Torshovparken is situated between Agathe Grøndahls gate, Per Kvibergs gate and Johan Svendsens gate in Torshov, Oslo. The park has a wide view over the city and the Oslofjord. It has many differences in height, with a gazebo on top of a long grassy slope. On both sides of a road leading up to the gazebo, big Ulmus (elm) trees are standing opposite of each other, with old park benches underneath. The park’s surrounding area was bought by the city in 1916 to develop housing projects, and the park, officially opened in 1931, was the first park in Oslo planned and developed with the city’s advice.
Útesita
During the full moon of May 2021 , I walked around between Torshovdalen, Torshovparken, Muselunden, Kirkeparken and the river Akerselva. I chose to share the pictures of Torshovparken, as it was the one I had the strongest connection with, being present at 2:00 o’ clock at night (finally) seeing the full moon over the Oslofjord through the gazebo and listening to, and interacting with, the loudly singing birds.
Interspecies music
I have been fascinated by interspecies music for some time now, where artists such as David Rothenberg and Jim Nollman use music to interact with animals.
Inspired by this, I came prepared with ukelele and metal slide. However, at 22:22 when I headed out the door into the wilds of Oslo, I had to laugh at my own naïveté: whereas the humans were still out and about (and for the most part drunk because that night the bars and restaurants opened again after a long lockdown period), the birds were silent.
My preparation: my backpack included a ukulele, a slide, a little black Moleskin sketchbook, and tea in a thermos.
Later in the night, around 2:00, the birds had awakened and the humans had gone to bed (for the most part, there was still the ocassional inebriated dog owner taking its pet for a walk). The gråtrost (EN: fieldfare) and the svartrost (EN: blackbird) were the first birds to awaken.
A first interspecies recording was made in Torshovdalen, looking over the Oslofjord, sitting underneath the lime trees. A second was made in Torshovparken, sitting underneath the elm trees. There I sketched this sequence of svartrost and gråtrost, noticing that the birds appeared to listen for a while.
The third, final, and in my opinion best recording is the one I would like to share with you here. I was sitting at the river Akerselva, which you hear in the background, and make attempts to copy the sounds of different birds in sequence. Notice the compartementalisation of bird song, and how some stay silent for a while only to start again later.
During my night walk I hardly took any pictures, as I was warned the use of a mobile phone and its associations would take me out of the moment. I did however, take two pictures, standing in the middle of the deserted Vogts gate, which connects Torshov with Grünerløkka in the South and Storo in the North. Vogts gate is normally a busy road, and at that moment, standing in the exact center, I felt like I had the whole city to myself. In one picture you can see the full moon as a bright white circle in between the city lights. In the other picture you see the eternal twilight of the nordic summer above the horizon.