June Tabor remixed at PUNKT

june tabor remix live-punktfestival 2007 1/3 from J. Peter Schwalm on Vimeo.

J. Peter Schwalm  has uploaded several videos from the PUNKT festival in Kristiansand. Check out the great folk singer June Tabor remixed live by Eivind Aarset, Daniel Kluge (videoguitar!) and Schwalm in 2007.

"Love You" (S. Barrett)

I have been listening to "An introduction to Syd Barrett" this Christmas, and it´s an OK collection, with some  Pink Floyd songs and solo material from "The Madcap Laughs" and "Barrett" (and "Bob Dylan Blues"too) . The Barret fans will have to decide if the remixed songs are great or not.

As usual I´m looking for  Robert Wyatt clues. My vinyl and CD copies of "The Madcap Laughs" are placed among my Wyatt records,  as it is well known that Soft Machine did a session for Barrett in 1969.  The ultimate Wyatt discography list "Love You" (a song also found on this new collection) and "No Good Trying".
In Michael King´s "Wrong Movements. A Robert Wyatt History" (SAF 1994) it is written:
"May 3 - Abbey Road, sessions for Syd Barrett "The Macap Laughs" lp
released Jan/70 (Harvest SHVL 765)
a) "No Good Trying" b) "Love You" c) "Clowns and jugglers".
Syd Barret, guitars, vocals; Mike Ratledge, organ/piano (b); Hugh Hopper, bass; RW, drums, tambourine (c).
c) appears on the "Opel" compilation lp of Syd´s outtakes. Released Oct/88 (Harvest SHSP 4126)".
Here it may look like Robert Wyatt is on "Clowns and jugglers" only? Hey, this is an important question!

In Graham Bennet´s biography "Soft Machine. Out-Bloody Rageous" (SAF 2005) we can read that Soft Machine did "Sessions for Syd Barret´s album The Madcap Laughs. Produced by Malcolm Jones, David Gilmour and Roger Waters.
"No Good Trying" and "Love You" originally released on The Madcap Laughs in January 1970".

And while fixing up the post on my Norwegian blog, a guy sent me a link to  Malcolm Jones´ detailed description of the recording of "The Madcap Laughs"! These are words from the track by track description:

* 2. NO GOOD TRYING 
April 11th '69 take 3. Guitar and voice 
May 3rd., '69 Organ, bass, drums overdubbed (Soft Machine) 
May 4th., '69 Syd's backwards guitar par overdubbed. 

* 3. LOVE YOU 
April 11th '69 take 4. Guitar and voice 
May 3rd '69 Piano, bass, drums, overdubbed (Soft Machine) "

Let´s hear Graham Coxon perform Syd Barret´s "Love You" right now!

Spam

I allowed anonymous comments in the blog again a few days ago without telling you, after closing earlier this year, but sorry - the spammers were at it again after a short time. And they piss me off!

Feel free to contact me by using the e-mail given in my profile, if you have no account, but I´m happy if you just visit too!

Mathilde 253 plus Lol Coxhill

Mathilde253 plus Lol Coxhill from Jenny Gallego on Vimeo.

Mathilde 253 is Charles Hayward (dr), Han earl-Park (g) and Ian Smith (tp). In April 2010 they played at Cafe Oto with Lol Coxhill. A recording of this concert will be released on  Slam Records  17 January 2011.

Oh no! Another list!

I´m sorry, I made a list! The best records from 2010? Perhaps. It may be jazz, improv, noise, folk or soul, but at least they deserve some listening. Another day, and the list may have looked slightly different, but that´s life. No links to Spotify, but search my blog, and you will probably find some info on most of these releases.

Albatrosh "Mystery orchestra with Grenager & Tafjord" (Inner Ear)
Angles "Epileptical West, Live in Cumbria" (Clean Feed) (with Magnus Broo)
Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet + 1 "3 nights in Oslo" (Smalltown)
Jan Bang "And poppies from Kandahar" (Samadhisound)
Nels Cline "Dirty baby" (Cryptogramophone)
Lisa Dillan "Arousal" (AIM)
Dreams of tall buildings "Drowning the heart sounds” (MuseuM) (with Arve Henriksen)
Joanna Newsom "Have one on me" (Drag City)
Lean Left "Vol. 1" (Smalltown) (Vandermark, Nilssen-Love, Moor, Ex)
Mop Meuchiine plays Robert Wyatt (Le chant de Monde)

Phonophani: "Kreken" (Rune Grammofon)
Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings "I learned the hard way" (Daptone)
Supersilent "10" (Rune)
Stian Westerhus "Pitch black star spangled" (Rune)
Susanne Sundfør "The Brothel" (EMI)
Richard Thompson "Dream attic" (Proper)
Ultralyd. "Inertiadrone" (Rune) (Møster, Hana, Olsen, Brandsdal)
Ingar Zach "M.O.S." (Sofa)
Various artists: "Compendium Records - Norway´s First Progressive Record Store & Label 1974-1977" (Plastic Strip)
Robert Wyatt/Gilad Atzmon/Ros Stephen "For the ghosts within"(Domino)

Flare

Erik Skodvin is  a regular visitor in this blog, particularly as his solo project Svarte Greiner, but also as Misamah record company owner, and half of the duo Deaf Center.
This autumn Sonic Pieces released "Flare", his first album in his own name.  The 450 copies of the CD made, seem to be sold out already, but you may do as I did and shop at iTunes.

