Nothing is more radical than the facts

In April I had a blog post about the Boyle family exhibition at Henie Onstad in Oslo: "Nothing is more radical than the facts" (April 20 – September 2), with works by Mark Boyle, Joan Hills, Sebastian Boyle, Georgia Boyle & Soft Machine.

I finally got to visit the exhibition some days ago, and it is highly recommended!

It was great to spend time in a room filled with Mark Boyle´s psychedelic light installation and the recording of Soft Machine´s concert at Henie Onstad in February 1971.

BLOW OUT! (Oslo) 2015

The Blow Out! festival in Oslo is happening 19 - 22 August at Café Mir (and a matiné at Cappelens Forslag).
More on Facebook.


Wednesday 19 August

Maria Chavez / Evan Parker / Paal Nilssen-Love / Ståle Liavik Solberg

Tommi Keränen solo

Susana Santos Silva / Christine Wodrascka / Christian Meaas Svendsen / Håkon Berre

Frode Gjerstad / Nick Stephens / Magnus Skavhaug Nergaard / Andreas Wildhagen


Thursday 20 August

Joe McPhee / Alex von Schlippenbach / Per Zanussi / Paal Nilssen-Love

Maria Chavez solo

Magda Mayas / John Russell

Heat Death


Friday 21 August

Will it float?

Joe McPhee solo

Not On The Guest List

Schlippenbach trio


Saturday 22 August

Matiné at Cappelens Forslag

DUO - Natalie Sandtorv / Steve Beresford

TRIO - Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø / Kristoffer Alberts / Nick Stephens

Evening programme at Café Mir

Extended Ground: Frode Gjerstad / Martin Küchen

Per Oddvar Johansen / Trygve Seim

Bauer-Anker Kvartett

Kresten Osgood Organ Bonanza

ULTIMA 2015

The ULTIMA 2015 programme is out

Oslo´s contemporary music festival is happening 10 - 19 September.

Some of the artists we have (or should have!) mentioned in the blog one time or the other: Nils Petter Molvær, Kim Hiorthøy, Microtub, David Toop, Helge Steen and there is a SOFA label evening.

Full programme here.

Arild Andersen and Mingus in Oslo

We already had a couple of posts on Oslo Jazzfestival´s "Arild Andersen Sextet plays Charles Mingus concert" from 2014, but here we go again.

The concert was a celebration of Charlie Mingus concert in the Oslo university hall 50 years earlier.

Arild Andersen has now posted the full concert on YouTube.


Arild Andersen Sextet:

Mathias Eick – trumpet
Klaus Holm – alto, bass clarinet
Petter Wettre- tenor
Bugge Wesseltoft – piano
Arild Andersen – bass
Gard Nilssen – drums

Alltid annerledes

Nice Robert Wyatt piece by journalist Geir Rakvaag in the Oslo based newspaper Dagsavisen 17 January (pages 34 -35), focusing on the new biography and the new Domino sampler.

The title "Alltid annerledes" is the Norwegian way of saying "Different every time".

Biographer Marcus O´Dair will present his book at the Off The Page festival in Oslo on Saturday (24 Jan.), and the festival will also screen the documentary "Free Will & Testament: The Robert Wyatt Story" (2002) (Screening programme right here).


Off The Page Schedule:

11:00 – 16:00
Music fair

12:00
Totally Wyatt
by Marcus O’ Dair

13:00
The Man Who Bought An Echo
by Sarah Angliss
Lunch & market mingle

15:00
Stunt Rock
Okkyung Lee & Lasse Marhaug

15:45
Sounding the Labyrinth
by Ken Hollings
Coffee break

16:45
How to Give a Lecture
by Kim Hiorthøy

17:15
Records Ruin The Landscape
by David Grubbs, w/ Camille Norment & Maja S.K. Ratkje
Coffee break

18:30
Sonic Comix
by Savage Pencil
Dinner break

20:30
Arto Lindsay
interviewed by Anne Hilde Neset

21:30
Do Witches Dream of Electric Broomsticks?
performative lecture by Jenny Hval


Added 23 January 2015:

Audun Vinger "Omsider fri" ("At last he is free") in newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (online 22 January).

