Snakes and ladders - Live

Late 2010 Sophia Domancich released the album "Snakes and ladders" on Cristal Records.
It looks like the whole album was performed live recently, by these fine musicians:
Sophia Domancich (keyb), John Greaves (voc), Himiko Paganotti (voc) and Jef Morin (g).

On the album you will find the track "Wilderness", a song by Domanchich, Robert Wyatt and Alfreda Benge.

Lean Left - Live at Schl8hof Wels

Unfortunately I missed Lean Left´s concert in Bergen, so I was very happy to find this 50 minutes long video from Austria (22 September 2011).
Follow Ken Vandermark on Facebook for good info! He does not seem too happy with the Bergen concert by the way!
The musicians are: Ken Vandermark (reeds), Andy Ex (guitar), Terrie Ex (guitar) and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums).

My father

There will be a short break, or fewer postings for a while, in this blog.
My dear father Sigurd Sivertssen died 21 September, 82 years old.

He was checking my blogs almost every day (but admitted that he did not watch all the videos!), so I think he would have appreciated a post here.
Thanks!

John Cale: "Extra Playful"

John Cale´s new 5-track EP "Extra Playful" is out on Domino!
So far on 12" vinyl and as mp3 files, but a CD version will be released October 10th.

And you may watch the video for "Whaddya Mean By That?" too, right here.

PUNKT 2011 reviewed

Check out John Kelman's report from PUNKT 2011 at All About Jazz.

Some sounds over at David Sylvian's site.

And we have had some posts in this blog too.

Useful Cat

Useful Cat from Isabel Garrett on Vimeo.

Isabel Garrett made this video for "Useful Cat", from Ivor Cutler's "Velvet Donkey" (Virgin 1975).
Phyllis April King is reading her own poem.

Please, do not try this at home!

Silencers

The musicians in Silencers have played together for five years, and finally their debut album "Balance des Blancs" (SOFA 2011) is here.
I heard them in Bergen in 2010, playing a great concert, using Rhododendron branches from the nearest park. It may sound like they have been fetching some materials from the botanical kingdom on "Balance des Blanc" too, at least i think I hear some leaves in the wind here. And yes, the music is kind of "natural", as at flows onward and the acoustic guitar, xylophone, trumpet and more or less prepared pianos are weaved together. This must be some kind of ecological improvisation.

The music is mostly slow and quiet (to be expected by a band called Silencers I guess), but it is exciting still, and just as fit for concentration indoors by your stereo, as for listening outdoors on your iPod with the sounds of the environment blending in.
Fine stuff indeed!

The band is:
Benoit Delbecq - Piano, prepared piano
Kim Myhr - guitar, resonant objects
Nils Ostendorf - trumpet
Toma Gouband - percussion

Cover: Clare Cooper.

Molvær interviews

Here is Fiona Talkington interviewing the Nils petetr Molvær in pretty cold surroundings, and then David Sylvian Net stopping him at the Kristiansand airport for Punkt 2011.

Nils Petter Molvær just released his new album "Baboon Moon".

June Tabor & Oysterband

June Tabor and Oysterband are ready with their new album "Ragged Kingdom" (Topic 2011), more than twenty years after their previous record "Freedom and Rain" (Cooking Vinyl 1990).

Watch them do "Mississippi" at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival in August 2011.

On the bridge with 1982

The new album from the folk improv trio1982 (Sigbjørn Apeland, Nils Økland and Øyvind Skarbø) will be released by Hubro in October. Yesterday they had a pre release concert and -stunt in Bergen.

15 copies of the album are released on memory sticks, complete with information on envelopes designed by YokoLand, and put into bottles. Yesterday's release party started with a beautiful short café concert (geography lesson by drummer Skarbø included), before all of us walked to the highest bridge in Bergen, and watched one bottle being thrown into the fjord. The band then served cocoa and buns. These guys know how to party.
The other 14 bottles are being thrown into the sea in (among other places) Cuba, South Africa, Australia and other places in Norway, making it pretty hard to be a record collector.

Make sure you buy their 2009 album on NORCD, before you head towards the nearest beach.

The Unthanks to tour with Antony H. and Robert W.

The Unthanks are going on tour in December, doing songs by Antony & The Johnsons and Robert Wyatt. Check out the tour dates, and see if you are lucky to live close by one of the venues.
A live album with the same material, recorded in December 2010, is also on it's way.

And so I have an excuse to post The Unthanks' version of "Lullaby for Hamza" once more!

Lean Left Live

Lean Left @ Night of the Unexpected 2011 from Martijn ter Haar on Vimeo.

Check out the video of Lean Left live at the Paradiso 9 September 2011!
Terrie Hessels and Andy Moor of The Ex, with Ken Vandermark and Paal Nilssen-Love are heading towards Norway, and will play in Oslo 18 September and Bergen 19 September (and I´m not in town! Aaargh!).

