World No Tobacco Day

This penguin was observed outside the Bergen Aquarium today. He probably had to sneak outdoors for a fag, since it´s World No Tobacco Day (31 May).

Håkon Kornstad Tenor Battle

Around midnight Monday Håkon Kornstad Tenor Battle played in the Korskirken church at the Nattjazz festival in Bergen.

Kornstad, both a veteran sax player and a first year opera student, has started to mix jazz and opera, with his new band Tenor Battle.
In jazz a "tenor battle" is a more or less friendly "fight" between to sax players, but I guess here it´s the sax player and the singer who fight (?) each other?

The band fit Kornstad in a perfect way, with Sigbjørn Apeland (introduced as the saviour of the harmonium), Per Zanussi (great bass and saw player) and Øyvind Skarbø (both discreetly adding color to the band sound, and throwing flashy backhand strokes to the floor).

A truly great evening in church!

I haven´t got the faintest idea what opera Kornstad is singing from here. Anyone else? Zanussi had just finished a saw solo when the video starts, but I guess sawing was not an issue in the original opera?

Only Connect

Those of you heading towards Oslo in June, please note that a new festival is starting up.

Only Connect is curated by Anne Hilde Neset (the organization Ny Musikk) and Rob Young (The Wire), and will happen in the period 7 - 10 June. The topic for this year´s festival is "A Tonal View Of Times Tomorrow", inspired by a Sun Ra title.

See the program here, and you will of course recognize several artist mentioned in this blog (Stian Westerhus, Okkyung Lee, Michael F. Duch, El Doom, John Hegre).

The festival´s own blurbs:

Time-travel back to the Antarctic race of 1912.
–
Immerse yourself in an imaginary journey
to Mars.
–
Feel the spirit of ancient Greek tragedy and
the austere kitsch of the Cold War.
–
Listen to the unsettling noise of stretched Metal
and other musics replayed at a snail’s pace.
–
Experience a sonic séance in Oslo’s eeriest
venue. And hear the incredible sound of 100
metronomes in full flow.

Portrait : Michel Delville

Here you have a 60 min. long portrait of the guitar player Michel Delville. He plays in The Wrong Object, Machine Mass Trio and in the Robert Wyatt tribute band Comicoperando (and of course mentioned a lot of times in this blog)!
The man speaks French, but even I can understand that he starts to talk about Robert Wyatt and Comicoperando around half an hour into the video.

It also seems like a Comicoperando DVD will be released this year.

Kjetil Møster at Blue Goat

Now how about this stage? At 1 PM every last Sunday of the month, you may listen to live music at the Blue Goat jazz club, situated on the top of mount Ulriken, one of Bergen´s seven mountains.

On Sunday 27 May Kjetil Møster played standards from the great jazz book (quite far from what he does on his latest solo outing), paying homage to Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Steve Lacy, Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter (and probably a few more).
"On Green Dolphin Street" and "So What" in sthe sunshine on the mountain top. It couldn´t have been better!

I will be honest with you and admit that the weather in Bergen is not always like this, but the view is great even if they have to play indoor.

1982 with BJ Cole

If you have visited this blog some times, you might have noticed that I'm a big fan of Bergen's own folk improv trio 1982, with Nils Økland (violins, fiddles), Sigbjørn Apeland (organs) and Øyvind Skarbø (drums, misc stash).
Wednesday they opened the Nattjazz festival in the Korskirken church, together with BJ Cole on pedal steel guitar. Even if they don' t look too happy on my photo, the concert was quite entertaining, as they played both noisy improvisations (including church organ) and some melancholic country flavored folk improv.

Good for all of you then, that they already recorded for the Hubro label, and you can get the album this autumn. While you are waiting don't forget to check out this one and this one from 1982.

Kristin Slipp

I guess a lot of you readers either live around Boston, or will go there in a few hours? What better then, than to go to a concert with Kristin Slipp, who will do both Robert Wyatt and Syd Barrett songs?!

