This piece of music is not easy. Not because it is modern to listen to. But because it deals with a difficult social issue from the World around us: The use of child soldiers in wars, particularly in Africa.

The Norwegian composer Rolf Wallin has composed "Strange News" for a chamber orchestra - and a lonely actor. "Strange News" is not a piece of "political art" in the traditional sense, in which one often propagates against a clearly defined "enemy" and proposes a solution for the problem. It is rather an artistic parallel to a TV or radio documentary: a small, but informative window onto a particular matter.

HERMES ensemble performed the piece two times over the fall of 2013, each time using the piece to open up to discussion - and off course to attract an audience that goes out to be more than merely entertained.