Stephan Meidell Live Video

STEPHAN MEIDELL from Stephan Meidell on Vimeo.

Check out Stephan Meidell´s video, recorded live 4th of February 2015 at Bergen Kjøtt, Bergen (Norway).

Visuals: Tolga Balci.

From Meidell´s Vimeo: "The idea for this video was to make something between a concert video and a music video. Creating an engaging visual experience from something that is - at it's core - slow and static. Only one performer playing 25 minutes of improvised, repetitive loop/drone based music utilizing computer and a cassette-player is maybe not the most exciting thing to see on a video, but hypnotic visuals created by the Turkish artist Tolga Balci, and a crew of five photographers made this performance special.
The music is mainly improvised, with a framework worked out beforehand".

Strings & Timpani

Talk about being slow, but here is finally a post on the final release from the Bergen kraut-noise-rock duo The Sweetest Thrill. And it´s no less than a limited cassette (100 copies?), but also available digitally (iTunes, eMusic, streaming services)!

The Sweetest Thrill is Øyvind Hegg-Lunde (drums) and Stephan Meidell (guitar), both hard working guys on the Bergen scene, and they called it a day (for The Sweetest Thrill) this spring with "Strings and Timpani" (Klangkollektivet 2014).

While their previous release "Jewellery" (PlayDate / Klangkollektivet 2012) was a duo album, they have several guests on the new one, and some of the names should be familiar to readers of this blog. They are: Mari Kvien Brunvoll, Espen Sommer Eide, Kristian Stockhaus, Bjørn Torske, Bjørnar Habbestad, Per Zanussi, John Hegre and Jørgen Træen.

Highly recommended!

It even seems like it still is possible to order cassettes (100 NOK), and the Norwegian krone is low these days too, just saying.

Cakewalk — Transfixed

Cakewalk — Transfixed from Blank Blank on Vimeo.

Music: "Transfixed" from the Cakewalk album with the same name.
Paint and perforation on 16mm film: Blank Blank.

Cakewalk is: Stephan Meidell (The Sweetest Thrill), Øystein Skar (Highasakite, Sacred Harp) and Ivar Loe Bjørnstad (Hedvig Mollestad Trio).

Check out Hubro´s interview with Stephan Meidell too, on among other stuff hypnoritualistic rhythms, Japanese food and Bergen´s EKKO Festival and Bergen Kjøtt venue.

Stephan Meidell: Suspire

Suspire by Stephan Meidell from a tolga b on Vimeo.

I already mentioned Stephan Meidell´s great limited edition solo album "Cascades" on Hubro.

Now here is an animation for one of the tracks, made by Tolga Balci.

Sigbjørn Apeland and Stephan Meidell

Do we have a new duo in the making?
Friday night I heard Sigbjørn Apeland (organ) and Stephan Meidell (acoustic guitar) play a beautiful set at the Bontelabo venue in Bergen, an old industrial hall with great acoustics.
Apeland mostly playing the organ this night, not deconstructing the instrument or attacking it in various ways, while Meidell mistreated his guitar by playing not only the strings, but dragging the guitar along the floor to make the sounds needed.

The same evening we also got to hear the singers Mari Kvien Brunvoll, Eva Pfitzenmaier and Johanne Birkeland perform in almost complete darkness, moving around the hall using the acoustics of the hall as their instrument.

A fine Friday night in Bergen.

Cakewalk

HUBROCD2514 Cakewalk: Wired - Glass by HUBRO

Cakewalk: "A mixture of the expressions "a piece of cake" and "a walk in the park". Used to describe a task that is extremely, ridiculously friggin easy". (Urban Dictionary).

The trio Cakewalk is here with their first album "Wired" (Hubro 2012). The music is improvised and pretty hard to classify, and the record company Hubro compares the music to "Krautrock, industrial electronic music, noise-rock rock and the Bowie/Eno “Berlin Trilogy". I don´t disagree with that, "industrial" was a word that came to my mind too, but it is not "ridiculously friggin easy" (there are other meanings of the word Cakewalk too, probably more fitting?).

Others have compared Cakewalk to the Norwegian band Puma, I throw in Ultralyd too, and you may feel free to add more! Cakewalk do their own stuff anyway, and they build pretty tough soundscapes and tunes. Check them out, and play as loud as you dare. 30 minutes is all you get!

Cakewalk is Øystein Skar (synth, and known from the bands Glow, Sacred Harp and Highasakite), Stephan Meidell (g, b, boxes, and also in Krachmacher, The Sweetest Thrill and Vanilla Riot) and Ivar Loe Bjørnstad (dr, also playing in Hedvig Mollestad Trio and the Hilde Marie Kjersem band).

Cover: Klara Sofie Ludvigsen and Yokoland (sorry I cut it a bit).