Thore Hansen

Thore Hansen is well known (in Norway at least) for his own books and his collaborations with other authors as illustrator. He has also made great illustrations for records. We have mentioned Kiruna in an earlier blog post, and now i own the sampler "Aerien Voyage" (picture) too.

So far I found out he illustrated these records:
Various Artists: "Maiden Voyage" (Melodisc 2002)
Kiruna : "Irun" (Melodisc 2003)
Various Artists: "Aerien Voyage" (Melodisc 2004)
Various Artists: "Stellar Voyage"(Melodisc 2005).

The samplers contain rare and unreleased Norwegian music. See info and covers here. There are probably others too, so please write a comment if you know more record covers by Thore Hansen.

Thomas Watkiss

Lydgalleriet in Bergen(the Sound Gallery) invited to a Sunday matiné in their loft yesterday. Thomas Watkiss did a concert for a small gathering of listeners, and we even got a CD and several glasses of wine on the ticket. He did a kind of ambient, droning electronica, (don't ask!), with lots of found sounds (church bells, birds, water, real instruments (!) and so on). This gallery has got a wicked sound system, and the whole building was shaking from time to time. You should have been there, sitting on pillows on the floor and drinking wine (it's damned hard to rise after one hour, for some of us older people). Listen to Watkiss on MySpace.
So far a great Sunday evening. What happened next was that I suddenly realized that the home team (Brann) had played a game against Lyn (Oslo), and the fans must have hijacked my bus. At least it never showed up in the rain.

Huntsville

Huntsville is a strange band, and now they're out with a new strange album called "Echo, Arches & Eras" (Rune Grammofon 2008). I don't really know what these guys do, but the music humps along in a nice way with the help of banjo, tablas and steel guitar. Huntsville is Ivar Grydeland, Tonny Kluften og Ingar Zach.
CD 1 is a new studio album. Sidsel Endresen guests on "Eco".
CD 2 is a live recording from The Kongsberg Jazz Festival (2007), with Nels Cline and Glen Kotche from Wilco helping out.
And Kim Hiorthøy's cover is excellent as usual!

The best Robert Wyatt records?

Mojo need your help. What are the best Robert Wyatt records?
Wyatt is also on the new Mojo Sampler "Rebel Music".

Moo

I got my new mini cards from Moo/Flickr today. They were a bit small (probably that's why thy're called mini cards?), but quite cool! So now I've got my home made cards to make people visit my blogs and Flickr pictures. Next you'll see me trying to hand them out in the city center, going "Hello. Excuse me sir, have you got a couple of minutes to talk about my blog? No? OK, have a nice day! Grrr!"

Good old Wyatt stuff

Domino starts reissuing classic Robert Wyatt albums 27 October. Drury Lane, Rock Bottom, Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard and Nothing Can Stop Us are the first ones out. Old Rottenhat, Dondestan, Shleep, EPs and Cuckooland are following 17 November. All of the albums will come in both formats (LP and CD), Drury Lane, Shleep and Cuckooland on vinyl for the first time. As a starter a 12” version of Bertrand Burgalat’s This Summer Night will be out 20 October. Some of this good stuff may be pre-ordered at Domino (look here and here).
And in December a Robert Wyatt box will be ready too!

Dømkirke

Southern Lord's sunn o))) album from a cathedral concert in Bergen (Borealis festival 2007) is now for sale. Attila Csihar (Mayhem),Lasse Marhaug and Steve Moore (Earth) played on this massive sound happening. To hear music like this in a medieval cathedral was some experience, I'll tell you that, and I'm excited to see how it sounds on record.
CD? I-Tunes? Forget it, "Dømkirke" will only be available as double vinyl LP (black or gray vinyl).