In Boston Globe they write: ".....she’ll perform with local alto saxophone eminence Allan Chase and his quartet, recasting Cole Porter and Rodgers and Hart, as well as putting a jazz spin on psychedelic/art rock songs by Syd Barrett and Robert Wyatt. Then her standards-based duet with pianist Dov Manski will be heard. May 25, 8 p.m. $10. Lily Pad, 1353 Cambridge St., Cambridge. 617-395-1393, www.lily-pad.net".

In the video you can see and hear Slipp with Dagmar Krause, Fred Frith, Chris Cutler, Karla Kihlstedt and Zeena Parkins, as Art Bears in 2010, and right below she does "Smoke gets in your eyes" with Dov Manski.

Anyone familiar with this artist? Any records released?

Gareth Davis & Frances-Marie Uitti - Gramercy

Gareth Davis & Frances-Marie Uitti - Gramercy by miasmah

It´s finally summer here in Bergen! I should be outdoors playing badminton, while listening to happy pop music through the open windows, but I´m playing Gareth Davis & Frances-Marie Uitti´s "Gramercy" again.

And once more, I´m not much of an expert (surprise!). I don´t think I have heard about either Gareth Davis (clar) or France-Marie Uitti (cello) until now, and I don´t know what to call this music (what would you do without music bloggers!?), but no problem! Listen for yourselves, the great Miasmah label share a lot of good music over at SoundCloud.

A bit dark this, but very beautiful music, that´s my opinion. Agree?

Sonore live in Belgrade

Peter Brötzmann, Ken Vandermark and Mats Gustafsson live at the Ring Ring Festival in Belgrade 19 May 2012. The film is not 100% in focus, but the boys are!

They are blowing up a storm, and let me steal this description from YouTube:
"Total faceblasting, razor pissing, ear slaughtering, feelgood mayhem nirvana". Indeed!

I See A Darkness

Yes I know, Bonnie "Prince" Billy´s song is called "I see a darkness", but the song and the video still makes me kind of happy.

The song is from the EP "Now here´s my plan".
Video:Ben Berman.

For The Ghosts Within - Video

Great! Domino Records uploaded Tali Atzmon´s video that accompanied one of the CD versions of Robert Wyatt, Gilad Atzmon and Ros Stehen´s album "For the ghosts within" (Domino 2010).

Comicoperando in Amsterdam

Head on over to YouTube to watch Comicoperando, and their tribute to Robert Wyatt, live in Amsterdam in May 2011.
A Pavel Borodin / VPRO Radio 6 production.

It looks a bit strict, with "Commercial use or publication by third parties is not allowed", so I´ll embed it later if I´m allowed to. I guess I´m third party here?

21 May: It was OK!



These fine people play and speak:
Dagmar Krause - vocals
Annie Whitehead - trombone, backing vocals
Karen Mantler - Hammond B3, vocals
Michel Delville - synth guitar
John Edwards - double bass
Chris Cutler - drums

Also visit VPRO Jazz Live.

Nils Petter Molvær Trio

Watch Nils Petter Molvær, Stian Westerhus and Erland Dahlen live in Oldenburg (Germany), from the recent Nils Petter Molvær Trio tour.

And don´t forget "Baboon Moon"!

John Wesley Harding & Rick Moody - Signed Curtain

John Wesley Harding and Rick Moody sing the Matching Mole song "Signed Curtain".
Great lyrics for sure!

The Mynah Birds

I promised you never to mention Record Store Day 2012 again, but then Tor at Bergen´s Apollon record store went on about The Mynah Birds, and yes I bought another 7". This is just the reason we still need good record shops.
The Mynah Birds recorded the rocker "It´s my time" and the ballad "Go on and cry" for Motown in 1966, but the songs were not released until "The Complete Motown Singles" came in 2006.
Now the vinyl single, with the two mentioned tracks, was released in an edition of 5000 for Record Store Day 2012, and I got number 4879.

I hereby confess that I did not know that Neil Young did record for Motown, and played in aband with Rick James! The other guys in The Mynah Birds were Bruce Palmer, Rickman Mason and John Taylor.
Palmer went to LA with Neil Young, and started Buffalo Springfield, after The Mynah Birds imploded.

Nick Warburton tells The Mynah Birds story over at Neil Young News.

Jean Pierre Muller - 7X7

Alright, even I am starting to realize that I just can´t get a complete Robert Wyatt collection!

