Party on!

I want to thank you all for the year that was, and wish you a happy new one, starting tomorrow. Dance a bit to Dinosau and "Pärris"!

I gave in and made a list

Damn it, I´ve made a list again! Most of the albums released in 2009 I haven´t even heard, and to tell what´s "best" of all the different kinds of music I listen to is a bit stupid, but you just have to make a list at the end of the year, don´t you?
I was not able to cut it down to 10 albums, so here are my 15 suggestions to releases you should give a chance.
If you don´t find your favorite here, it still might be in the blog somewhere. As you may have noticed, I only write about stuff I like.

1982 (Apeland, Skarbø, Økland): “1982” (NORCD)
Antony & The Johnsons: “The crying light” (Rough Trade)
Bradford/Gjerstad/Håker Flaten/Nilssen-Love:
“Reknes” (Circulasione Totale)
Crimetime Orchestra featuring Sonny Simmons and KORK:
“Atomic symphony” (Jazzaway)
Mats Eilertsen: “Radio yonder” (Hubro)
Fire!: “You liked me five minutes ago” (Rune)
Håkon Kornstad: “Dwell Time” (Jazzland)
Orchestre National De Jazz: “Around Robert Wyatt” (Bee Jazz)
Jackie Oates: “Hyperboreans” (Unearthed)
Soft Machine: “Live at Henie Onstad Art Centre 1971” (Reel Rec)
Spunk: “Kantarell” (Rune)
The Low Frequency in Stereo: “Futuro” (Rune)
The Thing: “Bag it” (SMJZ)
The Unthanks: “Here´s the tender coming” (Rabble Rouser)
Trinity: “Breaking the mold” (Clean Feed)

Brøtzmann & Yagi

Here you get Peter Brötzmann (tenor saxophone) and Michiyo Yagi (koto, vocal) live in Tokyo 9 December 2009. Part two here.
I heard these two musicians with Paal Nilssen-Love, at the Landmark club in Bergen in April 2008.

Eterni-Tea

Check out the new The Robert Wyatt forums.

Twitterature

I guess it´s not only me, but I have to confess (sorry for going personal here) that being online all the time has made me even more restless than I used to be. I used to be a heavy reader, but it has become much harder to read all the thick novels I really want to read. A friend must have realized how I was feeling, and bought me "Twitterature. The World´s Greatest Books Retold Through Twitter".
I have read several of the classics now, but even if it is great fun, I must admit I hope it´s not coming to this!
From the book:
Thomas Mann "Death in Venice": "I had a wet dream about the boy.
It´s time to start plan B: heavy, heavy stalking."
Homer "The Iliad": "Watchin´all my dudes dyin´without my help. LOL."

I´m going to start to read some thin books first, and follow people who write very short stories on Twitter.

John Hassell & Maariffa Street

Jon Hassell (trumpet, keyboard), Eivind Aarset (guitar, bass), Jan Bang (live sampling) and Kheir-Eddine M'Kachiche (violin) play music based on "Last night the moon came dropping it´s clothes in the streets" (ECM 2009) live at Lausanne, October 2009. There are 7 parts from this concert on YouTube. Film: Miguel Octave.

Call Before You Dig

Sonore is Ken Vandermark, Mats Gustafsson and Peter Brötzmann, all of them blowing their horns. The videoe seems to be from a aconcert in 2008, and please check out the double CD "Call Before You Dig" (Okka Disc, 2009), recorded both live and in studio the same year.
Buy, listen, dig.

Calling Signals

Calling Signals: Frode Gjerstad (sax), Nick Stephens (b), Paal Nilssen-Love (dr) and Jon Corbett (tp) at The Vortex (London), 13.12.09.

Vic Chesnutt 1964 - 2009

There were rumors all over Twitter yesterday, concerning Vic
Chesnutt´s suicide attempt, and unfortunately it was all true, he is now confirmed dead. Kristin Hersh made a tribute and support site where you may donate some money to help the family.
I only saw Chesnutt live once, at a student place in Bergen several years ago. He seemed a bit grumpy, coming into the hall behind the audience in his wheel chair, and asked to be carried and lifted on stage by the people up front. But he did a fantastic solo show, ending up smiling a lot, partly because several of the young girls in the audience seemed to know all his lyrics.
If the "Everything I say" video does not move you today, I don´t think I can help. It was filmed in in November 2009, and the band is tagged Fugazi on YouTube!

Fred Frith in Jazznytt

In the new issue of Norwegian jazz magazine Jazznytt (nr 06/2009) they have a six page presentation of Fred Frith, with an interview done at the Kongsberg Jazz Festival (summer 2009). Frith talks about his relationship with Robert Wyatt, and says that as a student he used to call Wyatt and ask if he could join Soft Machine! He was invited to to play on "Rock Bottom" og "Ruth is Stranger than Richard", and this later led to working with Ivor Cutler and Brian Eno.
He also seems very fond of his partners in Henry Cow, Chris Cutler, Lindsay Cooper and Tim Hodgkinson.

If you follow the link to Jazznytt, you may read the whole issue in PDF, until a new one is out (I believe). But be warned, it´s in Norwegian.

Lutefisk

Since we are in a Christmas mood, we have to have some food and drink here in the blog. Most of you people don´t have to eat this, but December is the big lutefisk month in Norway.
The great Ivo Caprino made this commercial for lutefisk in 1967.
Believe it or not, but a lot of people like this, especially with beer and akvavit.

Christmas on Beat Street

Beat Street Santa's Christmas Xmas Rap, Treacherous Three & Doug E. Fresh.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of you, and special greetings to
Alfie and Robert.
Please note: Santa does not want to receive any more wish
lists now.

