Relaxing

Having a couple of days off. See you Wednesday evening, or thereabouts.

Personal Best #2

Lasse Marhaug has released the second issue of his "Personal Best" fanzine, this time described as "Fanzine for noise, music and no progress" (my blog post on the first issue here).
What you get is mostly quite fresh interviews (although one is from 2007), and Marhaug himself interviewed Jaakko Vanhala (on tea drinking, and you wine snobs may just give in!), Phil Blankenship (just released a spoken word album with lyrics from Red Hot Chili Peppers´ "Blood Sugar Sex Magic"), Don Dietrich from Borbetomagus, Attila Csihar and Maja S.K. Ratkje.

The Ratkje interview is about artists and the need to go political, and the Norwegian oil company Statoil and their quite huge cultural grants (1 million Norwegian kroner!).
Do artists sell their souls or not?

I also liked Thor-Erik Johnsen´s talk with Fredrik Ness Sevendal and Øyvind Holen´s with Dylan Carlson from Earth (from 2011).

Nice fanzine, and quite good pictures too!
Both #1 and #2 are sold by Tiger of Oslo.

And it´s all in English!

The Deciders at Moldejazz

The outdoors concerts at Moldejazz were not very well attended this year, so now we have a discussion on how to attract lots of people.
The local newspaper Romsdals Budstikke gets nostalgic with pictures from old and recent outdoor concerts here.

Me, I hope everybody will also focus on the concerts that are happening at the smaller festival venues. There is always a lot of good stuff happening at the Moldejazz festival.

Todays video is from a concert I am sorry to say I missed! The Deciders is bass man Ole Morten Vågan´s dream band, formed in 2009 after receiving a prize at the Kongsberg Jazz festival.

Musicians: Rudi Mahall (clar) og Axel Dörner (trp), who also played with Globe Unity Orchestra in Molde, and Fredrik Ljungkvist (sax), Jon Fält (dr) and Ole Morten Vågan (bass).

Delta Saxophone Quartet re-packaged

A message from MoonJune records (from their news letter):
DELTA SAXOPHONE QUARTET "Dedicated To You But You Weren't Listening - The Music of Soft Machine" re-packaged with one live bonus track, featuring Hugh Hopper - FREE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE"!

The bonus track with Hugh Hopper is "Facelift", as heard on the video.

My blog post on the album from 2007 right here.

PNL 013 - 015

I´m holiday travelling these days, and haven´t hade the time to listen too closely, but so far I am very happy with my three latest from Paal Nilssen-Love´s PNL-company:

Double Tandem - Ab Baars (ts, BB clar, shakuhachi), Pal Nilssen-Love (dr, perc), Ken Vandermark (ts, BB clar): "Cement" (PNL 013, 2012).
Recorded live at Cementen (Stavanger) in September 2011.
Mixmaster:Frode Gjerstad.

Bobby Bradford (cornet), Frode Gjerstad (as, BB clar, bass clar), Paal Nilssen-Love (dr, perc): "Dragon" (PNL 014, 2012).
Recorded live at Klub Dragnon (Poznan, Poland) in November 2010.

Frode Gjerstad Trio: "Hide Out" (PNL 015, 2012).
Jon Rune Strøm (b), Frode Gjerstad (as, BB clar, bass clar), Paal Nilssen-Love (dr, perc).
Recorded live at The Hideout (Chicago, USA) in August 2011.

Cover on all CDs: Lasse Marhaug.

I have already posted the PNL discography, but here we go again, with the new CDs included:

