Yesterday we made the semi-spur-of-the-moment decision to drive back to Rjukan in search of our own vehicle. We had located a VW stationwagon for sale at a pretty good price and decided to go look at it in the hopes that we would then have a our own car in Sweden next week.
The drive to Rjukan was gorgeous. Here in Rauland we only have trees that turn yellow, maybe orange; between here and Rjukan are entire hillsides of red trees. The leaves on the birches are mostly falling off now (we had a big storm a couple days ago). We drove past the edge of Hardangervidda, the massive mountain plateau, where most of the trees had lost their leaves and the grasses were all various shades of brown and orange. The brown walls of the cabins blended in with the brown grass on their roofs and the surrounding landscape.
As we made our long descent into Rjukan, I was reminded of my thoughts from our previous trip. Rjukan is located at the bottom of a steep valley. The mountainsides have little vegetation but tons of waterfalls. Regardless of where you are in the town, you can hear running water from both the river and the waterfalls. It's pretty amazing.
We arrived at the car and checked out wheel that had been making noise. The man selling the car had determined that the brake cylinder was going bad and had a new one, but hadn't gotten around to fixing it. He put the wheel back on and we got in the car to go for a test drive. We made it about five feet before determining that the car had no brakes. We poured in brake fluid and watched as it came running out the back wheel. Sadly we were not able to head home with a new car, but hopefully we'll get to buy it soon after he gets the brakes replaced. Otherwise, the car was perfect - good engine, good tires, lots of cargo room, central locks, AC, four doors. I'm hoping it can get fixed soon!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Finally caught up!
Yesterday and today I have been enjoying working at the art gallery again. It is quiet and calm here. One of the new artists, Ary Ketting, has created granite pillows, a sandstone Prada (which diplays JADA on the label), and a sweater carved in birch that looks just like a sweater hanging on a hook! This job is great not only because it is much more refined than washing floors or rooms or serving, but it also gives me time to catch up on my blog! My apologies to everyone who is waiting to hear from me and checked back faithfully during this hiatus. I hope I will have more time to write in the near future.
Tonight I work at the hotel. Next week we will be playing concerts for the school children. After that, David and I are off to Sweden for a week to enjoy our fall vacation!
Tonight I work at the hotel. Next week we will be playing concerts for the school children. After that, David and I are off to Sweden for a week to enjoy our fall vacation!
Forskningsdagane
Research Week is observed by all departments of Høgskolen i Telemark. Instructors and masters students present their recent research. Students have free from classes so we can listen to breaking news in our fields. The lectures tend to be very academic and intensly interesting - for those of us who are interested.
My class started the week off with a trip to Porsgrunn. We were to play two songs for the opening of Forskningsdagane down there. They paid for overnight accomodations and we paid for our gas. Not a bad deal. We drove down on Monday evening and arrived in Porsgrunn around 10:30, that is after all restaurants were closed. Starving, we reluctantly ate at the only convenience store that was open before we went to bed.
After breakfast, we navigated our way to the school. We parked about as far away from our destination as possible and trekked our instruments across campus. The performance itsself went well enough. We smiled and sang and played through our mistakes. Our contact seemed pleased with our performance, as did a good portion of the audience. Before we started home, we stopped for coffee and a quick visit to the local music store.
Wednesday was the start of presentations here in Rauland. First, Per Åsmund Omholt presented his Ph.D. thesis, which he completed last year. He analyzed 500 fiddle tunes in a variety of tunings and from different places throughout Norway. The paper focused on what defines dialects in Norwegian folk music. By classifying every note in the 500 tunes, he arrived at a number of interesting statistical conclusions regarding regional dialects in Norwegian music. He also very kindly presented them in a number of easy to read graphs and charts.
After Per Åsmund, Atle Lien Jenssen took the floor. He is in the process of a masters project relating to tungehorn. Tungehorn is an instrument made from the horn of (usually) a goat. It has three to seven finger holes and a reed fixed to the outside of the mouthpiece; the reed can be made of any number of materials from the traditional juniper to metal or even a yogurt lid! Atle's project is especially interesting because his research seems to indicate that this is an instrument that originated in Norway and spread outward, unlike most other instruments in Norway. Possible implications include that tungehorn is an ancestor of the modern clarinet.
