Dorthe Højland
Nordic saxophonist and composer
Music in dialogue — between
sound, language and space.
My music is not simply chords and notes.
It is life, tonal colours and moods —
something I have lived - and carry within me.
Movement in time and space
flows through the music
and the expression that emerges within the band.
Now
Dorthe Højland Group with Icelandic
author Einar Már Guðmundsson
Øjeblikket og evigheden
(The Moment & Eternity)
Live performance – The Moment & Eternity
“Einar Már Guðmundssons stemme er det mest beroligende jeg længe har hørt.
Som om en tyk tågedisen over den islandske tundra havde lagt sig omkring os i salen.
Ordene, finurlige, uudgrundelige og legende, smøg sig i luften og blandede sig elegant med saxofon, klaver, bas og trommer i Dorthe Højland Groups gudesmukke lyriske melodier og musiske landskaber.”
“Einar Már Guðmundsson’s voice is the most soothing I have heard in a long time.
As if a dense mist from the Icelandic tundra had settled around us in the hall.
His words — whimsical, enigmatic and playful — moved through the air and blended effortlessly with saxophone, piano, bass and drums in the divinely lyrical melodies and musical landscapes of the Dorthe Højland Group.”
— Helle Solvang
Radio host and cultural communicator
The Moment & Eternity
Dorthe Højland Group
with Einar Már Guðmundsson
Words have always been there.
Music has always been there.
It begins in language —
and it begins in sound.
The poems stand on their own.
The music stands on its own.
Together, they create a floating
and luminous expression —
at once grounded and transcendent.
The Moment and Eternity is a meeting between music and poetry — between a Danish saxophonist and an Icelandic poet who were immediately drawn to one another’s artistic expression.
The music is composed for poems from the collection Til rette vedkommende (To whom it may concern).
A live dialogue between poetry and Nordic jazz
The Moment and Eternity brings together Icelandic poetry and Nordic jazz in a live dialogue shaped by improvisation and attentive listening.
The project is based on poems by Einar Már Guðmundsson, set to original compositions by saxophonist and composer Dorthe Højland.
On stage, the spoken word is not an accompaniment to the music — it is woven into the musical fabric. Through open forms and subtle interplay, voice and ensemble respond to one another in real time, allowing atmosphere, phrasing and silence to shape the unfolding performance.
The result is an intimate and immersive concert experience, where language and sound meet in a shared and concentrated listening space.
The poems
from Til rette vedkommende revolve around endings and beginnings, eternity and the present moment, light and darkness, memory and forgetting.
As one of the poems puts it:
“about time and words, the words and the world and everything in between.”
The music
supports, challenges and expands the emotional and symbolic landscapes of the poetry.
Einar Már Guðmundsson
is one of Iceland’s most distinctive literary voices. His work spans novels, poetry, essays and short stories, and has left a significant mark on contemporary Nordic literature.
He has received numerous awards, including the Nordic Council Literature Prize, the Karen Blixen Medal and the Swedish Academy’s Nordic Prize. His works have been translated into multiple languages and are widely read across Europe and beyond.
Dorthe Højland and Einar Már Guðmundsson first met at Nordisk Kulturuge in Rødding in 2021. The artistic connection was immediate.
Since then, Dorthe Højland has composed music inspired directly by Guðmundsson’s poetry, forming a symbiotic collaboration where music and literature merge into a unified artistic expression.
The music moves between composed and improvised passages, supporting and expanding the emotional and symbolic worlds of the poetry.
A meeting between literature and music — between presence and resonance, moment and eternity.
The ensemble
Dorthe Højland Group
with Einar Már Guðmundsson
Dorthe Højland – saxophone
Einar Már Guðmundsson – voice
Jacob Højland – piano
Thomas Sejthen – bass
Henrik Nielsen – drums
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