Uncut Music Award

Today Uncut announces the shortlist for the new Uncut Music Award". Robert Wyatt's "Comic Opera" is on the list and so is Kevin Ayers' "Unfairground". PJ Harvey and Rachel Unthank & The Winterseth are among the artists who will fight these fine Canterbury gentlemen for the prize. The full shortlist:
KEVIN AYERS – The Unfairground
JAMES BLACKSHAW – Litany Of Echoes
BON IVER – For Emma, Forever Ago
ISOBEL CAMPBELL & MARK LANEGAN – Sunday At Devil Dirt
NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS – Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS – Brighter Than Creation’s Dark
ELBOW – The Seldom-Seen Kid
THE FELICE BROTHERS - The Felice Brothers
FLEET FOXES – Fleet Foxes
PJ HARVEY – White Chalk
THE HOLD STEADY – Stay Positive
HOWLIN RAIN – Magnificent Fiend
JOAN AS POLICE WOMAN – To Survive
STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS – Real Emotional Trash
ROBERT PLANT & ALISON KRAUSS – Raising Sand
PORTISHEAD – Third
THE RACONTEURS – Consolers Of The Lonely
RADIOHEAD - In Rainbows
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – Magic
RACHEL UNTHANK & THE WINTERSET- The Bairns
VAMPIRE WEEKEND – Vampire Weekend
PAUL WELLER – 22 Dreams
WHITE DENIM – Workout Holiday
WILD BEASTS – Limbo, Panto
ROBERT WYATT – Comicopera

Terry Pratchett: Nation

Finally a book again in the blog! Terry Pratchett has written another great story. "Nation" (Doubleday 2008) is a book for young adults, or not! If you are older than 10 years, read it. We are not on Discworld this time, but in a parallel Universe (?) where we experience a big tsunami, a desert island story, thoughts on religion, imperialism, greed, violence, beer drinking and love, all served with Pratchett's dry wit.
I've seen people claim that they are able to spot the author's Alzheimer in his writing skills, but forget that, and wish for more books from Pratchett. You might instead even read the Alzheimer into the story, and it's tale about loss (if you have to, that is!). Read some proper reviews in Times Online and The Guardian.
Next books on the reading list:
"The Wit and Wisdom of Discworld" with Stephen Briggs (Doubleday 2007).
"The Folklore of Discworld" with the folklorist Jaqueline Simpson (Doubleday 2008).

A couple of old recordings

I concentrate on the official output of my favourite artists recordings, but let me at least point you in the right direction to some "secret" stuff.
Hal blogged a recording from of WMWM (Wyatt,Mc Rae,Windo,Matthewson) (London 1973). This is Gary Windo - tenor sax, Dave MacRae - piano, electric piano, Robert Wyatt - drums, voice and Ron Mathewson - double bass.
He also blogs a recording of Soft Machine from Breda (Netherland), and I'm particularly interested in track 08/disc 2: "Robert Wyatt explains to the audience why they don't do encores".

David Gilmour overkill

David Gilmour's "Live in Gdansk" is out now. Since the old Pink Floyd hero is a friend of Robert Wyatt, he will always be treated like a gentleman here in this blog, but this time I think he has freaked out totally. Thank god Wyatt was not invited on this project, because my collection would not be completed or the bank account would be emptied. "Live in Gdansk" will appear as double CD, triple CD, a box of four CDs and a five CD package with something extra!
But you know CDs are not always the best thing, so Gilmour makes a box of five LPs too, and if you buy that one you will get a code to download mp3 files just to be sure. As far as I'm able to extract from this info shock, you have to buy most of the versions to get all of it, but you may check that out yourselves here, if you dare.

Songs for insane times

Songs for insane times
Originally uploaded by svennevenn

Don't forget the collection "Songs for insane times" (Harvest 2008) folks. Here you get 4 CDs by one of Canterbury's finest. The music is from Kevin Ayers' solo albums:
Joy of a Toy (1969)
Shooting at the Moon (1970)
Whatevershebringswesing (1972)
Bananamour (1973)
The Confessions of Dr. Dream and other Stories (1974)
Sweet Deceiver (1975)
Yes we have no Mananas (1976)
Rainbow Takeaway (1978)
That's what you get Babe (1980).
In addition you get singles, early mixes and a Queen Elizabeh Hall concert (1973). It's almost embarrasing to say so, but a lot of this is cosy material. In case you're still not hooked, let me mention some of Ayers' companions: Steve Hillage, Dave Bedford, Lol Coxhill, Syd Barrett and Robert Wyatt. For one reason or the other, we can buy this collection for next to nothing in Norway (225 Nok).

