Aurora Records proudly presents the vinyl release of the new album by Ensemble neoN and Benedicte Maurseth, Always and Never the Same. The music is the result of a collaboration between Ensemble neoN and Hardanger fiddle player and composer Benedicte Maurseth.

The first version of the piece was written in 2023 and performed as an audiovisual production during the Ultima Festival, where Simone Hooymans contributed live video animation. The newly recorded version of the work is a reworked and recomposed version. Hooymans’ art is still an integral part of the work and, naturally, also shape the album cover.

Particularly important to Maurseth is the exploration of repetition and the variations that can develop from the same theme. Together with Ensemble neoN, Maurseth has composed a new piece in which the exploration of the suggestive power of repetition is a central device. Maurseth and neoN have examined how the qualities of the Hardanger fiddle can be transferred to an expanded ensemble with its rich rhythmic, tonal, and timbral palette. The soloist holds an important place in Norwegian folk music traditions, and the work makes room for each musician’s individual character.

That folk music is in constant change, carrying both past and present with it, is also reflected in the visual art of Simone Hooymans. Her work is characterized by a form of naïvism stemming from a desire to invite emotional expression, atmospheres and imaginary worlds. In Hooymans’ animations, different fantasy realms are often built from simple elements, alternating between moments of continuity and extreme contrasts.