Wyatt City Blues

"Wyatt City Blues", Jonathan Wingate´s interview with Robert Wyatt for Record Collector no. 345, Jan. 2008, is now to be read at Une Discographie De Robert Wyatt.

"In the past, you have compared the way you write to an animal hunting.
That's right, just snuffling about, and if it smells good, I'll go towards it. I do that with chords and with words. I honestly have no idea what it means, I'm just drawn along by my nose. The only trouble with interviews is that it sounds like everything is the result of some kind of intellectual deliberation, whereas the deliberation and analysis comes afterwards and before, but not while I'm doing it. I work entirely by instinct."

Paal Nilssen-Love, Large unit at Moldejazz

Check out the ten minutes long video, from the Paal Nilssen-Love, Large Unit concert at Moldejazz 2013.

The players: Jon Rune Strøm - bass, Andreas Wildhagen - trommer, Paal Nilssen-Love - trommer, Mats Äleklint - trombone, Christian Meås Svendsen - bass, Klaus Holm - altsaxofon, Kasper Værnes - altsaxofon, Thomas Johansson - trompet, Børre Mølstad - tuba, Ketil Gutvik - gitar, Lasse Marhaug - elektronikk.

And then run over to All About Jazz, for John Kelman´s description of this year´s Moldejazz.

Records you might like

OK, summer holiday is over for me, and here are some of the records I listened to. Want to check them out?

Atlanter: "Vidde" (Jansen Plateproduksjon 2013). Desert blues, delta blues and kraut (what??) from Jens Carelius, Arild Hammerø, Jonas Barsten Johnsen and Morten Kvam. One track at the bottom of the blog post.

Ellerry Eskelin: "Mirage" (Clean Feed 2013). Great music from Ellerry Eskelin (sax), Michael Formanek (b) and Susan Alcorn (pedal steel g).

Panzerpappa: "Astromalist" (Rune 2012). I have forgotten to mention the "new" Rune Grammofon album from Norway´s best Canterbury influenced band. Until now! Nice!

Petter O Hanna: "Rendition of a whisper" (Gigafon 2013). Strange and beautiful from Petter Vågan and Hanna Gjermundrød.

Akira Sakata and Nobuyasy Furuya: "Live at The Bitches Brew" (Solid Records 2011). Hot stuff! Any experts on Sakata visiting? I really don´t know where I should start in his discography. As mentioned earlier, I heard him for the first time at Moldejazz this summer, playing a fantastic concert with Johan Berthling and Paal Nilssen-Love.

Colin Stetson: "New history warfare vol.3: Too see more light" (Constellation 2013). Sax magic. And Justin Vernon from Bon Iver is on it too. Video on top here.

Trespass Trio + Joe McPhee: "Human Encore" (Clean Feed 2013). Oh my, beautiful and touching music. Will buy the two previous Trespass Trio albums (Küchen, Zanussi, Strid) right away!

Chris Watson: "In St Cuthbert's Time" (Touch 2013). Experience nature from your own sofa.

Going Underground

A new DVD called "Going Underground. Paul McCartney, The Beatles And The UK Counter-culture", will be released October 1.

Let´s just steal some of the info from YouTube:

"Featuring many new interviews with key players from the time including; IT editor and long term friend of Paul McCartney, Barry Miles; founder of IT and UFO club organiser, John 'Hoppy' Hopkins; founder of UFO and Pink Floyd producer , Joe Boyd; Soft Machine drummer, Robert Wyatt; drummer from experimental improvisational collective AMM, Eddie Prevost; proprietor of Indica, the counter-cultural gallery, John Dunbar; Underground scenester, vocalist with The Deviants and IT journalist, Mick Farren; plus author of 'Days in the Life: Voices from the English Underground 1961 -- 1971', Jonathon Greene; Beatles expert, Chris Ingham and Mojo jounalist Mark Paytress.
Also includes rare archive footage, photographs from private collections and music from The Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Soft Machine, AMM and others."

Jessica Sligter: Man who scares me

Have a listen to Jessica Sligter and "Man who scares me" from Bee Sessions. The recording is probably quite new (no dates given), and the song may be found on Jessica Sligter´s second album on Hubro, "Fear and the framing" (2012).

From the same session you may also hear a song about our troublesome friends, the hormones.

Previously in this blog, we have given thumbs up for Jessica Sligter´s first album on Hubro, JÆ: "Balls and kittens, draught and strangling rain" (2011) and the band Sacred Harp: "Window´s a fall" (Trust Me 2011).

