Baro 101

Krar is some kind of lyre, with five or six strings, and is mostly played in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

I am now the owner of my first krar-drum-baryton saxophone-trio! The musicians on "Baro 101" (Terp 2011) are Mesele Asmamaw (krar, vocal), Paal Nilssen-Love (drums) and Mats Gustafsson (baryton saxophone), and it was recorded at room number 101 at the Baro Hotel, Addis Abeba (Ethiopia). They decided to record, after working together during a tour organized by The Ex. Some microphones were put up (as described in the cover), and after one hour they had forty minutes of improvised music ready to be released.

We get two tracks, both of them around twenty minutes long. The music is varied, from pling plong, free improv, and energetic blow outs to something close to lullabyes (towards the end). The sound of the krar is a bit strange to my ears, but still nice, and sometimes the string instrument almost sound like it´s electronic. Asmamaw also proves he´s a great singer.

Read more over at Terp, and check out some videos on YouTube from some of The Ex´s (and friends´) visits to Ethiopia (how about these?).

Supersilent + Stian Westerhus + Pekka

Supersilent + Stian Westerhus + Pekka, NuMusic Stavanger 2011 from pekka on Vimeo.

Supersilent (Arve Henriksen, Ståle Storløkken, Helge Sten) with Stian Westerhus (guitar) and Pekka (lights), from a commissioned work at NuMusic in Stavanger 2011.
I am not a big fan of strobes, but this looked like a cool show!

The Vegetarians

The Vegetarians? Heard about them today! According to CDBaby this is a Swedish - American band with Hans Annellsson, Marc Mollan and John M Gibbs, and they seem to have released at least four albums and a couple of EPs.

The new album "The Calling" (Annelssongs 2011) got me hooked, with cover songs of YES, Genesis, Adrian Belew, Kevin Ayers ("Song from the bottom of a well", "Super salesman", "(An even stranger) Stranger in blue suede shoes"), Bob Dylan, Amiee Mann, Peter Hammill, Chicago, Can and Matching Mole (Robert Wyatt, "Oh Caroline").

Judging by the other records by these artists, they really seem to like doing covers.

Robert Wyatt 67

I´m not very good at remembering people´s birthdays, but at least someone remembered that Robert Wyatt was 67 yesterday!
Eamonn Andrews vs Alifib.

300 Acting Spaces

Some people think big! During the project "300 Acting Spaces" (2012 - 2015) there will be arranged 300 free concerts with improvised music. The shows will be streamed live, an active blog will cover the project and finally a book will be published.

The man behind all this is Alex Gunia, and it´s happening in Oslo, Berlin, New York, Beijing and Tokyo, in what is described as "especially designed performance laborartories".

Kick Off will be in Oslo 16 - 18 February, with (among others) Kjetil Møster, Lasse Marhaug and Maja Ratkje.
Read all about it over at 300 Acting Spaces, and I think this blog will be back with more from this project too!

Jazzed Out Oslo

Oh my! Please check out Håkon Kornstad in a teaser for a film called "Jazzed Out Oslo"!
Uploaded on YouTube by Mezzojazzedout, and I found it over at the hyperactive site "It´s a Trap".

We will also get to see other fine Norwegian musicians in the film, like Arild Andersen, Bugge Wesseltoft, Nils Peter Molvaer, Tord Gustavsen, Mats Eilertsen, Frøy Aagre, Eivind Aarset and Mari Kvien Brunvoll.

David Garland

David Garland - The Long ViewGarland makes from TAKAHIRO KIMURA on Vimeo.

I have to admit I just realized David Garland existed, but he seems to have friends in several camps.
On his new album "Conversations with the cinnamon skeleton", Vashti Bunyan and Sean Lennon join in (among others!), and Robert Wyatt says that Garland makes “Witty, melancholy songs, arranged and performed with such careful skill and a natural unforced originality".

Video for "The long view" by Takahiro Kimura.

Run on over to this site for more info on the musicians, links to other releases and streams and lyrics from this album! Nice work!

Hibou Anemone and Bear pointed me towards this one..

Venceremos

Working Week were formed in 1983, and in 1984 they released the EP "Venceremos (We Will Win)" (Paladin/Virgin), with Robert Wyatt guesting. The song is a tribute to Victor Jara.
And it´s a great song, isn´t it? I might just start a new round with The Classic!

This version, with Robert Wyatt singing, did not make it to the first Working Week album, but hey, at least it got a video!

