JON EKSTRAND CREATES A HAUNTINGLY TENSE AND PALPABLE SCORE TO UNTOLD STORY OF VISIONARY REGENT MARGRETE I

‘Margrete - Queen of the North,’ the highly anticipated large-scale period drama starring Trine Dryholm in the lead as Margrete I, tells the previously untold story of one of the most powerful regents in Scandinavian history.

Standing at the absolute center of power, Margrete is a magnificent woman.  Ahead of her time she sacrifices herself completely for her land, gathering the three Nordic countries of Denmark, Norway and Sweden into a peaceful and visionary union.  She created something extraordinarily grand with enormous consequences to her personal life.

To musically accompany Margrete, one of the strongest rulers Europe has ever seen, director Charlotte Sieling gave composer Jon Ekstrand a lot of creative freedom, allowing him to sculpt a sonic narrative that was authentic to the film´s time period whilst contemporary enough to allow the narrative to find parallels with the present tense.  In order to create this unique sonic universe, Ekstrand took a deep dive and went heavily into the instruments that were present and available during the 1200 & 1300’s and ended up really falling in love with the Key Harp (Nøgleharpe, Nyckelharpa), an instrument rich in Scandinavian folk music history:

“I wanted to try and integrate a medieval instrument into this score, but bring it forwards into a more contemporary context.  I landed on Key Harp (Nøgleharpe, Nyckelharpa), totally falling in love with the instrument and taking intensive lessons.  I ended up playing it myself on much of the score as I did not want it to sound so polished, but more disharmonic and textural."

Apart from the key harp, cello was one of the main solo instruments on the score, accompanied by a string orchestra from Gothenburgs Philharmonic Orchestra and the Gunnar Erikssons Chamber Choir, which gave the score the extra cinematic breath to hold the grandness of the story:

“I really wanted to go away from the traditional medieval score route, with the big brass section and epic battle sounds. So the idea was to create these harmonic textures with the Key Harp to build tension and then allow the cello to be the melodic core of the score.  I collaborated with the great cello soloist Linnea Olsson. The score also includes one song, for which I had the opportunity to collaborate with Rebekka Karijord again.  She wrote the text for and sang on the piece “Lullaby for Oluf”, that really encapsulates a special moment in the film.”