This may not be as dark and spooky as Skodvin´s previous releases, but "Flare" still fits in nicely in his discography. It is a perfect soundtrack to this "sad and beautiful world". Listen yourselves over at Sonic Pieces.

DOLK shopping

A comment in the Norwegian street art blog Mot Veggen, made me aware of three DOLK stencils in a clothes shop in Bergen. I found "Riot Cops" (Hiding behind sweathers! Some cops!) ,  Sylvester Stallone in "Love Hurts" and "Che" with red T-shirt.

Merry Christmas

University of Errors live

Here you get Daevid Allen and his University of Errors  doing old Soft Machine material. I just as well steal all the  info profperplexed wrote on YouTube:

"This is excerpted from a longer clip posted to YouTube in August 2010 by gsus667 that includes performances by other artists at the Zappanale 21 Festival in Bad Doberan, Germany on 14 August, 2010.
Thanks and appreciation to gsus667 for a great high quality video.
The songs in the clip are all adaptations of songs by The Soft Machine: Save Yourself (written by Robert Wyatt), Memories (written by Hugh Hopper) and the intro to Hope For Happiness (written by Brian Hopper).
Live sound mix by David Id.
Prof. Perplexed"

Wyatt from the left

"The Cedar Lounge Revolution" takes a look at Robert Wyatt, from the left.

Bjørn Fongaard

This post is for the ones among you interested in experimental electronic music.
Lasse Marhaug and Lars Mørch Finborud produced this fantastic box with music by the Norwegian pioneer, guitar player and composer Bjørn Fongaard (1990 - 1980).
I have to admit I knew next to nothing about Fongaard, until I heard "Elektrofoni" (Prisma Records 2010).
At the Prisma blog they claim that Fongaard played guitar with popular Norwegian singers of the 60s, which is pretty hard to believe from this box. The subtitle of the box is "Works for micro intervallic guitar 1965 - 1978".

We get three CDs with music:
CD1: Galaxy and other works
CD2: Elektrofonia and Space Concerto
CD3: Sinfonia Microtonalis and Legende

The box also contain a DVD with interviews (Norwegian), TV fantasies, ballets and a fine booklet with texts by Lars Mørch Finborud, Lasse Thoresen and Kjell Tore Innervik (in English).

In Norway we don´t have many record shops left, that will stock stuff like this, but it seems possible to get it from the shop at Henie Onstad Art Center. You may also get mp3s where such files are sold.

3 new ones from +3dB

Just a reminder here, about the three newest releases from the Bergen record company +3dB, if you need something else than easy listening for Christmas. Not that this is too heavy, but the music will at least sound pretty fresh next year too. I have just started to dip into these three albums, but they sound fascinating, interesting and nice (make them sound boring, do I?).

You may even listen to them on Spotify if you have access. I must admit it´s pretty fun to get Mariah Carey on the ear, telling me about her Christmas album, while listening to some chamber-contemorary -impro! (Yes I still run the free version of Spotify, with advertising).

- Tilbury/Duch/Davies: "Cornelius Cardew Works 1960-1970". John Tilbury (p), Michael Francis Duch (b) and Rhodri Davis (harp).
- Lemur: "Aigéan". This is the second Lemur album on +3dB, and while Cardew´s composed music sound improvised (OK, some of it really is improvised), Lemur´s imrov sound composed.  The fine lemurs are: Bjørnar Habbestad (fl), Lene Grenager (cello), Hild Sofie Tafjord (horn) and Michael Francis Duch (b).
- Michael Francis Duch: "Edges". Duch´s first solo album.

Don Van Vliet (1941 - 2010)

Don Van Vliet aka  Captain Beefheart died yesterday, from Multiple Sclerosis complications . Thanks to the captain, and let us watch Anton Corbijn´s portrait of this son of the desert ("Some Yo Yo Stuff", 1994).

I can´t remember exactly when I heard Captain Beefheart for the first time, but it must have been on the radio in the early 1970s (or even earlier). The wild voice and the strange rhythms knocked me over. Those days you were lucky if you got to hear some rock on the radio in Norway at all, but we had a guy called Harald Are Lund doing programs regularly. He have been playing and promoting Captain Beefheart all the time since then! A nod to him today!