The highlight of the presentations came Thursday morning when Mats Johansson present the doctoral thesis he has nearly finished (it's in the editing stage). The paper focuses on assymmetrical rhythm in pols and springar. What I found most fascinating was his presentation of the variation of lengths of beats. He showed that variation exists within a regional style, between fiddlers, from one performance to the next as played by the same fiddler, and (most interestingly) from one measure to the next in the same performance of the same tune based on the melodic context. He presented examples that some melodic elements (particularly decorative trills) occupy a fixed period of time (relative to the performer) and that other elements are shortened or lengthened based on their relation to the fixed elements and their function in the melody (e.g. a triplet can be shorter when it leads to a continuation of the melody in the next beat and longer when it leads to the conclusion of a melodic phrase).
Of course, research can also manifest in the form of performance, so we at Rauland are treated to a concert each year in connection with Forskningsdagane. This year Nils Økland played on a variety of violin-like instruments. In addition to a standard violin, he played hardingfele and viola d'amour (a massive instrument with seven melody strings and seven understrings, I think). I was most impressed by the first piece he played, inspired by darkness - it really sounded like moths fluttering around in the night. He also uses all gut strings and light weight baroque style bows. If only I had a pile of money to play with, I could have gut strings and new bows as well!
My class started the week off with a trip to Porsgrunn. We were to play two songs for the opening of Forskningsdagane down there. They paid for overnight accomodations and we paid for our gas. Not a bad deal. We drove down on Monday evening and arrived in Porsgrunn around 10:30, that is after all restaurants were closed. Starving, we reluctantly ate at the only convenience store that was open before we went to bed.
After breakfast, we navigated our way to the school. We parked about as far away from our destination as possible and trekked our instruments across campus. The performance itsself went well enough. We smiled and sang and played through our mistakes. Our contact seemed pleased with our performance, as did a good portion of the audience. Before we started home, we stopped for coffee and a quick visit to the local music store.
Wednesday was the start of presentations here in Rauland. First, Per Åsmund Omholt presented his Ph.D. thesis, which he completed last year. He analyzed 500 fiddle tunes in a variety of tunings and from different places throughout Norway. The paper focused on what defines dialects in Norwegian folk music. By classifying every note in the 500 tunes, he arrived at a number of interesting statistical conclusions regarding regional dialects in Norwegian music. He also very kindly presented them in a number of easy to read graphs and charts.
After Per Åsmund, Atle Lien Jenssen took the floor. He is in the process of a masters project relating to tungehorn. Tungehorn is an instrument made from the horn of (usually) a goat. It has three to seven finger holes and a reed fixed to the outside of the mouthpiece; the reed can be made of any number of materials from the traditional juniper to metal or even a yogurt lid! Atle's project is especially interesting because his research seems to indicate that this is an instrument that originated in Norway and spread outward, unlike most other instruments in Norway. Possible implications include that tungehorn is an ancestor of the modern clarinet.
The highlight of the presentations came Thursday morning when Mats Johansson present the doctoral thesis he has nearly finished (it's in the editing stage). The paper focuses on assymmetrical rhythm in pols and springar. What I found most fascinating was his presentation of the variation of lengths of beats. He showed that variation exists within a regional style, between fiddlers, from one performance to the next as played by the same fiddler, and (most interestingly) from one measure to the next in the same performance of the same tune based on the melodic context. He presented examples that some melodic elements (particularly decorative trills) occupy a fixed period of time (relative to the performer) and that other elements are shortened or lengthened based on their relation to the fixed elements and their function in the melody (e.g. a triplet can be shorter when it leads to a continuation of the melody in the next beat and longer when it leads to the conclusion of a melodic phrase).
Of course, research can also manifest in the form of performance, so we at Rauland are treated to a concert each year in connection with Forskningsdagane. This year Nils Økland played on a variety of violin-like instruments. In addition to a standard violin, he played hardingfele and viola d'amour (a massive instrument with seven melody strings and seven understrings, I think). I was most impressed by the first piece he played, inspired by darkness - it really sounded like moths fluttering around in the night. He also uses all gut strings and light weight baroque style bows. If only I had a pile of money to play with, I could have gut strings and new bows as well!
A free weekend!
