Earwaves

Stajazz of Stavanger is organizing "Earwaves", a new mini festival of improvised music. This year it´s happening 3 - 4 October.
The program is built around Per Zanussi's new large ensemble Interlocutor.

I can´t find a detailed program, but the list of musicians looks fine:

Sindre Bjerga
Fredrik Luhr Dietrichsson
Morten Engebretsen
Sofia Jernberg (S)
Martin Küchen (S)
Eivind Lønning
Ole Henrik Moe Jr.
Bjørnar Habbestad
Paul Hession (UK)
André Roligheten
David Stackenäs (S)
Raymond Strid (S)
Signe Irene Time
Per Zanussi

More info at Kunsthall Stavanger.

Todd Terje: Inspector Norse

Kristoffer Borgli & Todd Terje´s: "Inspector Norse" was elected best Scandinavian music video at the Bergen International Film Festival (BIFF) 2012!
Sweet one!

Artist: Todd Terje
Title: Inspector Norse
Album: It's The Arps EP
Label: Full Pupp
Video: Kristoffer Borgli

Watch all the nominated videos right here:

NORWAY:
Lars Vaular og Sondre Lerche - Øynene Lukket (Regi: Andrew Amorim)
Todd Terje - Inspector Norse (Regi: Kristoffer Borgli)
Mikhael Paskalev - I Spy (Regi: André Chocron)
John Olav Nilsen og gjengen - Eurosport (Regi: Kim Hiorthøy)
Casiokids - Det haster! (Regi: Kristoffer Borgli)

SWEDEN:
Saint Lou Lou - Maybe You (Regi: Philippe Tempelman)
The Sound of Arrows - Wonders (Regi: Mattias Johansson og Oskar Gullstrand)
Miike Snow - The Wave (Regi: Andreas Nilsson)
Korallreven - Sa Sa Samoa (Regi: Filip Nilsson)
First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar (Regi: Mats Udd)

DENMARK:
Karin Park - Fryngies (Regi: Tore Frandsen)
Sleep Party People - A Dark God Heart (Regi: Marie Limkilde)
Tomas Barfod - Broken Glass (Regi: Martin Garde)
Trentemøller - Sycamore Feeling (Regi: Diana Tørsløv)
When Saints Go Machine - Parix (Regi: Daniel Kragh-Jacobsen)

The Deciders at Moldejazz

The outdoors concerts at Moldejazz were not very well attended this year, so now we have a discussion on how to attract lots of people.
The local newspaper Romsdals Budstikke gets nostalgic with pictures from old and recent outdoor concerts here.

Me, I hope everybody will also focus on the concerts that are happening at the smaller festival venues. There is always a lot of good stuff happening at the Moldejazz festival.

Todays video is from a concert I am sorry to say I missed! The Deciders is bass man Ole Morten Vågan´s dream band, formed in 2009 after receiving a prize at the Kongsberg Jazz festival.

Musicians: Rudi Mahall (clar) og Axel Dörner (trp), who also played with Globe Unity Orchestra in Molde, and Fredrik Ljungkvist (sax), Jon Fält (dr) and Ole Morten Vågan (bass).

Håkon Kornstad Tenor Battle

Around midnight Monday Håkon Kornstad Tenor Battle played in the Korskirken church at the Nattjazz festival in Bergen.

Kornstad, both a veteran sax player and a first year opera student, has started to mix jazz and opera, with his new band Tenor Battle.
In jazz a "tenor battle" is a more or less friendly "fight" between to sax players, but I guess here it´s the sax player and the singer who fight (?) each other?

The band fit Kornstad in a perfect way, with Sigbjørn Apeland (introduced as the saviour of the harmonium), Per Zanussi (great bass and saw player) and Øyvind Skarbø (both discreetly adding color to the band sound, and throwing flashy backhand strokes to the floor).

A truly great evening in church!

I haven´t got the faintest idea what opera Kornstad is singing from here. Anyone else? Zanussi had just finished a saw solo when the video starts, but I guess sawing was not an issue in the original opera?

Only Connect

Those of you heading towards Oslo in June, please note that a new festival is starting up.

Only Connect is curated by Anne Hilde Neset (the organization Ny Musikk) and Rob Young (The Wire), and will happen in the period 7 - 10 June. The topic for this year´s festival is "A Tonal View Of Times Tomorrow", inspired by a Sun Ra title.

See the program here, and you will of course recognize several artist mentioned in this blog (Stian Westerhus, Okkyung Lee, Michael F. Duch, El Doom, John Hegre).