Seek out the two albums "The Ex Guitars Meet Nilssen-Love / Vandermark Duo Vol 1" (2010) and "The Ex Guitars Meet Nilssen-Love / Vandermark Duo Vol 2" (2011) on Smalltown. Strongly recommended!

Street Art Norway 2nd ed.

A new and updated "Deluxe Softcover Edition" of "Street Art Norway" (KONTUR 2011) was recently released, and presented this weekend at the Raptus cartoon festival in Bergen. This version has 32 new pages, with lots of pictures from Bergen (some taken by yours truly). Not for sale on Amazon yet, but check out Robot later, if you should happen to be desperate for some Norwegian street art.

Alifib cover

The Australian prog folk artistWyatt Moss-Wellington does a cover of Robert Wyatt´s "Alifib" on his album "Gen Y Irony Stole My Heart" (2010). A tough choice for a cover song, since this is so much Robert Wyatt´s song, but thumbs up for trying!

And not only "Alifib", but Moss-Wellington covers one more of my favorite songs ever! He does a nice version of The Roches´ "Hammond Song". Listen to the original on MySpace, with Robert Fripp playing guitar.

I downloaded the tracks from eMusic, but you will find them on iTunes too.
Thanks to "Une Discographie de Robert Wyatt" for the news!

Sad But Superstitious

Oh come on!, it´s Friday night! Let´s have a party with waxaudio´s mashup of Stevie Wonder and Metallica.

Noisy Love Songs

After hearing Okkyung Lee, John Tilbury, Evan Parker and John Russell at the PUNKT festival in Kristiansand last week, I grabbed a copy of Okkyung Lee´s new album on Tzadik. "Noisy Love Songs" (2011) is being released in Tzadik´s Oracles series, focusing on women in experimental music.

I don´t think it´s much noise on "Noisy Love Songs", but the album has got a strong (and varied) mix of composed material and improvisations. We get to hear slow, sad tunes like "One hundred years old rain" (with real rain and instruments sounding a bit like animals), some open improv ( at least it sounds like that on "Sayea Saeya") and a real headbanger too ("Kung").

These fine musicians play: Okkyung Lee (cello), Cornelius Duffalo (violin), Peter Evans (trumpet), Craig Taborn (piano), Satoshi Takeishi (percussion, electronics), Christopher Tordini (b), and also Ikue Mori (electronics) and John Hollenbeck (percussion) on "Steely Morning" (where we almost can hear the sunbeams).

A great album indeed, and I promise to check out Lee´s previous album in this series too, called "Nihm" (2005).

Cover: Okkyung Lee/Chippy.

Soft Machine 1968-08-25

soft machine; 1968-08-25 Ce Soir On Danse from das ubuibi on Vimeo.

I really can't understand how I have managed to miss this great video with Soft Machine on Vimeo!
A friendly person on Twitter made me aware of it. Robert Wyatt, Mike Ratledge and Kevin Ayers in France in 1968, "Ce Soir On Danse", playing "A certain kind", "Save Yourself", "Lullabye letter" and "Hope for happiness". Enjoy!

Paal Nilssen-Love Trio

Check out this office concert at the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK)!
Ken Vandermark, Ab Baars and Paal Nilssen-Love.
I would have liked to hear them here, at the library too!

The Musician's Union

Robert Wyatt on how to swim through shark infested waters, with the help of The Musician's Union.
(I stole this one over at Hibou Anemone and Bear).

MU testimonial by Richard Thompson too, look here.

New album from NP Molvær

The new Nils Petter Molvær album "Baboon Moon" is scheduled for release November 1st. On Thirsty Ear I guess, since they posted an official video for "Mercury Heart" on YouTube.
Other musicians are Stian Westerhus (g) and Erland Dahlen (dr).

Brian Eno to PUNKT 2012

I have hardly returned from Kristiansand, and PUNKT 2011, and the local newspaper Fædrelandsvennen write that Brian Eno is going to be the head curator of PUNKT 2012.
I might go next year too!

PUNKT 2011 - Day three

I had really hoped to see Evan Parker perform live with Ingar Zach and Stian Westerhus at the Sørlandet Art Center Saturday afternoon, but we got three 20 min long solos, Parker first, then Zach and finally Westerhus. When Stian Westerhus entered, the dominance of the quiet improv was over for good at this year´s festival. He went rock and noise from the word go, but quieted down with some bow playing on the guitartowards the end, and I observed that even Evan Parker pulled his fingers out of his ears. Three fine solos, but a pretty wild mix!