Rock Furore

The Norwegian magazine "Rock Furore" issued 11 CD samplers in the period 1992-1994. Some of the collections were great, and you both got Norwegian artists (Motorpsycho, Biosphere, DePress, Finn Coren etc) and foreigners like Sugarcubes, PJ Harvey, Primal Scream, Nick Cave, Eugene Chadbourne, Rollins Band and Boo Radleys (to name a few).
I seem to remember that we had to write the magazine to get the wild covers, with photos by Per Heimly.
You may find the full CD discography (and some flexi-discs) and most of the covers at Discogs.

Timeline

A new sound sculpture by Charlie Hooker, is placed at the Student center in Bergen. This features two drums that bang when they are hit by cosmic particles! A geiger counter triggers a beater every time it counts radioactive particles. A core of lacustrine mud from the last 10000 years connect the drums. Time, space and sound in one piece here. Space rock anyone?

Skins

Friday night Gavin Watson opened an exhibition of his pictures of skinheds, in a shop called "Tilsammans" in Bergen. The pictures were taken while Watson was in his teens, and most of them are of his friends and family. I guess he was a pretty wild guy then, but seemed to be a nice man now!
"Skins" is also the title of abook, and soon he is out wit a new one called "Skins & Punks".

Prog Rock Britannia

BBC 4 will show a history of prog rock in three parts, called Prog Rock Britannia.
And yes, Robert Wyatt is in there too. I hope some Norwegian channel will buy this series. Norwegian NRK2 showed a documentary on the percussionist Evelyn Glennie yesterday, so they might be up for it. See some of it here.
And if lots of channels broadcast a lot of prog with double necked guitars and keyboards with several floors, we might get a new punk movement as a result!

Caravan on TV 1968-1973

Caravan - On TV 1968-73
Uploaded by nantrue

Nantrue made this vintage collection of Caravan appearing on TV 1968-1973. I just steal his info from DailyMotion too:"Caravan performing on various TV shows from 1968-73, including excerpts from the songs "Place Of My Own", "Magic Man", "Golf Girl", "The Love In Your Eye", and "The Dog, The Dog, He's At It Again". Featuring core members Pye Hastings, Richard Coughlan, David Sinclair, Richard Sinclair, Geoff Richardson, Stuart Evans, Derek Austin and John G. Perry".

Rediscover the future now!

Norwegian author Øivind Hånes has written a fantastic tribute to Robert Wyatt's "Rock Bottom" in the magazine Kreativt Forum ("Creative Forum") (no 5 2008). It's in Norwegian and so poetic that I don't dare to translate it. Let's just say he describes Wyatt's voice with images like the wind blowing through a hollow dead trunk in an area where no other vegetation exists, and cats walking on broken eggs. Puh! In the end he asks: "What kind of place would this world have been, without this wonderful album?"

Black and white

I was looking for some old pictures today, and got some nice music memories in black and white. With my quite new Olympus I obviously managed to take some pictures during a few concerts even in 1977. Here you get Barre Phillips and John Surman from Mumps, in Molde (Norway) in 1977. See some more in the Memories set on Flickr.

Moha! and Marhaug!

The things you may experience on a Tuesday night in Bergen! Yesterday the organization Ny Musikk ("New Music")offered a free concert with Moha! and Lasse Marhaug. Moha! played a hard rocking (OK, that might be pushing it) set, real loud and with lots of lights too! Anders Hana and Morten J. Olsen have grown real tight, and I think this was even tougher than their new album (and I like that one a lot).
Lasse Marhaug performed a version of "Ear Era", and was great on cassettes and cassette players.
More pictures here.

Odd Nordstoga

Singer Odd Nordstoga's new album "Pilegrim" gets rave reviews in Norway. Please note that half of Supersilent is on the album, represented by Arve Henriksen and Ståle Storløkken. Check out Nordstoga (and yes, "Odd" is a Norwegian name) on MySpace.

