Brute Force

Brute Force, a new rocking noise trio from Norway, for your pleasure!

The musicians are Karl Haugland Bjorå (Guitar), Egil Kalman (Bass) and Ole Mofjell (Drums), and their album "Brute Force" was released by Va Fongool on the 25th of April.

The record company describes the music as "brutal improvised avant-garde noise", and I´m adding - with a rock attitude.
Brutal or not, I have to confessthat I slept through half of it the first time I heard it, the reason being to much spring sun I believe, so PLAY LOUD just in case.

You may listen to an excerpt below, lasting almost three minutes (of the total of 28 min).

Cover, mixing and mastering done by Lasse Marhaug.

April Video Festival

Terry Day and the Free improvisation in the UK -Trailer- from whiteemotion on Vimeo.

Jaap Blonk & Philip Jeck perform NOTATIONS (a film by Vicki Bennett) at Cafe Oto - FULL CONCERT from Vicki WFMU on Vimeo.

RADIO PARIS 2013 / Régis Boulard - La Superfolia Armaada from Olivier Mellano on Vimeo.

A collection of some videos I have enjoyed these last weeks, turned into a video festival for you all!
Happy or not, here is mainly what you get: Loads of free jazz and improvisation, some art rock, hot soul and good old rock!

- Chris Corsano (dr) and Mette Rasmussen (sax) performing at Jazzhouse, Copenhagen on the 8th of April, 2014.
- Peter Brötzmann (sax) and Steve Noble (dr) live at Kornspeicher Wels, Austria on the 11th of April, 2014.
- Terry Day and the Free improvisation in the UK - Trailer. Directed by Blanca Regina.
- Jaap Blonk & Philip Jeck perform NOTATIONS (a film by Vicki Bennett) at Cafe Oto (full concert) on the 29th of November, 2013.
- Paal Nilssen-Love and Esa Pietilä Big Orchestra plays "Big Fun" by Esa Pietilä at "Finnish Fun" Festival at Victoria Nasjonal Jazzscene, Oslo, on the 25th of January 2014.
If you want to know ho is playing check "3rd fun" on this site.
- Phil Minton at Sonic Protest on 9th of April, 2014.
- Ingrid Laubrock's XXL at Clemente Soto Velez, on 10th of March, 2014. Musicians named on YouTube.
- Ingrid Laubrock (sax) and William Parker (b) at Arts for Art / Evolving Music, NYC, on the 3rd of March, 2014.
- Ingrid Laubrock (sax) and Mary Halvorson (g) at Clemente Soto Velez, on the 10th of March, 2014.
- La Superfilia Armaada and John Greaves "Radio Paris" Régïs Boulard, on the 23rd of April,2013 - Festival Metis Villetaneuse.
- Mari Kvien Brunvoll, Odda, Norway, in October 2013.
- Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - "People Don't Get What They Deserve" on Jimmy Kimmel Live. From their new album "Give the people what they want" (Daptone 2014).
- The Nightingales - "Dumb and Drummer". From their album "For fuck´s sake" (2014).

At Last I Am Free

You all know Robert Wyatt´s beautiful version of the Chic song "At last I am free" (orig. Rough Trade 7" 1980) of course, and now it´s here again.

Since this is a 100% decent and family friendly blog, I first thought I would keep this a secret, but here we go:
"At last I am free" was released on an album called "LateNightTales" 31 December 2013, and the band behind this collection (Robert Wyatt, Carla Bley & Paul Haines, John Cale, Sonny Sharrock, Yoko Ono etc etc) call themselves *cough* My Penis Is Made Of Dogshit!

Check out the album and the cover art on BandCamp.

Ian James Stewart: Junk DNA (2013)

I missed this one last autumn! OK, I was hospitalized most of the time, but we are talking about a great track with Robert Wyatt singing and playing his horn here!
Listen to "When u love Somebody" on Ian James Stewart´s album "Junk DNA"! Wyatt is also doing backing vocals on the track "No water".

Taken from the product description on amazon.uk:
"Living in Louth Lincolnshire since 1987, i was amazed to find Robert Wyatt living here too, a few years ago he came to a solo gig I was doing and after, we got talking and have been friends ever since, When it came to starting recording "Junk DNA" I asked Robert if he would be interested in doing something on the album, I gave him a cd with some of the demo songs I'd written to have a listen to, he came round to the house a few days later and said "i don't want to colonise your music but I'd really like to sing "When U Love Somebody", so next thing we're recording his vocals and horn on that song and then some background vocals on another track "No Water", it was a real honour and I love what he brought to the songs."

