Day/Night

In 2026, Bergen-based drums-and-guitar duo Strings & Timpani celebrate 25 years of creating alternative, genre-fluid rhythmic music. Rooted in improvisation, they have spent a quarter of a century playing and experimenting in the space between world music, contemporary music and lo-fi pop.

Using a wide range of preparations and electronic extensions, the duo explore the full sonic potential of their instruments while seeking new directions within the classic duo format. Strings & Timpani consists of drummer Øyvind Hegg-Lunde, known from projects including Building Instrument, Erlend Apneseth Trio and Electric Eye, and guitarist Stephan Meidell, known for his solo work as well as Erlend Apneseth Trio and Trigger.

The duo have now composed Dag/Natt (Day/Night), a new work commissioned by Avgarde, Bergen’s concert series for new music, to mark its 20th anniversary. In Dag/Natt, the duo focus particularly on developing the electronic extensions of their instruments. In the shifting space between electronic and acoustic sound, and between the experimental and the danceable, Strings & Timpani find an inexhaustible potential for artistic exploration—in the energy released as dogmas dissolve, and in the lyricism that emerges when opposites bleed into one another.

Stephan Meidell: guitar, electronics, modular synthesizer Øyvind Hegg-Lunde: drums, percussion, electronics