No Sad Songs
Benedicte Torget and Øystein Sevåg
Twelve years after releasing their award-winning and critically acclaimed album Karin Boye sånger, singer Benedicte Torget and pianist Øystein Sevåg return with a new collaborative project. The music, composed by Torget, was recorded largely in live studio sessions during april – june 2026, capturing the subtle musical dialogue and attentive interplay that define their collaboration.
The album release concert will take place on September 26th. 2026 at Kulturkirken Jakob in Oslo. Tickets here.
No Sad Songs is based on poems by 19th-century English-language writers, including Emily Brontë, Christina Rossetti, Louisa S. Guggenberger, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The album artwork features cyanotypes by Anna Atkins (1799-1871), one of the pioneers of photography.
The album draws inspiration from sources ranging from Franz Schubert to Americana artist Alison Krauss and Albanian jazz singer Elina Duni.
A song cycle exploring universal themes, the texts speak of falling in love and longing, loss and renewed hope in the encounter with nature. Drawing on the rich expressive language of the 19th century, the poetry evokes a sense both of life’s transience and of something eternal.
“The texts embrace events both large and small in a human life, and emotions both subtle and powerful. There is a sense of liberation in giving voice to this poetry; it creates an existential presence,” says Benedicte Torget.
No Sad Songs was released on September 4, 2026.
Performers:
Benedicte Torget – Vocal
Øystein Sevåg – piano
North Macedoninan Symphony Orchestra – 40 strings
All compositions by Benedicte Torget
Orchestral arrangements on tarck 2 nd 8 by Øystein Sevåg
Full album credits:
Recorded March – June 2026, except track 6, recorded live during a streamed Corona-lockdown concert April 2nd. 2020.
Recored and mixed at Blueberry Fields, Asker, Norway, by Øystein Sevåg.
Fame’s Macedonian Symphonic Orchestra conducted by Arber Curri, recorded at Fame’s Skopje Studio, North Makedonia.
Produced by Benedicte Torget and Øystein Sevåg
Torget / Sevåg portrait: Erlend Sæverud
Cover art: Cyanotypes by Ann Atkins (1799-1871), courtesy of The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Cover design: Rune Mortensen