Helge is one of the world’s leading percussionists in the field of multimedia genres, in which he freely and tastefully blends different cultures and traditions. He has gained much from years of research directly in various places where he has been able to study the ways of musical thinking linked to everyday life in Africa, in the Nordic Sami culture and, to no lesser extent, the traditions of the Balkans. All these elements of his thinking and way of playing percussion could be experienced by the participants of the workshop, which took place on Friday evening 11.11.2022 in the intimate atmosphere of the Next Apache café.
Sensitive work with every part of the body, which is literally essential in Helge’s interpretive outlook, transported during 2 hours about 20 male and female players playing their instruments into the mysterious world of African polyrhythmic music. To achieve a state of absolute calm and understanding of this fascinating encounter with another musical culture, one must abandon a significant part of rationality and allow oneself to ride the wave of a deep sense of harmony of one’s own body, which at some point of connection begins to communicate with others on a non-verbal principle and enters into a state of inexplicable coherence, akin to a trance or a connection with the deepest consciousness.
Therefore, in conclusion, it must be emphasized how precious Helge’s participation in the One Music project is, where he is an unmistakable part of the musicians composed of 2 ensembles from Norway and Slovakia, because the linking (as the subtitle of the project Chain-Kjetting-Chaining indirectly suggests) of old melodies dressed in new clothes draws the musicians into an unfamiliar world. Everyone at some point tunes in to the deep source of a shared place of understanding, and it is only on the musicians’ faces that we can catch moments of this state, for example when they play a tune that originated thousands of miles away but seems to us to have been known for generations, only to have wandered off somewhere and returned.
Yes, melodies fly and we catch them and watch them like flocks of birds that take to the skies at one moment and return in a few months. They show us that the world belongs to everyone, there are no boundaries, and home is our entire planet, we just have to allow ourselves to break free and tune into every place, even the smallest place, where we catch a familiar-unknown melody. It will cradle our soul and bring reassurance that we need not fear, for we are in the right place. In every corner of our earth…