David and I decided not to go to FolkeLarm this year. While the tickets to the festival were cheaper, hotel rooms, food, and travel are certainly not inexpensive. Plus we were exhausted from three weeks of constant rehearsing and travel. Finally, we had a weekend at home!
I had originally told all of my employers that I wasn't available and I stuck to that story. Instead of working like crazy and spending all of my free time at school or asleep, I got to relax at home with David. Friday we had free from school, so we cleaned the house and went for a walk to town. Saturday we got a last minute invitation to play at the gallery opening, so we used the afternoon to rehearse and then played that evening.
Saturday night we had time to visit with friends. First Marco and Victor came to us and then we went out to Victor's cabin. We drove there with the plan of walking home. Around 4am we were all tired enough to end the party so the three of us walked and arrived at our homes around 5. Marco and David kept the conversation going, mostly about all of the dangerous animals a person can meet in the dark on a road like the one we were walking on and what a person should do when one meets a bear or moose or beaver. When we were almost home, we ran into a few very drunk and entertaining locals; they figured that we must be from Oslo and were out on a training tour. As tired as we were, we managed to walk considerable faster then them!
Sunday we slept in late and walked back to the car in the afternoon. The road was much less terrifying in the daylight. The scenery was fantastic. Fall is making its brief appearance before winter sets in and the trees are displaying beautiful yellows and oranges. The conditions here aren't right to get red leaves, so the mountains are covered with tapestries of evergreens and golden birches.
That evening we made dinner and watched a movie. We went to sleep early in an attempt to start the next week well rested. We were headed into Research Week and even the most interesting lectures are difficult to stay awake through while suffering from sleep deprivation.
I had originally told all of my employers that I wasn't available and I stuck to that story. Instead of working like crazy and spending all of my free time at school or asleep, I got to relax at home with David. Friday we had free from school, so we cleaned the house and went for a walk to town. Saturday we got a last minute invitation to play at the gallery opening, so we used the afternoon to rehearse and then played that evening.
Saturday night we had time to visit with friends. First Marco and Victor came to us and then we went out to Victor's cabin. We drove there with the plan of walking home. Around 4am we were all tired enough to end the party so the three of us walked and arrived at our homes around 5. Marco and David kept the conversation going, mostly about all of the dangerous animals a person can meet in the dark on a road like the one we were walking on and what a person should do when one meets a bear or moose or beaver. When we were almost home, we ran into a few very drunk and entertaining locals; they figured that we must be from Oslo and were out on a training tour. As tired as we were, we managed to walk considerable faster then them!
Sunday we slept in late and walked back to the car in the afternoon. The road was much less terrifying in the daylight. The scenery was fantastic. Fall is making its brief appearance before winter sets in and the trees are displaying beautiful yellows and oranges. The conditions here aren't right to get red leaves, so the mountains are covered with tapestries of evergreens and golden birches.
That evening we made dinner and watched a movie. We went to sleep early in an attempt to start the next week well rested. We were headed into Research Week and even the most interesting lectures are difficult to stay awake through while suffering from sleep deprivation.
Dyrsku'n
Dyrsku'n is what Americans would recognize as a country fair. There are booths selling everything imaginable from wool socks, belts, and used household items to sausages and tea. They also have large things available for sale, such as home appliances and farm equipment.
Like Farsund, Dyrsku'n also involves a set of obligatory performances. The perks are: 1) the festival pays for our travel and parking, 2) we get food vouchers and 3) we are allowed to have a fiddle case open for donations. The downside is that we have to play outside in varied weather a program that is rather patched together for an audience that for the most part could care less about our music.
We were required to play with the two students taking the half year program. They are both very talented musicians, but it was a challenge to come up with a common repertoire in such a short time. Adding to the stress was the fact that three of us had rehearsals and the performance in Rjukan the previous weekend which cut into the available time to rehearse for Dyrsku'n.
In the end things went well. It was hot and sunny in the morning with more and more clouds as the day wore on. We played our last set just before it started to rain. Some of the audiences were more generous than others and we wound up with about $15 each to take home.
Our earnings from the day did not make it home in the form of cash, however. After we put our instruments back in the car, we had an hour to wander around the fair before we needed to leave. Somehow we managed to not spend all of our money; $15 doesn't last very long in Norway. Now, I have wool socks and David has a new belt; we also have fresh loose-leaf tea and a cast iron pan for small pancakes.
