A-Z

The Independent published an A-Z of progressive rock. Please discuss!

Some days off?

I'm travelling a bit for a week or two. Expect few postings (or none at all), but come back! OK?

Nils Petter Molvær and Biosphere

Moldejazz will never give us any peace! Third year in a row now they have a free outdoor concert at seven o'clock on Saturday morning, the last day of the festival!

More than 1500 crazy people were in the park today, to see the Break of day in Molde concert, with Nils Petter Molvær and Geir "Biosphere" Jensen.
The electronics, the ambient and the beautiful trumpet playing mixed nicely with the bird sounds, the aeroplanes and some snoring too.
Amazing!

Puma

Moldejazz was hit by Puma last night!
Oh they started off quiet in the dark, turned a bit spooky and BANG! they pour out everything they got, and boy did they rock!

The guilty ones were Øystein Moen (synthesizers and electronics), Stian Westerhus (guitar and electronics) and Gard Nilssen (drums).
Unfortunately I did not read Stian Westerhus' Twitter messages before I went for the show, and missed his recommendation to wear sun glasses!
Puma got themselves strobe lights, and I felt snow blinded this morning too.
But OK, I admit it was stylish, and sometimes made me think of horror movies. Westerhus on the floor with his pedals and electronics, as Moen and Nilsen are ready to use their torture instruments, when Westerhus says go. You just know it! The music is indeed quiet for a short while, the lights are scary and here they go again, pushing you into the back of your chairs.

Puma is a fantastic band, if you can take some noise and he future may be bright for the band, but remember to wear shades.

Moldejazz Wednesday 21 July

What a day at Moldejazz wednesday! I started early with Peter Brötzmann and Paal Nilssen-Love at Molde's smallest venue. The house was packed and the free jazz gentlemen were really wild! Wild gentlemen, now is that possible? I think so!

The next afternoon concert was at Forum, with the new trio Håvard Wiik, Ken Vandermark and Chad Taylor. After working together in Berlin for a couple of days, they delivered a great set, with both Wiik, Vandermark and Taylor compositions.

Later in the evening Paal Nilssen-Love and Peter Brötzmann were at it again, as members of Hairy Bones. Two games in one day, tell any football player to do that!
Massimo Pupillo is rock steady bass man and Toshinori Kondo adds colour with electric, ethereal trumpet.
Huge amounts of energy here, and (I'm not kidding) Brötzmann even did a split jump!

Around midnight Nils Petter Molvær was on stage with Stian Westerhus (guitar) and Erland Dahlen (drums). Super music, nice light show and a great club audience (except you who chatted all the time, that is). But damn it, I felt so old, tired and sweaty after 60 minutes that I headed back home. My fault. all of it.

It has been raining every day here, and poor Sonny Rollins and Herbie Hancock (among others) have to do outdoor concerts! I stay indoors, thank you very much.

Label in Residence

I don't know if this is happening at other festivals out there, but I think it is quite cool that Molde International Jazzfestival is hosting Rune Grammofon as Label in Residence this year (Artist in Residence is Nils Petter Molvær).
Several of Rune Grammofon's artists are playing at the festival (Puma, Biosphere, Motorpsycho, In the Country, Stian Westerhus, Espen Eriksen Trio, Bushman's Revenge) and Kim Hiorthøy's covers for the label are exhibited at the Kunstsentret Møre og Romsdal (Arts Center).

Mari Kvien Brunvoll

Look out for the young Norwegian artist Mari Kvien Brunvoll! Unfortunately I had not bought enough tickets for this concert at Moldejazz (gentleman as I am, wife and daughter went), but at least it's no lie when I tell you the shoes in this short video are not mine.

In the Country

In the Country played a fantastic concert at Moldejazz Monday evening. In the beginning of the show I was a bit afraid that it was going to be just a bit too quiet and nice, but forgot all about that after some minutes. Yes, it was beautiful, but with enough variaton and we even got some singing from the piano trio too.
I will just have to check out their albums more closely.

Morten Qvenild (piano), Roger Arntzen (bass) and Pål Hausken (drums) were introduced as pretty, long haired boys, a point taken by Morten Qvenild and used during the concert. Both band and audience seemed to enjoy themselves!
In the Country is one of the bands/artists representing Rune Grammofon, the Label in Residence at The Molde International Jazz Festival.

Moldejazz 2010 FTW

The Moldejazz jubilee (50 years) is on! Some rain, some sun, 100 times more people than usual in this small town, and everything is working just fine. Except my favorite camera has fallen ill and I don't have any tickets for tonight yet!
You will probably find short reports in this very blog all week long.
The first day have so far been dominated by Japanese Shibusa Shirazu Orchestra, playing and dancing, and Norwegian performance artist Tori Wrånes, who played accordion and sang beautifully hanging above us all. Nice stunt.

