Elin Már Øyen Vister has woven a sonic composition for Adania Shibli/Bergen Assembly with the works of:

Linnea Axelsson, Mihret Kebede Alwabie, Rana Batrawi, Leander Djønne, Harald Gaski, Ola Gjerde, Kåre Grønsnes, Peter Helland-Hansen, Katarina Dorothea Isaksen, Robert Jønnum, Shahram Khosravi, Blocknotes and prison inmates in the Netherlands, Maaza Mengiste, Shahmirza and Reza Moradi, Daiyen Jone Castro/Knut Jonas Sellevold/ Morten Norbye Halvorsen, Synnøve Persen, T. Philippova, Maria Pile Svåsand, Lisabona Rahman, Ata Ratu, Alexander Aga Røynstrand, Shareef Sarhan, Layli Long Soldier, Nasser Abu-Srour, Jana Winderen, Muhammad al-Zaqzouq, the Hardanger-fjord and rivers, and more.

For the duration of Bergen Assembly´s across, with, and nearby, Elin Már Øyen Vister offers an intimate listening lounge aboard the Literature Boat Epos, where you can listen to a sound work created over the past year along the west coast of Norway and beyond. It offers situated knowledge and sound and music as a vessel for cultural memory. The work unfolds in 2 parts. One that was completed for the opening of the festival and a second part which will be completed late spring of 2026, which will be given to the Epos literary boat.

Drawing on the thematic framework that shapes the Epos programme, ‘Water as a Linker and Separator,’ Along the currents listens and responds to the local coastline and fjord, weaving together a multitude of stories and voices. These come from lands that the North Atlantic Current has passed by, as this powerful warm boundary extends the Gulf Stream northeastward. Along its route, it has swept up entangled histories of belonging, connection, land protection, and resistance.

Øyen Vister began listening to and recording the Røst archipelago in Lofoten/Lofuohta in 2010, listening and documenting the changing soundscapes of the local bird mountains, which have been in steep decline since the 1960s as a result of climate change, bycatch, and overfishing, amongst other factors. This mirrors the alarming global decline in biodiversity.

Extending this site-specific practice, Øyen Vister’s weaves together interviews, oral histories, field recordings, and musical improvisations from the Hardangerfjord with other global contributions offered by poets, artists, musicians, storytellers, and researchers. The Bergen Assembly 2025 programme has been convened by Adania Shibli, or formulated across encounters with Øyen Vister during the artist’s travels along the fjord. Within this collective group, the North Atlantic becomes a mediator that carries sounds and voices in different languages, those from Gaza, the Zagros Mountains, the Netherlands, Ethiopia, and the fjords of Western Norway.

Contributors during Øyen Vister’s journeys alongside the Hardanger fjord as well as along the route of Epos include: local boat builder Peter Helland-Hansen (Fartøyvernmuséet, Nordheimsund); author and artist Leander Djønne (Grimo); Hardanger fiddle builder and accordion player Ola Gjerde (Strandebarm); artist Jana Winderen (Ottestad) and her past and present listening to/recordings of the Hardanger fjord; local teacher and fisherman Kåre (Aga); Bergen-based musicians Dayen Jone Castro (CU), Knut Jonas Sellevold, and Morten Norbye Halvorsen; Maria Pilegård (Epos/Strandebarm); Hardanger fiddle player and composer Aleksander Aga Røysland (Granvin); and the local land, fjord, and beings of Hardanger.