The festival´s own blurbs:

Time-travel back to the Antarctic race of 1912.
–
Immerse yourself in an imaginary journey
to Mars.
–
Feel the spirit of ancient Greek tragedy and
the austere kitsch of the Cold War.
–
Listen to the unsettling noise of stretched Metal
and other musics replayed at a snail’s pace.
–
Experience a sonic séance in Oslo’s eeriest
venue. And hear the incredible sound of 100
metronomes in full flow.

Neneh Cherry & The Thing - Accordion (Madvillain/MF Doom cover)

Neneh Cherry & The Thing "The Cherry Thing" will be released on Smalltown 19 June.
20 July they will play at Moldejazz!

Listen to "Accordion".

More artists for Moldejazz 2012

Anyone going to Molde International Jazz Festival 2012 this summer? It´s happening 16 - 21 July. I´m not sure if the programme is complete now, but here are a few of the concerts I´m ordering tickets for right now:

AKI Takase / Han Bennink.

Gilad Atzmon Orient House Ensemble.

Globe Unity Orchestra celebrating 40 years with these fine musicians: Evan Parker, Gerd Dudek, Henrik Walsdorff (sax/clar), Rudi Mahall, (bass clar), Axel Dørner, Jean-Luc Capozzo (tp), Nils Wogram, Christoph Thewes (trb), Alexander von Schlippenbach (p), Paul Lytton, Paul Lovens (dr).

Neneh Cherry and The Thing.

Schlippenbach, Lovens, Parker.

Håkon Kornstad "Tenor Battle" with Håkon Kornstad (ts, voc), Per Zanussi (b), Sigbjørn Apeland (org), Øyvind Skarbø (dr, perc).


Neneh Cherry & The Thing: Dream Baby Dream by smalltownsupersound

Tape To Zero 2012

The mini festival Tape to Zero is happening at Nasjonal Jazzscene (Oslo) Thursday 26 April and Friday 27. April 2012.

The programme:

Thursday 26 April:

Erland Dahlen (solo)

Bendik Hofseth/Kjetil Husebø/Jonas Barsten Johnsen

Spin Mavel (trio with Martin France/Tim Harries/Terje Evensen)

Friday 27. April:

Steinar Løberg Værnes (solo)

Eyes of a Blue Dog (Rory Simmons, Terje Evensen, Elisabeth Nygård).

Thomas Strønen/Bjørn Charles Dreyer/Kjetil Husebø

Sound: Johnny Skalleberg. Video: Sigurd Ytre-Arne

Nattjazz 2012

If you are heading towards the west coast of Norway 23 May - 2 June, you better check out Bergen´s Nattjazz festival programme!
Their site is strictly in Norwegian (so far?), but foreigners are welcome (I hope), and you will get the general idea.

I think (!) I´m looking forward to hear the folk improv trio 1982 with pedal steel guitarist BJ Cole! Try playing the videos at the same time? Øyvind Skarbø, Sigbjørn Apeland and Nils Økland from 1982, are all playing other concerts too.

A mark in my calendar for each of these concerts: Splashgirl, Agba (Terje Isungset and Per Jørgensen) with Sigbjørn Apeland, JÆ, Trespass with Joe McPhee, Håkon Kornstad Tenor Battle (wig alert!) and Arve Henriksen "Tidssoner for trompet og treverk".


Added the day after:
And then it seems like BJ Cole is playing with med In the Country too (happening in Oslo today)!

Voices That Matter

Spring is on it´s way they say, and the festival season too.
If you are heading towards the west coast of Norway in May, you better check out the program for the Bergen International Festival.
Maja Ratkje is curating a concert series called "Voices That Matter".

I steal her own words from the festival web site (read more over there!):

"Without breath we cease to exist. Without voices that matter, we are also poorly equipped for survival. The English improvisation artist Phil Minton says that anyone with breath can join his Feral Choir. Everyone is equal, regardless of background, class or musical skills. Who will take part in Bergen is a surprise. Experience a concert with the Feral Choir in Logen on 1 June, and you will carry a smile around with you for a long time afterwards. In the same concert, which has been titled New Concept of Choirs, the vocal artist Stine Janvin Motland will premiere a new work by Øyvind Torvund, commissioned for the occasion, and the Norwegian Girls’ Choir will perform my stage work Ro–Uro ('Calmness-Agitation'), inspired by folk music and the history of despots.