On the main stage at Agder Theater Arve Henriksen´s album "Cartography" was performed, with Jan Bang, Erik Honoré, Ingar Zach, Eivind Aarset, Anna Maria Friman, David Sylvian and Arve Henriksen. This is still an absolute beautiful piece of music, but it was perhaps a little bit more dark now, adding some more excitement to the music.

The great Susanne Sundfør owned the stage, with a strong performance of her own songs, almost disappearing in smoke. I was afraid we would have a Spinal Tap moment there, when she had to cough, but she was OK!

The professors Helge Sten and John Paul Jones led the first of Saturday´s seminars at the Agder University, demonstrating the KYMA system. This is a bit too much technology for me (some graphic interface stuff for musicians), but with good teachers,and some playing to demonstrate, we had a nice hour at school.
Later in the evening they played the final concert of the festival, starting off with what looked like an iPad performance, but ended up in a massive electronica show. Cool!

Oh yes, there were live remixes too. My favorites of the evening happened to be Nils Petter Molvær and Guy Sigsworth making a hysteric disco mix out of Susanne Sundfør and Sacred Harp´s concerts, and Molvær at it again, with Jan Bang, Marilyn Mazur, Eivind Aarset and Erik Honoré, remixing Minibus Pimps.

Images from PUNKT 2011 - Second day

It was a long Friday at PUNKT, with seminars, concerts and live remixes.

The first seminar of the day was with Fiona Talkington talking to "turntable artist" Philip Jeck. A fascinating and talkative artist! He was not particularly interested in claiming that one genre was better than the other. "There are bad people in all genres". He also advised the students at the university to take any opportunity offered. "Don´t be cynical about anything! That´s my motto!".

A pretty nervous Evan Parker entered the stage, admitting that he did not feel comfortable speaking in these academic settings. What he did do, was to use his nervousness to illustrate some of the nature of improvisation, when he lost track of his own manuscript. His talk was on composition and/or improvisation, and the correct title in the program should have been "Semantic confusions and their consequences in the discourse on improvisation", not "confusion". Glad to help you all there.
And thanks to Evan Parker I may even manage to sneak in a Wyatt - Benge link, since he told us that Alfreda Benge introduced him to John Stevens, while she was working at Ronnie Scott´s when she was studying.

On the main stage at the Agder Teater we were in for a slow and meditative evening, with quiet improv (Koboku Senju, JohnTilbury/Evan Parker/John Russell/Okkyung Lee), music composed by Dai Fujikura and a live performance of David Sylvian and Holger Czukay´s "Plight and Premonition", with Sylvian, Erik Honoré, Jan Bang, John Tilbury, Philip Jeck, Arve Henriksen and Eivind Aarset on stage. Beautiful music all the way, with fantastic sound and lights as added value (photo of Tilbury/Parker/Russell/Lee). I must admit I would have enjoyed some kick of energy in there for a change, but as Han Bennink says when he goes off rock drumming at jazz festivals: "Sorry, wrong festival!"

Jan Bang, Erik Honoré and Sidsel Endresen remixed Dai Fujikura´s music from the first concert of the evening. Very nice, and not too long either. Quite a lot of artists here do not seem to agree that it is smart to leave the audience wanting more.

Since we were told that some of the audience were quite distracted by amateur photographers at the festival, let me just put it straight, that my photos were taken in a very discrete manner, from the side of the hall or well hidden among the professionals. And hey, no shutter sounds from me!
No members of the audience were hurt to make this blog post.

PUNKT Festival Day 1

The Punkt Festival in Kristiansand (Norway) started with a concert Wednesday (Jarle Bernhoft, Norwegian singer), but the grand opening happened yesterday at the Sørlandet Art Museum, with concerts in David Sylvian and Atsushi Fukui´s installation area.
The place was packed, you could not hear the speakers and they were running late, but after the concerts started all such minor details were (almost) forgotten.

When we entered Arve Henriksen (tp), Evan Parker (sax), Paal Helge Haugen (poetry) and Nils Christian Moe-Repstad (poetry) were on stage. It started off with readings from Haugen, and solos from Henriksen and Parker, but towards the end of the concert, both musicians played, underlining the words from the poets, blending nicely with with Sylvian´s sound installation. Beautiful!

Paal Helge Haugen and Nils Christian Moe-Repstad wrote new material for this performance, and it is published by PUNKT in "Uncommon Deities" (2011) (both Norwegian and English versions).

The second concert was by John Tilbury (p), Sidsel Endresen (voc) and Philip Jeck (electronics, turntables) with David Sylvian´s voice reading some of the pieces the poets read earlier in the evening. Absolutely great too, with Jeck painting a fantastic soundscape to end the show.

Terje Rypdal live

Here is another live video from the great Henie Onstad Art Center (Oslo).
Terje Rypdal played an outdoor concert with Magnus Rypdal and Palle Mikkelborg 28 August 2011.