Buy album or tracks from Ian James Stewart´s BandCamp.

No vinyl?

Walter and John

In March I had a post on Ben Watt´s "North Marine Drive", released in 1983 and now available again, and his "Summer into Winter" from 1982.

The video here was recorded at Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, 14.11.13, where Ben Watt and Bernard Butler did "Walter and John", a track from "Summer into Winter" that originally had Robert Wyatt on piano and vocals.

Portrait of Evan Parker (Silver/Gold)

Portrait of Evan Parker (Silver/Gold) 16mm/B&W/Colour/Sound from neilhenderson on Vimeo.

I have posted this close-up of Evan Parker playing the soprano saxophone before, but it seems to have been on and off the net.

Let´s hope it stays put this time, since it seems like Neil Henderson, who uploaded the video on Vimeo, is the man behind the portrait.

More info on Anglia Ruskin Research Online.

Spring Street Art, Bergen

Red dancers by Argus.
Puzzle by Vest.
Smoker by Yatzy (anyone recognize this fellow?).
Butterfly catcher by Joy.
Sheep (saying "what are you staring at?") by Joy.

Molde International Jazz Festival 2014

Moldejazz is happening 14 July - 19 July in Molde, the town of jazz and roses.

Last year´s artist in residence was Jason Moran, this year it is Sidsel Endresen. She will perform with Stian Westerhus, her own sextet, Merriwinkle and a remix of the Stefano Bollani and Hamilton de Holanda concert, together with PUNKT organizers Erik Honoré and Jan Bang.

Let me also mention Swedish Azz, Elephant 9 with Reine Fiske, Susanna and Ensemble neoN and the great Norwegian pop-rock band Highasakite, before you run on over here, to check the full (?) program.

Pictures from previous Moldejazz happenings on Flickr.

Nils Økland and Tore Jamne

Nils Økland (Hardanger fiddle) and Tore Jamne (drums) playing the Økland composition "Bris".

Go here for "Gyldenløve" (Økland, Jamne) and "Rull" (after P.Bulko/K. Hamre/S. Dyvik).

A record in the making perhaps? I wouldn´t mind!

Henry Cow: Unrest (Virgin 1974)

Sean Kitching speaks to Chris Cutler about Henry Cow´s album "Unrest" in The Quietus April 8th 2014: "After The Deluge: Henry Cow's Unrest Revisited".

"Henry Cow's music, whilst not for everyone, is certainly unique, although I wouldn't describe it as elitist in any sense. An amalgamation a wide range of influences, it was borne more of an aesthetic decision to discover their own path, away from any existing genre or any kind of mainstream and eventually into some kind of pagan sounding, abstract wilderness that few (perhaps none) had walked before. Already unique in comparison to other bands of the era, by the time of 1975's In Praise Of Learning and 1979's Western Culture, they truly sounded like no one else."

Unrest was dedicated to Robert Wyatt and Guru Guru/Neu!/Faust and Spacebox bassist Uli Trepte.

The Jist

The Jist is a young Norwegian duo playing improvised electroacoustic noise music, which is probably just what you need these days.

The Jist is Natalie Sandtorv (voc) and Torgeir Hovden Standal (guitar) and their first album is just out on Va Fongool.

The album was recorded in Bergen, and mixed and mastered by John Hegre.

Cover: Henrik Koppen.

I don´t know what "jist" really is, but a the track titles are like this: "The jist of a loon", "The Jist of having a mosquito stuck in your throat 1 & 2" and you may listen to the "The jist of being in between jobs" from SoundCloud here. That one is probably the noisiest piece on the album, so don´t let it scare you off.

The Dedication Orchestra

Bergi57 recently posted three videos of The Dedication Orchestra playing at Verona Jazz 2001.

The videos are not exactly high quality, but what a gang playing material by The Blue Notes!
In this blog post you may watch "Andromeda" (Chris McGregor), and you may also see "Sondela" (Mongezi Feza) and "Traumatic Experience" (Harry Miller) on YouTube.