Pictures will end up on Flickr.

Gromka

I´m off to Moldejazz today, and need some free jazz in the blog, to get me kick started.
Frode Gjerstad (sax,clarinet) and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums) were touring as a duo last year, and one of the concerts, from the club Gromka in Ljubljana is now on the album "Gromka" (Not Two 2010).
It is incredibly fascinating to listen to these two fine gentlemen improvising, and yes, you need one more free jazz album!
It´s so cheap that it is almost embarrassing, both at eMusic and iTunes!

Cover by Hair Stylistics

Two years ago I had a blog post on "Art Breaker" by Jazkamer, and was quite impressed that they had managed to do 58 tracks in 17 minutes (it might even have been 59) .
Lasse Marhaug and Jazkamer are on schedule with the plan to release one album on Pica Disk every month this year (see the Releases section). This is too much noise for an old guy like me, but let me just tell you that the July album ("Cover by Hair Stylstics") has 129 tracks and lasts 20 minutes!

Pass the ball Jim

No disrespect intended here, but I just loved the thought of using Ivor Cutler´s "Pass the ball Jim (for John Peel)" as a National Anthem, at least at football matches!

Arve Henriksen on two albums

It might turn out to be expensive, but I hope you follow some of my recommendations, and (oops) here are two more albums you should get!

Dreams of Tall Buildings released "Drowning the Heart Sounds" (MuseuM 2010) a couple of months ago (I must have seen at least four different release dates). Darren Joyce and Justin Wiggan laid down a sound carpet for Arve Henriksen to weave another layer on, with his well known trumpet and trumpet song sounds. You get two tracks, "Rope parts I,II & III" og "Drowning the heart sounds". You won´t get disappointed even if it´s an Arve Henriksen record you really want. One of the best albums of the year, so far!

We have mentioned Toshimaru Nakamura, and his "no-input mixing board", in a post about "Koboku Senjû". On "Egrets" (released on David Sylvian´s company Samadhisound) we are offered minimalistic and beautiful electronica (it´s pretty impossible to describe, OK?). Arve Henriksen is adding trumpet and breathing sounds, more than the usual trumpet playing. If this sound boring, it´s just my fault, it´s a fascinating soundscape, and we even get some acoustic guitar by Teuzi Akiyama (also in Koboku Senjû).

If the music on the first album is the sound of the heart, the second one may be the sound of breathing, and if want an Arve Henriksen album more than anything else, get "Drowning the Heart Sounds" first.

Brainville 3: "Sea Song" (live)

I might as well steal profperplexed´s info. Profperplexed uploaded Robert Wyatt´s "Sea Song" performed by Brainville 3:
"Audience video that I made at Spirit Of '66 in Verviers, Belgium on 25 April 2008.
The song was written by Robert Wyatt and originally appears on his album "Rock Bottom".
Daevid Allen, guitar-vocal -- Hugh Hopper, Bass -- Chris Cutler, Drums
This was the final night of their tour and I think the last Brainville 3 gig."

Toshinori Kondo

Molde International Jazz Festival is happening next week. One of the concerts I´m really looking forward to, is Hairy Bones on Wednesday 21 July.
The band is Massimo Pupillo (Zu) (bass), Peter Brötzman (sax, clar), Toshinori Kondo (tp) and Paal Nilssen-Love (dr), and these guys are tough enough!
Please check out the Kondo interview! "I love mistakes".

Born Free

How about this one?! M.I.A. on Letterman with Martin Rev from Suicide.

Eliza Carthy & Norma Waterson

Eliza Carthy and Norma Waterson just released their first mother-daughter-duo-album, "Gift", on Topic.
I have mentioned the Waterson Carthy family several times in the blog, and let me just recommend this album right away!
Songs like "Poor Wayfaring Stranger", "Bunch of Thyme" and "Prairie Lullabye" all sound amazing coming from these singers. Traditional folk, spirituals or pop songs? No problem. They even mix Amen Corner´s "(If Paradise is) Half as Nice" with the cheesy "Ukulele Lady" (Muppet link warning!).
This is sad and beautiful music, just right for this world.

These fine people play:
Eliza Carthy singing, fiddle, bells, octave violin, organetta, mandolin, piano, viola
Norma Waterson singing, triangle
Marry Waterson singing
Mike Waterson singing
Aidan Curran guitar, mandolin
Danny Thompson double bass
Martin Simpson banjo
Martin Carthy guitar, singing
Chris Parkinson melodeon
Oliver Knight cello, electric guitar, singing
Saul Rose melodeon
Roger Williams trombone

The Guardian interviewed Norma Waterson and Eliza Carthy 8 July.