Sea Song video

Maskellnotonfire has made a beautiful video to Rachel Unthank
& The Winterset's fantastic cover of Robert Wyatt's "Sea Song".
See also the "My Donald" video, with footage originally intended for "Sea Song".
Both songs are on the must have album "The Bairns".

Don "Sugarcane" Harris

I guess most of you like "Directly from my heart to you", from the Mothers of Invention album "Weasels Ripped My Flesh"? What would that one be without Don "Sugarcane" Harris on violin? It is 10 years since Sugarcane died, but on the video we may see him with the L.A.band Tupelo Chain Sex, playing "The revolution will be televised" (via The Brain Police").
You may find Don Harris and Robert Wyatt on the same album too ("Sugarcane´s Got The Blues", 1972), and to wave the Norwegian flag once more (sorry about that): Terje Rypdal is on the same record.

Cortez the Killer

Jim Jarmusch with Bradford Cox (Deerhunter) and Randy Randall (No Age) are doing one of my favorite Neil Young songs ( "Cortez The killer") in front of a surveillance camera (Pitchfork).
And here is Neil Young!

Isglem

Sunday evening ( 20 December) I heard Isglem at the Landmark club (Bergen). It was a bit disappointing that only a few people attended, but Terje Isungset (drums, rocks, sticks and trumpet playing toy elk) and Karl Seglem (tenor saxophone, ram´s horn and other horns (not from near extinct animals I hope)) gave all 9 (!) of us a witty and nice concert. It was jazz, folk and impro in a perfect mix, and we even got som slapstick while Isungset played a drum solo on close to no volume at all. He even complained that Seglem was breathing.
The two guys have played together for more than 20 years, and you may buy their albums over at NORCD.
Some crook also uploaded a video on YouTube .

Han & Frode

I found Han Bennink & Frode Gjerstad´s "Han & Frode" ( Cadence Jazz Records 2009) in my mailbox yesterday. This one (too!) sounds great, with Gjerstad on alto and clarinets and Bennink on drums and percussion (teeth and shoes included I guess) having fun with free impro, that even swings.
The music was recorded during a concert on Inderøy island (Norway, Mars 2008), in The Nils Aas Museum (Norwegian sculptor).
I heard the duo at Moldejazz in July, and is looking forward to see them again at All Ears in Oslo in January.
Cover art: Camilla Sørvik.

Henry Cow Box Set

Just a reminder of the enormous Henry Cow box set from R&R. If you feel it is overkill to buy 10 CDs and DVD with this band, you may now download what you want from iTunes or eMusic. Robert Wyatt is on volume 2 "1974-5" and volume 3 "Hamburg", with Chris Cutler , Lindsay Cooper, Fred Frith, John Greaves, Tim Hodgkinson and Dagmar Krause. On "Hamburg" the band does Matching Mole´s "Gloria Gloom" (Wyatt/McCormick), but Wyatt is not on this one.
Since I´m Norwegian (and we are chauvinists), I also focus on the two hours of impro from Trondheim 26 May 1976, the band being Cutler, Frith, Hodgkinson and Cooper here.
John Kelman of AAJ guides you through the box set.

Robert Wyatt in French

I have mentioned this book in a previous blog post, but now It´s finally here: "Robert Wyatt" by Jean-Francois Dréan (photo) & Philippe Thieyre (text) (Éditions des Accords 2009). The book is in French (unfortunately - for me at least), but more than half of the pages are covered by great black and white photos, lots of them portraits of Wyatt.
I promise I´ll try to read it, but so far it looks like the usual biographical stuff with inspirational sources, living in Louth, discography, Alfie´s work and so on. And that´s OK with me.
I also see that Robert and Alfie have a copy of Bergen artist DOLK´s Che on one of their walls ("Smoking cures stress").
I bought my book at amazon.fr.

Not cool

Over at Free Jazz I found a blog post on saxophone player Chris Kelsey´s album "Not cool (as in ... "The opposite of Paul Desmond")". What a great album this is, with hot and intense jazz music, as far away from Paul Desmond and other cool cat´s calculated stuff, as Kelsey (according to the liner notes) wants to be.
The album is available for free from Kelseys blog for a limited period, but you may of course pay something for it too, to his PayPal account (as I chose to do) . The music, the cover and the liner notes are all easy to download. Better than what iTunes and eMusic offer when I pay for my music. In Kelsey´s band we hear Chris Dimeglio (trompet), François Grillot (bass) and Jay Rosen (trommer). Damn, I just have to call it a cool album (sorry)!

Hard work and fate

Egil Olsen, Jenny Hval (aka Rockettothesky), Erlend Slettevoll and Stig Ulv perform "Hard work and fate" from Olsen´s "Nothing like the love i have for you", live at Victoria, Oslo (8 December 2009). Beautiful, or what?
And it´s not the football coach Egil Olsen, just to make that clear.

River

I had decided not to buy any Christmas music this year, but don´t regret that i downloaded Eldbjørg Raknes´ fine and mellow Christmas version of Joni Mitchell´s "River". You may find it here.
If you read Norwegian, see some other singles I bought too here, and if I buy some more, it will be Carla Bley´s and Mathias Eick´s albums.

Rune Grammofon 2010

Forthcoming Rune Grammofon releases for 2010 include Motorpsycho with "Heavy Metal Fruit" in January, Elephant9 with "Walk The Nile" in February, the debut album from Espen Eriksen Trio in March, and later on Bushman´s Revenge, Puma and Stian Westerhus
And they still have a sale on some of their albums, but you better hurry up.