A short obituary over at BBC.

Five Leaves Left

I  already mentioned Jason Parker and his plans to record Nick Drake´s "Five Leaves Left", and the need for funding. He needs 5000$ before 24 December. If you are interested check out this site, and see if you are willing to pay a few (or lots of)  dollars. You get downloads, signed CDs, tickets and so on, or your money back if the project can not be funded.

All Ears 2011

The program for All Ears 2011  is ready! The festival is held in  Oslo 13 - 16 January. It might be really cold in Oslo at that time, but at least your ears will be warm.
Zeena Parkins and Maja S. K. Ratkje are on the first day, Joe McPhee will play solo and in a trio,  Fred Lonberg-Holm will play solo and in a band with among others Kjetil Møster, the two fine men of Isglem (Terje Isungset and Karl Seglem) are ready and  Peter Brötzmann is coming, just to mention a few.

All Ears is run by Lasse Marhaug, Guro S. Moe and Paal Nilssen-Love.

Nels Cline: "Dirty Baby"

After reading the review over at Free Jazz, I just had to get Nels Cline´s ambitious "Dirty Baby"(Cryptogramophone 2010). This is a double CD with music inspired by the artist Ed Ruscha. We get two CDs with very different music, two booklets with very different art (66 pictures all in all), and a booklet with text written by Nels Cline!

The music on  CD 1 is some kind of jazz + americana (you just have to listen yourselves) and  CD 2 has no less than 33 tracks with (according to Cline)  "--a total mash-up of free jazz, hard rock, grindcore, Morton Feldmanesque swaths of indeterminancy, blues, Ellington/Evans references, spy music, and more - all to create tension between these sesibilities, to highlight differences, to punctuate conflict".  I just know this will tempt you too.  And even if I love my mp3s, it´s good too see artists going for the real deal (physical format that is).
I got my copy from Amazon.

Video festival

I could not make up my mind, to make best-of- lists or not today, and made a little video festival instead. I have got the impression that YouTube videos stops restarts and stops again more often than before,  but hopefully you can enjoy these great musicians.

These are quite fresh videos on YouTube, and from the top you may watch:
- Sidsel Endresen, Michiyo Yagi and Håkon Kornstad.
- The Thing with Joe McPhee (lots of new The Thing videos out there!).
- Trio Sonore (Vandermark, Gustafsson, Brötzmann).
- Free Fall (Vandermark, Wiik, Håker Flaten).
- Peter Brötzmann, Takashi Sugawa and Inage Candy.

Cage Against The Machine

The making of 4´ 33´´, for the Cage Against The Machine Christmas No #1 campaign, produced and directed by Dick Carruthers. JOIN THE CAMPAIGN!
http://www.bit.ly/433xmas
http://twitter.com/johncagexmas

Best of 2010 and The Unthanks concert

"Maryan" from Robert Wyatt, Gilad Atzmon & Ros Stephen´s "For The Ghosts Within" (Domino 2010) is one of the tracks on Uncut´s "Best of 2010" CD (no 164, January 2011).
"For The Ghosts Within" is number 38 on the the list of the best albums of 2010, one step up from Mojo´s list!

The Independent (13  December 2010) review The Unthanks concert, where they performed songs by  Robert Wyatt and Antony & The Johnsons.

The Unthanks posted the set lists too, and advice people to get out and buy some albums by said artists!


Antony Set:
You Are The Treasure
Another World
Bird Girl
Man Is The Baby
Paddy's Gone
For Today I Am A Boy
You Are My Sister
Spiralling


Robert Wyatt set:
Stay Tuned (from the album Comic Opera)
Dondestan (from the album Dondestan)
Lisp Service (from Dondestan)
Lullaby For Hanze (from Cuckooland)
Cuckoo Madame (from Cuckooland)
Soup Song (from Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard)
Sea Song (from Rock Bottom)
Free Will and Testament (from Shleep)
Out of The Blue (from Comic Opera)
Forest (from Cuckooland)

BmX: Bergen Open

BMX is a Bergen bass-less trio, inspired by the Motian - Frisell - Lovano trio, with Njål Ølnes (g), Thomas T. Dahl (g) og Øyvind Skarbø (dr). They started as a trio in 2006,  but have been performing live regularly with veteran trumpet player Per Jørgensen (tp).
BMX and Jørgensen have recently released a bright yellow double album called "Bergen Open" on Karl Seglem´s  NORCD label.
Four out of five tracks on CD number 2 is written by Njål Ølnes, while the two other tracks are improvisations. In fact the whole of the first CD is an improvisation that developed during a sound check (lasting close to 47 minutes).

Bergen Open is named after a tennis tournament, and I guess improvisations may be compared to playing balls to one another?! So it is improvised, but it´s varied, melodic and really nice.
Have a listen on MySpace.