Like Farsund, Dyrsku'n also involves a set of obligatory performances. The perks are: 1) the festival pays for our travel and parking, 2) we get food vouchers and 3) we are allowed to have a fiddle case open for donations. The downside is that we have to play outside in varied weather a program that is rather patched together for an audience that for the most part could care less about our music.
We were required to play with the two students taking the half year program. They are both very talented musicians, but it was a challenge to come up with a common repertoire in such a short time. Adding to the stress was the fact that three of us had rehearsals and the performance in Rjukan the previous weekend which cut into the available time to rehearse for Dyrsku'n.
In the end things went well. It was hot and sunny in the morning with more and more clouds as the day wore on. We played our last set just before it started to rain. Some of the audiences were more generous than others and we wound up with about $15 each to take home.
Our earnings from the day did not make it home in the form of cash, however. After we put our instruments back in the car, we had an hour to wander around the fair before we needed to leave. Somehow we managed to not spend all of our money; $15 doesn't last very long in Norway. Now, I have wool socks and David has a new belt; we also have fresh loose-leaf tea and a cast iron pan for small pancakes.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Rjukan
After Farsund, we unpacked our bags, washed our clothes, and packed again, this time for Rjukan. One of our classmates from last year had asked those of us who knew we were continuing to play for Kjerringsveiven. We had eagerly said yes to a paid gig.
On Thursday we packed everything we could into our little car and drove over the mountain to Rjukan. The car was never really built for four people plus all the instruments the can pack in the trunk and it wasn't really up to the task now that it's aged a good 15 years. We spent the car ride listening to esoteric recordings so we would be less aware of the noises the back wheels were making. It really sounded like they were going to fall off.
We arrived to Randi's house, unpacked, and relaxed. Her house is amazingly large. I think it was a duplex that has been remodeled to be one phenomenal house. Her boyfriend made us excellent food and there was plenty of candy to go around. We drank wine, told jokes, and laughed really hard.
The night was long and morning came a little too early. Even though we didn't get up until 10am. We ate a leisurely breakfast and started in on rehearsals. We worked hard finding arrangements to our list of forty tunes, selecting the best ones for the gig the next day, and then running through our final set list. By the time we crawled into bed Friday night, we had been practicing for 14 hours with two breaks.
We slept hard and fast and were on the road at 9am to the top of Gaustatoppen. On the way up we navigated narrow mountain trails through a herd of cows to the seter where we would play. We unpacked the instruments and assessed the stage (wooden pallets in the middle of a sheep pasture covered with a three sided tent). Our sound check was rather relaxed, but we managed to check all of the instruments and vocal mic's before the ladies started to arrive at noon.
Kjerringsveiven translates literally to 'The old ladies' swing' and the event is an organized march around the top of Gaustatoppen. About 2000 women came this year. The sporty ones and the early birds finish first. The one's who prefer to mosey and sleep in come a little later. They take buses from the town to the starting point and from the finish line back to town. We were playing at the finish line, where they also sell rømmegraut, sauplapper (buttermilk pancakes), and coffee/soda. The marchers tend to bring additional refreshments in the form of sandwhiches, fruit, and every kind of alcoholic beverage imaginable.
We played five forty minute sets over the course of five hours. The audience got more interested and more entertaining as time passed. In our third set they started singing along, one of them was even dancing in the mud. The fourth set was marked by the opening of a couple champagne bottles. The highlight of the last set was the 'chicken ladies'. At least twenty women had outfitted themselves with matching hats that looked like chicken.
Our music also got better as we played it more. We rearranged ourselves so we had shorter pauses and better communication. We learned which tunes worked and which ones didn't; the later it got, the more drinking songs we sang. The sound guy also got in on the act, throwing in all of the effects he had (reverb, echo, distortion), sometimes all at once!
We were happy and tired when we got back to Randi's. We relaxed, had dinner, and gingerly listened to the recording we had made. We discovered that it wasn't actually so bad! Those of us heading back to Rauland decided it would be a good idea to head home. The drive home was another hour of happy companionship, but we are all looking forward to sleeping in our own beds!