A bit out of focus

If you have visited this blog some times, you must have noticed that it is not very focused. I mix all kinds of music (and other stuff), and will not excuse myself, but rather make a hell of a mix today!
Let´s start in the most charming way, with Regina Spektor and Norwegian singer Sondre Lerche at Rockefeller (Oslo), recorded a couple of days ago (singing "Hell no").
Then we go a bit more brutal with Shining live in Tokyo (shown at a YouTube festival today, to mark "Give Your Live - a music festival for human rights").
Next ones out are Lean Left, one of Ken Vandermark´s projects (live recording, November 2009). Lean Left is Ken Vandermark, Terrie Ex, Andy Moor and Paal Nilssen-Love.
And OK, we will join the celebration of The Clash : It´s 30 years since "London Calling"! I can´t believe it. I bought the album when it came out, but I´ll have to admit that my favorite track was "Brand New Cadillac"!

Fairytale of New York

We just have to have the best Christmas song of them all in the blog in December, "Fairytale of New York", this time live with Martha Wainwright and Ed Harcourt (Royal Albert Hall 9 December, 2009). The original with Shane McGowan and Kirsty McColl is perfect, but this version is good too, although not really as sad as I like it.

Jaga Jazzist

Jaga Jazzist will release a new album next year, and the single "One-Armed Bandit" is very promising! On their site they say: "Having taken on two new members, Øystein Moen and Stian Westerhus, the band rented a house in the Swedish forest to rehearse “this new Zappa-esque, more humorous prog-rock music.”" Looking forward to this one!
The video is from the 2009 Japan tour, with the new single as soundtrack.

Slapp Happy

Slapp Happy is Peter Blegvad, Anthony Moore and Dagmar Krause, and as you all know, they made some great albums with slightly melancholic pop in the 70s ("Sort of", "Casablanca moon" and "Desperate Straights").
The reunion album "Ça Va" came in 1998 and is almost as good as the first ones (listen to "Scarred for life"!). This album has been hard to find (they claim), but it is now reissued by Voiceprint. Just buy it!
Voiceprint also reissued "Live in Japan - May 2000", originally from 2001, and i must admit I didn´t know about it until now (so much for claiming to be a Slapp Happy fan). On this live recording they do songs from all mentioned albums, and even if the live feeling is a bit dull, the songs come through, and you have to get this one too, after getting the other ones (also available on iTunes and eMusic).
What a great trio this is!

Today (BBC Radio 4)

Robert Wyatt, Tony Adams, David Hockney and PD James are among the people who will be guest editors of BBC Four´s "Today" for Christmas and New Year.
Robert Wyatt is on Friday 1st January, and "His programme will look at the music being made by amateur choirs around the country and at the people willing to stick up for politicians after the scandal surrounding MPs' expenses". Way to start 2010!

All Ears 2010

The program for the All Ears festival (Oslo, 14 - 17 January) is out!

THURSDAY 14 JANUARY, Fabrikken

• Projecting Surface (Dryer/Heule/Laastad/Volden)
• Anna Zaradny
• Lucio Capece / Werner Dafeldecker
• Han Bennink / Frode Gjerstad

FRIDAY 15 JANUARY, Fabrikken

• Basshaters
• Dag Magnus Narvesen / Stine Janvin Motland / Johannes Bauer
• Robert Piotrowicz
• Stian Westerhus / Zach Hill

DJs: Soft Bondage

SATURDAY 16 JANUARY, Fabrikken

• Kristin Andersen / Anna Zaradny / Inga Margrete Aas
• Cunt Rash
• Anla Courtis
• C. Spencer Yeh / Okkyung Lee
• Paul Lytton / Johannes Bauer / Jon Rune Strøm

DJs: Soft Bondage

SUNDAY 17 JANUARY, Henie Onstad Art Centre

• Paul Lytton (electronic set)
• John Tilbury

Soft Machine and lights

Just wishful thinking, but while waiting for somebody to locate a film of the Soft Machine concert at Henie Onstad (previous blog post), let´s enjoy the kind of light show they were using. Lights by Mark Boyle and Joan Hill. Psychedelic!

Live at Henie Onstad Art Center 1971

Finally it´s here: Soft Machine "Live at Henie Onstad Art Centre 1971" (Reel Recordings 2009)! Lots of people have been waiting for this one, and when it is here, it is close to perfect! Soft Machine played at Henie Onstad 27 and 28 February 1971, Mark Boyle and Joan Hills doing the lights. Here we get recordings from the second day on two CDs, and we also get one accompanying CD-R with information.
The band is Michael Ratledge, Elton Dean, Hugh Hopper and Robert Wyatt (soon to leave the band). They play material from the Soft Machine albums "3" (1970) and "4" (1971), with tunes like "Facelift", "Virtually", "Slightly all the time", "Fletcher´s Blemish", "Neo-Caliban Grides", "Out-Bloody-Rageous", "All White", "Kings and Queens", "Teeth", "Pigling Bland" and "Noisette" (with good help from the CD-R here). The band does not play the tunes as such, but two long sets as they used to do. And the sound is just great!
Live recordings with the same people may be found on "Grides" (Cuneiform 2006), "Virtually" (Cuneiform 1998), "In Europe" (Blueprint 1998) and "BBC Radio 1967-1971" (Hux 2003), and check out "Drop" (Moonjune 2008) too, but Phil Howard plays the drums on this one, in Robert´s place.
Start by buying Soft Machine "Live at Henie Onstad Art Center 1971". Great stuff!

Tom Waits

Today we celebrate Tom Waits´ 60th birthday, by going fishing with John Lurie! Click on for part2 and part 3.