Dondestan

And another video from The Unthanks,  from one of the concerts doing Robert Wyatt´s and Antony & The Johnsons´ songs. Here you get Wyatt´s "Dondestan", complete with clog dancing (recorded 8 December)!

"Palestine´s a country/or at least used to be"

Pigs and Wilderness

This video seems to be from a very recent concert  by Sophia Domancich, whose  album "Snakes and ladders" (2010) I have mentioned several times already. Domancich (p), Jef Morin (b), John Greaves (voc) and Himiko Paganotti (voc) perform "Wilderness", Robert Wyatt´s song on the album. You also get "Pigs", a Wyatt song you won´t hear covered a lot of times (just guessing of course)!

The Unthanks sing Wyatt and Antony

The Unthanks just did  two concerts at Union Chapel in London, singing Robert Wyatt and Antony & The Johnsons´s songs.

I got a friendly e-mail after the first show, making it sound like  it had been relaxed fun, with lots of good music. I was also told that both shows were recorded for possible release.
So far I have found four videos on YouTube, and I´ll make room for The Unthanks´ version of Antony´s "Paddy´s gone" and Wyatt´s funniest (?) song, "Soup song",  in this post. Check the other videos  here and here.
It really sounds like both musicians and audience had a good time.

Ingar Zach: M.O.S.

Drummer/percussion player Ingar Zach´s (Mural, Huntsville, Labfield) second solo album "M.O.S." is out on Sofa Music. You won´t get drum solos here, but a fascinating and beautiful soundscape, made by percussion instruments, the bass drum gran cassa, sruti boxes and drone commander. Music to feed your fantasy, that´s what it is.

The album has one track, lasting just as long as it´s title: 37:07. Perfect!

Christmas No.1?

After last year´s race (Facebook campaigns and all) to get Rage Against The Machine to No. 1 in the UK charts for Christmas, Christmas singles are hot again.

This year the winner may be Cage Against The Machine, with a new version of  John Cage´s "4´33", where musicians keep quiet for 4 minutes and 33 seconds.  Odds on that one is 20/1.

Wyatt/Atzmon/Stephen´s  "What a wonderfull world"is being released as a single 13 December, so better start buying then, if you want Santa Wyatt on the top of the list! Odds: 100/1.

More candidates in The Telegraph.

JÆ

We have already mentioned the label Hubro in this blog a couple of times (Mats Eilertsen and Labfield), and here they are with a pretty smart one again! JÆ is Jessica Sligter (voc, g, p, fl, melodica), and the album is named "Balls and kittens, draught and strangling rain" (Hubro 2010).
"JÆ" is supposed to be a way of writing "Jay", Jessica Sligters nick name. (And you know Æ is like "ae" for you English writers).

Hubro calls this Jessica Sligter´s solo project, but she really has a lot of good friends from the Norwegian improv gang here too (most of them mentioned in this blog already, I think): Jan Martin Smørdal, Daniel Meyer Grønvold, Kyrre Laastad, Eivind Lønning, Martin Taxt, Ole Henrik Moe and Kari Rønnekleiv (and more).

This is dreamy, melancholic pop music, colored by indie and freak folk, and even with a dash of Canterbury (no way I will explain that one)! This is a wonderful album! If you like Antony, Coco Rosie and Joanna Newsom, this one might be for you. If you don´t like them, I bet you like this one.

Tell you what, make this album your Christmas album, and you you don´t even have to pack it away come 2011.

ENO #2

I just wanted to show you the second issue of the Norwegian music magazine ENO (in the shops now). It is of course named after Brian Eno, and they have a pretty long  interview with him in this issue. Not much too see on their web site I´m afraid, they want to make a modern paper magazine!
The portrait of Eno on the cover is made by the great Kim Hiorthøy.

If you are able to read some Norwegian, please head over to my Norwegian blog "Wyatting" for more.

Dancing to "Insensatez"

Check out this beautiful dancing to "Insensatez" (Jobim/Demoraes),  from Robert Wyatt´s "Cuckooland" (2003).

Info from YouTube:
Opening scene from Ariel Efraim Ashbel's 2004 composition "Gymnastics"
Performed by young and pre-bearded A. E. Ashbel and the beautiful Osnat Kelner
Music: Robert Wyatt
Costumes: Alona Rodeh
Lights: Hanni Vardi
Filmed in Tmuna Theater, June 2005

Jonathan Day: "Sea Song"

Jonathan Day does Robert Wyatt´s "Sea Song" at Ronnie Scott´s.

@ The Vortex

It´s December, and we all need some advent music to get in the mood.
Here you get Frode Gjerstad with William Parker and Hamid Drake (1 December 2010) and The Thing, being our friends Paal Nilssen-Love, Mats Gustafsson and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (29 November 2010).