Lasse Marhaug & Paal Nilssen-Love: Stalk (PNL 001, 2007)
Nils Henrik Aasheim & Paal Nilssen-Love: Late Play (PNL 002, 2007)
Magnus Broo & Paal Nilssen-Love: Game (PNL 003, 2008)
Sten Sandell Trio: Face of Tokyo (PNL 004, 2009)
Paal Nilssen-Love: 27 Years Later (PNL 005, 2010)
Paal Nilssen-Love & Anders Hana: AM/FM (PNL 006, 2010)
Paal Nilssen-Love: Miró (PNL 007, 2011)
Slugfield (Nilssen-Love, Marhaug, Ratkje): Slime Zone (PNL 008, 2012)
Lasse Marhaug & Paal Nilssen-Love: No Combo LP (PICA 028/PNL 009, 2011)
Anders Hana & Paal Nilssen-Love: Hosanna and Parallel Sevens 10" (PNL 010, 2011)
Fire Room (Nilssen-Love, Marhaug, Vandermark): Wels 2008/11/08 LP (Pica 030/PNL 011, 2011)
Terrie EX & Paal Nilssen-Love: Hurgu! (PNL 012, 2011)
Double Tandem (Nilssen-Love, Vandermark, Baars): Cement (PNL 013, 2012)
Bradford, Gjerstad, Nilssen-Love: Dragon (PNL 014, 2012)
Frode Gjerstad Trio: Hide Out (PNL 015, 2012)

Trondheim con artist

Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet + 1 22/04/2011

Krioet recently uploaded several videos of Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet + 1 at Café Ada in Wuppertal (Germany), from April 2011.

Musicians: Peter Brötzmann, Mats Gustafsson, Ken Vandermark, Joe Mcphee, Johannes Bauer, Jeb Bishop, Per-Åke Holmlander, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Kent Kessler, Michael Zerang, Paal Nilssen-Love.

More videos over here.

Ultramarine: Kingdom (with Robert Wyatt)

Enjoy the music, and watch Robert Wyatt in the video to Ultramarine´s "Kingdom", from the "United Kingdoms" album (1993)!

Seek out the album too! Robert Wyatt sings on "Kingdom" and "Happy Land", and does backing vocals on several tunes.

Moldejazz 2012 - Friday

Things you may experience on a Friday at Moldejazz:

- Jazz historian Bjørn Stendahl had invited Evan Parker and Alexander von Schlippenbach to talk about European Free Jazz at the Festival Academy. Avantgarde, free jazz, creative music, progressive jazz, call it whatever you like, these guys have been there, and seemed to enjoy talking about it too!

- Lasse Marhaug turned the volume up at visual artist Kjell Bjørgeengen´s festival exhibition, also bringing some more action to the screens. Good stuff!

- Alexander von Schlippenbach (p), Paul Lovens (dr) and Evan Parker (sax) were in a bit of hurry, and had to finish their trio concert after 50 minutes, because two of them had a plane to catch.
Seeing Evan Parker and Paul Lovens several times this week, has been the festival highlight for me.

And since it was Friday night, i was allowed to stay out after midnight to see Neneh Cherry and The Thing! Even if the sound was not perfect from the word go, at least where I was hiding (close to one of the walls), things got much better (or I was relaxing more in the club atmosphere?) and the show was great (music, sound, lights etc)!
My back was hurting like hell after standing on my feet for almost two hours, but that did not feel too bad after all, when I heard that the poor people of the band had to get on a night ferry after the concert, to reach their venue in Austria in time for the Saturday concert! What happened to stars and posh parties?

"Fire Flate" uploaded a video from the Schlippenbach/Lovens/Parker concert. More videos here.

Moldejazz - Thursday

I guess I should have attended Antony & The Johnsons outdoor concert here in Molde, but I have to admit I´m not very fond of outdoor concerts. I read the local Molde newspaper this morning, and it seems like Antony thought it was so nice here, that it was almost like living in Smurf country. He sure knows how to flatter people!

So, instead of freezing outdoors (summer only in theory here), I heard two completely different concerts, attended by what seemed like two completely different audiences (even if a few of us were both places).

More than 40 years old Globe Unity Orchestra were eleven musicians on stage (and what musicians!), and were greeted by an audience of around fifty people (some more came later) in a quite big venue. They played damned good, hot (!) free jazz, gave us some fantastic solos and the audience was totally quiet, except for the final applause!

These musicians really deserved some serious shout outs and whistling:
Evan Parker, Gerd Dudek, Henrik Walsdorff, (sax, clar), Rudi Mahall (b clar), Axel Dørner, Jean-Luc Capozzo, (tp), Nils Wogram, Christoph Thewes (tb), Alexander von Schlippenbach (p), Paul Lytton, Paul Lovens (dr).

