Olsen as well as lighting by Gard Gitlestad and sound design by Ingar Hunskaar. The show you’ll be able to experience at Oslo Jazzfestival was originally performed at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in 2020.

Here you’ll find a creepy cast of witches, pagans, wolves, perverts, thugs, ghosts, vampires and demons. The songs struggle with lust and saintliness, angels and demons, tenderness and sadism, and the relentless march of time, the destroyer. Beauty with an edge of strangeness. Sin as a swallowing abyss. In Susanna’s haunting settings and performance, the poetry of Baudelaire has found its ideal transmitter.

Susanna Wallumrød has performed under the names Susanna and the Magical Orchestra, Susanna, Susanna & The Brotherhood of Our Lady. She has released an14 critically acclaimed albums since her debut in 2004.

Wallumrød is renowned for her renditions of famous acts such as Joy Division, AC/DC, Dolly Parton and Henry Purcel, but holds her own with original works, music made for poems by Gunvor Hofmo, collaborations with Ensemble neon, Jenny Hval, Bonnie “Prince” Billy and contemporary dance company Carte Blanche.

Susanna has received the Rolf Gammleng-award, the Radka Toneff memorial award, Spellemannsprisen three times, EDVARD-prisen and Kongsberg Jazzfestivals great musician award for her endeavors.

• Susanna Wallumrød - vocal og piano
• Stina Moltu – casetteplayer
• Gard Gitlestad – lighting desing
• Ingar Hunskaar – sound design.