JazzFolk & World
Aurora Records · 30 January 2026
Benedicte Maurseth plays the Hardanger fiddle, the Norwegian traditional violin with sympathetic strings, and she has spent years taking it out of the traditional repertoire. “Always and Never the Same” is the work she premiered in 2023 at Oslo’s Ultima festival with Ensemble neoN and live animation by Simone Hooymans. She then reworked it with producer Jørgen Træen, and it is this second version that Aurora Records released on 30 January.
There are eight pieces and forty-one minutes, with three variations of “Contented Pelicans” framing five tone poems in between. The titles come from fragments of early Buddhist sutras and gāthās collected in the book “buena nada” by Hendl H Mirra, and the music goes with them: repetitive structures, slow changes, duos and trios that peel away from the ensemble and return to it.
The ensemble’s instrumentation (cello, vibraphone, flute and bass flute, lute, clarinets, guitar, piano and Træen’s modular synthesiser) is chosen to go with the timbre of the Hardanger fiddle without covering it, and Maurseth is left as the principal soloist. It plays like an eight-part chamber suite, with a warm, detailed sound that is lost if a single track is picked out.
It was recorded at Paradiso studio in Oslo on 18 and 19 June 2025, produced by Håkon Mørch Stene, Jørgen Træen and Maurseth herself. The label’s catalogue number is ACD5125.
Rating: 8.2/10
Text by Aina Torrents