All Ears 2015

The programme for Oslo´s All Ears festival for improvised music (8 - 11 January 2015) is here,
and it´s looking good!


THURSDAY 8. JANUARY @ OSLO DOMKIRKE

Erwan Keravec SOLO

Eivind Lønning/Enrico Malatesta DUO

Nils Henrik Asheim SOLO


FRIDAY 9. JAN FABRIKKEN

Skrap/G.e.k.
(Skrap: Anja Lauvdal/Heida Karine Mobeck / G.e.k. : Johannes Lund, Maria Bertel

Trevor Watts, Veryan Weston, Dominic Lash, Terry Day TRIO

Lasse Marhaug, Okkyung Lee, Spencer Yeh TRIO

Incapacitants


SATURDAY 10. JANUARY FABRIKKEN

Joelle Leandre, Michael Duch DUO

Lucio Capece/ Morten Olsen/ Valerio Tricoli

Barcode (UK)

Stephen O ́Malley/Steve Noble

Pain Jerk + Russell Haswell


SUNDAY 11. JANUARY @ HENIE ONSTAD KUNSTSENTER

Anthony Pateras

Spunk + Joelle Leandre

Off The Page - Oslo 2015

Marcus O´Dair will present his work with the Robert Wyatt Biography "Different every time" (2014) at the one day festival, Off The Page 2015, in Oslo 25 January 2015.

Also coming (more to be announced later probably): Arto Lindsay, Savage Pencil aka Edwin Pouncey and Sarah Angliss.

Nasjonal Jazzscene

Oslo´s Nasjonal Jazzscene´s (National Jazz Scene) new YouTube channel seems to be worth following!

So far they have uploaded Stian Westerhus & Sidsel Endresen (shown here), Hedvig Mollestad Trio (rocking good!) and a 3 x solo concert with Gard Nilssen, Sofia Jernberg and Morten Qvenild.

Prepare yourselves for some unedited streaming video with pauses (mostly in the last of these three videos) but what the heck, bee positive now! I hope more clubs and festivals will do stuff like this.

Ultima 2014

Two Norwegian September festivals coming up!

Unfortunately I´m not going to any of them, but I hope some of you have the chance.

Kristiandsand´s PUNKT festival has been mentioned already, and a couple of days later Ultima - Oslo contemporary music festival
is starting (10 - 20 September).

Ultima´s theme as described on their site: "2014 is the 200th anniversary of the Norwegian Constitution, and under the theme “Nation”, the festival will focus on how a local musical identity is expressed in the context of an international, digital world".

Some of the artists have been visiting this blog quite a few times: Jenny Hval & Susanna, Maja Ratkje, Helge Sten, Karin Krog and John Surman (he was 70 yesterday, congrats!).

Blow Out! Festival 2014

Check out Oslo´s Blow Out! festival happening 13 - 17 August:

Wednesday 13 August:
Mats Gustafsson / Paal Nilssen-Love
Lemur
John Russell / Ståle Liavik Solberg duo
LSB

Thursday 14 August:
Lotte Anker / Pat Thomas / Ståle Liavik Solberg
John Wiese / Lasse Marhaug
Julie Kjær / Hanna Marshall / Rachel Musson
Nacka Forum

Friday 15 August
Klaus Holm / David Stackenäs
SAKA + Pat Thomas
Mette Rasmusen
Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit

Saturday 16 August
Andreas Backer / Ketil Gutvik / Emil Strandberg
Emil Strandberg / Sten Sandell / Patric Thorman
Nystrøm / Johansson / Storesund / Laihonen
Ketil Gutvik
The Ex

As if this is not enough, they have Blow Out! at Cafe Oto in London too (9 -10 August).

Charles Mingus - Arild Andersen

One of the most talked about jazz concerts that ever happened in Norway, is the Charles Mingus Sextet concert at The University Aula in Oslo in April 1964.

Now, fifty years later, Oslo Jazz Festival invited Arild Andersen Sextet to pay homage to Mingus and that concert (12 August), the music being arranged by Petter Wettre.