The Hair Collection

Bergen performance artist Kurt Johannessen is working on an ambitious project called "The Hair Collection". He wants one strand of hair from every living person! So far 0,0000124% of the world´s population have participated, and their names are on this list.
If you have one strand of hair to spare, well you know what to do.
The picture is from a performance involving burnt matches, not hair.

Evan Parker og Sten Sandell

Here you see half of Townhouse Orchestra (my Moldejazz 2008 blog post), Sten Sandell and Evan Parker, doing a church concert at Hagenfesten, Dala Floda (July 2009).

Sidsel Endresen & Håkon Kornstad

Watch this fine video with Håkon Kornstad and Sidsel Endresen recorded in Voss, Norway (May 2009), and read a new interview with Kornstad in Express.

Privilege

Ivor Cutler´s three Rough Trade albums, "Privilege", "Prince Ivor" and "Gruts" have never been out on CD. The first one was issued this autumn and after several weeks (OK, 2 weeks) in the mail from Amazon, I got mine too. "Privilege" is a bit special in the Cutler discography, since he lets other people sing and play too (happend on "Ludo" also). Here we hear Linda Hirst (of Swingle Singers fame!) singing and David Toop and Steve Beresford on miscallaneous instruments.
This album is for those among you, who want to know how to remove lice from cats in a sustainable way, and want to wade across the Amazonas disguised birds (piranhas hate feathers in their teeth).

Jeanette Lindström interviewed (in Swedish)

Please don´t forget Jeanette Lindström´s fine "Attitude & Orbit control", where she is working with Robert Wyatt. In the interview she praises Wyatt as a mentor, and says he helped her a lot (all in Swedish). You´ll find the second part of the interview here.

Æncrages

Beautiful books made of good quality paper should not only be nostalgic stuff, but exist alongside the digital material we all use. I have mentioned the French company Æncrages in a previous post, since they have issued high quality books by Alfreda Benge and Robert Wyatt. On YouTube (via Æncrages´ Facebook cite) I found this video, where we even get to see one of their books in production.

Labfield: "Collab" (Hubro 2009)

I have to admit that the first time I played Labfield´s "Collab" I found it boring, and a bit irritating, but I have changed my mind! What happened? Well, I have played the album several times, also on my iPod while walking in the woods, or on a dark road in the evening, and this makes a perfect (spooky) soundtrack! The album starts with "Cebollon" (35 minutes), a piece with several layers of music, developing slowly in a minimalistic manner, and then turns into the lovely "Crusial" (8 minutes) with dulcimer like guitar and whispering vocals. Exciting stuff, if you will let it grow on you!
Labfield is David Stackenäs – acoustic guitars, electronics and Ingar Zach – drums, percussion, sruti box and drone commander, and here are their guests: Ståle Storløkken – synth, Mariam Wallentin – voice, and Giuseppe Ielasi: electronicsk (info from Grappa).

Shining: Fisheye

You may now buy the first single (?) from Shining´s album "Blackjazz", to be released 25 January. "Fisheye" is on iTunes, both as a 3:13 minutes long "radio edit" and an 6:56 minutes long "extended version" (that will not be on the album). Tough enough, and more metal than jazz so far. The video is recorded at Norwegian Broadcasting Co.´s "Store Studio" 19 October 2009.

World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day in Bergen, 1 December 2009.

Arve Henriksen au Duc des Lombards

Arve Henriksen and Helge Sten live in Paris 22 November!

Procosmian Fannyfiddlers

This is a post for the ones among you who may be collecting all kinds of progrock. Procosmian Fannyfiddlers from Trondheim (Norway) have been playing since 1995, and have made 8 records on their own "Langt Lem Records" (*cough* describing the size of some men´s members, sorry about that). I have only heard "Requiem Fatigue", and even if the cover and the lyrics are putting me a bit off, the music is quite good! Progrock spiced with folk. Here are some song titles: "Crap in the ceiling", "Diaphragm of doom", "Carpe scrotum", "Dogging me, dogging you" and one with a message, "We are here to annoy you". Be warned.

According to their MySpace-site their previous albums are: GOLD (97) ... AND SILVERS QUALITY (98) FISTED LADY (99) THE ROLLING COURT MASSACRE (01) RETURN OF THE SWEATTY OWL (03) FATHER DOG (05) THE HORSE FROM HELL (08).

And here is "The horse from hell" (2008):

The Soft Machine (1969, Hör Zu SHZE908BL)

Saturday I ended up at a record fair again, and once more I brought home an old Soft Machine album. This time I got a German mixture of the two first Soft Machine albums from 1969 (?), and on the back of the cover we may read this on the fine gentlemen Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt and Kevin Ayers: "Der harte Kern der Soft Machine: Michael, Robert, Kevon". (Click on the picture below if you want to read more).

The tracks:
- Hibou Anemone And Bear
- Dada Was Here
- Out Of Tunes
- As Long As He Lies Perfectly Still
- Dedicated To You But You Weren't
Listening
- Hope For Happines
- Joy Of A Toy
- Hope For Happines
- Plus Belle Qu'une Poubelle
- Why Are We Sleeping?
- Box 25/4 Lid

Film and book

On What´s Rattlin´ (check this forum!) I found info on the film "Separation" by Jack Bond, where you get a bonus movie by Mark Boyle and Joan Hills called "Beyond Image" (mentioned earlier in this blog, as it was shown in London), with music by Soft Machine (as on "Spaced").

Jean-Francois Drean and Philippe Thieyre have written a portrait of Robert Wyatt called (hold steady now) "Robert Wyatt" (Editions des Accords - ISBN 978-2-916944-02-9). It is not in stock at Amazon, but I think I´ll try the publisher!

Lean Left

Lean Left is Ken Vandermark, Terrie Ex, Andy Moor and Paal Nilssen-Love. Ken Vandermark usually offers a short comment after the shows on his Twitter when touring, and I believe this one is from Ljubljana.

