Anneli Drecker og NOSO Kammerorkesteret at Den Norske Opera & Ballett

Rocks & Straws are Anneli Drecker home reversion of a journey that began in 1986 with the adventure Bel Canto. This evening, she experienced along with North Norwegian Opera and Symphony Orchestra (NOSO) strings.

The journey by Bel Canto proceeded on tour with a-ha, while Anneli produced three works commissioned and released two solo discs Tundra and Frolic.
Röyksopp, Anneli backing band during the tour around the release of Tundra, gained international success and she became the band's permanent live singer in the period 2006-2012. During the journey it became increasingly evident for Anneli where she comes from, and music she has made is the result of this - a Nordic, Arctic-acoustic landscape, with the influence of music from around the world.

The album Rocks & Straws are based on poems by the North Norwegian cult poet Arvid Hanssen, translated into English by Roy-Frode Løvland. The poems have strong elements of nature mysticism, but also deals with man and nature and man in nature. Anneli find it liberating to not sing "I-me-you-you" texts, but rather deal with something bigger, something that everyone shares.

Hanssen has had great influence on Anneli. In 1982 she played the lead role in the feature film Siblings on God's earth, based on Hanssens book of the same name, and she got the opportunity to meet him during the shooting. It is therefore a great personal pleasure for Anneli doing his poems known to a wider audience, especially abroad.

Rocks and Straws builds on soundscape Anneli always has, but is first and foremost an acoustic disc. In a world that is evolving towards ever simpler computerized recordings have Anneli gone against the tide, and made a production that is based on the recording technique 70s. The music was recorded live, acoustic, and largely on analog equipment.

A team of musicians with Eivind Aarset and Rune Arnesen spearheaded constitute album's musical backbone. NOSO Chamber Orchestra contributes significantly on the album. Anneli even plays piano and has produced recording in collaboration with musicians. As arts fellow at the Conservatory in Tromsø she is researching indigenous voice techniques, and have taken these in use in parts of the music.