Laden with rain

This is a record for the dark autumn: Terje Isungset and Stian Westerhus, "Laden with rain" (FMR Records 2008). Isungset, famous for playing on ice and waterfalls, and Westerhus who plays guitar (even if it does not sound like a guitar) with Puma, have managed to make a spooky duo album. This is some jazz, some noise, some impro and a touch of metal, believe it or not. Engineer and co-producer Pytten says: "This is darker than Emperor..!". Buy it. Turn off all lights. Play loud.

Soft Machine's first album

After a visit to a record fair in Bergen yesterday, I am finally the owner of a beautiful copy of Soft Machine's first album, revolving cover and all. Just had to tell you.

A killer for that ache

We have mentioned Hilde Marie Kjersem's record "A killer for that ache" (Rune Grammofon, 2008) earlier in this blog, and will just have one more post as a reminder, if you thought the video was a bit too sweet. Give this record a chance, I seem to come back to this more often that I would have guessed. Other musicians on the record are Jørgen Munkeby (Shining), Torbjørn Folke Zetterberg, Sjur Miljeteig, Peder Kjellsby, Martin Revheim and Mark Kramer.

Puma live in Bergen

The Norwegian powernoise trio Puma played Bergen Jazz Forum Friday night. They are Stian Westerhus (guitar and electronics), Øystein Moen (keyboards) and Gard Nilssen (drums). Puma improvised and made noise for about 60 minutes, and it was pretty tough material, with a few electronic pling plong breaks. I think they're coolest with a bit of rock in them, but can stand the rest too.
When the concert was scheduled to start, we were 5 people in the audience, but we ended up being around 50 I think. I have to admit I was one of three persons who had bought their tickets in advance! Feeling a bit old, yes.
svennejanson uploaded a couple of short videos from the concert, but be warned, this is not HiFi.

The Owl Project

A new exhibition by The Owl Project opened yesterday at Lydgalleriet (Bergen). Here you get wood and sounds combined in Log1K, iLogs and The Sound Lathe. The last one is a pole lathe with sensors that generate sounds.Simon Blackmore and Steve Symons had gathered some wood in Bergen and gave a nice concert, using the lathe and demonstrating the iLogs (picture). Antony Hall is also part of this project, but was performing elsewhere. Jørgen Larsson was introducing (picture).
I got some Twin Peaks notions, with this talk about owls and logs and the ambient music, but that was just my imagination again. Visit before the end of 28 September!

Ultima

It must be Norway's longest festival, and happen in Oslo 1 – 19 October, when they have ULTIMA - Oslo Contemporary Music Festival. Programme to download in PDF here.
I would have checked out Alter Ego with works by Deathprod and Biosphere in the church "Kulturkirken Jakob" (11 October), and Frode Gjerstad and Peter Brötzmann with Nordic Voices the same place 16 October. Farmers Market play 13 October and how about Arne Nordheim’s sound installation in the Bekkelaget sewer cleaning system? Shit!

Lasse Marhaug: Ear Era

We have mentioned this record earlier in the blog, but here it comes again, it's in the house now. Lasse Marhaug got access to Henie Onstad Arts Center's archives of recorded concerts with Soft Machine, Jan Garbarek, Terry Riley, Arne Nordheim, Svein Finnerud Stockhausen etc etc, and made a piece of music from the recordings. I've been listening with wide open ears, but I am not able to recognize any Soft Machine sounds in there. It shouldn't come as a shock, but Marhaug has used this archive material in his own way, and you get no straight concert recordings at all. I mailed Marhaug, and he claims that he can't even remember if he used the Soft Machine recordings, so we end up with a record collector's and discography maker's dilemma: Maybe Soft Machine and Robert Wyatt are on this record, and maybe not! As a blogger i tag this post with Wyatt and SF just in case. The only artist i think I'm able to recognize here is Terry Riley, but I wouldn't swear on it. There are 500 numbered records of "Ear Era" (I've got number 51), and in addition there are 50 deluxe boxes. The box may have more music, and cost a lot more, but don't ask me about it.
Tuesday 16 September the organization "Ny Musikk" (i.e. "New Music") arrange a free concert with Lasse Marhaug (performing a version of "Ear Era") and Moha! in Bergen. Thank you very much!