Later in the evening there was a packed house for Håkon Kornstad and Tenor Battle.
Sax player and opera student Kornstad and his three musketeers, Sigbjørn Apeland (harmonium), Per Zanussi (b, saw) and Øyvind Skarbø (dr) really had the audience smiling.
I heard them do a great concert in a church in Bergen during the Nattjazz festival in May, but a club audience like this was even more suitable. Fantastic!

Moldejazz - Wednesday

Busy times at Moldejazz these days, and just a short roundup from Wednesday here. I heard Jeanelle Monae from my mother´s garden and missed Jøkleba, but still!

- Moldejazz has a special program for kids this year, and Wednesday´s Festival Academy focused on music for children. Veteran drummer Espen Rud (Min Bul, Svein Finnerud Trio) and vocal artist Eldbjørg Raknes were guesting.

- I guess I really should keep quiet about it, but I had never heard Australian The Necks until yesterday! They played a midday concert for quite a small audience, but were fantastic! Great improv! The Necks are Chris Abraham (p), Tony Buck (dr) and Lloyd Swanton (b).

- I had a front seat at the Paul Lovens(dr, perc) and Thomas Lehn (analog synthesizer) concert, and was happy to observe their improvisation and communication! A short video here.
Paul Lovens is also going to play with Globe Unity Orchestra during the festival, and in a trio with Alexander von Schlippenback and Evan Parker.
Thomas Lehn will perform with artist Kjell Bjørgeengen in his exhibition on Thursday (hey, less than three hours from now!).

- Later in the evening I attended the concert with Aki Takase (p) and Han Bennink (dr). Wild rythms, nice melodies and showtime! Bennink of course, beats his single drum, his shoes, teeth, bottles, walls and you name it, and if you sit close to the drummer, you sometimes have to concentrate to find Takase in there, but she came through for sure! They seemed to enjoy each others company too!

Bennink after dragging his wet finger across the drum: "This sounds like Kurt Schwitters´ fart! But shit happens!".

- On my way home I was a bit scared by a man in a hedge.

Parker, Edwards, Halvorson at The Vortex

Evan Parker (sax), John Edwards (b) and Mary Halvorson (g) at The Vortex in London 24 May 2012.

I´m looking forward to hear Evan Parker at Moldejazz this week:
- Globe Unity Orchestra (Thursday 19 July).
- Schlippenbach, Lovens, Parker (Friday 20 July).
- Festival academy on European free jazz. Alexander von Schlippenbach and Evan Parker (Friday 20 July).

Moldejazz

The Moldejazz festival opened this Monday with a parade in honour of Lionel Batiste, who recently passed away. He used to lead the parade in Molde for several years, and was a very popular guest here.

I attended the opening of festival artist Kjell Bjørgeengen´s exhibition, where he did live video to the music of Keith Rowe. Loads of electronics for a minimalistic concert!

The sculpture outside the gallery is made by Atle Selnes Nielsen, and is called "Lümpf Tümpf Trll?". Of course!

In the evening I heard Gilad Atzmon Orient House Ensemble, who played a fine and energetic set, with a mix of jazz, folk and even a take on Ravel´s "Bolero".

They had obviously been in contact with Norwegian prices for food, claiming you could buy a house in other parts of the world, for the money that would buy you a bowl of soup here. (It´s not THAT bad, really, but we are stinking rich, are we not?).

The Orient House Ensemble ended their show with "What a wonderful world", Atzmon saying that the world might get better, even ending up like "one big fucking Molde"!
The only thing I missed was Robert Wyatt´s vocals on that last song.

Canterbury Soundwaves Episode 21

Are you ready for a new episode of Canterbury Soundwaves? Lol Coxhill, Robert Wyatt, Soft Machine, Matching Mole, Kevin Ayers and lots of others. Head on over here for more info on #21.

Please note: It is still possible to buy some of this music!