Scatting Robert Wyatt

Robert Wyatt worked with Genie Cosmas and the band Fish out of Water on the album "Lucky Scars" (Stream Records, 1995). He scatted on three tracks and played piano on two of them ("Once in a lifetime", "Cry from the city" in two versions). Now there are new mixes to be released of these,  and the track  "Her old man" (also with Wyatt), on Genie Cosmas´ album "Cry from the City. Music 4 Film, TV & Radio" (Stream Records 2010 (?)).

This is a celebration of 20 years of Stream Records.

Sculpting Sound with Maja Ratkje

I already wrote a blog post on IJ Biermann´s Maja Ratkje film, and Bierman recently uploaded a longer video on YouTube from the project, so here it is.  They still seem to expect to have the film ready in 2011. Looks good!

You may also watch Maja Ratkje´s Fluxus performance at  Henie Onstad Arts Centre (Oslo), 31 October 2010.

Robert Wyatt´s pop playlist

The Guardian is presenting a musical advent calendar in cooperation with Domino and Warp, and Robert Wyatt is the first one out, choosing his  favorite pop playlist.
The list is in Spotify (as most lists are these days), but wyattandstuff wants to please the two of you that do not have Spotify too, so here it is:

The Dixie Cups: "Iko Iko"
Inez Fox: "Mockingbird"
Don Covay: "Seesaw"
Little Eva: "The Locomotion" (se video)
The Contours: "Do You Love Me"
Eddie Cochran: "Summertime Blues"
Ian Dury & The Blockheads: "There Ain´t Half Been Some Clever Bastards"
The Specials: "Ghost Town"
Marianne Faithfull: "The Ballad of Lucy jordan"
Otis Redding: " Try a Little Tenderness"

You may also take a look at Pitchfork´s review of the Wyatt reissues Shleep, EPs, Cuckooland and Theatre Royal Drury Lane, and if you dare, read George McKay´s blog post on "Santa Claus and Christmas, Robert Wyatt and falsetto".

28 Millimeters

Check out this video! JR has travelled around the world, and let people see themselves through his photos. JR is 2011 TED Prize Winner.

Untitled.III

Then there were three "Untitled" books, this time with the subtitle "This is Street Art" (Carpet Bombing Culture, 2010). Just as in  "Untitled" and "Untitled. II" we get lots of great street art, and this time lots of Banksy! The words are still not supposed to have anything to do with the pictures, but the book is a quite nice read ("witty" might be the word here).

Nothing from Bergen this time (as far as I can see), but Stavanger (Swoon), Oslo (DOLK) and Lofoten (DOLK, Pøbel) are all represented. You already know I  am usually focusing on Norway, and here I couldn´t do anything else, even if I wanted to. A list of the names of the artists and the photographers,  that´s all we get, and the pages where we may find the pictures. Pity then, that the book is not paginated.

John Greaves au Triton

Here is a video of John Greaves recorded in June 2010 (I believe), with Sophie Domancich and Vincent Courtois.

And don´t forget Sophie Domancich´s "Snakes and Ladders", where both John Greaves and Robert Wyatt participates (Wyatt singing "Wilderness"). A great album!

Dog Man?

I just love to walk around town and find stuff like this hidden in a back street.
The title seems to be "Dog Man?" (click on image to see).

Singing a song in the morning

I already had Gruff Rhys singing Kevin Ayers´ "Singing a song in the morning" in the blog, but let´s hear it once more. Here you have Gruff Rhys with  H Hawkline and Jane Weaver,  and let´s hope Kevin Ayers will record a new album too!

And another version added 5 December 2010.

What a wonderful world

Domino is releasing wyatt/atzmon/stephen´s "What a wonderful world" as a single 13 December.  I hope it´s not only a digital version, I guess most of you have the track on at least one physical or digital version of  "...For the ghosts within" already.

I would have loved to see the  record with the Santa Claus photo on the cover! I think Alfie is the photographer here, since it looks a lot like last year´s  Christmas greeting.

Domino is also releasing something they call "Domino Doubles", sold only by Amazon. Here you may get "Rock Bottom" and "Comicopera" at a very low price (29 November). But is it a double album, or is it two separate albums packed together? 

Eno - Keynote speaker

Brian Eno chose Ben Frost for a one year mentoring project, in what a famous watch producer call the "Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative". Here you may see and watch a keynote speech  (I´m not allowed to embed it here) Eno held in Australia, at another  Rolex initiative.

A nice speech from Eno, and yes (!) overhead projectors may be cool!

"The age of generosity" FTW!

Peter Williams

If you should happen to be in London these days, you should seek out the  Peter Williams exhibition. Williams has taken one of my favorite portraits of Robert Wyatt ever, for a piece published in  "Straight no chaser" in 2003.
See a tiny version of the picture and read more over at theartsdesk.com.

