When the uncompromising duo Elisabeth Holmertz and Kenneth Karlsson finally release their long-awaited album on LAWO Classics, we find Norwegian and German contemporary music on the menu. On “Botschaft des Ridicolas” we hear “Got Lost” by Helmut Lachenmann - a 30-minute-long wild and poetic work that has become a modern classic, and which is supposedly one of the composer's own favorites; the quiet, sensual, melancholic “Meditasjon over Georges de La Tour XVII” by Jon Øivind Ness; and finally Rolf Wallin's desperate, punk work “...though what made it has gone.” The texts performed here are by eminent poets such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Fernando Pessoa, Paal-Helge Haugen, and Osip Mandelstam.

Holmertz and Karlsson have closely collaborated for many years: first and foremost as a duo, but also in their more experimental group, Vollen United, where they perform a mixture of baroque, improvisational, and contemporary music. Elisabeth Holmertz elegantly jumps between styles and expressions, her repertoire ranging from classical lute ballads to opera and avant-garde contemporary music. In 2020, she completed her PhD in artistic research at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Kenneth Karlsson has been the Artistic Director and pianist of Cikada since 1989. He has also performed in several improvisation groups over the years, most recently in the quartet Point 4 with Jon Balke, Ingar Zach, and Bjørn Rabben. He has toured all over the world, both as a soloist and with various ensembles.