the beach at Ramberg, Lofoten Islands

I probably would never have gone to the Lofoten Islands of Norway on my own initiative, but I was very glad that a music festival had summoned me there last week. Somehow I had imagined the islands as smaller and tamer than they really are. In fact, the scenery was quite wonderful. On our drives from one island to another (luckily these days several of them are connected by road bridges) I sat in the back of the car with my mouth permanently open at the sight of majestic chains of snow-covered mountains. One could hardly imagine anything lovelier than those mountains touched by the setting sun.

One of our most remote concert locations was at Ramberg, where on the beach in the photo I saw the Northern Lights. In the summer, Ramberg is well known as a place from which to view the midnight sun. In the winter, it felt wild and desolate. In the centre of the photo you can see the little red cabins where the musicians stayed. Our concert in the local restaurant was a surprisingly jolly affair, expertly compered by Norway’s most cherished violinist, Arve Tellefsen.