Log Book
François Sarhan I Nina Guo I asamisimasa I Zafraan Ensemble
The grand theatre of everyday life.
Since 2019, François Sarhan has kept a logbook. Not a diary, but a daily record of what passes through, like the log of a captain on a ship. Voices overheard on the street, weather reports, protests, drawings, children singing in playgrounds. Random details, ordinary events, and yet small proofs that time was lived.
Log Book begins from the idea that small things are not small. They are the texture of where we are now: contemporary Europe, daily life, belonging, and the ways one is heard, seen or misunderstood. The logbook gathers these questions alongside testimonies from people Sarhan encounters, including voices from Oslo.
For Ultima, seven years of this material becomes a seven-hour concert. François Sarhan narrates, Nina Guo sings, and musicians from asamisimasa and Zafraan Ensemble move through the everyday fragments.
The performance unfolds in sections, with space to breathe, move around and return. Each fragment carries a number, indicating Sarhan's age in days when it was made. Taken together, they form a map of time that is also, quietly, a memento mori.
The concert is part of Ultima Thule: The Closest Possible Sound. See the full programme here.
Want to know more?
- Log Book unfolds in sections throughout the day. The audience can take breaks, have food and drinks in Gullbaren, spend time in the Log Book game library, and return to the music.
- The Log Book card game developed by Zafraan Ensemble, invites players to scan cards designed by François Sarhan, listen, choose from their deck, and argue for why their card fits the music. Play it in the game library or take a card set home!
- French writer Georges Perec (1936–1982) is one of Sarhan's inspirations. In 1978, he wrote I Remember, a collection of memories from everyday life: small things almost forgotten, retrieved one by one.
- Zafraan Ensemble premiered the first years of Log Book in 2024 at Musica in Strasbourg. asamisimasa commissioned the final three years of the material and perform alongside Zafraan in this production.
François Sarhan. Photo: Delacy
Nina Guo. Photo: Camille Blake
asamisimasa. Photo: Henie Onstad Kunstsenter
Zafraan Ensemble. Photo: Anton Tal
Composition and moderation
- François Sarhan
Vocal
- Nina Guo
Zafraan Ensemble
- Clemens Hund-Göschel, piano, synthesizer and keyboard
- Josa Gerhard, viola and violin
- Anna Viechtl, harp
- Jakob Krupp, double bass
- Daniel Eichholz, percussion
Asamisimasa
- Ellen Ugelvik, keyboards
- Håkon Mørch Stene, percussion
- Anders Førisdal, guitar
- Tanja Orning, cello
- Morten Barrimo, clarinets and saxophones
Sound design
- Ingar Hunskaar
Scenography and lighting
- Agnethe Tellefsen
Supported by
- Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation
- Sparebankstiftelsen DNB
- Institut français de Norvège
- Goethe-Institut
- Festival Musica (Strasbourg) and La Muse en Circuit – CNCM (Alfortville) as part of the RISE production platform supported by the French Ministry of Culture