Feelin', Reelin', Squealin'

Soft Machine's "Feelin', Reelin', Squealin'" is on the 3xCD box "Spirit Of Joy - Tales From The Polydor Underground 1967 - 1974".

Moha!

Rune Grammofon releases two Moha! records this year. First out was the 7" "Jeff Carey's Moha!" (white vinyl) and now the album "One way ticket to candyland". This is prognoise, and with a surprisingly high rock factor. If you can take a little noise, this might be for you too, if you are not put off by bands getting rave reviews in newspapers. Moha! is Anders Hana (g, keyb, drum machine!) and Morten J. Olsen (dr). On the 7" Jeff Carey joins, and both he and Olsen play something called "supercollider3". This makes me think of CERN and black holes and the world going too pieces, but in fact Moha! makes the perfect soundtrack to thoughts like that.

Sea Song live

Elbow won the Mercury prize. We console Rachel Unthank and The Winterset, and show their live version of Robert Wyatt's ”Sea Song”, performed 31 July 2008. Nice?
Rachel Unthank and The Winterset cover "Sexy Sadie" on part two of Mojo's "White Album" celebration. Paul Weller's version of the same song is also there. Look and listen here.

Alifib

Siroen has uploaded a recording of Robert Wyatt from Paris 1975 on YouTube, where he sings Alifib from "Rock Bottom". Embedding is disabled, but listen, see and learn here.

"Not nit not,
Nit no not.
Nit nit folly bololey".

But hey! Nantrue uploaded it on Daily Motion too!

Robert Wyatt - "Alifib"
Uploaded by nantrue

Puma

Check out Norwegian trio Puma , if you are into jazz and rock with a touch of noise. They play in Bergen Friday 12/9 and Tilburg 16/9.Puma is Stian Westerhus, Øystein Moen and Gard Nilssen. "Stealing your brandname since 2003".

The Streets and Pink Floyd

Mike Skinner regrets that he didn't use Robert Wyatt on his new record. The reason seems to be, that he changed the lyrics, and they didn't fit Robert. Tch Tch. He's been sad before too.Dry your eyes!

And Pink Floyd is on the cover of Uncut again (October issue)! A lot of artists have voted, and made a list of the "30 Greatest Pink Floyd songs”. Robert Wyatt's favorite is "See Saw" from "A Saucerful of Secrets" (1968).

K-Space

New and fresh, every time! Do you get tired of your records? You might want to try K-Space's "Infinity" (AD HOC, 2008). This record is a CD-ROM, and remixes it self every time you put it in your PC or Mac! K-Space is Gendos Chamzyryn, Tuva, Siberia: vocals, percussion, amplified doshpulur, piano, cello, Tim Hodgkinson, England (ex Henry Cow): lap steel guitar, klarnet, electronics, alto saxophone and Ken Hyder, Scotland: drums, vocals, amplified ektara, sampling, electronics.
In The Herald's "The Guide" (6 September 2008) I read that Ken Hyder replaced Robert Wyatt in the free jazz/impro-band The Amazing Band, and Wyatt seems to like Hyder very much (if I manage to find that piece again, I'll link to it. Promise.).

Bobby sails the cat..

"Worlds of possibility" publish a piece on High Llamas, with Sean O'Hagan interviewed, originally printed in Signal To Noise (#45 2007). Here we get to know that "Sailing Bells" fra "Can Cladders" (2007) comes with a tribute to Robert Wyatt.
"“Sailing Bells”, with its chorus cascade of rich harmony - almost like a folk music round - and gentle spider’s-web strings, pays homage to another of O’Hagan’s heroes, Robert Wyatt. “Yeah, there’s a tribute to Robert Wyatt in the second verse,” O’Hagan explains, “where the lyric goes ‘Bobby sails the cat / Down the Medway flats / Like a freeform not far from the land / Sailing bells are hung / Brushes on the drum / And the free men of Canterbury play / And the cat moves on down the Medway’. That is basically, I dunno, that’s more just about Canterbury in the 1970s being the hub, the Canterbury scene. I was trying to capture the scene, of these hippie guys making their music, Soft Machine, Hatfield And The North. For some reason, I put them on a boat. And of course, ‘Bobby sails the cat…’ is Robert Wyatt.”