Musicians on the record are (cut and pasted from here):

- Robert Wyatt - vocal
- Simon Booth - guitars
- Larry Stabbins - soprano sax,
tenor sax, flute
- Harry Beckett - trumpet,
flugelhorn
- Annie Whitehead - trombone
- Stuart Matthewman - tenor
sax
- Dave Bitelli - clarinet,
baritone sax
- Chuchow Mercham - double
bass
- Kim Burton - piano
- Mark Taylor - drums
- Dawson - percussion
- Bosco D'Oliveira - percussion
- Tracey Thorn - vocal
- Claudia Figueroa - vocal

Personal Best #1

Musician, noise maker, record company manager, publisher and festival organizer Lasse Marhaug has made a fanzine called "Personal Best #1. Noise, music and beyond" (Marhaug Forlag 2011).
Sindre Bjerga, Bruce Russell (by Thor-Eirik Johnsen), Chulki Hong, Tommi Keränen, John Wiese, Svein Egil Hatlevik, Ryosuke Kiyasu (by Shane Bowden), Ronnie Sundin, Oren Ambarchi, Daniel Menche, Pentti Dassum, Vivian Wang and C. Spencer Yeh are all interviewed by Marhaug, except where other names are given

This fanzine (well, it´s more like a regular magazine than an old fashioned, messy fanzine) is of course a must for the ones among you hung up on the noise scenes of Korea, Singapore and Finland, but great fun for the rest of us too. I only knew 3-4 artists before reading, but enjoyed reading about the new ones (for me) just as much. The interviews all start bang on, no background info given, and several of them are not about the artists´own music (Ronnie Sundin draws). Oren Ambarchi is mainly talking about AC/DC, C. Spencer Yeh about movies and the opening question for Daniel Menche is "How many times have you broken bones in your body?".

For sale at Oslo´s Tiger.

Not cold enough?

It´s been a pretty mild winter in Bergen. Seems like we may be in need of some cold weather now, because somebody seem to get in the mood to show off their fruits, while others are heading home.

Sicilian soup

Listen to a Sicilian version of Robert Wyatt´s "Soup Song", directly from the kitchen!

Antonio Mainenti is singer and chef (?). Read more about the song and the ingredients on this blog.

News from Pica and PNL

A couple of new records with noisy stuff for you all. Enjoy at parties, or alone with a cup of tea.

Anders Hana and Paal Nilssen-Love have released a 10" vinyl called "Hosanna and Parallel Sevens I" (PNL 010, 2011). The two tracks are named "Hand near ass" og "Senvill analpose" (!).

Maranata let loose "Pig Magic"(Pica Disk, Pica 029, 2011), a 7" and a CD in one package.
Maranata is Jon Wesseltoft (g, electronics) and Dag Stiberg (sax, voice, electronics). On the 7" Lasse Marhaug joins on electronics, and on the CD one of the tracks is from Oslo´s Støyfest ("Noise Fest") (May 2011), with Maja Ratkje joining. Here you may watch a video from the Støyfest happening.

I´m not too happy with the ass and blood theme/aesthetics (design by Dirty Deeds (PNL) and Lasse Marhaug (Pica)), but noise is nice!

Be Serious

Just an important message for you all, listen to a new Robert Wyatt cover!
Mahieux "Family Life" Quartet recently released "Peaux Dames" on Circum-Disc (2011). The album is a tribute to several drummers, celebrating them by playing their compositions.
What better then, than a version of Robert Wyatt´s "Be Serious" from Comicopera (Domino 2007)!? This is a somewhat more laid back version, sung by Jérémie Ternoy.
Download from eMusic or iTunes.

"I really envy Christians.
I envy Moslems too.
It must be great to be so sure
as a top Hindu or Jew".
(Wyatt)

Jean-Philippe Ramos

The French musician Jean-Philippe Ramos is a big fan of Robert Wyatt, and has for several years made music based on Wyatt tunes.
Wyattandstuff had a post on him as far back as 2007.

Now he has released an album called "The chansons of Robert Wyatt et moi..." (own label 2010), with covers, or rather music based on, "Dondestan", "Free will and testament", "Amber and the amberines", "Moon in June" og "P.L.A.".

Head on over to MySpace to check him out, and you may probably order the music via eijanaika@wanadoo.fr.

Get the Blessing

And then it seems like we will hear Robert Wyatt´s voice on the new Get The Blessing album (previous post here). According to Entertainment Focus Wyatt is joined by birds and vehicles.
Citing: "A particular highlight is the unexpected guest cameo by legendary composer & musician Robert Wyatt – a delicious wordless chorale on the languid American Meccano, recorded in a Lincolnshire studio open to the sounds of birdsong and passing vehicles".

Isungset and Henriksen in Tallinn

I already posted a video of Terje Isungset and Arve Henriksen playing on glass instruments in Tallinn, but I believe you want to see some more.
Here they are, in a video uploaded by norsklydfilm.

eh

"Earth" without "art" is just "eh".