Terje Rypdal: Odyssey

Today´s classic is Terje Rypdal´s "Odyssey" (ECM), a double LP from 1975. The band is Terje Rypdal (guitar, soprano saxophone and string ensemble (!)), Torbjørn Sunde (trombone), Brynjulf Blix (organ), Sveinung Hovensjø (bass) and Svein Christiansen (drums). Manfred Eicher and Jan Erik Kongshaug is involved, no surprises there, and the cover photo is by Giuseppe Pino.
I had listened to, and liked the sound of Rypdal before I bought this one ( with Jan Garbarek, in Dream and on the solo album "Bleak house"), but I immediately fell for this one, with Hovensjø´s rock steady bass and Sunde´s beautiful trombone. It´s almost a taste of Pink Floyd in here sometimes ("Atom Heart Mother" ?), but of course the main factor is the icy, clear sound of Rypdal´s guitar. Sorry, but I must have read too much about the Nordic wintery sound of the Norwegian ECM artists, and may almost see the glaciers move when I listen to this. Rypdal is not a hot blues guitarist, for sure!
This album has been out on CD, without the long track "Rolling Stone" (24 minutes), but I believe it is hard to get hold of these days. You may download "Odyssey" from iTunes and eMusic, but even they lack the missing track!

The Ex and Brass Unbound

The Ex is touring UK in January and February 2010 with Brass Unbound, who is Mats Gustafsson, Roy Paci, Ken Vandermark and Wolter Wierbos. Video credit: Emma Fischer.

Gilad Atzmon is producing Wyatt

Robert Wyatt seems to be working on a new record! Gilad Atzmon is interviewed in Norwich Evening News and they say : "This year Atzmon added the role of producer to his CV, recording and playing singer-songwriter Sarah Gillespie's debut LP, Stalking Juliet, and is currently producing an album by Robert Wyatt". Glad to hear that!

Added 27 November, after comment from Gilad Atzmon:
"A minor correction... the album is a product of collaboration between Ros Stephen who takes care of the string parts and some compositions, Robert who sings and inspires and myself who take care of woodwind and musical production. a lot of other people are involved. I just mentioned it because it is kind of a collaboration rather than G produces Y"

The Scottish Play

Portland, Oregon´s Parenthetical Girls have chosen Glasgow´s great poet Ivor Cutler as the man, for their 10" "The Scottish Play: Wherein the Group Parenthetical Girls Pay Well-intentioned (if Occasionally Misguided) Tribute To the Works of Ivor Cutler" (Tomlab 2009). There are only 500 copies for sale, but you may download it from both iTunes and eMusic. Cover art by David Shrigley (Glasgow). The band do fine versions of Sit Down, Whale Badge, Doughnut, A Nuance, Over You Go, Going In A Field, The Best Thing and Everybody Got.

The best thing about being dead
is that you no longer have to say
"I wish I were dead"
The best thing about being alive
Is that you can still say
"I wish I were dead"

Ivor Cutler (my way of presenting it, hope it´s not far from Mr Cutler´s)

I have to admit I never heard about Parenthetical Girls until now, but this seems like a band worth checking out. See the video for "A song for Ellie Greenwich" (from an earlier album).

Stian Westerhus in Japan

Stian Westerhus (Puma, Monolithic, Bladed, Crimetime Orchestra, Jaga Jazzist, solo and other projects) is touring Japan. twod444 uploaded three videos on YouTube, and it sure looks like Westerhus has started the Christmas celebration already.

Daevid Allen speaks

Gong is touring again, and The Scotsman talked to Daevid Allen (24 November 2009). Allen, who was in Soft Machine before they did their first record, claims that Brigitte Bardot hired them to play at a party, and that they played the same song over and over again. "We had no money so Brigitte took pity on us and hired us for her party. We played one song, We Did It Again, over and over for a joke. We did it again and again for an hour and the next day we were the darlings of France's hip set and that enabled me to go off and form Gong." I like Allen´s version, but I can´t find any info on Bardot in connection to the St Tropez concert, even if both Wikipedia and Graham Bennett ("Soft Machine. Out Bloody Rageous") mention it. Buy Soft Machine´s "Jet Propelled Photographs" (demos from 1967) with Robert Wyatt, Daevid Allen, Mike Ratledge and Kevin Ayers, right away!

The video shows Gong in Germany earlier this month, with Steve Hillage, Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth, Theo Travis, Chris Tayler and Miquett Giraudy.

Trondheim Voices

Midtnorsk Jazzsenter uploaded three videos from Moldejazz, of Trondheim Voices with Marilyn Mazur, Jon Balke and Mats Gustafsson.

A Saturday at Piksel 09

Saturday evening and another night at the Piksel 09 festival in Bergen. This night we even got to see boxers in action! I hereby steal some info from the Piksel site, and let them explain this for you: "A livecoding showdown – improvisation as physical interation with structure generators, two boxers are having an infight between themselves and the computer. Uppercuts and punches are the means to write software that can only defend itself with music. Artistic creativity and decisionmaking is done simultaneously in embodied and disembodied ways". The piece was called "He boxed regularly and was strong and very brave and always a perfect gentleman", and was made and performed by Iohannes M Zmölnig (AT), Georg Richard Holzmann (AT) and Michael Reinhard Pinter (NL). Quite entertaining stuff this, in front of a blood thirsty audience!

I also saw nice performances by Bjørnar Habbestad and Jeff Carey with electroacoustic "Respirator", and some noisy ambient (if that´s possible) by Oscar Martin, called "noish_VS_automata". After 10 minutes of Ryan Jordan´s "Psychoid" this old body had to transport itself outside the concert area. Minimalistic noise and strobe lights bang in the face was best experienced from outside (see video below).