(Un)stable

Piksel10, the annual festival for electronic art and technological freedom, is over.  This year´s theme was "(Un)stable", with workshops, exhibitions, presentations and live happenings.
The technical part of this festival is way beyond what I can grasp, but I enjoy looking around! I did not participate in a workshop where you could build a capitalistic robot (!), but saw a couple of exhibitions (see top picture of Jorge Luis Crowe´s installation and warning) and went to two live happenings, where I got some noise, some strobe lights, some live coding with map visualizations and even some work on a "autonomous hyperspace mathematical model" by  Claude Heiland-Allen.
Do we know how to party, or what? Anyway, if this sounds like your cup of tea, look to Bergen next autumn.

The second picture shows Jorge Luis Crowe´s stash for his evening performance, and you will find some dark pictures and noisy videos on Flickr too.

Nordheim by Candlelight

I am not going to pretend that I´m an expert on Norway´s great contemporary classical composer Arne Nordheim, and all his works (far from it!), but let me recommend him still, if you have interests in that field of music. Most readers of this blog might like to start with his works released by Rune Grammofon?

Arne Nordheim died in June this year, and on Sunday evening the BIT20 Ensemble played a memorial concert for him, in a candle lit Håkonshallen. 

The composer is rumored to be hard to grasp or difficult, but the program yesterday showed that lots of his music is just extremely beautiful! 

The BIT20 Ensemble played :

Aftonland (1957) for soprano and ensemble, with lyrics by Pär Lagerkvist.
Response I (1966) for drums and tape. 
Partita für Paul (1985) for violin and electronics (dedicated to Paul Klee).
Den første sommerfugl (The first Butterfly) for soprano and harp, with lyrics by Henrik Wergeland (1982). 
Electronic works (Solitaire).

Nick Drake Tribute

Jason Parker Quartet will record a jazz tribute to Nick Drake´s "Five Leaves Left", but they need  $ 5000 before Christmas! So far they have got only half the sum.

Read about the project here and here, and support them by pre-ordering the album, if you think this sounds like a good idea!

Jazz and Nick Drake have been tried before, just check out Brad Mehldau´s versions (see "River Man" on YouTube).

Clinamen

Oh, another album with Arve Henriksen is out here, so far without lots of fuzz being made about it!
On "Clinamen"  (Off/Rat Records 2010) we hear Giovann Di Domenico (keyb, electronics), Arve Henriksen (tp, voc, electronics) and Tatsuhisa Yamamoto (dr, perc).
I guess Arve Henriksen fans will recognize sounds from his solo albums and works with Supersilent here, as Henriksen is doing some falsetto singing, talking and whistling ("Hyrje" og "Vatos") in addition to his trumpet playing.
I hereby confess that before this I knew nothing about Tatsuhisa Yamamoto (worked with  Jim O´Rourke and Otomo Yoshihide) and Giovanni Di Domenico (played in "The Crappy Mini Band"!).

The album has it´s heavy and monotonous moments ("Idiot Glee"), but the music is mostly slow and open, and it´s a real album too! Play the whole record and you are rewarded with the two beautiful tracks "Fanno il Deserto e lo chiamano Pace" and "Clinamen" at the end.

The word "clinamen" seems to have been used to describe both atoms and authors, as you may read in  Wikipedia.

Ghetto Stars

Robert Wyatt and Stuff is joining in on the countdown to the release of Tricky's new album "Mixed Race" 29th of October (Domino Records). Hey, I'm getting dizzy here, it's out already is it? Check out the post on the terrific "Murder Weapon" too, and then enjoy the new video "Ghetto Stars".

Wongraven

I think this is the first blog post on wine here, and I promise not to take it much further out into the dangerous landscapes of alcohol. Anyway, i just had to post this metal wine!
Sigurd Wongroven from the black metal band Satyricon has developed a Barolo wine together with  Luca Roagna from Piedmont (I just pretend to know anything about wines here, but I hope you were a bit impressed?).
I came home from the wine store today with a 3 liter box of Wongraven Alleanja Langhe Rosso 2009, with a sweet little devil on the box (they sell this wine bottled too), and the taste was not bad. They even claim it´s fit for drinking with food!
I will not be so mean as to joke about a metallic aftertaste here, but just link to some background music.

There is also  Wongraven Unione Barolo 2006, probably much better, at least considering the price.
Well, enough rock and roll for today.

Soft Machine Original Album Classics

The five  Soft Machine albums  3, 4, 5, 6, 7 have been released as  an "Original Album Classics" box (Columbia/Sony 2010), just as they were, with nothing extra added (as far as I have seen).