Arild Andersen Sextet:
Mathias Eick – trumpet
Klaus Holm – alto, bass clarinet
Petter Wettre- tenor
Bugge Wesseltoft – piano
Arild Andersen – bass
Gard Nilssen – drums

See and hear Mingus and his Sextet do "Take the "A" train" at the Oslo concert in the video.

Musicians:
Charles Mingus - Bass
Eric Dolphy - Bass Clarinet
Clifford Jordan - Tenor Sax
Johnny Coles - Trumpet
Jaki Byard - Piano
Dannie Richmond - Drums

Stine Janvin Motland Outdoor Concert in Oslo

I was in Oslo for a couple of days last week and was able to attend the release concert of the two new Stine Janvin Motland albums (9th of May).

One of them, "Labour" (Pica Disk, vinyl 2014), is already in the blog and I bought "OK, WOW!" (+3dB, CD 2014) too. While the "Labour" tracks are Motland doing vocal acrobatics to sampled sounds of the city, and different natural habitats, "OK, WOW!" is just vocals. Not a singalong album that one either, but as they say in Germany "Das ist anstrengend, zuweilen auch beim Hören, aber von einer bizarren Schönheit, die man so nirgendwo sonst findet".

They probably say that all the time, but still!

Well, I usually stay away from outdoor concerts, but this one was OK (even if we couldn´t see the artist)! The concert was held in a packed and hot bookshop called "Cappelens Forslag" (well worth a visit!), and when the show was about to begin, Motland suddenly disappeared, transmitting the vocals from cold downtown Oslo, making it sound like the music on the "Labour" album.

"OK, WOW!" is in a series called "Music for one" (first release: Kjetil Møster: "Blow Job" from 2011), and Morten J. Olsen and Hild Sofie Tafjord (of SPUNK fame) have also recorded solo albums for this series. I´m not sure if they are in the shops, but check out the +3dB site.

The photos (even lousier than the usual ones):
- The first one: Stine Janvin Motland all smiles after the concert.
- The second one: Audience wondering; where the hell is she?

And added value: The shocked pedestrians walking by the shop believing that a lot of people were staring at them through the windows!

Tape to Zero 2014

Kjetil Husebø and Terje Evensen´s two day festival Tape to Zero is held at Nasjonal Jazzscene, Oslo, 3 - 4 April 2014.


Thursday 3 April:

- Kjetil Husebø’s new electronic project “Skyggespill”

- sPacemoNkey (Morten Qvenild and Gard Nilssen)

- Jessica Sligter and Susanna


Friday 4 April:

- Joker Nies

- Andres Prado Trio (with Terje Evensen and Terje Gewelt)

- Deathprod and Biosphere (Helge Sten and Geir Jensen present new commissioned work)

The video shows Susanna and Helge Sten, with John Paul Jones (who is not on the programme for Tape to Zero): "We Offer" (Live From The WiMP Container at the Øya festival, August 2013).

Videos from All Ears 2014

Oslo´s imrov and noise festival, All Ears 2014, is over.

The videos of Ken Vandermark and Kim Myhr & Axel Dörner are from the festival´s first day (January 9th), and you will find more on Håvard Skaset´s YouTube channel.

All Ears 2014

Oslo´s great All Ears festival 2014 is happening 9-12 January.
Unfortunately I´m not able to go, but recommend the festival, both for the music (impro, noise ++) and the atmosphere.

9 January:
Kim Myhr / Axel Dörner
Jooklo Duo
Ken Vandermark

10 January:
Lasse Marhaug in conversation with Thurston Moore
Ståle Liavik Solberg / John Russell
Pär Thörn
Great Waitress
Aspec(t)
Thurston Moore / Pika

11 January:
Rob Young in conversation with John Tilbury and Eddie Prevost
Elisabeth Harnik
Frode Gjerstad / Monkey Plot
Thurston Moore
Kjetil Hanssen / Ronny Wærnes / Pika
Selvhenter / Staer

12 January:
Agnes Hvizdalek
Ken Vandermark / John Tilbury / Eddie Prevost

Festivals in Bergen, Stavanger, Kristiansand and Oslo

Some autumn festivals happening in Norway, all of them probably worth a visit:

- Bergen Assembly 2013. An Initiative for Art and Research (August 31 - October 27).

