The Essay Episodes Available now
Sarah Walker on Steve Reich's Four Organs—Five Seismic Moments in New Music
4/5 Sarah Walker reflects on Steve Reich's radically minimalist Four Organs.
Ivan Hewett on Brian Eno's Music for Airports—Five Seismic Moments in New Music
3/5 Ivan Hewett reflects on Brian Eno's creation of a new genre, which he named ambient music.
Sara Mohr Pietsch on the Fall of the Berlin Wall—Five Seismic Moments in New Music
2/5 Sara Mohr-Pietsch on the appetite in the west for eastern European music after 1989.
Robert Worby on John Cage's 4'33"—Five Seismic Moments in New Music
1/5 Robert Worby reflects on the first performance of John Cage's 4'33".
A Swedish Christmas: Andrew Brown—Religion in the North
5/5 Andrew Brown recalls his experience of a Swedish Christmas.
Christmas Father: Lars Petter Sveen—Religion in the North
4/5 Lars Petter Sveen recalls growing up in an atheist family.
Norse Mythology: Karl Seigfried—Religion in the North
3/5 Karl Seigfried explores Nordic Yule myths and why Norse mythology still speaks to people.
Forests and Faith under the Northern Lights—Religion in the North
2/5 Per Rosenberg on wooden churches in Scandinavia and the symbolic importance of the forest.
Winter Solstice: Hanne Orstavik—Religion in the North
1/5 Novelist Hanne Orstavik on her childhood memories of Sami winter solstice legends.
Art in a Cold Climate: Thomas Hylland Eriksen on the Holmenkollen Ski-Jumping Hill—Art in a Cold Climate
5/5 Thomas Hylland Eriksen on Oslo's now-demolished Holmenkollen ski-jumping hill and Norway.
