Wenn selbst einer wie Oscar-Preisträger Glen Hansard (The Frames, The Swell Season) einem digitale Lorbeeren wie „Norwigi embodies the best of cultures crosspollinating and flourishing together. I’m a huge fan of her writing and her videos.“ zuteil werden lässt, dann sollte man getrost ein, zwei Öhrchen riskieren.
Hinter der von hoher Singer/Songwriter-Stelle gepriesenen The Musical Slave versteckt sich die aus Norwegen stammende Straßenmusikerin Kristin Vollset, die – schenkt man ihrer Erzählung Glauben – in ihrem Leben schon gut in der Welt herum gekommen ist:
„The Musical Slave is a travelling musician and storyteller. She plays tropical punk and sings about people, love, cosmic forces, and the world economy.
The Musical Slave is from Bergen, on the west coast of Norway. But she’s happiest when she’s out wandering. She started making music, jamming on the streets of Lyon, in France around the year 2000. She later moved to London where she ended up making vocal- and noisebased soundscapes. After a few years she travelled to Mexico, and started working as a street musician there. She also worked as a fisher in the Mexican lagoon of Temascal. When she moved back home she started writing her own songs. She has also worked as a school assistant, painter, scaffolder, bricklayer, gardener, and on a farm making cheese and sausages.
The Musical Slave has been performing in the street, since 2003. When she’s on the move she also sometimes makes money selling pancakes.
From 2006 to 2010 she was in the band Bergen Beach Band.
From 2011 to 2014 she lived in Ireland, where she wrote the famous ballad, ‚No Plan‚, about the urban horse culture in inner city Dublin. She also made a documentary music video for it, which has been screened in film festivals in Dublin, New York and Cairo.
In February 2017 she gave birth to her daughter, Lovis, and until recently she’s been working as a full-time mother.
She’s now back working on her music, and focusing on recording more of her songs.“
Und auch wie sie zu ihrem Künstlernamen kam, verrät die freiheitsliebende Künstlerin:
„I call myself ‚The Musical Slave‘ because I believe that the money system turns us into slaves, and stops many people on this planet from doing what they really want to do. When you are always stuck, struggling to survive, you can’t be creative, and you don’t have time and energy left to really live.
But we’re all born with a heart, and we can use this heart to express ourselves, and to fight to turn this world back into the dream its meant to be. And music is a way to spark each other’s hearts, and remind each other to not let anything stop us from doing what we want and being who we want to be.“
Abseits von zwei, drei Songs hat Vollset leider noch nicht allzu viele musikalische Lebenszeichen hinterlassen. Einer davon ist jedoch das im Mai veröffentlichte „They Can’t Stop You“, welches sie ihrer Teilzeit-Wahlheimat Dublin widmet:
I remember when I first arrived in Dublin 8 on a Friday morning in June, how surprised I was that everyone was talking to me. And they had this dark sense of humour that made me feel at home straight away. It was like going back to a different time, when people lived in smaller groups with their own friends and family.
I found a freedom with these people that I haven’t found anywhere else. And with this song, I want to give people the same feeling of freedom they gave me.
This song, ‚They Can’t Stop You‘, is really about the search for freedom. The basic, primal freedom I think every living being longs for, but that, unfortunately, is hard to reach.
And that’s why I love the people of Dublin 8 so much – because out of all the people I’ve met in my life, they’ve come the closest to claiming that freedom. The song is also about the tension between the tribe and the state, and about who gets to decide what freedom is and if we should be allowed it.
I had a big problem in Dublin, that the police kept shutting me down whenever I played in the street. I think the state goes too far in limiting people’s freedom and their right to exercise their culture. And society is transforming quickly now, and with mass surveillance becoming the new norm, and artificial intelligence being able to reach and possibly control every aspect of our lives, redefining and reclaiming freedom is more relevant than ever.
So with this song I hope to remind people what it feels like to be free…
Und neben einem wachen Auge für gesellschaftliche Missstände scheint Irland auch klanglich die ein oder andere Spur hinterlassen zu haben – so meine ich einen Touch der vor zwei Jahren (zu früh) verstorbenen Cranberries-Sirene Dolores O’Riordan herauszuhören.
Klare Sache: The Musical Slave und ihr zukünftiges Schaffen sollte man im Auge (und Ohr) behalten! Ist ja schließlich von Glen Hansard abgesegnet…
Rock and Roll.
ANEWFRIEND 