Ken Vandermark records

Ken Vandermark seems to release even more albums than Paal Nilssen-Love, but luckily they are quite often on the same records. I have hardly had time to listen more than a couple of times to the bunch I´ve got recently, but suggest this shopping list anyway:
The Vandermark 5: "Annular Gift" (Not Two 2009).
Ken Vandermark, Marcin Oles and Bartlomiej Brat Oles "Ideas" (Not Two2009).
Sonore (Ken Vandermark, Peter Brötzmann and Mats Gustafsson!): “Call Before You Dig” (Okka Disk 2009).
Ken Vandermark, Barry Guy and Mark Sanders: "Fox Fire" (Maya Records 2009).
Ken Vandermark & Paal Nilssen-Love: "Chicago Volume" and "Milwaukee Volume" (OK I haven´t heard this one yet, but still) (Smalltown 2009).

Check out kenvandermark.com, where you also may see Vandermark´s Twitter messages. On the Vandermark & Nilssen-Love tour of Europe, they seem to have attracted bigger and more ecstatic crowds, than they did in Bergen.

Shleep! Buy it, buy it, buy it!

Please listen to School of Seven Bells , who choose Robert Wyatt´s "Shleep" from 1997. Yeah! Check them out in "On the record".

Piksel09 f[re](e){op}[en]able

The Piksel09 festival is happening in Bergen right now (19 - 22 November). The festival site describe Piksel like this: "Piksel is a festival and community for artists and developers working with Free/Libre and Open Source audiovisual software, hardware and art". A lot of the festival is streamed, so check their site.

Yesterday I saw the dancing instruments of "Action Potential" ( top picture) and "Kunst und Musik mit dem Tageslichtprojector" (picture below). Real nice! Look for more pictures in my Piksel set on Flickr.

Fred Frith Workshop

Fred Frith lectures in Amsterdam in September 2007. "There is actually no such thing as an electric guitar"

A touch of Wyatt

You will probably survive, and feel quite well too, even if you don´t follow these links:
- Pitchfork: Alan Palomo, frontman of Neon Indian digs "Rock Bottom".
- Baltimore City Paper: Max Tundra has got some resemblance to Wyatt, or not?
- The Guardian on rockers with beard. Yes, that´s an important topic.
- Kentucky.com on Jean Luc Ponty and "New violin summit".
- The Culture Vulture: Memorable moments with "Soup Songs" at the Leeds Jazz Festival.

Lindstrøm Mix

Fact magazine let Lindstrøm do their Fact Mix number 100. Lindstrøm has been listening a lot to Robert Wyatt, and this is some mix! You´ll find Robert Wyatt´s "Little Red Riding Hood" with songs by ABBA, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin.

Tracklist:
1. Joe Byrd & The Field Hippies - Kalyani
2. Jobriath - World Without End
3. Hall and Oates - Is It A Star?
4. Abba - Eagle
5. Tears for Fears - The Big Chair
6. Led Zeppelin - Bonzo´s Montreux
7. Robert Wyatt - Little Red Riding Hood Hit the Road
8. Black Sabbath - Breakout
9. Uli Jon Roth - The Night the Master Comes
10. Ciledaknuf - Thgil Dna Ygolue

And then we´ll just have to expand this list too!

Radio Yonder

We have already mentioned bass player Mats Eilertsen in this blog, in a post on the wild people of Crimetime Orchestra, but here is his own album "Radio Yonder" (Hubro 2009). A quite relaxing, nice jazz album! Just take my word for it. All compositions by Eilertsen, except the Aha cover "Hunting high and low". Musicians: Tore Brunborg (sax), Thomas Dahl (guitar), Olavi Louhivuori (drums) og Mats Eilertsen (bass). Cover: Yokoland.
Download from eMusic.

Robot store, Bergen

The nice little shop Robot in Skostredet in Bergen is finally on the internet! They are going to be the main net salesmen of Smalltown Supersound/Superjazz , Tellé and Datarock/Yap. They will also sell the catalogues of +3db, Pica Disk, Ohm records and others.
The postage policy is like this: The more you order, the cheaper it gets.

Visiting Robot today, I finally got Peter Brötzmann and Paal Nilsen-Love´s "Woodcuts" (SMJZ 2009) too, and it´s sounding great. This is a live recording from Kampenjazz in Oslo autumn 2008. Cover design by Brötzmann.

Face Like a Lemon

Look at The Japanese War Effort´s sweet live version of Ivor Cutler´s "Face like a lemon", recorded at Fresh Air, Edinburgh's student radio station, on Wednesday 4th November 2009.

Rimbaud and Robert Wyatt

I have mentioned BBC3´s piece "A season in hell" in a previous blog post, and yesterday it was broadcasted. You still have 6 days to listen (probably less than 5 when you read this).
If you are only interested in Robert Wyatt here, jump to around 16.30, 19.15 and 22.25 in the 40 minutes long programme.
I you like this (as I do, no surprise there!) please check out Wyatt´s works with Michael Mantler, where he sings poetry (look for the Mantler albums here).

Fred Frith and Chris Cutler

Here you get Fred Frith and Chris Cutler at Music Unlimited 23, Wels, Austria. I hope for more from that festival, where John Zorn and Maja Ratkje was playing too (added later: see comment on Zorn). Come on, dance to the music!

Nils Petter Molvaer Live

Quite good videos of Nils Petter Molvaer (trumpet), with Stian Westerhus (guitar) and Audun Kleive (drums), at Posthof Linz (2 November 2009). See more here and here, and buy "Hamada".

