Gaute Storaas - Harpa Winner 2020 and 2011. Nominee for Harpa 2017.
“The score in question is clearly based on a mutual trust and understanding between the composer and director,” stated the jury. “The director gives room for music, gives the music an overall presence, and even though the music often is conventional, it’s used in an unconventional way: Elegant, in a good balance, not too much, exactly right! And luxurious!”
The Harpa Jury 2020.
The Harpa Jury 2020.
With his television score for Bröllup, begravning och dop (2019-), Gaute Storaas once again displays his firm grasp of orchestral composition as he paints the landscapes and characters of Colin Nutley’s series in broad, pastoral strokes, often using colours of Scandinavian folk music to match the saturated images. The music is carefully spotted, allowing the family intrigues space to breathe, or seguing cautiously in and out of existing songs, while also capturing the big melodramatic moments in the story. The score for Bröllup, begravning och dop feels refreshingly oldfashioned in a time that relies all too often on anonymous drones, favouring instead beautiful, consonant melodies and human warmth. Just as director Nutley returns to the romantic, visual look and the high-energy human drama of his film hit Änglagård (1992), so too does Storaas provide a nostalgic and at times melancholic look on family values (and lost family values) through his mainly strings- and piano-based score.
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To work with Gaute was one of the most inspiring collaborations I’ve had. We found each other very quickly and I enjoyed every moment. Gaute’s music gives the series a weight and a richness and takes the drama and the emotion to another level. It actually became the heart of the project. director Colin Nutley In 2017, Gaute Storaas was Harpa nominated for his score to A Man Called Ove (a film that was subsequently nominated for an Oscar). Neither of the awards were won, but in 2011, Storaas received the Harpa award for Elias and the Treasure of the Sea. Storaas Won the Harpa Award again in 2020 for his score for "Bröllop, begravning och dop" Directed by Colin Nutley.
A jazz musician and composer, Storaas grew out of the flowering musical environment of the Norwegian city Bergen in the late 70s, and was an active bass player on the local rock and jazz scene. He attended Berklee College of Music, Boston, in 1984, where he got his diploma in arranging two years later. Back in Norway, he did whatever writing work he could get his hands on. Arranging for shows, broadcasting, recording sessions, composing for commercials, short films, TV idents, etc. He also found some time for music of his own, and won the Danish Radio Orchestra competition for younger composers in 1989. The last 20 years have been spent writing predominantly orchestral music for film and TV, ranging from animations to dramas like The Last Sentence by legendary swedish director Jan Troell. |