A musical and visual work that spans over 80 years gets a new chapter in Ålesund – underwater!

At the start of World War II, the German surrealist Max Ernst painted what remains his unsettling masterpiece: Europe After The Rain II. An apocalyptic landscape is littered with what looks like overgrown ruins. A landscape in decay.

Sixty years later, in 2002, the British composer Max Richter was inspired by this painting for one of the compositions on his debut release Memoryhouse, where several of the pieces deal with the aftermath of the Kosovo war. A mournful but beautiful violin theme is played over a simple chord sequence.

Twenty years after that, while Europe is again experiencing the war up close, a group of musicians imagines a new Europe after the rain. Today, it is also easy to read another threat into Max Ernst’s original work: the climate crisis that will cause the sea along the Norwegian coast to rise.

These musicians add another layer on top of what has now become a body of work that spans eighty years, geography and genre. It is performed partially underwater, and in several rooms, in Bybadet in Ålesund.

Experience a unique collaboration between multi-instrumentalist Eirik Havnes, pianist Vetle Nærø, cellists Kari Sandnes and Ingvild Nesdal Sandnes, and the band Future Daughter. The piece is first performed on cello, and then it is remixed by Havnes and Nærø. Finally, Future Daughter takes over the baton and does her multimedia version. The audience is in the pool and can hear the music both above and below water.

We’re guessing this will go down in the history books.