Norwegian jazz singer Silje Nergaard releases For You A Thousand Times

In her album ‘For You A Thousand Times’, Norwegian jazz singer Silje Nergaard portrays people or scenes who inspired her and describes past encounters or personal experiences from images in her heart.

“I’ve seen a picture in which families from North and South Korea meet again after decades apart. Everyone’s crying with joy despite such a long time without any contact. That’s where the song ‘For You A Thousand Times’ originated from,” says Nergaard as she recalls the key moment from which the inspiration for the album arose. “Many people are separated from one another by war. Their love for one another, however, does not fade.” With this awareness, Nergaard started to find similar stories about the magical power of memories, which she began to portray through her songs. ‘For You A Thousand Times’ is full of such stories about unseen relationships, yearning and love.

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 real life samples in the light summer ballad ‘Cocco Bello’. On the beach in southern Italy, Nergaard recorded an African coconut seller advertising his produce in singing ‘Cocco Bello’ and constructed a song around it. “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. An 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).