Sidsel Endresen Jazz Sessions

Bergen Jazzforum invited Sidsel Endresen to choose her own musicians and do a Bergen Jazz Sessions on Friday night.
First we got a quite calm trio with Endresen and Håkon Kornstad (saxes and flutes) and Jan Bang (electricity and sampling), before a harder set with Ståle Storløkken (keyboards) and Thomas Strønen (drumstick eating, electricity and drums) happened, and the whole bunch ended the show together. A great evening indeed, and a great listening Friday audience too.
Somebody uploaded some videos on YouTube too, that are not at all fair to the artists, but you get the general idea!

Vandermark, Nilssen-Love and another couple too

I went out yesterday with Ken Vandermark and Paal Nilssen-Love in mind. The concert in Bergen was a double bill, and even if the the first act, Lê Quan Ninh (percussion) and Michel Doneda (sax), was doing some exciting stuff (what a mean percussionist!) they´ll have to excuse me for getting a bit restless towards the end of their concert. I was afraid I had to run for the bus before Vandermark/Nilssen-Love even started. I did not have to worry though, because Paal Nilssen-Love (drums) and Ken Vandermark (sax, clarinet) did an intense but quite short set (45 minutes). Great if you ask me, but I think some of the people in the audience didn´t even realize it was over, and then the musicians were gone. I was happy still, and even got on the last bus home. Some more clips from the concert on YouTube (here and here).
Ken Vandermark and Paal Nilssen-Love both play in several bands (OK, lots of bands), and they have several new albums on the market as usual. More on some of the albums in the blog later I guess.

What's Rattlin' On The Moon?

A message to all Soft Machine fans: Moonjune Records are now selling Beppe Crovella's "What's Rattlin' On The Moon? - A personal vision of the music of Mike Ratledge".

Resonance

dzgast uploaded several videos with KEN VANDERMARK «RESONANCE PROJECT» (October 31, Gdansk/Poland). Musicians:
Ken Vandermark: reeds (USA)
Dave Rempis: saxophones (USA)
Mikolaj Trzaska: reeds (Poland)
Magnus Broo: trumpet (Sweden)
Per-Ake Holmlander: tuba (Sweden)
Steve Swell: trombone (USA)
Tim Daisy: drums (USA)
Michael Zerang: percussion (USA)
Mark Tokar: bass (Ukraine)
Waclaw Zimpel - reeds (Poland)

Vandermark is touring Norway with Paal Nilssen-Love these days: Trondheim (11/11), Bergen (12/11), Stavanger (13/11), Drammen (14/11) and Oslo (15/11). Then they are off to Germany, Poland, Austria, Italy, and Denmark (see places and dates here).

Charlie Darwin

Enjoy The Low Anthem´s beautiful song "Charlie Darwin", with a perfect video to follow. The video is made by Glenn Z Taunton and Simon Taffe for End of the Road Films. And it´s 200 years since CharlesDarwin was born too.

A season in hell

Please note: Saturday 14 November you may listen to Rimbaud´s "A Season in Hell" on BBC Radio 3, narrated by Carl Prekopp, with soundscapes by composer Elizabeth Purnell and with with poems sung by Robert Wyatt. I sure hope it will be available afterwards too, because I am at a concert again this Saturday evening.

British jazz, Krog, Lindström

- Petter Herbertsson has written a piece on the step from listening to Canterbury music to British jazz in the Swedish magazine Friendly Noise (and it´s in Swedish). See also the Wire´s primer British Visionary Jazz.
- The Independent on Sunday (8 November 2009) reviews Karin Krog´s reissued album "Joy" (Meantime Records) (an album that´s got lots of great reviews!), and writes: ""Mr Joy", the opening song of this 1968 album by Norwegian vocalist Krog, still sounds startlingly contemporary, like a newwave folk-jazz project referencing Robert Wyatt and early John Martyn".
- Swedish newspaper Gøteborgs-Posten (paper version 9 November 2009) interviews Jeanette Lindström on the cooperation with Robert Wyatt on the album "Attitude and orbit control". She tells she was very touched by Wyatt´s music, listening to him after recommendations from producer Göran Petersen. "I became happy and felt free by listening, and remembered that I could do just what I wanted to" (my translation from Swedish, no offence I hope) . After writing to Wyatt he immediately called back, and then she visited him in England to work. The Swedes!
Let´s have the piece on the web Göteborgs-Posten, OK?

All Ears 2010

Borbetomagus
Originally uploaded by svennevenn

The festival season of 2010 is approaching! The impro and noise festival All Ears in Oslo, is scheduled for 14 - 17 January. The program is not official yet. On the picture you see Borbetomagus playing at the 2009 festival. Some more pictures here.

John Giorno

I heard John Giorno in Bergen in 1983, when he toured with William Burroghs, but missed him this time at the Audiatur festival for new poetry (link to Norwegian site). Thanks to the one who filmed John Giorno read "Just say no to family values" at the Landmark club.

Morning

Jeanette Lindstrøm recently put "Morning" with Robert Wyatt, from "Attitude & Orbit Control", on her MySpace page.

Steve Hamilton: "Night Work"

Steve Hamilton: "Night Work"
Originally uploaded by svennevenn

"Night work" by Steve Hamilton (Orion 2008) is a quite exciting read, and an OK crime novel. Theme: "somebody is killing people around me, and is it connected to me?" What makes the book stand out for me is that the hero (Joe Trumbull) is a jazz fan, and not only that, he digs free jazz! I didn't know anything about this book until the author commented on a post over at Free Jazz! Several places in the book, Trumbull compares his own life to Albert Ayler's, before Ayler was found drowned in a river.
Quite early in the story Trumbull needs some extra energy before he leaves his appartment: "I needed something huge, so I pulled out Peter Brötzmann's Machine Gun. It's a blistering assault on the ears, with eight of Europe's strongest free jazz players going at it back in 1968 like it was the end of the world. Owning this album is probably illegal in many states". It's still legal in Norway, at least I hope so.

