Jan Gunnar Hoff, jazz pianist and Marianne Beate Kielland, mezzo soprano, come together in this genre-crossing duo. Hoff & Kielland worked together on several smaller projects in 2014 and 2015. Gradually the idea emerged of performing as a duo and composing new songs for an album. Texts of Hamsun and Blake were chosen, poems with their melancholy and directness. In the spring of 2016 Kielland and Hoff toured together, premiering the new songs along with others that Hoff composed, such as Coming My Way and The Lamb. Other “older” compositions for jazz band and choir have been adapted to the project. In 2017 the album “Terra Nova” (Lawo Records) was released. Hoff and Kielland has later made a few performances, the last one took place at Nordlysfestivalen 2018 in Tromsø.
«These are wistful, open-hearted songs executed with the creativity of two gifted Norwegian musicians.»
Sullivan – American Record Guide, februar 2018