Gravitée

Gravité from Renaud Hallée on Vimeo.

Someone on Twitter made me visit Rhizome today. I really fell for the video Gravité (Gravity) by Renaud Hallée (watch with sound).
"Fell for", heh, you got that one?

Rough Trade book

July 22nd sees the release of "Document And Eyewitness: An Intimate History of Rough Trade" (Orion 2010), written by Neil Taylor. It covers the story of both the record company and the record shops Rough Trade. According to Exclaim we get contributions from Geoff Travis, Pulp´s Jarvis Cocker and Robert Wyatt.

Elevator music

Sax man Eirik Hegdal is all over the place these days, participating in several bands and projects, and playing on lots of records.
Not too long ago I mentioned En En En, and let me suggest you listen to Team Hegdal "Vol. 1" too, with André Roligheten (sax/bass clarinet), Rune Nergaard (double bass) and Gard Nilssen (drums) and Zanussi Five´s "Ghost Dance", where Hegdal is in a band with Rolf Erik Nystrøm (alto sax), Jørgen Mathisen (tenor sax), Per Zanussi (double bass) and Gard Nilssen (drums). All three albums were released in 2010.

But today´s blog post is about "Elevator" (Øra 2010) with the Alpaca Ensemble. The music was recorded live at the Trondheim Chamber Music Festival in 2008, so I guess it is chamber music then! It reminds me of some kind of soundtrack, and that is quite fitting, because an important part of this work is a dream like story, written and read by improvising poet Matt Burt.
Poetry reading on albums is not my first choice, but it works just fine here. The story is about a strange trip in an elevator, quite fun really, and Burt is a very good reader (Chicago style), so I think this will stand repeated listening.
Buy the CD version, and you will get the printed story too.

These people play on the album: Matt Burt (words), Sigrid Elisabeth Stang (violin), Marianne Baudouin Lie (cello, voc), Else Bø (piano, celesta), Eirik Hegdal (sax), Ole Jørgen Melhus (flutes), Jovan Pavlovic (accordion), Michael Francis Duch (bass), Lars Sitter (percussio) and Tor Haugerud (drums, percusion).

And I really like the cover too, designed by Birgit Rostad.

Mini festival in Oslo in August

If you are in Oslo 6 and 7 August, please note this mini festival happening at Belleville.
Several of the usual suspects from this blog are playing.
(I might add some links later on, when the program is published).

Friday 6 August:
20.00 Frode Gjerstad/Dag Erik Knedal Andersen
21.00 Art Directors with Fred Frith

Saturday 7 August:
20.00 Dag Magnus Narvesen/Øyvind Storesund/Renato Ciunfrini Trio
21.00 Alexander Rishaug/Daniel Meyer Grønvold duo
22.00 Hild Sofie Tafjord/Paal Nilssen-Love/Fred Frith Trio

Ros Stephen

I admit it (but I´m not sure I´m sorry), we do not often dance tango in this blog. Still, I´ll make an exception today, and dance to Tango Siempre (OK - you may dance), since I had to read up on violin player Ros Stephen. She is working with Robert Wyatt and Gilad Atzmon on "For The Ghosts Within", the new album scheduled for October 2010 release.

For The Ghosts Within

Robert Wyatt, Gilad Atzmon and Ross Stephen will release the album "For The Ghosts Within" on Domino Records 11 October! There are several standard tunes on the album, and Wyatt will sing with strings. I just can´t wait for this! Here are all the tracks:

1. Laura
2. Lullaby For Irene
3. The Ghosts Within
4. Where Are They Now
5. Maryan
6. Round Midnight
7. Lush Life
8. What’s New
9. In A Sentimental Mood
10. At Last I Am Free
11. What A Wonderful World

Read more on Domino´s web site and over at FACT Mag.

I stole this info from Domino:
"The project was very much a collaboration between the three of us and many of our friends: Alfie wrote beautiful lyrics for ‘Lullaby for Irena’ and the title track ‘The Ghosts Within’, Tali Atzmon sang the title track, Shadia Mansour and Stormtrap (Ramallah Underground) sang on ‘Where Are They Now?’, Frank Harrison played piano on several tracks and Julian Rowlands played bandoneon on ‘At Last I Am Free’."

Dipingere musica: intervista a Robert Wyatt

What do yo say? French title yesterday and Italian today!! Bene, heh?
I found this Robert Wyatt interview in "minima et moralia" (first published in http://www.giornaledellamusica.it/) with this nice title (meaning "Painting music etc"). Translate the whole interview in Google Translate and it makes sense in some way.
Question and answer considering being kicked out of Soft Machine go like this:
"It is true that still has nightmares for being driven by the Soft Machine?
No, I feel a childish rage. It makes me think of the reindeer males during the mating season, when they beat the horns against each other. Human beings are like that".

