Øystein Wingaard Wolf - Napoleon Wolf

Øystein Wingaard Wolf goes on a poetic campaign through Europe on the album “Napoleon Wolf”

In addition to publishing many books, the poet Øystein Wingaard Wolf also has a career as a recording artist. Now he is releasing a new album, which he has called “Napoleon Wolf”. Painted from his palette of brightly colourful words, he gives us lush pictures of European history and our contemporary times. He also travels wider across the world, and the 13 soundscapes also feature a love poem or two.

The album was recorded in the spring of 2021, and Wolf approaches the prophetic when he sings:

”Napoleon Wolf” is the fifth release by this singing poet, and the album is on the KKV label, which also released his debut album in 1998.

Wolf has many good friends among the musicians in Oslo, and on this record they participate with deepfelt warmth to create a beatiful, poetic and even playful sound on the record around Wolf’s rough voice. We hear the producer and arranger Einar Stenseng on various string instruments, piano, pump organ and backup vocals, Hasse Bjørnstad and Håvard Krogedal on the bass, Torbjørn Holte on percussion, Solfrid Molland on the piano and accordion, Kristine Marie Aasvang and Ilaria Adamo on backing vocals, and Torgeir Waldemar Engen on the guitar, harmonica and percussion. The latter is also the co-producer.

“Napoleon Wolf is an exceptional production with its eccentric lyrics and deeply personal and no-frills expression. In the song “Voksen” [Adult], one of the final tracks, Wolf offers this thought-provoking reflection:

The author and artist Dagfinn Nordbø has said the following about Øystein Wingaard Wolf: “When Øystein sings, it is not only for the beauty of the song, iven if they are always beautiful. His lyrics are raw like unsmoothed concrete, crazy like Monty Python or fragile like the petals of the daisy. The music on this record shows that few can construct lyrics the way he can. How he does it is beyond me. Øystein is in a class of his own. Let us be glad that we have Øystein Wingaard Wolf”