TO MESSER MOT HJEMLØSHET

The new release by KKV claims that church services can have a positive impact on people’s struggle against losing their sense of belonging. This release is a double CD entitled “To messer mot hjemløshet” / “Two masses against homelessness”. Each of the two CDs has a Mass from Kulturkirken Jakob. The masses have texts written by Erik Hillestad, but different main themes.

The first, “MESSE I MALSTRØMMEN” [Mass in the Maelstrom] asks hard questions: What are we worshiping? Who really gets our devotion? When we go to a church service we say that we believe in the holy trinity. But what do our lives reveal about what and who we actually trust?

The second, “MESSE I HJEMLØSHETENS TID” [Mass in the time of homelessness] addresses the feeling of living in exile, as refugees and migrants experience. But this may also be a feeling we all have, where we are alienated from the innate closeness to nature and the earth that we live on and which feeds us.

“Messe i malstrømmen”, with music by Øyvind Kristiansen, was written in 2020. The theme of the mass is that technology has led us into a life pattern of dependency. Our use of smart phones and computers borders on worship. This mass has two levels. On the one, we are guided from two screens in the church by a fake liturgist, a “grutil”, a high priest of technology. This part of the mass borders on dystopia. On the other concurrent level, two flesh and blood priests lead the congregation’s prayer, serving the wine and bread of communion. Here we cling to the hope of God’s presence in our lives, in harsh competition with the new god of the screen, cloud and technology. The mass features an alternative Lord’s Prayer, which starts thus:

Vår nye gud i skyen                                                                  Our new God in the cloud

La navnet ditt holdes hemmelig                                       Hallowed be thy name in secrecy

La kunnskapen din vokse                                                    Let thy wisdom grow

La viljen din skje i hjertene slik som i skyen....          Thy will be done in the hearts as in the cloud….

“Messe i hjemløshetens tid”  [Mass in the time of homelessness] has melodies by Karoline Krüger and arrangements by Krüger and Kristiansen. It was written in 2003, a time when “the war on terror” after the events on 11 September 2001 dominated the news, and when the surge of refugees and immigrants led politicians in Western countries to close their ranks and borders.

The music for both these masses features typical aspects of the programmed world of technology with loops and industrial sounds. The participating artists include Marian Lisland (vocals and lead singer), Live Maria Roggen (vocals in the role of “grutil” for “Messe i malstrømmen”), Magnus Brekke Aalbu, Vilde Louise Didriksen, Jostein Hasselgård and Åshild Stensrud (vocals), Øyvind Kristiansen (piano and programming), Sverre Kyvik Bauge (cello), Jonas Vemøy (trumpet), Ottar Nesje (drums), Håkon Eivind Larsen (bass), Anne Anita Lillebø, Arne Jor, Bjørn Erik Bjerkreim-Bentzen (liturgists), Lydia Øfsti Nesje (text reader). On “Messe i hjemløshetens tid” the Iranian artists Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat sing a poem about placelessness.

Currently, seven Jacobs’ Masses have been created. Four of them have been issued on CD earlier. The written music for the masses has been published and they are also used in other churches in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. In Kulturkirken Jakob they are celebrated every Sunday night from September to April in collaboration between KKV and the University Chaplains in Oslo. They are administered all year round by Marian Lisland and Kari Falk.

FXCD 507

“To messer mot hjemløshet” / Two masses against homelessness. KKV, 2024.

Release date 27 September