I own "Fear and the framing" on vinyl only, and must say I am a bit shocked, that I find it easier to forget albums that I don´t have on my Mac, pod or phone these days.
Once again: Please give us download codes when we buy vinyl.

Tracey Thorn: Bedsit Disco Queen

I didn´t get a chance to read all the books I planned for this summer (of course!), but before the travelling started I managed to finish Tracey Thorn´s biography "Bedsit Disco Queen" (Virago 2013).

This is a really fine book about being young and finding music, getting a career and later matching the career with other important events in life.

You probably know: Marine Girls (1980 - 1983), the solo album "A distant shore" (1982), Everything But The Girl (1982 - 2000) with Ben Watt and projects with among others Massive Attack. And if you don´t know, you will probably like the book anyway. You get song lyrics too.

Lavinia Greenlaw may be telling you how good the book is, in a better way than me.

The biography stops in 2007, and the only solo album mentioned after "Distant Shore", is "Out of the woods" (2007). How typical then, that I choose the beautiful but sad "Singles bar", from "Love and its oposite" (2010), to end this blog post!

Postcards from Norway

Oh no! My summer holiday is soon over!

All of you have probably been to Ibiza and The Maldives and such places, so here are some photos from my last holiday week (it was sunny and hot too!) in the western part of Norway.

From the top (or from north to south) you see Klippfiskkjerringa (the stockfish woman) and Kristiansund (do not mix with Kristiansand if you are going to the Punkt festival!) (four pictures), then three photos from Molde (again!) and finally one from today´s ferry trip on the fjord Sognefjorden, thunder in the air.

SCATTER - Tucker / Thomas / Minton / Turner 21-07-13

"SCATTER -- Dave Tucker (guitar), Pat Thomas (piano), Phil Minton (voice) & Roger Turner (drums) at Mopomoso free improvisation night. Filmed by Kostas Chondros at the Vortex, London, on 21 July 2013". (YouTube).

More videos at MOPOMOSO.

Thurston Moore and Mats Gustafsson at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter

Thurston Moore and Mats Gustafsson interviewed inside Are Mokkelbost´s "OK" exhibition at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Norway (July 9th 2013) (and some live footage too).

Moldejazz 2013 is over

Moldejazz 2013 is history.

Here are some photos from the open Festival Academy, run by Bjørn Stendahl (expert on Norwegian Jazz history) every year, and the morning concert Break of Day in Molde, happening in a beautiful park at seven o´clock in the morning, on the festival´s last day (and yes, hundreds of people come every year).

From top to bottom:
- Local arranger Petter Petterson on the Moldejazz history (here with Dexter Gordon and Sonny Stitt dueling in Molde in 1963).
- Kjetil Møster on his career, attitudes to music and his saxophones.
- Artist in residence Jason Moran is a great storyteller too. He seems to have enjoyed his week in Molde.
- Nordic Voices whit Kirsti Huke, Ingrid Lode, Live Maria Roggen, Torunn Sævik, Sissel Vera Pettersen, Tone Åse and Heidi Skjerve singing to the sounds of the Molde morning. Really nice! (More info in Norwegian: moldejazz.no).

Evan Parker interviewed in The Quietus

Read "Complicated Sublimity: Evan Parker Interviewed" in The Quietus (17 July).

Let me steal the part on Robert Wyatt:
"The first recording I did with Robert was for [Canadian jazz-poet] Paul Haine's Darn It [a 1994 album recorded with a host of avant-garde luminaries] where I was just in the studio waiting for my turn to record and Robert suggested I play a solo as a coda to the setting he had done of one of Paul's poems. Later he invited me to play on Schleep. Robert loves the studio so much that he slept there while he was making that. I think he had 48 tracks to work with and there must have been many changes of mind as each layer was added. Robert was a friend from the days when we both lived in Twickenham. My two older sons used to call in on their way home from school to see him because he could play them the music they didn't hear at home. Last time I saw him was backstage at Ornette's Meltdown".

The picture of Evan Parker was taken at Moldejazz in 2008, after a concert with Townhouse Orchestra (Parker, Sandell, Håker Flaten, Nilssen-Love).

