Geir Sundstøl releases the first single from his upcoming album, the beautiful "Divan" is out today.

In early January, Geir Sundstøl was contacted by his old friend and director Øystein Karlsen. Karlsen, along with producer and wife Ingeborg Klyve (and a large team), has been working for several years on the TV series. Sundstøl was tasked with composing music for the series and was very pleased with the opportunity. "Good for me!" he says.

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The song "Divan" emerged during the composition process and appears several times in So Long, Marianne. "Divan" was created specifically for a beautiful scene in one of the early episodes. The scene, featuring Marianne Ihlen and Leonard Cohen, takes place at night on the quay on the island of Hydra.

Sundstøl shares:

"- In the series, the track appears as a string piece: violin, viola, cello, and minimoog. Sunniva Shaw, Håkon Brunborg, and me. - The task was for it to be delicate and beautiful. It was meant to convey longing. 
The version we're releasing now, the one appearing on the upcoming album, is an expanded variant. It includes more instruments, and I’ve added two more sections. I played steel guitar, national guitar, and vibraphone. I was also joined by drummers Anders Engen and Erland Dahlen. They shared a drum kit, and Erland added saw and xylophone."

"Divan" is representative of the upcoming album, “Sakte Film”, that will be released in May 2025. In addition to the aforementioned strings and drummers, the new album features Geir’s well-known instrumentation such as steel guitar, national guitar, marxophone, shankar guitar, and clavinet.

Sundstøl explains:

"The album “Sakte Film” moves even slower than my previous albums. Despite my young age (54), my finger dexterity is declining. I think that's perfectly fine. Instead of trying to disguise this fact (or practice!), I «embrace the limitations of my finger joints». The music gains an unintended, but increasingly profound, calm."

The album Sakte Film was recorded in Geir’s own "Studio Intim" and will be released on LP, CD, and available for streaming, on Hubro on May 23, 2025.

In Norway, you can watch So Long, Marianne on NRK from September 22, 2024.