Unlimited 23

Unlimited 23 is happening right now in Wels (Austria), and that looks like an exciting festival! I hope to see and hear bits and pieces from these happenings. Spunk is there, and Maja Ratkje is participating in a John Zorn project and also working with Hild Sofie Tafjord in Phantom Orchard Orchestra. Canterbury heroes Fred Frith and Chris Cutler are on the program too.

Information stolen from here:

friday, nov. 6, starting at 7pm
spunk [maja ratkje, hild sofie tafjord, kristin andersen, lene grenager]
speak easy [phil minton, thomas lehn, ute wassermann, martin blume]
john zorns cobra „wels operations“ [ikue mori, zeena parkins, shayna dunkelman, sylvie courvoisier, okkyung lee, maja ratkje, kazuhisa uchihashi, fred frith, david watson, chris cutler, tony buck, noid haberl, makigami koichi]
ktl [peter rehberg, stephen o'malley]
dj l8@ the bar

saturday, nov. 7
afternoon @ different venues in town
phil minton & dieb13 @ im pavillon / 2pm
pamelia kurstin „thinking out loud“ @ im kornspeicher / 3pm

evening program @ schl8hof, starting at 7 pm
agra dharma [koichi makigami, sylvie courvoisier, ikue mori]
lotte anker & okkyung lee & lindha kallerdahl
phantom orchard orchestra [ikue mori & zeena parkins with sara parkins, maggie parkins, shayna dunkelman, maja ratkje, hild sofie tafjord]
fred frith & chris cutler

sunday, nov. 8, starting at 2pm
afternoon @ medienkulturhaus wels, galerie der stadt wels
ikue mori with mark nauseef, makigami koichi, kazuhisa uchihashi
zeena parkins "saw sun here" [zeena parkins, maggie parkins, sara parkins]

evening program @ schl8hof, starting at 6pm
lotte anker & sylvie courvoisier & mark nauseef
peter evans & okkyung lee
glacial [david watson, lee ranaldo, tony buck]
the ex 30 years party! [terrie hessels, andy moor, katherina bornefeld, arnold de boer]
dj l8@ the bar: christof kurzmann & andy moor

Circulasione Totale Orchestra x 3

Please check out Rune Grammofon's 3 CD collection of live recordings of Circulasione Totale Orchestra called "Bandwith". The recordings were done at festivals in Molde, Moers og Zürich. I attended the concert in Molde, and even if I usually say that free jazz is best experienced live, I think these recordings in fact make the music sound more organized and interesting than what I felt at the concert. For the price of one ordinary full priced CD you get 3 CDs,nicely packed in a cover by Kim Hiorthøy and a bunch of fantastic musicians (see info from Rune below)! Just buy it!
Frode Gjerstad (sax and clarinet), Louis Moholo-Moholo (drums), Morten J. Olsen (electronics and drums), Anders Hana (electric guitar), Nick Stephens (acoustic bass), Børre Mølstad (tuba), Sabir Mateen (sax and clarinet), Kevin Norton (vibraphone), Bobby Bradford (cornet) and Lasse Marhaug (electronics). Paal Nilssen-Love (drums) and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (acoustic bass) are playing on disc one and two while Per Zanussi (electric bass) and Hamid Drake (drums) are playing on disc three.

Joe McPhee

Robert Wyatt and Stuff is sorry that we are a bit late with birthday greetings to Joe McPhee , who turned 70 on 3 November. Check out his discography! How about giving a rockin' McPhee a try, and listen to "Sounds like a sandwich" with Norwegian band Cato Salsa Experience and The Thing! They even do Zeppelin's "Whole lotta love". (The album is almost too cheap on iTunes these days, worldwide I hope). Love that album! On the video you'll see Joe McPhee with Paal Nilssen-Love at the 2008 Kongsberg Jazz Festival.

Famlende Forsøk

A couple of days ago I posted a video of the Norwegian band Famlende Forsøk (that I knew next to nothing about) on Wyatting, but I'll take a chance and let some of you foreigners see them too! They read some wild poetry (mostly in Norwegian), claiming in the beginning that they will perform some "pling plong music, while waiting for economic support form the state"!
This piece is recorded at The Henie Onstad Art Center 25 October. You may disagree, but I get some prog and Canterbury feelings here. The band name translates something like "fumbling and trying". I think I like these guys.

Unseen Academicals

It´s been two years since the previous Discworld book ("Making Money") and one year since the previous book for young readers (that´s me included) ("Nation"), and now Sir Terry Pratchett´s new Discworld novel "Unseen Academicals" (Doubleday 2009) is in the shops. This time Pratchett takes a look at football (foot the ball) the Discworld way, and it may sound unbelievable but the smoking, drinking and eating wizards are playing! The capital goes bananas (of course), and our team is in fact doing well (OK, that´s pushing it) with the help of the tactical genius Mr Nutt. Mr Nutt is in fact an orc (the real evil), but he is of course accepted in the end, as werewolves and vampires are. And why not?
I sniggered my way through most of the book (and added a few good laughs), and was happy to meet again some of the old Discworld figures like my fast food hero CMOT Dibbler (cheap rat on a stick, "And that´s cuttin´my own throat").

Read an interview with Sir Terry Pratchett in theTelegraph. He´s got Alzheimer, but I hope he will manage to write some more Discworld novels!