All Ears 2012 over

Oslo´s improv festival All Ears 2012 is over.
Three nights with four to five concerts each, and one afternoon concert, organized in a very relaxed but professional way (as usual!)
I was still in Bergen Thursday night, but Friday turned out to be great. Let me mention three out of four concerts:
Barry Guy did an absolutely stunning solo concert, playing his own compositions, a Charlie Mingus tune and 100% improvised stuff (if such a thing exists).
Antoine Chessex (sax) and Okkyung Lee (cello) did a wonderful set and Rolf Erik Nystrøm (sax), Kjetil Gutvik (g) and Steve Noble (dr) ended the evening with an energetic show. Nystrøm even played the baryton lying down on the floor.
Organizer Lasse Marhaug told us that the musicians had been eating the traditional Norwegian dish "gammelost" ("old cheese") backstage, and this just might explain Nystrøm´s behavior.

For me Saturday evening was a long evening´s journey into Evan Parker (sax), Barry Guy (bass) and Paul Lytton (dr), who got on stage after midnight and played a great concert. A few of the audience had already left, but those still present were impressed! All of them!

The first picture has got nothing to do with the festival (i think!), but the second is of Barry Guy
It was quite dark during several of the concerts, but I just might find a couple of (close to) focused pictures in a couple of days, and will add a Flickr link here.

Stian Westerhus live in Budapest (Jan 2012)

Punk´s Not Dead

I´m in Oslo to celebrate the free improvisation at the All Ears festival, but also realize that punk´s not dead! At least according to street artist Martin Whatson.

Wind Speaker

The Wind Speaker from Einar on Vimeo.

Check out Espen Sommer Eide´s (Phonophani) new instrument, and read all about it over at "Eyes On Your Instruments".

Scorch Trio with Mars Williams

Late 2011, Rune Grammofon released 500 copies of a white vinyl double album with Scorch Trio. Scorch Trio is Raoul Björkenheim (g, el mandolin), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (el b) and Frank Rosaly (dr), and on "Made in Norway" (Rune 2011) they are joined by sax player Mars Williams.

The recordings were made at Cafe Mono in Oslo (23 May 2011) and at the Nattjazz festival in Bergen (25 May 2011). As usual Scorch Trio seem to improvise the track titles too, and we get sloo, oosl, loos, oslo, genber, enberg and bergen! I missed the Bergen concert (can´t remember the excuse), so I´m happy to have the album at least! Like it a lot!

Cover: Kim Hiorthøy.

Scorch Trio did release a live album some years ago too. "Live in Finland" was sold mainly during a 2007 tour, and only 400 copies were made. You may want to hunt that one too, but after you have got hold of the double album from Rune.

Robert Wyatt - Shadia Mansour

I´m not sure if I have read this piece before today (memory and old people, you know!), but since I have not posted it, here you get a link to an e-mail interview with Robert Wyatt and Shadia Mansour, who also sang on Wyatt/Atzmon/Stephen´s "For the ghosts within".
This is taken from the BOMB magazine (115/Spring 2011).

Stine Janvin Motland - Motsol

Will you please keep your ears and eyes open for the Norwegian singer (or more vocal artist I guess) Stine Janvin Motland? I heard her again Tuesday evening, performing a fantastic solo set at the Landmark club in Bergen. No words were used, but still stories were told and the sound effects were unbelievable. I swear I thought it was raining around her for a while. (Bergen is a rainy City, but Landmark is pretty dry).

Stine Janvin Motland and Ståle Liavik Solberg have joined forces for several years in the voice-drum-duo Motsol, and they recently released a new album with a little help from several friends, as S/S Motsol. "Parallel Pleasures" is out on Creative Sources (2011), with Motland, Solberg and the extras: Eivind Lønning (tp), Klaus Ellerhusen Holm (as, clar), Hild Sofie Tafjord (French horn), Børre Mølstad (tuba), Nils Henrik Asheim (p) and Per Zanussi (b).
Sounds great!

Charles Bradley

If you have read this blog for some time, you may have noticed that I have to have some soul thrown in at irregular intervals.
This time I´m glad I chose Charles Bradley, and what seems to be his debut album, "No Time for Dreaming", released on Daptone (in 2011 or originally in 2010?), the same company that gave us Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings.
This is funky, hot soul with a great horn section, and Bradley has got a fine and raw voice. A damned good album!

We even get cover versions of Neil Young´s "Heart of Gold" and Nirvana´s "Stay Away"!

Birds live!

All this talk about e-books! Forget it, in this house they run on batteries!
This post was intended for my Norwegian readers only, over at Wyatting, since the book on birds I got for Christmas is in Norwegian. If someone here is interested it´s by Jan Pedersen and Lars Svensson and is called "Fuglesang. 150 norske fugler - beskrivelser og lyder" (Faktum 2011).