A double dose of Nilssen-Love at Moldejazz

Oh my, what a concert we got Wednesday at Moldejazz, when Sakata/Nilsen-Love/Berthling played together for the first time! Akira Sakata (sax, clar, voc), Johan Berthling (b) and Paal Nilssen-Love (dr) played both hard hitting free jazz and magic, more quiet stuff with Sakata on vocals.
One of the best concerts I have heard, ever! Unfortunately it was not recorded.


Thursday Paal Nilssen-Love premiered his Paal Nilssen-Love, Large Unit, not only a big band, but some kind of double band too (two drum sets, two bass players, a row of reed players, and tuba, electronics and guitar behind them all).

Free, hot, noisy and exciting music. This band will be touring too!

Paal Nilssen-Love, Large Unit is:
Jon Rune Strøm - bass, Andreas Wildhagen - drums, Paal Nilssen-Love - drums, Mats Äleklint - trobone, Christian Meås Svendsen - bass, Klaus Holm - alto, Kasper Værnes - alto, Thomas Johansson - trumpet, Børre Mølstad - tuba, Ketil Gutvik - guitar, Lasse Marhaug - electronics.

Tuesday at Moldejazz

Some great music being played in Molde these days, in between (and during) showers of rain!

Tuesday I heard Tim Berne´s Snakeoil play in the early afternoon. Tim Berne (alto), Oscar Noriega (clarinets), Matt Michell (piano) and Ches Smith (dr, perc) did a fantastic concert, partly strictly composed, partly great solos. One extra star to Noriega this time.

The ECM release "Snakeoil" (2012) is still hot!

Around midnight Stian Westerhus & Pale Horses entered the stage! I was a bit shocked when Westerhus started singing (!), but it all worked out fine!

The trio might be new, but the musicians are well known, with Øystein Moen on keyboards and Erland Dahlen drums.

Great music (please note, some people claim that this must be good stuff for Sigurd Ros fans), and fantastic lights during the concert.

Albatrosh and Trondheim Jazzorkester: Tree House

Moldejazz got going on Monday, with lots of bad weather and lots of great music.

André Roligheten and Eyolf Dale of Albatrosh returned to Moldejazz with the commissioned work "Tree House", written for Albatrosh and Trondheim Jazzorkester.

This is strictly composed music, varied and interesting all the way. I hereby name it cool, contemporary, big band jazz (but I won´t fight for that description).

Visual artist Andreas Paleologos was an important member of the band, doing live animation and painting a story to go with the music. Beautiful!

Check out this gang, and wish you were there:

Albatrosh
André Roligheten - tenor saxophone, bass clarinet
Eyolf Dale - piano


Trondheim Jazzorkester (named "The World´s Best Jazz Orchestra by Albatrosh)
Sissel Vera Pettersen - alt saxophon and vocals
Eirik Hegdal - saxophones og clarinett
Morten Barrikmo - clarinett, bass clarinet og contrabass clarinet
Hayden Powell - trumpet
Eivind Lønning - trumpet
Hild Sofie Tafjord - horn
Erik Johannessen - trombone
Kristoffer Lo - tuba
Ola Kvernberg - violin
Lene Grenager - cello
Mats Eilertsen - contrabass
Tor Haugerud - drums/percussion
Andreas Paleologos - videoanimation
Tor Breivik - sound-design

Stine Janvin Motland live

Stine Janvin Motland (voice) Solo Work at AGAIN the WOLVES: an unsusual sounding map
Les ateliers Claus, Brussels 2013 (via YouTube).

Stine Janvin Motland in the blog.

Soon Moldejazz 2013

We are almost ready for Moldejazz 2013, starting Monday 15 July.
Rain is on it´s way, and dark clouds are approaching Nina Due´s saxophone player sculpture, people are prepared to sell us all kinds of stuff from stalls, and the first "Jazz Offer" is about national costumes!

Jason Moran is Artist in Residence this year, playing several concerts, one of them a duo concert with Charles Lloyd.

BJ Cole

Just a reminder that the folk impro trio 1982 (Sigbjørn Apeland, Øyvind Skarbø, Nils Økland) will play with pedal master BJ Cole again, at Haugesund´s (Norway) Sildajazz festival in August.

Enjoy BJ Cole with the Hank Wangford Band in the video, and don´t forget the album "1982 + BJ Cole" on the Hubro label.

The Wilde Flowers LP

It seems like it is still possible to get the original Canterbury band Wilde Flowers in a physical format.

