Resonance | Interview: Susanne Darre
Norwegian composer Susanne Darre joins Hollie Kenniff in conversation following the release of her latest EP, Travel Back, out now on Fluttery Records.
Susanne Darre is a composer and pianist crafting modern classical music from her home in Northern Norway. Deeply influenced by her father’s love of music and the rugged beauty of the Arctic landscape, she creates soft, emotive piano pieces that blend intimacy with calm.
Much of her music is recorded in a weathered barn on her cherished vintage Schimmel piano, handling every step from performance to production. You can almost feel the wind moving through the wood, woven into each note. Drawing inspiration from the sea, mountains, and shifting northern light, Susanne combines acoustic warmth with ambient textures, often weaving in electronic tones and her own photography to shape a deeply personal and atmospheric sound world.
Susanne’s new EP Travel Back builds beautifully on the introspective reflections of her debut album, Fragile. With Travel Back, Susanne returns with four modern classical pieces, marked by stillness and subtle expressiveness. The EP invites listeners into a quiet space shaped by deliberate and unhurried expression.
There’s a gentleness in both her playing and personality, each note as graceful as the woman behind it. Though we spoke from afar, her kindness and thoughtfulness resonated as clearly as her music.
The title Travel Back suggests a sense of drifting through time, as though memory itself were a landscape. It feels like a return to something internal, perhaps emotional or remembered. What does ‘traveling back’ mean to you in the context of this music?
This is a beautiful description, Hollie, and fits perfectly with what it means to me. Travel Back for me is a sentimental journey back in time, through meaningful memories, attachments and stories. Like the emotions stirred when flipping through an old photo album rekindling forgotten dreams, possibilities and hope.
How did you first get started in music, and what drew you to the piano?
We got this old German piano placed in our living room when I was about 5-6 years old, and I immediately got drawn to the black and white keys. I went to piano lessons for some years in my childhood, but I wasn’t very interested in learning notes. I wanted to play the piano in my own way and make my own melodies. Usually I memorized the melodies in my head instead of learning the piece by notes. I think my teacher saw through that and that she could hear my own little twist on them. I continued to compose melodies in my childhood and adolescence, and a few of the pieces I’ve released the recent years are actually based on improvisations that emerged in my childhood. Since that first touch on the keys, I’ve felt an inner peace and a calm that’s difficult to describe. The piano has become an emotional outlet for me, a place to escape from reality for a little while and let my emotions flow.
I think my experiences as a nurse meeting many children, youth and families in vulnerable situations definitely influences my music. I’ve closely seen how fragile life is, still how much strength we have inside us when we feel at our weakest.
There’s something beautifully self-contained about your process. Do you think being removed from the noise of a big city allows you to stay closer to your artistic intuition?
Thank you so much! Yes, definitely! Living close to this spectacular nature is a great inspiration for me, everyday. The sound and the smell of the arctic sea, the mountains around me and the fascinating changes in the light throughout the year, definitely evokes something emotional in me. This calm, away from the city noise, clears my mind and helps me get further in the process if I get stuck. It helps me to get new ideas and to feel inspired again. Although the sound of the seagulls screaming can get a little annoying too sometimes :) I hope my music reflects this calm and that my listeners can feel some of that serenity too.
As a self-produced composer creating alone in such a peaceful, remote place, do you feel that the solitude helps you tap into something more personal in your music?
What a lovely question, Hollie. Well, I definitely feel that the solitude brings me close to my own emotions, which might mirror my music. There’s an availability to just sit down for a while in the raw nature and quietness, just be and just pause time for a while. I love to be alone in nature, and I can get quite emotional then, and I think I probably carry those emotions with me in my music.
You also express yourself through photography, how does your visual perspective inform your musical one, or vice versa?
When I’m photographing in nature, I get similar feelings as when I play the piano. It’s like the time pauses for a little while. It’s a mixed feeling of both calm, melancholy and enthusiasm. I think doing photography and making music both influence and complete each other, and perhaps also intensifies the emotions expressed both visually and musically.
You’ve been a children’s nurse for many years. How has that experience shaped how you hold space or express emotion in your music?
I think my experiences as a nurse meeting many children, youth and families in vulnerable situations definitely influences my music. I’ve closely seen how fragile life is, still how much strength we have inside us when we feel at our weakest. These experiences inspired me a lot in the making of my debut album Fragile where the Arctic Bluebell symbolizing fragility yet resilience, and also my old piano in the barn’s strength through the harsh Arctic climate. Being a support for children and youth is really close to my heart. I think I'm often processing my experiences and stories I meet as a children’s nurse through my music.
I love the slightly out of tune, rough quality of the piano featured in your album Fragile. It really embodies a sound in the upright that many people aren’t exploring, but it really works to create intimacy and a delicateness. How does this sound speak to you?
That’s really lovely to hear! The sound from my old vintage piano placed in the old barn is quite unique. After I placed it in that old room, the sound is constantly changing in step with the climatic changes here in the arctic north. Maybe you can hear these sound variations in my recordings on the album Fragile? When it was minus degrees and really cold in the barn, the sound got more “crispy” and the pedals and the keys got squeakier. I tried to tune the piano before every recording, but this was a really hard job. Two of the strings also broke in the process, poor piano, but I manage to change them myself with some guidance. But I decided to trust the process and I thought it was kind of charming with the out of tune sound and the squeaky pedal. And I think it became a lovely reflection of the imperfections of life itself. I also have to add that the acoustic and the sound inside those old wooden walls is just magic! So peaceful. It’s become kind of a meditative place for me.
Your music sounds very flowy and improvisational, but at the same time I’m hearing lots of purposeful melody and structure to it. What is your process like?
Thank you, that’s a lovely description. Every piece I’ve composed has started with an improvisation. I love that first part of the composing process. The melodies just appear during my improvisations. I don’t plan much and rarely write down anything. Since I don’t write notes, I have to record my ideas. Or I memorize the melodies in my head. Often two ideas are put together to one and perhaps a third little part born from an improvisation find its way in that piece too. Often I’m improvising on the old pianos placed in the barn. Its a lovely calm atmosphere there and I’m so close to the spectacular nature which inspire me a lot in the creative process.
Have any books, visual art, or films stood out to you recently as sources of inspiration?
I don’t read many books or watch series, even though I really like it, but simply because there’s not enough time for that right now. But when I do, I often choose subject books and documentaries. I’m drawn to real stories, which absolutely can be a source of inspiration for my music too.
What albums have really resonated with you lately?
I've listened a lot to Daniel Herskedal lately, a Norwegian composer and brass player, his music is just magical. And also, the latest EP from Nils Frahm Night, just beautiful. And the new release from Matheus Lodewijk/ LudoWic`s Horizontal Fall. The title track has been on repeat the last days!
Is there anything currently inspiring you or taking shape in your creative world lately?
It's finally spring here in the Arctic! Been waiting a long dark winter for that. The light and the midnight sun during the northern spring and summer is just amazing! I’m really looking forward to improvising and compose on my pianos out in the barn with the golden sun shining throughout the whole night. So inspiring!
Do you have any upcoming projects or summer plans you’re excited about?
I'm traveling back to have a concert in my childhood city south in Norway in October, really looking forward to that. The venue is in the old town of the city, in an old house from the 1800- century. I haven’t had many concerts so far, so I’m really excited about that!