Le barbu fait son cinéma

Please excuse the French title, I´m just trying to be cool here.
A couple of years ago I had a small blog post on Sebastien Tellier, who was going to play the Bergenfest festival in May 2008. Tellier was compared to Robert Wyatt on the festival´s own site, and take a look in Le Matin (2 July), and see Tellier claim that Robert Wyatt´s "Rock Bottom" is the best album ever! (At least according to my French!).
"Grâce à vos parents vous avez baigné dans un univers musical onirique. Ils écoutaient Pink Floyd, King Crimson. Vous citez volontiers «Rock Bottom» de Robert Wyatt.
Le plus grand album de tous les temps. Avant, il me suivait tous les jours. Désormais, j'ai du mal à l'écouter, il est si triste et profond."

Phonophani

Espen Sommer Eide´s (aka "Phonophani"), new album "Kreken" is out on Rune Grammofon. This is some kind of strange and beautiful, organic sounding electronica, with a taste of Norwegian folk. It´s not easy to tell what Sommer Eide is playing, but check out a couple of videos (here (solo) and here (with Sigbjørn Apeland)), and get an idea of what he may do.
On this album we also find Jenny Hval (Rockettothesky) (voc), Davidd Grubbs (g), Haco (voc), Agnethe Christensen (voc) and Sigbjør Apeland (harmonium).
The local Bergen newspaper "Bergens Tidende" rolled the dice, and gave "Kreken" 6 points. We don´t roll dices here in Wyatt and Stuff, but if we did, I think this music at least would deserve a dice falling from the table and get lost under the sofa.
If you are as lucky as me, you just might get hold of the limited editon (250 copies) album, with an extra 10" vinyl with two exclusive tracks ("Kreken II" og "Mendel II").

The best Phonophani album so far (in my humble opinion only), but please check out the previous ones too:
"Genetic Engineering" (Rune Grammofon 2001) (Rama vocal on one track).
"Oak or rock" (Rune Grammofon 2004) (Maja Ratkje vocal on one track).
"Phonophani" (Rune Grammofon 2006, originally on Biophon 1998).

Forever Young

BBC 4 just showed the documentary "Forever Young", about rock growing up and growing old. Howard Male in "The Arts Desk" does not seem to satisfied in his review, but mentions Robert Wyatt´s appearance like this:

".... it was only Robert Wyatt who said anything of real emotional resonance. He spoke with feeling of the two very different versions of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”. The first, recorded in her twenties, brims over with wide-eyed innocence and hippy optimism, despite the song’s melancholy bent. Whereas the second, recorded in her mid-fifties, is weighed down with a lifetime’s worth of experience and pensive, ominous orchestration. It was as if, as Wyatt put it, she finally understood the song she’d written all those decades ago."

"Forever Young" may still be watched here for some days, but only if you live in UK I guess (at least not in my area)?

I add the following, after seeing a piece in The Independent:
"The dignity side of things was mostly left to Rick Wakeman – who pointed out that stars of his vintage were, these days, familiar with the sight of three generations of the same family enjoying "legacy" rock shows together – and Robert Wyatt, who touchingly confessed: "I had to live this long to get every third or fourth song on every third or fourth record I made spot-on." Conclusion? What age shall not wither, it can – as Wyatt's eclectic and entirely age-appropriate oeuvre demonstrates – invest with infinite variety".

Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed and John Zorn

Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed and John Zorn played at the Jazz Festival in Montreal 2 July. A video from the concert is on YouTube of course , but see the press conference with Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson too!

Juxtaposed

I suggest you check out Juxtaposed and their album "Tsar Bomba" (Bolage 2010). You will get some quiet stuff (like on "Sneaky Mulett") and tracks where they really get going, like on my favorites here "Tsar Bomba", "Thumbsucker" (starting quite laid back), "Glasgow Quiche" and "Hockeypuck". It might not be straight enough for some, or wild enough for the wild ones, but for those of us positioned in between it´s just fine.
I´m a bit sad I missed them at this year´s Nattjazz festival in Bergen, because they sound like a live setting could be just the right place.
These fine gentlemen play their stuff: Atle Nymo (sax), Petter Vågan (guitar), Ole Morten Vågan (bass) and Erik Nylander (drums).

And Tsar Bomba vwas the mother of all bombs.

Thermal

Spend some minutes with Arve Henriksen and Jan Bang live in Frankfurt (2009)! David Sylvian is joining on tape on "Thermal" from Arve Henriksen´s "Cartography" (ECM 2008). Extremely beautiful!