On Thursday we packed everything we could into our little car and drove over the mountain to Rjukan. The car was never really built for four people plus all the instruments the can pack in the trunk and it wasn't really up to the task now that it's aged a good 15 years. We spent the car ride listening to esoteric recordings so we would be less aware of the noises the back wheels were making. It really sounded like they were going to fall off.
We arrived to Randi's house, unpacked, and relaxed. Her house is amazingly large. I think it was a duplex that has been remodeled to be one phenomenal house. Her boyfriend made us excellent food and there was plenty of candy to go around. We drank wine, told jokes, and laughed really hard.
The night was long and morning came a little too early. Even though we didn't get up until 10am. We ate a leisurely breakfast and started in on rehearsals. We worked hard finding arrangements to our list of forty tunes, selecting the best ones for the gig the next day, and then running through our final set list. By the time we crawled into bed Friday night, we had been practicing for 14 hours with two breaks.
We slept hard and fast and were on the road at 9am to the top of Gaustatoppen. On the way up we navigated narrow mountain trails through a herd of cows to the seter where we would play. We unpacked the instruments and assessed the stage (wooden pallets in the middle of a sheep pasture covered with a three sided tent). Our sound check was rather relaxed, but we managed to check all of the instruments and vocal mic's before the ladies started to arrive at noon.
Kjerringsveiven translates literally to 'The old ladies' swing' and the event is an organized march around the top of Gaustatoppen. About 2000 women came this year. The sporty ones and the early birds finish first. The one's who prefer to mosey and sleep in come a little later. They take buses from the town to the starting point and from the finish line back to town. We were playing at the finish line, where they also sell rømmegraut, sauplapper (buttermilk pancakes), and coffee/soda. The marchers tend to bring additional refreshments in the form of sandwhiches, fruit, and every kind of alcoholic beverage imaginable.
We played five forty minute sets over the course of five hours. The audience got more interested and more entertaining as time passed. In our third set they started singing along, one of them was even dancing in the mud. The fourth set was marked by the opening of a couple champagne bottles. The highlight of the last set was the 'chicken ladies'. At least twenty women had outfitted themselves with matching hats that looked like chicken.
Our music also got better as we played it more. We rearranged ourselves so we had shorter pauses and better communication. We learned which tunes worked and which ones didn't; the later it got, the more drinking songs we sang. The sound guy also got in on the act, throwing in all of the effects he had (reverb, echo, distortion), sometimes all at once!
We were happy and tired when we got back to Randi's. We relaxed, had dinner, and gingerly listened to the recording we had made. We discovered that it wasn't actually so bad! Those of us heading back to Rauland decided it would be a good idea to head home. The drive home was another hour of happy companionship, but we are all looking forward to sleeping in our own beds!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Farsund
The weather was not on our side this year. It rained pretty much constantly in Farsund. On Friday and Saturday nights the rain and wind reached impressive storm intensity.
As artists (and lowly student artists at that), the festival was not particularly well organized. We got conflicting messages about all of our concerts (time, location, what kind of concert). Other groups were also listed at the wrong time or wrong location in the official program. Still, it was a great time.
We drove out of Rauland on Thursday morning with a car packed full of instruments. Sveinung and I were bad passengers and slept almost the whole trip while David struggled to hold himself entertained in the driver's seat. We stopped in Evje and treated ourselves to espresso and pastries. After that we passengers did a better job of keeping the driver company; we worked on learning the rather complicated refrain to an entertaining mock ballad.
Upon arrival in Farsund, we found our hotel rooms, grabbed our instruments, and to the Reinlender Parade. Our first taste of the days to come was leading the reinlender parade, playing a tune we were supposed to be learning as we marched. This didn't really work very well since there was only one person who knew the tune and he was successfully drowned out by his drummer accompanist.
The parade ended in the public square with a festival showcase. We were asked to play a tune for the showcase a few minutes before we went on stage. Anna (who play two and one rowed accordions) hadn't been up to school yet and hadn't rehearsed with us all summer. Also, her accordion had some sticky keys. We played our safest tune. Needless to say, it didn't go as well as it could have.
That evening we rehearsed with the students from last year who had managed to get festival passes if they played parts of our concerts. It was here that the confusion began when we found out that our hour-long concert was actually a half hour, so we had to figure out what to cut of our largely unrehearsed program. In the end we divided our solo numbers between concerts and took the best of the group numbers.