The special thing about it is that it has got a sound player that run on batteries, and you may listen to the sounds of the bird that you are reading about. Old school for sure, but the sounds are in fact quite good, and you are warned to use the player to attract birds, stressing them!
Since I don´t have a cat any longer, birds of all sizes are welcome to my garden. I´m ready to listen!

Of course, I managed to make a Robert Wyatt connection in my post on birds, that´s why you get this one too! I have hardly mentioned the fantastic film on birds by Jacques Perrin (2001), called "Le Peuple Migrateur", or "Migrating Birds".
The soundtrack is made by Bruno Coulais, and Robert Wyatt is singing on three tracks (and Nick Cave on one).
When the film was screened in Bergen in 2001 or 2002, I think we were four people present, three bird watchers and one Robert Wyatt fan.

Let me just recommend both the film and the music!

Machina

How about a hot mix of swinging New Orleans brass (or is it New York?), free jazz and rock spiced with Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart? Would have suited you just fine? I thought so!
Then go check out Machina´s album "So much for Dancing" (Øra 2011). Tough enough!

These musicians will make you smile (some of them known from Albatrosh and Pelbo):
Kim-Erik Pedersen: Alto sax/baryton sax
André Roligheten: Baryton sax
Viktor Wilhelmsen: Guitar
Kristoffer Lo: Tuba
Trond Bersu: Drums

I got my sounds from eMusic, and it´s pretty cheap on iTunes (in Norway at least, 63 kr).

A late club evening with these guys, just have to be good!

O Caroline

If you, for one reason or the other, have not heard the album "Matching Mole" fom 1972, please do. Right now!
On that album you will find one of the best songs to come out of Canterbury, "O Caroline", written by David Sinclair and Robert Wyatt.

Then check out the cover version sung by Brad Scott, on an album called "Garden Parti & Caroline, Yes!" (Zig-Zag Territories, 2011). Quite nice..
As you see (if you followed the link) you may buy it over at Zig-Zag, but it´s also on eMusic and iTunes.

El Doom, Motorpsycho, Bushman´s, Susanna

Rune Grammofon are keeping up a tight release schedule this year too.
They already let loose El Doom & The Born Electric, and here are their plans for the first three months of 2012:

20.01 Bushman´s Revenge - A Little Bit Of Big Bonanza (CD / LP)
20.01 Bushman´s Revenge - Never Mind The Botox (LP)
17.02 Motorpsycho with Ståle Storløkken - The Death Defying Unicorn (2CD / 2LP)
02.03 Astrïd - High Blues (CD)
02.03 Volcano The Bear - Golden Rhythm / Ink Music (CD / LP)
16.03 Susanna - Wild Dog (CD).

Elephant9: Live at the BBC

You already have Elephant9´s albums "Dodovoodoo" (Rune 2008) and "Walk the Nile" (Rune 2010). Now it´s time to fight for the LP "Live at the BBC", also on Rune Grammofon! 500 copies made, white vinyl, no download code.
Two compositions from each of the two prevous albums ("I cover the mountain top" and "Dodovoodoo" from the first, and "Aviation" and "Habanera Rocket" from the second) were recorded for BBC´s "Jazz on 3" in November 2010. One take and no editing afterwards.

Elephant9 is Ståle Storløkken (keyb), Nikolai Hængsle Eilertsen (el bass) and Torstein Lofthus (dr).

Cover (as always) by Kim Hiorthøy.

Gultskra Artikler

Gultskra Artikler - Abtu Anet (excerpts) by miasmah

Check out a couple of tracks from the next Miasmah release on Soundcloud.
Gultskra Artikler´s LP (double EP?) "Abtu Anet" will be out during February (2012). The man behind Gultskra Artikler is Alexey Devyanin, and please see if you feel wiser after visiting this site.

All Ears again

Just another reminder for you all (since the poster seems to be ready!), if you should happen to be in Oslo next week, don´t forget the All Ears Festival 12 - 15 January.

Music fans in Bergen may get a small taste in their own town Tuesday 10 January, when Kjell Bjørgeengen and Keith Rowe will play at the Landmark club. This is a double bill with the fantastic singer Stine Janvin Motland (solo) (and she has performed at All Ears).

Larache

Bukseselger by majasolveig

Maja Ratkje composed music for Kjetil Schøien´s documentary drama "Larache" (link to site in Norwegian), that was staged at the Opera in Oslo in October 2011. The texts of "Larache" were based on interviews of four Moroccan men living in Oslo, and fragments of Jean Genet´s novels and plays.

The piece "Bukseselger" (meaning "Pants seller") is uploaded to SoundCloud by Maja Ratkje herself, and in a comment there she says "It's all recorded with real and toy drums, no samples, and the "flute" is a double reed toy instrument. But no score, so in a way, yes, it's improvised".

Happy New Year! Buy more music this year!