One of the greatest voices of our era is David Moss. It is a great honour to present the American during the Bergen International Festival – don’t miss him in Logen on 31 May. There will be more powerful solos on 2 June, also in Logen, with the controversial unbridled noise artist Dave Phillips, the virtuoso of voice and theremin Koichi Makigami (known for collaborating with John Zorn and Otomo Yoshihide amongst others) and Tone Åse, who will perform a 'sound novel' in Bergen dialect!

The English viol consort Fretwork draws a connection between times ancient and modern in works by composers ranging from Purcell and Gesualdo to Tan Dun and Ratkje. The Norwegian author Karin Sveen, known for her incisive political contributions to left-wing newspapers, will also be presented reading her own poem ET OS, which was a direct source of inspiration for my work River Mouth Echoes.

I have invited the artist HC Gilje to join me to create a special room of sound and light for the first concert of the series in Johanneskirken (St John’s Church) on 25 May, my only contribution to the series as a musician".

And suddenly I start wondering: Are there any improv vocalists of the male gender in Norway? I don´t think so, but I hope I´m wrong again.

Oslo Jazz Festival 2012

Stian Westerhus & Trondheim Jazz Orchestra from Vj Grappa on Vimeo.

Oslo Jazz Festival is happening 13 - 18 August this year. The organizers have just started to leak some of the artists, and Stian Westerhus and Trondheim Jazz Orchestra are ready! They will perform their commissioned work for the Molde International Jazz Festival in 2011.
I heard them in Molde, and the the concert was more than fantastic!

I don´t know if Westerhus will have the same musicians in Oslo, but check out this video from Moldejazz!

These fine people play:
Maja Ratkje - vocal/electronics
Mats Gustafsson -- sax
Kjetil Møster -- sax
Hild Sofie Tafjord - horn/electronics
Erik Johannesen -- trombone
Bjørnar Habbestad - flute/electronics
Ola Kvernberg - violin/viola
Bergmund Waal Skaslien -- viola
Michael Duch -- bass
Øystein Moen -- keyb
Kenneth Kapstad -- drums
Stian Westerhus -- guitar
Kyrre Heldal Karlsen -- lights
Tor Breivik -- sound
Producer: Eirik Hegdal

John Cage: 4´33´

The Norwegian brass and percussion band Eikanger Bjørsvik Musikklag performed John Cage´s famous piece 4´33´´ at the Borealis festival in Bergen yesterday. The piece should last 4 minutes and 33 seconds, but Eikanger Bjørsvik clocked in at 5 minutes and 20 seconds. I don´t know how Cage fans will react to that, but some improvisation must be OK, or?

I have to say that it sounded best when they did not mute the horns.
And of course somebody uploaded the concert on YouTube. Not great filming, but quite good sound quality. Should be played loud!

You will find my pictures from Borealis 2012 on Flickr.

"Timezones for trumpet and wood"

Arve Henriksen - Tidssoner for trompet & treverk from Rikskonsertene on Vimeo.

Norway´s tour organizers Rikskonsertene are organizing a tour with Arve Henriksen and strings, called "Tidssoner for trompet og treverk" (i.e. "Time zones for trumpet and wood"). Check out the video, but prepare yourselves for a little bit of Norwegian from Arve Henriksen. During the interview, Henriksen says that ECM invited him to record with strings 6 years ago, so I guess we will see an album with these people in a while.

I´m happy to see from the tour list (of Norway only), that they will end up i Bergen for a final concert during the Nattjazz festival in the end of May.

The travellers are:
Arve Henriksen - trumpet-vocal
Nils Økland - Hardanger fiddle, viola d’amore, fiddle
Gjermund Larsen - Hardanger fiddle, viola, fiddle
Svante Henryson - cello
Mats Eilertsen (not on the video) - bass
Tord Knudsen - video art
Geir Østensjø - sound design

The Thing, Jazz Sigüenza, 2010

The Thing at the Festival Internacional Jazz Sigüenza in 2010 (but new on YouTube).
Paal Nilssen-Love, Mats Gustafsson and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten.

Play loud! Nuff said!

Moldejazz 2012

The Molde International Jazz Festival is happening 16 - 21 July this year, and some of the artists were known today.

Jon Balke will be Artist in Residence, playing 5 - 6 concerts, and John Scofield Hallowbody Band, Wayne Shorter Quartet (with another drummer than on the video) and Susanna Wallumrød/Giovanna Pessi will be present.

More to come!