Thursday night's party was short lived. We came late and had to get up early for Friday's concert. There were also not very many of us and we had a rather thin set of common tunes.
Friday we were scheduled to play in a Chinese restaurant. It was difficult to tell if the audience was interested in us, but eating their lunch, or not interested at all. We're going with the former because it makes us feel better. Later we went back to the restaurant since we got free lunch for playing; the food was pretty good, so I can understand if people we paying more attention to lunch than our music.
After Chinese food, we enjoyed a couple of concerts. The first was panel concert with a broad spectrum of the festival artists. From Kim Andre Rysstad (kveding) to Fosbrooks School (English music/step-dance - playing and dancing at the same time) the program was varied and entertaining.
We left early from that concert to get to Unni Boksasp and band. I think Unni is amazing, plus her band includes Ånon Egeland (my fiddle teacher and big name in Norwegian folk music) and Olav Mjelva. Her concert was a usual excellent. The only low point was a tune she composed about the woman who was her inspiration. I can forgive one tune in an otherwise fabulous hour long concert.
We went to bed early so we would be fresh and prepared for Saturday's concert. Saturday we got up early and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. Then we headed over to the other hotel where we would be playing. We had a successful soundcheck in spite of our ridiculous combination of intruments (enrader, torader, gitar, seljefløyte, sang, harpeleik, 2 fiddles, and nyckelharpa for four people). Anna made it from her other performance just in time for us all to go on stage together. I think we played pretty well considering we were quite nervous and it was a little difficult to hear each other on stage.
After our performance we wandered off to find lunch and relax, having fulfilled all of our obligations for the weekend. The only place we found to eat at was the local pub in the center of town. As we got closer we read on their announcement board "HiT Studenter", that is... us. We headed back to the car and got our instruments, put our heads together and came up with a new set list. 45 minutes after realizing we were supposed to play the concert we started. It turned out to be the best of our concerts that weekend. We were relaxed, the audience was engaged, and we had a lot of fun.
When we arrived back at the hotel, I got a message that a relative had called. I called him back and got to meet up with my 4th cousin who lives in Farsund. That was pretty exciting - I hadn't seen him in at least 15 years, so there was a fair amount of family updating to be had.
On Sunday we allowed ourselves to sleep in a little before climbing in the car for the long drive home. Sveinung entertained us by learning to play melodies on the harpeleik the whole ride home.
After Chinese food, we enjoyed a couple of concerts. The first was panel concert with a broad spectrum of the festival artists. From Kim Andre Rysstad (kveding) to Fosbrooks School (English music/step-dance - playing and dancing at the same time) the program was varied and entertaining.
We left early from that concert to get to Unni Boksasp and band. I think Unni is amazing, plus her band includes Ånon Egeland (my fiddle teacher and big name in Norwegian folk music) and Olav Mjelva. Her concert was a usual excellent. The only low point was a tune she composed about the woman who was her inspiration. I can forgive one tune in an otherwise fabulous hour long concert.
We went to bed early so we would be fresh and prepared for Saturday's concert. Saturday we got up early and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. Then we headed over to the other hotel where we would be playing. We had a successful soundcheck in spite of our ridiculous combination of intruments (enrader, torader, gitar, seljefløyte, sang, harpeleik, 2 fiddles, and nyckelharpa for four people). Anna made it from her other performance just in time for us all to go on stage together. I think we played pretty well considering we were quite nervous and it was a little difficult to hear each other on stage.
After our performance we wandered off to find lunch and relax, having fulfilled all of our obligations for the weekend. The only place we found to eat at was the local pub in the center of town. As we got closer we read on their announcement board "HiT Studenter", that is... us. We headed back to the car and got our instruments, put our heads together and came up with a new set list. 45 minutes after realizing we were supposed to play the concert we started. It turned out to be the best of our concerts that weekend. We were relaxed, the audience was engaged, and we had a lot of fun.
When we arrived back at the hotel, I got a message that a relative had called. I called him back and got to meet up with my 4th cousin who lives in Farsund. That was pretty exciting - I hadn't seen him in at least 15 years, so there was a fair amount of family updating to be had.
On Sunday we allowed ourselves to sleep in a little before climbing in the car for the long drive home. Sveinung entertained us by learning to play melodies on the harpeleik the whole ride home.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)