Stencils, English and how to publish

I've had some hectic days on "The 2nd European Conference on Scientific Publishing in Biomedicine and Medicine" in Oslo, but managed a quick walk, camera in hand. Here is one of the few religious street art motives I've seen (by Nuntius). More Oslo street art here og here.
After some hours of listening to people who have to speak English, even if it's not their first language, I start to pick up some interesting words. When talking about data collecting and breath taking news, I hear "Dada Collecting" and "Breast Taking".
And the conference was good indeed! Presentations will be published somewhere on this site in some days.

Joe McPhee & Paal Nilssen-Love

Joe McPhee & Paal Nilssen-Love
Originally uploaded by svennevenn

I guess it is not a big surprise, but Paal Nilssen-Love is on the market with a new album again! This time it is a duo record with Joe Mcphee on Smalltown Superjazz. Playful and good! It's called "Tomorrow came today" (SMJZ 2008). Cover: Kim Hiorthøy.

Added later: Read review over at Free Jazz.

Brøtzman/Kondo/Pupillo/Nilssen-Love

Toshinori Kondo
Originally uploaded by svennevenn

Bergen Jazzforum is great. They even give us free concerts! Wednesdey a packed house listened to Massimo Pupillo - bass (Zu), Peter Brötzman - saxophone and clarinette, Toshinori Kondo - trumpet and electrickery and Paal Nilssen-Love – drums. Toughest perhaps when Nilssen-Love and Pupillo laid down a rock background for Brötzman and Kondo. The room was too dark for my camera, but Kondo let me shower him in flash lights, when he needed a break and a smoke after the concert.Great concert!

Arne Domnerus 1924- 2008

The Swedish sax and clarinette player Arne Domnerus died yesterday. If you know Swedish, read about him in Svenska Dagbladet.

Wish list

Here you get a nice, short list of records to buy, borrow or wait for.

White Lord Jesus: "..Into that good night" (Kong Tiki, out now). Some of the guests: Arve Henriksen, Martin Horntvedth and Maja Ratkje.

Benedicte Torget: "After a day of rain" (Present Recordings, out now). Guest: Nils Petter Molvær.

MoHa!: "One-way Ticket To Candyland" (Rune Grammofon, CD out now, LP soon).

Huntsville: "Eco, Arches & Eras" (Rune Grammofon double, studio and live recordings 22 September). Guests: Sidsel Endresen og Nels Cline og Glenn Kotche fra Wilco.

Susanna: "Flower of Evil" (Rune Grammofon 20 October). Cover songs with Susanna , Helge Sten (Deathprod) and Pål Hausken, and a surprise guest!

Music and the brain

Music may go straight to your heart like a cannonball, and rumors tell that it can even move other parts of the body. Oliver Sacks writes about music and the brain in "Musicophilia. Tales of Music and the Brain" (Knopf 2007). Sacks, who wrote "Awakening" (filmed) and "The man who mistook his wife for a hat" (later an opera), seems to have at least one patient or pen pal for every disease in the world. In this book he tells us about music and dreams, hallucinations, epilepsy, blindness, depression, hearing loss, dementia and feelings (puh!). It's classical music when Oliver Sacks talks about music, but this book is for everyone with music on their mind.

Vintage Hatfield

Hatfield & The North - vintage footage 1973/75
Uploaded by nantrue

Nantrue has uploaded a collection of Hatfield and The North videos on DailyMotion. This is a bit too much prog-with-several-floors-keyboards for my tastes, but all Canterbury fans should look out for nantrue's uploads!
The band is Phil Miller, Dave Stewart, Richard Sinclair og Pip Pyle.