Now he is one of the chosen seven for Jean Pierre Muller´s project 7X7, where he is working with interactive sound sculptures. 7 artists, each work in an edition of 7.

Let me steal from Muller´s site:

"7×7 is seven interactive sound sculptures, silk-screen-printed in an edition of seven. Music emerges from the picture as the viewer approaches the artwork and disappears as they go away (speakers are hidden in the structure). Each work takes the shape of one letter corresponding to a note (A to G) and has a dominant colour corresponding to one of the colours of the rainbow. Each “letter” is linked to a chakra, day of the week and the planet and deity to which this day is associated.

Seven of the world’s greatest musicians have composed an original music for 7×7, in response to themes linked to the artwork. Each composition is in the corresponding key (for instance, the soundtrack for A is in A…). And so, in the 7×7 grammar, we have:

A = ROBERT WYATT = Red = Monday = Moon = Diana = Muladhara (Earth)

B = ARCHIE SHEPP = Orange = Tuesday = Mars = Svadhisthana (Water)

C = SEAN O’HAGAN = Yellow = Wednesday = Mercury = Manipurana (Fire)

D = MULATU ASTATKE = Green = Thursday = Jupiter = Anahata (Air)

E = KASSIN = Blue = Friday = Venus = Visuddha (Ether)

F = NILE RODGERS = Indigo = Saturday = Saturn = Anja (Soul)

G = TERRY RILEY = Violet = Sunday = Sun = Sahasrara (Vibration)"


An right here you may read about Robert Wyatt´s work.

Hmm, wonder what one of them will cost the buyer?

Keep Yourself Alive

The Swedes again! In the Swedish newspaper Gefle Dagblad (12 May 2012), we may read that the author Petter Karlsson has just finished a book called "Keep Yourself Alive". It will be published this autumn.

In the book he tries to track down some old rock heroes, and one of them is Robert Wyatt. Wyatt even made a new track for the CD accompanying the book!

Those of you who read Swedish might want to check Karlsson´s football book too? It´s called "Drömelvan : det spelades bättre boll på Charlie Georges tid" ("The Dream Team: They played better football in Charlie George´s time").

SULT

Saturday evening I heard the Norwegian/American quartet SULT do an intense, acoustic improvised concert in Bergen.

SULT (probably named after Knut Hamsun´s novel "Hunger") is:
Tony Dryer: double bass
Guro Skumsnes Moe: double bass
Håvard Skaset: guitar
Jacob Felix Heule: percussion

If you are interested in this kind of stuff, see them live at 300 Acting Spaces 15 May at 19:30 (Norwegian time).

Guro Skumsnes Moe and Håvard Skaset also play as a duo called Bluefaced People, where they go electric. They have released a nice 7" with hand made cover (Conradsound 2012?).
100 copies will be sold, but Guro Skumsnes Moe said they hadn´t finished all the covers yet!

Dream Baby Dream - Four Tet Remix

Neneh Cherry & The Thing - Dream Baby Dream (Four Tet remix) by smalltownsupersound

While all (?) of us are just waiting for the Neneh Cherry and The Thing album, Four Tet (Kieran Hebden) is doing a remix of one of the tracks, the Suicide cover "Dream Baby Dream".

Postcards for Wyatt

The question is: Did Robert Wyatt get 500.000 postcards after John Peel suggested that his listeners send him one each?

El Doom & The Born Electric

Let me just inform you that Rune Grammofon just released a 7" vinyl with El Doom & The Born Electric.

I´ll admit that I still can´t say I love their prog-album released in January, but the single sounds a bit fresher. None of the tracks, "The teeth that match my wounds" and "The driven man that I am", are on the album.

Download the music if you like, but 500 persons might get hold of one copy each of the vinyl edition, with a great Kim Hiorthøy cover (slightly cut in my picture)!

Rare Vinyl

Some days ago we visited John Peel´s record collection, and now it´s time for a stroll over to Mats Gustafsson´s corner!

Discaholic Corner focus on free jazz, Scandinavian jazz and experimental music - all on vinyl.

