Fred Over Jorden (Peace To The World)

Peace To The World (Fred Over Jorden) is a Christmas Album featuring the Uranienborg Vokalensemble conducted by Elisabeth Holte with Kjetil Bjerkestrand, Øystein Moen, Torun Torbo and Henriette Viktoria Eide Skagen. It is available at NativeDSD in Stereo and 5.1 Channel Surround Sound DSD 256, DSD 128, DSD 64 and DXD plus Stereo DSD 512 and 7.1.4 Channel Dolby Atmos TrueHD & Auro 3D Immersive Audio.  

Advent and Christmas are for many people a time for light and hope and warmth. Yet the world around us is cold and turbulent. Wars are being fought. People are fleeing from their homes. Children are dying. Thousands of people lack food and medicine. Our prayers are for peace. We sing “Beautiful is our Earth! Glorious is God’s heaven!” as a protest song for peace and justice, the world being unjust.

During Advent many of us are fond of the familiar and much-loved Christmas carols as we remember them from our childhood, and as they have been sung for generations. There are carols in these traditional arrangements on this album, but there are others in completely new arrangements, made specially for Uranienborg Vokalensemble and for this recording.

Christmas can be a festival that intensifies our feelings – what is good seems even better, and what hurts feels even more painful. Perhaps we have lost someone close to us: can we then sing “Oh, Christmas, so cheerful”? We know that there are people who look forward to Christmas but at the same time dread it, and we believe that Kjetil Bjerkestrand’s arrangement brings out this element of equivocation and irony. The birth of Jesus – this is the message of Christmas! – a birth that changed the world for ever. May your Christmas be peaceful!

Uranienborg Vokalensemble
Elisabeth Holte, Conductor
Kjetil Bjerkestrand and Øystein Moen, Synthesizers & Samplers
Torun Torbo, Flute
Henriette Viktoria Eide Skagen, Organ