I visited the great record store Big Dipper in Oslo last week, and picked up a copy of the album "The Wilde Flowers" (Vinyl Lovers 2009).
Here you can hear people like Robert Wyatt, Hugh Hopper, Brian Hopper, Richard Sinclair, Graham Flight, Pye Hastings, Mike Ratledge and Richard Coughlan play Booker T and Chuck Berry tunes, and a lot of self made songs in 60s style, most of them composed by Hugh Hopper and Brian Hopper.

Kevin Ayers is on three tracks.

Here is an earlier blog post on Wilde Flowers, and if you compare the LP with the CD versions (Voiceprint 1994) containing this same material, you will find that the vinyl edition lack one version of "Impotence" (H. Hopper/R. Wyatt) and two versions (one instrumental) of "Memories" (H. Hopper).

See who play what, where on Discogs, with links to the CDs too.

Ikue Mori and Maja S. K. Ratkje

Please note that a new album by Ikue Mori (laptop) and Maja Ratkje (electronics, voice) has been released!
"Scrumptious Sabotage" (Bocian Records 2013) contain live recordings from Belfast (31 March) and Ulverston (29 March) 2012, all made into a really fine piece of varied music in the impro-noise field

Let me just steal this from Bocian´s site:
"In these carefully crafted, long and nuanced compositions , both artists maneuver between meditative, ritual areas and irregular, elusive noise blots. The most astonishing element of this superb performance is the realization that even though the compositions are entirely intuitive, created without any previous planning, guidelines or negotations, the listener can sense a nearly palpable sense of deep connection and understanding between the artists".

You have to fight for one of the 250 copies on black vinyl, 100 on orange vinyl, or go for the CD.
I have had no problems when ordering from Bocian, quick delivery and all.

Cover design: Lasse Marhaug.

Ivory Cutlery

You may have noticed that here in Robert Wyatt and Stuff we are great Ivor Cutler fans (well, it´s only me, but "we" sound so much better!)?

So how about this duo then? Ivory Cutlery!? First we hear Ivor Cutler´s "I had a little boat", then prepare for "Pussy on the mat" (Cutler) and "I wish" (?).

Pan Gu

In Chinese mythology Pan Gu is the primeval man, born of a cosmic egg, but Pan Gu is also a duo with Lasse Marhaug (elektronics) and Leslie Low (guitar, voice). They have released an album called (prepare yourselves now!) "Primeval Man Born of the Cosmic Egg" on Utech Records (2013). The music is all improvised, it´s dark but beautiful (yes!) and spiced with noise elements. The music was recorded by Stian Westerhus in Oslo in 2011.

You may also listen on Utech´s Bandcamp, and download the album for a small amount of money.
I bought a vinyl copy at Tiger in Oslo, and you may shop from the record company too. 300 copies made, it seems.

Here are a couple of videos from September and December 2012.

Oslo street art, July 2013

After a far to short stay in Oslo this weekend, I still have far too many street art photos.
If you seek, you will find most of them on my Flickr, and here you have a selection (from the top): Inti, Jason, m-city, DotDotDot (Free Pussy Riot and La Linea), Phlegm and C215 (three pieces), and finally three unknown ones (to me at least).

Peter Brötzmann in Ljubljana

The 54th jazz festival in Ljubljana happened recently, so let´s have a fine interview with Peter Brötzmann from that festival and concert video of Sax and Drums, a new project with Peter Brötzmann, Ken Vandermark, Hamid Drake and Chad Taylor. Sax and drums indeed!

Angles 9

Here you have Angles 9, live in Belgium in 2012!

These fine musicians are playing for you:

Martin Kuchen - Alto sax
Eirik Hegdal - Baritone sax
Goran Kajfes - Trumpet
Magnus Broo - Trumpet
Mats Äleklint - Trombone
Alexander Zethson - Piano
Mattias Ståhl - Vibraphone
Johan Berthling - Bass
Andreas Werliin - Drums

I don´t know if this crew has released anything, but check out Angles and Angles 8´s releases on Clean Feed.

Jon Christensen 70-Year Anniversary Concert

Saturday I visited Kongsberg Jazz Festival for the first time, and attended drummer veteran John Christensen´s 70-year anniversary concert (Norwegian link).

Kongsberg Jazz Festival asked Christensen to pick the musicians he wanted to work with, and he let his vocalist daughter Emilie Stoesen Christensen have an important role. Almost half of the concert was her music and lyrics.

