The recording of "SIRKELSALME - a concert" by Monica Aasprong (text and also reading one of the voices) and Maja S. K. Ratkje (voice, live music and composition. From Oslo Poetry Festival at Kunstnernes Hus August 2013.

SIRKELSALME

Asylos.WAV

"Concerto for Voice (moods IIIb)" composed by Maja S. K. Ratkje. Voice soloist: Maja S. K. Ratkje

ConcertoforVoice

A piece for the alto sax player Rolf-Erik Nystrøm. By Maja S. K. Ratkje

From the record Adventura Anatomica (Semishigure 2006) by Maja S. K. Ratkje. Made for a dance performance with the same title.

Floating, Hiding, Posing

From the solo record Stalker. Side A. Vinyl only release.

Stalker Side A, first track

Music made for film by Daria Martin with the same title. Performed and composed by Maja S. K. Ratkje

Wintergarden

String quartet and accordion. Composed by Maja S. K. Ratkje in 2001.

Gagakuvariations

Songs made in collaboration with Frode Haltli. Here with string arrangements.

2. and 3. of "Three Tangos to texts by Gunnar Ekelöf"

Four viola da gambas performing this piece. Made by Ratkje, played by Fretwork. On a portrait CD with Ratkje's work, with the same title. Buy it from Tzadik!


River Mouth Echoes

SWRD, a piece composed for soprano, percussion and electronics. Performed under Gaudeamus. (Still Waters Run Deep)

Swrd

Ghosts, 2.sats

Louange II

Chipmunk Party

Music made for an outdoors installation, to be listened to by headphones. Track also released by Rune Grammofon.

Breathe

A live realisation of Maja S. K. Ratkje's "In Dialogue with Rudnik", a work which is also released for CD and includes treated samples by Eugeniusz Rudnik. This is a concert recording by Cato Langnes from Maja's concert at Victoria under Ultima 2014. 

In Dialogue with Rudnik - live

A recording in 1996/7(?) featuring the four members of the group SPUNK. Same sequence two times, first time pitched up, second time pitched down. 

SPUNK's Rødvinskveld

A raw recording of a concert with the noise duo Fe-mail (Hild Sofie Tafjord and Maja S. K. Ratkje) with Kjetil Møster (saxophone) at BLÅ, Oslo August 28, 2005.

Fe-mail and Møster at BLÅ 28.08.05

Debut album by Fe-mail (Hild Sofie Tafjord and Maja S. K. Ratkje). Released by Important Records in 2004. Originally released on vinyl.

A Merry Day In The Woods

Water Music

Jacob's Toy

Fe-mail consisted of Hild Sofie Tafjord and Maja S. K. Ratkje. 

Fe - Mail At Safe As Milk 2

Growl Attitude

From the record by Maja S. K. Ratkje with the same title released on Rune Grammofon 2002. 

Voice

Three tracks recorded live and collected in 2001. (x,y,z) was Asbjørn Flø, Risto Holopainen and Maja S. K. Ratkje.

3 Lydspor

2 Lydspor

1 Lydspor

Komponist og kunstner Ewa Jacobsson intervjues av kollega Maja S. K. Ratkje fra kuratorgruppa for Harpefoss poesifestival om bestillingsverket "Ett tomt rum av ingeting" som har urframføring 16.09.2016 på Harpefoss hotell under festivalen. 

http://www.harpefosshotell.no/harpefoss-poesifestival/tema/

Ewa_Jacobsson_Harpefoss2016

A track made for a compilation on Subrosa in 2005. I was not happy with their mastering (was never asked!), so here's the original track, for you to enjoy.

MajaRatkjeVox24bit

An improvised ballad made for compilation. Recorded in one take, unrehearsed and unedited with the use of Hadron, reverb and microphone.
Text inspired by Elvis.

Softly as I Leave You

A track from the album Sult, to be released on the Norwegian label Rune Grammofon March 8 2019. 

Composed, performed, mixed and produced by Maja S. K. Ratkje 2018.

The music on the album is based upon the music created for the ballet Sult/Hunger by Jo Strømgren for the Norwegian National Ballett, 2018. The track titles are quotes from Knut Hamsun's novel Sult from 1890. Sung text is in Maja's made-up language for the performance. 
The instrument used in the performance and on this record is designed for Sult and built at the Norwegian Opera around an old pump organ.

Recorded by Hågen Rørmark at the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet, May 2018.
Co-produced by Frode Haltli.
Mastered by Morgan Nicolaysen at Propeller Mastering.

Sjå, åmioda - og ikke en lyd kom mig fra strupen

Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje, composer and performer (born Dec. 29th 1973 in Trondheim, Norway), finished composition studies at the Norwegian State Academy of Music in Oslo in 2000. Her music is performed worldwide by performers such as Klangforum Wien, Oslo Sinfonietta, The Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Fretwork, TM+, Cikada and Vertavo string quartets, Quatuor Renoir, Ticom, crashEnsemble, Pearls for Swine Experience, Torben Snekkestad, Marianne Beate Kielland, SPUNK, Frode Haltli, POING and many more. Portrait concerts with her music has been heard in Toronto and Vienna, she has been composer in residence at festivals like Other Minds, San Francisco, Nordland Music Festival, Bodø, and the Avanti! summer festival.

Ratkje has received awards such as the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris for composers below 30 years of age, the Norwegian Edvard prize (work of the year) twice, second prize at the Russolo Foundation, and in 2001 she was the first composer ever to receive the Norwegian Arne Nordheim prize. Her solo album «Voice», made in collaboration with Jazzkammer, got a Distinction Award at Prix Ars Electronica in 2003.

Ratkje is active as a singer/voice user and electronics player as well as studio engineer, as a soloist or in groups such as SPUNK or Agrare. Other collaborations are with Jaap Blonk, Joëlle Léandre, Ikue Mori, Zeena Parkins, Stephen O’Malley, Stian Westerhus, Lasse Marhaug, POING and the metal band Trinacria. Ratkje has performed her own music for films, dance and theatre, installations, and numerous other projects. In 2003, she played a leading part in her own opera, based on the texts from the Nag Hammadi Library. In 2005 she performed the voice solo part of her first big work for orchestra, commissioned by Radio France. She has also been soloist with Klangforum Wien and Oslo Sinfonietta.

Her scores are found at the Norwegian Music Information Centre and her records are released on Tzadik, Rune Grammofon, ECM, Kontrans, Asphodel, Important Records and others.

Maja S. K. Ratkje

Popular tracks