"Sometimes discaholism is taken to its most further borders… when the “holy 4″ is fulfilled:

When a vinyl has the holy 4 qualities: great music, great title, great rarity and an AMAZING cover and design!!!"

Brian Eno lecture

Brian Eno (Russia 2011) on music and art in the 20th century. No less.

I´m looking forward to see Eno at the Punkt festival in Kristiansand (Norway) in September.

And this one I found over at Dangerous Minds, where they never seem to be sleeping.

The Age of Self

I never heard Bullion before, but now they have made a cover of Robert Wyatt´s "The Age of Self".
Tags: "electronic experimental hiphop wonky downtempo prog pop London". That sums it up I guess?

Robert Wyatt´s original is on the highly recommended album "Old Rottenhat" from 1985.

Erland Dahlen

Erland Dahlen (Madrugada, Nils Petter Molvær Trio) received some nice reviews for his "Rolling Bomber" album on Hubro earlier this year (see The Liminal´s).

Dahlen played a solo concert at Kjetil Husebø and Terje Evensen´s Tape to Zero festival in Oslo in April, and live video artist Sigurd Ytre-Arne has recently uploaded some videos on YouTube.

Muringa

How about some slow improvised music, that will come sneaking up on you? No?
Come on, give Muringa a chance, and listen to their "the unknown knows" on the SOFA label (2012). You will get a good half an hour of beautiful and exciting soundscapes.

The fine musicians are:
Klaus Ellerhusen Holm - alto saxophone & clarinet
Tor Haugerud - drums & percussion
Kim Myhr - guitars & objects
Martin Taxt - tuba

They have already been visiting the blog in bands like Mural, Koboku Senju and Silencers.

I have to admit that I´m happy to see that even Stef over at Free Jazz is having a bit of a hard time trying to explain why this kind of record is good!

At SOFA they make it all clear by saying that "Muringa gives the listener the hegelian third choice".
All right!

Neneh Cherry & The Thing - Accordion (Madvillain/MF Doom cover)

Neneh Cherry & The Thing "The Cherry Thing" will be released on Smalltown 19 June.
20 July they will play at Moldejazz!

Listen to "Accordion".

Britain´s coolest venue: Cafe Oto

We have visited London´s Cafe Oto several times in this blog, and are not surprised that Italian Vogue (!) has named it Britain´s coolest venue.

Read all about it in The Guardian, who visited the venue the evening Robert Wyatt was there.

"A hushed crowd has just spent two hours listening to leftfield legend Robert Wyatt play tracks from his back catalogue. The huge windows in this converted warehouse are steamed up and one audience member is close to tears, having just been telling Wyatt how much his music means to him. He is cheered warmly. "Blimey," says Wyatt."

Ken Vandermark & Paal Nilssen-Love live in Romania

Ken Vandermark & Paal Nilssen-Love, Oradea, Romania, 26.04.2012. Great duo, or what??

Extra Playful Transitions

I promise! This is the last post on Record Store Day 2012.
But let´s have this one too. "Extra Playful Transitions" (Double Six 2012) is a remix of the John Cale EP "Transitions" (2011), by Actress, Maria Minerva, Tim Hecker, Leyland Kirby & Alva Noto.
Design: Satomi.

The tracks:
A1. ‘Whaddya Mean By That’ – Maria Minvera's Freaky Cafe Del Mar Mix
A2. ‘Perfection’ – Actress Reflection Mix
A3. ‘Catastrofuk’ – Alva Noto Remodel
B1. ‘Watching & Waiting For You To Begin’ – Leyland Kirby
B2. ‘Suffocation Raga For John Cale’ – Tim Hecker

John Cale - Extra Playful: Transitions (Preview) by Double Six

John Peel´s record collection

John Peel´s record collection is going online (not the sound files I´m afraid). 100 records every week, for 26 weeks (May - October).

Over at The John Peel Centre for the Creative Arts they say: "John Peel’s family, The John Peel Centre for the Creative Arts, Eye Film and TV, and website company Klik, are working together to create an online archive of John Peel’s record collection, including specially created videos of key artists, John Peel’s home movies, John’s hand-typed note cards, and other content", and The Guardian wrote this yesterday.

We will find the archive somewhere on this site.