Terje Rypdal in Molde

I´m in Molde for the jazz festival starting Monday 16 July, and today I attended the opening of a new concert house here.

Guitar maverick Terje Rypdal (he lives not far from Molde) and his son Marius Rypdal (electronica) were among the musicians of the opening programme, and they played a great set, a bit tougher to the ears than what the rest of the speakers and artists managed!

And what better opportunity then, than to remind you all (and myself!) to get around to listen to the new (and expanded) edition of the ECM album "Odyssey", originally released in 1975! Looking forward to get my ears on that one. A classic for sure!

Music for Norwegian folktales

Martin Horntveth (Jaga Jazzist, National Bank) has composed music for an exhibition about Norwegian folktales (warning: Norwegian link), at the National Museum of Norway.

Lol Coxhill obituaries and videos

Please read the Lol COxhill obituaries in The Guardian and The Independent.

Some new videos with Lol Coxhill have also been uploaded on YouTube recently:
- With Ian Smith (tp) and Paul Rutherford (tb) (2002).
- With Neil Metcalfe (fl) (2008).
- With Marcio Mattos (b), Steve Noble (dr) and Ian Smith (tp) (2011).

Ny Musikk and Cafe Oto Presents

Norway´s "Ny Musikk" organization and Cafe Oto have programmed a concerts series, starting Friday 13th July with Minibus Pimps (Helge Sten and John Paul Jones).
Other artists sometimes seen in this blog, like Nude on Sand (Jenny Hval and Håvard Volden), Stian Westerhus, Hild Sofie Tafjord and Jazkamer, will follow.

Check out Cafe Oto´s programme here.

Hild Sofie Tafjord will also be playing at the Tusk Festival in October, and since the festival has posted her solo album "Kama" (Pica Disk 2007) on SoundCloud, I guess it´s OK to put it here too!
Fantastic noise for French Horn (!), and I seem to remember some talk about a new solo album too?

Lol Coxhill R.I.P.

Today we got the sad news that Lol Coxhill died, after some time of serious illness.

In this blog we want to salute Coxhill both for his work as a free improvising musician (see Helen Petts´ video from 2009), and for his work with Kevin Ayers (see the "May I" video from 1972) and Robert Wyatt.

Let´s cite Jazzwise, writing that Lol Coxhill probably was "..the only saxophonist who could claim to have played with Anthony Braxton, Tommy Cooper and punk rockers The Damned. He will be greatly missed".

And please read David Toop: "end of play, for Lol Coxhill".

John Greaves: Verlaine 2

Four years ago (time flies!) I had a tiny blog post on John Greaves and his album "Verlaine", with lyrics by the poet Paul Verlaine and music by Greaves.

Now John Greaves is back with part two, "Divine Ignorante" on Cristal Records (2012).
And it is still French of course, and I don´t understand much of it, but I like it a lot anyway!
I guess you get the printed poems if you buy the CD this time too (I settled for the mp3s), but Verlaine´s poems should all be possible to find over at Project Gutenberg (see here for instance).

Musicians:
John Greaves : vocals, piano, Fender Rhodes, organ, bass guitar
Jeff Morin : guitar, bass guitar
Silvain Vanot : guitar, banjo, harmonica, vocals
Matthieu Rabaté : drums
Scott Taylor : accordion, concertina , flutes, trumpette, tuba
Laurent Valéro : violin, alto, bandoneon, flutes
Jeanne Added : vocals
Jonathan Bell : piano (one track)
Michel Rechtman : chorus (one track)

Elise Caron: vocals (added 23 July, after comment)

An opera based on the project seems to be ready too (or at least in the making). Check out the teaser below.

Atomic at Kongsberg

Never expect anything less than a great show from Atomic! Here they are at The Kongsberg Jazz Festival the other day.

St Francis Duo

Stephen O´Malley (g) and Steve Noble (dr) are St Francis Duo.
In 2010 they played two evenings at London´s Cafe Oto, and you may get a recording of these concerts on double vinyl, CD and mp3, thanks to Bo´Weavil.