- Nuart, the Stavanger street art festival (September 7 - October 20).

- Punkt festival in Kristiansand (6 - 8 September).

- Ultima - Oslo contemporary music festival (5 - 14 September).

Blow Out in Oslo

If you are in Oslo this week, check out the strong Blow Out program at Café MIR (FaceBook)!

Wednesday 14 Aug

Paal Nilssen-Love/Ståle Liavik Solberg

Vilde & Inga + Akira Sakata

Poing + Paul Lovens

Wolfram + Frode Gjerstad


Thursday 15 Aug

Frode Gjerstad/Børre Mølstad/Roger Turner

Sten Ove Toft

Mette Rasmussen/Alan Silva/Ståle Liavik Solberg

Mats Gustafsson/Günter Christmann/Paul Lovens


Friday 16 Aug

Tradition Trio (Johannes Bauer/Alan Silva/Roger Turner)

Eivind Opsvik

Ketil Gutvik/Kristoffer Alberts/Okkyung Lee

Receptacles


Saturday 17 Aug

Matiné some other place (TBA):
Lasse Marhaug/Joe Williamson/Ståle Liavik Solberg

Evening:

Han Bennink/Morten Gunnar Larsen

Terrie Ex/Paal Nilssen-Love

AKODE

Dr Kay and his Interstallar Tone Schientists

And let´s not forget, Oslo Jazzfestival is happening too!

Ketil Gutvik Weekly

Anyone going to Oslo in the late summer?
If so, you may want to take notice of the Norwegian guitar player Ketil Gutvik´s concert series "Gutvik ukentlig" ("Gutvik weekly"), that has been going on for 10 years now.

The program is quite impressive, and you will find the last four concerts this year in the bottom of the blog post. The concerts are held in a record store called "Stein and Jord" and the entrance fee is next to nothing. The "Gutvik ukentlig" site is in Norwegian, but I think you will manage to find your way, no matter what planet you come from.


Tuesday 13 August
Akira Sakata (JP) / Fred Lonberg-Holm (US) / Paal Nilssen-Love / Ketil Gutvik
/sax/cello/trommer/gitar/
+ Ungsoloen: Natalie Sandtorv
/stemme solo/

Tuesday 20 August
Okkyung Lee (KOR) / Jørgen Mathisen / Andreas Wildhagen / Ola Høyer / Ketil Gutvik
/cello/sax/trommer/kontrabass/gitar/
+ Ungsoloen: Johan Lindvall
/keyboard solo/

Tuesday 27 August
Per-Åke Holmlander / Kjetil Møster / Ståle Liavik Solberg / Ketil Gutvik /tuba/saksofon/trommer/gitar/
+ sesongstart for konsertserien Blow Out: TBA
/NB! Venue: MIR, Toftesgate 69/ (only this concert)

Tuesday 3 September
Steve Noble (UK) / Rolf-Erik Nystrøm / Ketil Gutvik
trommer/sax/gitar/
+ Ungsoloen: Ole Mofjell
/trommer solo/

Oslo street art, July 2013

After a far to short stay in Oslo this weekend, I still have far too many street art photos.
If you seek, you will find most of them on my Flickr, and here you have a selection (from the top): Inti, Jason, m-city, DotDotDot (Free Pussy Riot and La Linea), Phlegm and C215 (three pieces), and finally three unknown ones (to me at least).

Stian Westerhus/Jan Bang/Erik Honoré

Here is an excerpt from Stian Westerhus (g), Jan Bang (live sampling, electronics) and Erik Honoré´s (live sampling, electronics) concert at Tape To Zero in Oslo (April 2013). Sounds (and looks) like a great show!

Tord Knudsen: Visuals. Johnny Skalleberg: Live sound. Ingo Biermann: Video.

Please watch more videos from the festival at Kjetil Husebø´s YouTube channel.