The Death Defying Unicorn

"Motorpsyho and Ståle Storløkken present The Death Defying Unicorn. A fanciful and fairly far-out musical fable. Featuring Ola Kvernberg, Trondheimsolistene and Trondheim Jazz Orchestra" (Rune 2012)! No less!
Let´s just spill it, this is a prog opera (to be performed at the Norwegian Opera this fall), with a "libretto" inspired by books written by Owen Chase, N. Philbrick and Patrick O´Brian.

Motorpsycho is Kenneth Kapstad, Hans Magnus Ryan and Bent Sæther, and this time with Ståle Storløkken (keyb, composer, arranger) as important part of the group. This work was originally performed at the Molde International Jazz Festival in 2010 (commissioned work), but this is a quite different version, with quite a gang of musicians involved!
We have the strings of the Trondheim Soloists, the horns of the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra (Kjetil Møster, Hanna Paulsberg, Klaus E. Holm, André Roligheten, Mathias Eick, Eivind N. Lønning, Mats Äleklint and Kristoffer Kompen), and not to be forgotten, Kåre Chr. Vestrheim (mellotron ++) and Ola Kvernberg (violin).

The album has received rave reviews here in Norway, and everybody seem to agree that this is the big thing. To me it may be just a little bit too big some places, but let me admit, I am the kind of guy who has sold off all my Yes and Rick Wakeman albums long time ago. That may not have been very smart, because it seems like prog is back. Better prepare for a punk revival in a year or so.

If you are into prog, get it right away!

My favorite tunes: "Through the veil", "Mutiny!" and "Into the mystic".

Cover design: Kim Hiorthøy.
Illustration: Thore Hansen.

Videos from All Ears

steinerik1954 just uploaded some interesting videos on YouTube.

Here are a couple from the All Ears festival. First out is Lol Coxhill, and I still regret I didn´t go to Oslo to see him in 2007. Then come Evan Parker, Barry Guy and Paul Lytton, who I got to see in January this year. And they were SO good, taking the floor (no stage for them) around midnight, the final evening of the festival.

Kongsberg Jazz Festival 2012

Time to start planning your summer holiday? If you are heading for Norway, the Kongsberg Jazz Festival might be worth seeking out. The festival is happening 4 - 7 July, and here are the first artists booked (in Norwegian, but you will recognize the names?).

Lots of artists well known to the readers of this blog, and my first choice would be: Per Jørgensen (trumpet) with Sigbjørn Apeland (organ, harmonium), Morten Qvenild (keyboards), Morten Skage (elbass) and Terje Isungset (drums).
It looks like Arve Henriksen has got the taste for drumming, after banging them with Supersilent. He will visit Kongsberg with a new percussion trio.
Both of these concerts are in a series booked by All About Jazz.

Supersilent + Stian Westerhus + Pekka

Supersilent + Stian Westerhus + Pekka, NuMusic Stavanger 2011 from pekka on Vimeo.

Supersilent (Arve Henriksen, Ståle Storløkken, Helge Sten) with Stian Westerhus (guitar) and Pekka (lights), from a commissioned work at NuMusic in Stavanger 2011.
I am not a big fan of strobes, but this looked like a cool show!

All Ears 2012 over

Oslo´s improv festival All Ears 2012 is over.
Three nights with four to five concerts each, and one afternoon concert, organized in a very relaxed but professional way (as usual!)
I was still in Bergen Thursday night, but Friday turned out to be great. Let me mention three out of four concerts:
Barry Guy did an absolutely stunning solo concert, playing his own compositions, a Charlie Mingus tune and 100% improvised stuff (if such a thing exists).
Antoine Chessex (sax) and Okkyung Lee (cello) did a wonderful set and Rolf Erik Nystrøm (sax), Kjetil Gutvik (g) and Steve Noble (dr) ended the evening with an energetic show. Nystrøm even played the baryton lying down on the floor.
Organizer Lasse Marhaug told us that the musicians had been eating the traditional Norwegian dish "gammelost" ("old cheese") backstage, and this just might explain Nystrøm´s behavior.

For me Saturday evening was a long evening´s journey into Evan Parker (sax), Barry Guy (bass) and Paul Lytton (dr), who got on stage after midnight and played a great concert. A few of the audience had already left, but those still present were impressed! All of them!

The first picture has got nothing to do with the festival (i think!), but the second is of Barry Guy
It was quite dark during several of the concerts, but I just might find a couple of (close to) focused pictures in a couple of days, and will add a Flickr link here.