Stephen O´Malley, as you all know, is the noise and drone man from Sunn O))), and Steve Noble seems to have played with the lot of free jazzers around (I heard him at All Ears in January with Rolf Erik Nystrøm and Ketil Gutvik (picture).Both of them play in Æthenor.

You get four great improvisations, lasting 18 - 21 minutes.These guys are tough enough, but it´s not noisy all the time. Check out track number two for instance, with it´s long quiet period in the middle.

Oh yes, I wanted the double vinyl, but got the download from emusic instead, partly because of the price exceeding the Norwegian level for extra taxing of imported goods. It´s still the ridicilous amount of 200 Norwegian kroner (less than 20 GBP, 35 USD)!

Phil Minton and Ute Wasserman - Ursonate Improvisation

Phil Minton and Ute Wassermann improvise around Kurt Schwitters´ "Ursonate" during Helen Petts' konsert "Throw Them Up and Let Them Sing".

Petts made a film about Kurt Schwitters, same name as the concert, and I have blogged about it (among other places) here.

Read what Jaap Blonk writes about the ursonate, and listen to a bit of the original (autostart).

Jeanette Lindstrøm: Fragments

Jeanette Lindstrøm will release a new album in November. The song "Fragments" is on Soundcloud already.

And what better then, than to (once more!) remind you all about her album "Attitude & Orbit Control" from 2009, with Robert Wyatt guesting.

Below you will find a Libido remix of "River" from that record, where Wyatt is singing.

Dolk and Pøbel in Lofoten (Norway)

“Living Decay – a portrait of a changing landscape” 24′ – 2012 ( final version) from Nulliversi on Vimeo.

Davide Fasolo followed Dolk and Pøbel in the Lofoten area of Norway in 2008.
Enjoy the street art and the scenery in “Living Decay – a portrait of a changing landscape” 24′ – 2012 (final version).

More info on Vimeo.

Wicked Game

Chris Isaak - Wicked Game from Telegenics on Vimeo.

The blog Dangerous Minds is unbelievable cool when it comes to finding obscure and entertaining videos. Sometimes I feel like reposting all their blog posts, but you better visit the blog yourselves.

The other day they posted a David Lynch directed video to Chris Isaak´s "Wicked Game" from "Wild at heart". What a fantastic song!

I have to admit i used to like Herb Ritts´ video with super model Helena Christensen too. Hope that´s OK with you.

Chris Isaak - Wicked Game from Vabisin on Vimeo.

10/7:
Well, it was fun as long as it lasted. It´s still here, but the quality is not so good.

Moldejazz 2012

It´s still almost two weeks left, but I could not wait. Here is a starter for this summer´s Moldejazz. Some of the mentioned musicians play with other artists than the ones in the videos:

Neneh Cherry & The Thing, Ambrose Akinmusire, Giovanna Pessi & Susanna Wallumrød, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Evan Parker & Paul Lovens, Gilad Atzmon and The Orient House Ensemble, The Necks, Aki Takase, Håkon Kornstad Tenor Battle, Stephan Micus and Hayden Powell.

See you there!

John Surman: Saltash Bells (ECM)

I believe I first heard (and liked!) John Surman on "Extrapolation" (1969) with John McLaughlin and "Morning Glory" (1973), where Terje Rypdal is also playing.

Surman has released several solo albums, and I own "Westering Home" (1972), "Upon Reflection" (1979), "Private City" (1988) and "A Biography Of The Rev, Absalom Dawe" (1995), recommending all of them! The four last ones are on ECM, and I suggest you try "Upon Reflection" first, if you don´t know them.
No, I am not a John Surman expert, but you might become one if you start studying Dan Kurdilla´s (not completely updated) discography.

Well, John Surman is at it again, with a fine new solo album called "Saltash Bells", with music inspired by the English landscapes he grew up in.
The album title (and title track) refers to the sound of the church bells of Saltash.
Warning: This is romantic, melodic and beautiful music, and might be just a bit too sweet for some of you tough guys.

John Surman plays saxophones (baritone, soprano, tenor), clarinets (alto, bass, contrabass), harmonica and synthesizer.