The albums were released during the period  1970 - 1973, and are well worth a listen. Robert Wyatt is on  3 ( a must have!) and 4 as you all know I´m sure, but should you be among the few ones who own none of these albums, I suggest you put the box on your wish list for Christmas.

More info on the box and the albums  over at Prog Archives and Calyx.

Joe McPhee & Ingebrigt Håker Flaten

Joe McPhee (sax) and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten´s "Blue Chicago Blues" ( Not Two 2010) is out there to grab.
These guys have played together in The Thing, and the album is so great! We don´t get standard blues numbers here, but it´s blue enough. Listen to the howling  "Requiem for an empty heart", with McPhee sing-playing the saxophone, the whirling "The shape of blues to come", with Flaten using the bow and the sad final number, with the nice title, "Legend of the three blind moose"!
Almost too cheap on iTunes!

Joe McPhee has recorded lots of duo albums, among others "Tomorrow came today" with Paal Nilssen-Love (Smalltown 2008), so when  Mats Gustafsson  hopefully get´s his duo recording with McPhee, all the fine men of The Thing have got their own.

The Last Hurrah

HP Gundersen is a countrymusician and well known talent hunter from Bergen. His new projects are based on what he calls "drone pop", and if he is not lying,  The Last Hurrah (video) will be released on Rune Grammofon i January 2011.
Here is another one called "dronepopsymfoni" recorded at the small club Nøsteboden, and Gunderen even had Jon Irabagon over to play "drone jazz".  I missed out on that concert, but would be interested to hear from anyone who was there.

This is pretty far from sunn o))) and such bands, but check out Wikipedia for more on drone music.

Zanussi Five

What a great band Zanussi Five is! Saturday evening, me and a couple of other old guys, got to see them at the student´s jazz club in Bergen, in a house almost packed with young students. The band taught us a lesson on energetic, well arranged jazz with lots of room for improvisation.
These fine gentlemen played: Per Zanussi (b), Kjetil Møster (sax), Jørgen Mathiesen (sax), Eirik Hegdal (sax) and Gard Nilssen (dr).  I thought I heard some Soft Machine inspiration in there, but it might have been the beer of course.  Anyway, check them out on YouTube, where someone posted a video from yesterday´s concert. I think the tune is "Body and Zeuhl" from Zanussi Fives´quite new and quite fine album "Ghost Dance".
The band left the stage after playing a hot Fela Kuti song as an encore.

Zanussi Five have released three albums so far (as far as I know):
"Zanussi Five" (Moserobie, 2005), "Alborado" (Moserobie, 2006) and "Ghost Dance" (Moserobie, 2010).
On the first two albums Per Zanussi (b), Kjetil Møster (sax), Rolf-Erik Nystrøm (sax), Eirik Hegdal (sax) and Per Oddvar Johansen (dr) are playing, while Jørgen Mathisen replaces Møster and Gard Nilssen replaces Johansen on "Ghost Dance".

A new Hamlet?

This  beautiful (unsigned) stencil popped up in Bergen this week. On a legal wall too! "To be with you...Or not to be with you...".
More pictures here.

Spectral Voices

Robert Wyatt and Ros Stephen are interviewed on the  Wyatt/Atzmon/Stephen-album "For the ghosts within" in Jazzwise ("Spectral Voices", November 2010, p 28-29).

Wyatt says he was inspired by Julie London and Peggy Lee, and on the track "What a wonderful world": "Ah, that´s the most avant-garde thing I´ve ever done. I didn´t want it to be ironic".
There are no plans for another Wyatt release right now, but there are ideas lying around. "I wait for them to cohere rather than trying to bash them together for the sake of making a record".
That´s OK! We´ll wait.

I guess you have all read this already, but please excuse me. The magazine arrives in Norway weeks after the UK release, and the price is usually around three times higher too!

Seven sessions on a milk sea

Visit Brian Eno´s "Small craft on a milk sea" site. He will post seven session videos with Brian Eno,  John Hopkins and Leo Abrahams.

No embedding allowed, so you won´t find them here.

Hild Sofie Tafjord

Hild Sofie Tafjord, well known from Spunk and Fe-mail, and mentioned several times in this blog, played at Krakow´s Unsound Festival last month. Here she is with Anna Zaradny.
I thought you all needed some noise now.

Emptying my in box

Robert Wyatt Démons et Vermeil (Liberation 8 November 2010).
Robert Wyatt and the need to classify (A blog supreme 5 November 2010).
For the ghosts within (Soundlab 11 October 2010).
Jazza festival review (Guardian 14 October 2010)
Robert Wyatt & Gilad Atzmon in Haaretz (Creative-i 15 October 2010).
Haunted by ghosts (Haaretz 15 October 2010).
Critic´s Coice (NYT 25 October 2010).
For the ghosts within (Washington City Paper  22 October).
Pierre Bastien: The man who makes mekano sing (Guardian 18 October).
Kenny Wheeler: Quiet man on the cutting edge (Guardian 14 October 2010).