It turned out to be a really nice concert, no fireworks or big gestures, only very fine music. And John Christensen, he was as usual mostly hidden behind his cymbals, not speaking one word.
Finally he had to walk to the front of the stage to receive two rounds of standing ovation. Cool guy!

The band:

Jon Christensen – drums
Emilie Stoesen Christensen – vocal
Arild Andersen – bass
Tore Brunborg – saxophone
Bugge Wesseltoft – piano.

Food and Fennesz live

Thomas Strønen - drums - electronics
Iain Ballamy - saxophones/ electronics
Christian Fennesz - guitar/ electronics

Live at Haus Der Kunst, Munchen Jan. 10th 2013.
ECM Exhibition and concert series.

You will find the same info, and some more videos, over at pohlitz on YouTube.

Check out Food on ECM, and please note that Fennesz is coming to PUNKT with The Kilowatt Hour.

Robert Wyatt tribute on new Mary Halvorson album

Mary Halvorson pays tribute to Robert Wyatt on the forthcoming album "Illusionary Sea" (Firehouse 12) scheduled for September release. The tribute is in the form of an arrangement of the source for ‘Maryan’ ('Nairam' by Philip Catherine), from Wyatt's album Shleep.

A long time ago we mentioned Mary Halvorson´s guest post in "Destination Out" (October 2010) "--on Robert Wyatt & Indirect Influence". And let´s just have some of it here too:

"The first time I heard Robert Wyatt was in 2006 when a friend played me Rock Bottom (1974). I still remember the feeling of hearing the first track, “Sea Song.” I was sitting on my living room floor in front of the stereo. It was one of those rare moments when you are so completely bowled over by a piece of music that you don’t know what to think. I wasn’t even sure I liked it; I was just completely freaked out. The music was so beautiful, so strange, incredibly dark, and entirely unlike anything I’d heard. That’s what I love about Wyatt’s music. He’s not weird for the sake of being weird. The music is purely his own."

As a bonus today, you all get Mary Halvorson Quintet: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert from February 2013.

Okkyung Lee: "Ghil" (Ideologic Organ 2013)

Are you game for some improvised noise cello? Alright!

Okkyung Lee recently released the album "Ghil" on Ideologic Organ (2013). The music was recorded on an old portable cassette player by Lasse Marhaug in Norway (Oslo, Nesodden and Rjukan) in 2012.

Let´s cite the record company: "..Marhaug wanted to record Ghil in an expressionistic way – to purposely use crude equipment and unorthodox microphone placement in order to give a more raw and direct depiction of Okkyung playing her music".
And yes, it is raw. Free improv, drone darkness (like in "Cheol-Kkot" and "Hollow Water") and (please don´t get mad!) cello playing that makes me think of Hendrix (listen to the opening of the SoundCloud track above). It´s tough enough.

This is not background music at, but is benefiting from some focused listening. I tried listening on the bus one day, surrounded by noisy passengers. Not good for my blood pressure at all!

Jan Bang: "Sinking Ship"

Jan Bang recently uploaded the piece "Sinking Ship", taken from the forthcoming album "Narrative from the Subtropics" (Jazzland 2013), on SoundCloud. The album will be released 6 September, nicely timed with PUNKT 2013.

Musicians:

Jan Bang: samples, programming
Arve Henriksen: trumpet, vocal
Stian Westerhus: guitar
David Soler: guitar samples.

Soft Machine live 1969 at Actual Music Festival

If you are interested, follow the links to The Witchwood Records or YouTube for some bootleg material from Soft Machine´s concert at Actuel Music Festival, Amougies, Belgium (28 October 1969).
And just for the record: I have (of course) not uploaded any bootlegs, even if my photo of Snurre´s Wyatt stencil is on the "video" on YouTube.

According to Graham Bennet´s "Soft Machine Out-Bloody-Rageous" (SAF 2005) this was the Soft Machine crew at the festival: Robert Wyatt, Mike Ratledge, Hugh Hopper, Mark Charig, Lyn Dobson, Elton Dean and Nick Evans.

A 75 min long film called "Amougies Music Power" was made during the festival, and it both opens with ("Moon in June") and ends with ("Hibou Anemone and Bear") Soft Machine.

I found the poster on the Luiz Woodstock blog, and if you wonder why it says Paris on the poster, the festival was moved to Belgium on short notice!

Michael King adds this very important(??) info in "Wrong Movements. A Robert Wyatt History" (SAF 1994) : "For this performance, the microphone line for Robert´s snare drum was fed through an Echoplex". Yes!