I sneak in an extra reference from 9 November 2010:
A great review of "...for the Ghosts Within" from Pop Matters.

DOLK at an exhibition

Street artist DOLK is represented in an exhibition happening right now, showing Bergen artists.
Here we may even see how he makes his stencils.

Please visit my DOLK set on Flickr too.

Comicoperando 2011

Three concerts of a partially renewed Comicoperando (A tribute to the music of Robert Wyatt) have been announced for next Spring (Thanks to Alessandro!):

Dagmar Krause - lead vocals
Annie Whitehead - trombone and backing vocals
Karen Mantler - lead vocals, hammond b3 and harmonica
Michel Delville - guitars and backing vocals
John Edwards - double bass
Chris Cutler - drums

May 18th: Zürich, Rote Fabrik
www.rotefabrik.ch
May 19th: Amsterdam, Bimhuis
www.bimhuis.com
May 22nd: Victoriaville, Fimav
www.fimav.qc.ca

Still available: May 10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17, 2011

Robert Wyatt vinyl reissues

Robert Wyatt´s solo albums will be reissued by Domino (not much news on their site yet), and  Pitchfork already reviewed them. I´m starting to get a bit dizzy here. Is it really two years since we got some of the albums on vinyl from Domino the previous time? Yes it is! I´m not sure if I have to buy these albums again, owning several versions already ("have to" may be discussed of course), but it´s soon Christmas I hear, so let´s just see what happens!

Here is the schedule  (taken from  here and here, probably with European and US dates):

November 2 or 9, 2010

Rock Bottom (1974)

Ruth is Stranger Than Richard (1975)

Nothing Can Stop Us (1981)

Old Rottenhat (1985)

Dondestan (1991/1998)

November 16 or 22, 2010

Schleep (1997)

EPs (CD only) (1998)

Cuckooland (2003)

Theatre Royal Drury Lane (2008)

Over at Strong Comet they say that "Each LP will come with a full-album art slipcase compact disc" too, but the new albums will be limited to 2000 copies each.

Small craft on a milk sea

These days I am enjoying the new Brian Eno album, and also this fantastic interview! Check out his comments on copyright and illegal downloading!

You all know this already, but the album is a mix of ambient, electronica and instrumental pop/rock, partly made as a soundtrack it is said. Make your own images while listening. The album is released on Warp, and count John Hopkins and Leo Abrahams in here too.

Listening to "Small craft on a milk sea" also made me listen repeatedly (again!) to Brian Eno´s: "Another day on earth" (Hannibal 2005) and David Byrne & Brian Eno´s: "Everything that happens will happen today" (Todomundo 2008). Two vocal pop albums of the best kind! Lovely stuff!

Grenager/Jernberg og 1982

A short report from a Bergen double concert again! This time with Lene Grenager (cello) and Sofia Jernberg (vocal), and 1982.

I bet I already called Lene Grenager (Lemur, Spunk) Norway´s toughest cello player, but Swedish Sofia Jernberg was a new name to me (my fault completely!). She had a fantastic voice and voice control, and the cello and vocal improvisations were hard to believe. Impressed!
Their album "Crochet" (Olof Bright 2009), sounds good too (after one listening only, I have to admit).

1982 is Nils Økland (fiddles and violins), Sigbjørn Apeland (harmonium, organ) and Øyvind Skarbø (drums). They did a great chamber-folk-improv set under very difficult conditions, the reason being a very loud Salsa course next door!
I might stop telling you to please check out their album soon (see link), but I won´t promise anything.

Oren Ambarchi

My Tuesday concert in Bergen this week was with the Australian Oren Ambarchi. Even if I afterwards realized that he has worked with (among others) Evan Parker, John Zorn and Sunn o))), I had to ask a bit around, to find out was going to happen. A nice person calmed me down, by telling me this was going to be some "incredibly beautiful noise"! And he was right too! Ambarchi built sound sculptures and painted soundscapes, making some kind of mixture between ambient and noise music, by using guitar, pedals and loads of electronics. The room was really shaking for a while, but the sound was mostly fine as long as we wore ear plugs (John Hegre was sound master, mind you). Great, beautiful, fascinating and so on!

Frode Gjerstad News

Today I´m stealing some interesting concert news from Frode Gjerstad´s site (the link to the REKNES album is mine):
"Bobby Bradford, cornet, Paal Nilssen-Love, Ingebrigt Haaker Flaten and I will do a little tour in November.We will play Poznan, Poland, 12-11-2010 London, 13-11-2010 (London jazz festival) and Oslo 14-11-2010 (Kampen Jazz). We played together as a quartet at the Molde festival in 2008 where we also recorded the concert and released it as “REKNES”. This is the first tour we do together".