Read more on The Blue Notes over here, and according to this page, the version of The Dedication Orchestra playing in Verona was:

TEATRO ROMANO, VERONA, ITALY
22nd June, 2001
‘JAZZ 2001’
THE DEDICATION ORCHESTRA
Maggie Nichols, Julie Tippetts, Phil Minton, Francine Luce – voices; Harry Beckett, Henry Lowther, Kenny Wheeler, Jim Dvorak – trumpets; Mark Charig - cornet; Malcolm Griffiths, Paul Rutherford, Alan Tomlinson, Dave Amis – trombones, Dave Powell – tuba; Trevor Watts – alto; Elton Dean – alto; Lol Coxhill – soprano sax; Neil Metcalfe –flute; Sean Bergin – alto & tenor; Larry Stabbins – tenor sax; Julian Arguelles – baritone sax; Keith Tippett – piano; Roy Babbington – double bass; Louis Moholo – drums; Steve Beresford – director.

One Lick Less

One Lick Less is Julien Bancilhon (guitars, vocals) and Basile Ferriot (drums, backing vocals, piano), and in May 2013 they released a cover of Robert Wyatt´s "Alifib" on their second album "Spirits of Marine Terrace".

Jump to track number 5 to hear "Alifib" in this blog post, and buy the album for next to nothing over at BandCamp.

Concert Le Monde de Robert Wyatt à Lyon

How about this!? If I understand the info correctly, the whole of Robert Wyatt´s "Rock Bottom" (and other Wyatt tunes) will be performed at Théâtres Gallo romains de Fourvière (Lyon) 12 July 2014!

The concert is led by Craig Fortnam, leader of the North Sea Radio Orchestra, with John Greaves, Elisa Caron, Pascal Comelade and Silvain Vanot.

I got a tip all the way from Italy about this! Thanks!

« Merci d'apporter un souffle d'air frais à ma musique. L'entendre interprétée par d'autres musiciens, c'est comme être grand-père. Elle mène maintenant sa propre vie – mais nous, grands-parents, nous y retrouvons aussi, quelque part. C'est un sentiment formidable. » Robert Wyatt, février 2014.

Illustration: Some other Robert Wyatt projects.

Lumen Drones

A new Norwegian instrumental psychedelic drone trio for you today. Members are the great Nils Økland (fiddles) and Per Steinar Lie and Ørjan Haaland from the band Low Frequency in Stereo.
They played before Lee Ranaldo and The Dust at the club Blå in Oslo yesterday (Norwegian link), and they have an album ready for release on ECM!

Previously they called themselves Kaudervelsk.

Listen to a demo of the track "Juggernaut" from SoundCloud. Let´s see if the playing is as raw on the final ECM release.

Let me also say that Low Frequency in Stereo´s latest album "Pop Obskura" (SPY 2013) has been on regular play on my turntable these last months.

Have You Heard of Eugene Chadbourne?

The title of the blog post is the title of Adam Harper´s piece on Eugene Chadbourne in Dummy (6 April 2014). Read all of it over here.

I have had the pleasure of hearing Chadbourne with Shockabilly in the mid eighties (doing "Purple Rain" on electric rake), as a member of Aki Takase´s band (the Fats Waller project) and one of his solo shows.

He can be pretty wild and outgoing, but the video is an example of how cool he can be playing quite straightforward too. Watch "One more road to cross" with Jimmy Carl Black (dr) and Brian Jackson (piano), and I have to admit I posted it already in 2008 too.

"Chadbourne was described as America’s “only anarcho-paramilitary-electro-folkie-troubadelic-matador”, his music as “gonzo audio journalism” that “pushes traditional music to its edge and makes it jump”".

Building Instrument

How about giving the Bergen trio Building Instrument a chance?

Their record company Hubro describes their development like this: "The trio began to play together in Bergen in 2008, and their original idea was to explore electronic music. This project was quickly abandoned in favour of a more acoustic and home-grown focus. The members of the trio have now found their own self-defined niche within a genre that could be described as a no-man’s-land"

Musicians: Mari Kvien Brunvoll (vocals, sampler, zither, percussion, kazoo), Øyvind Hegg-Lunde (drums and percussion) and Åsmund Weltzien (synthesizer, electronics, melodica).

Mari Kvien Brunvoll has been a regular in my blogs as a solo artist, in Tim Tygg and working with guitar player Stein Urheim. And on this record she is singing, using her own glorious Molde dialect of Norwegian, on some of the tracks.
*Cough* I might be a bit biased here, when it comes to how glorious that dialect is.

Øyvind Hegg-Lunde is a member of Crab Is Crap with drummer Øyvind Skarbø, Electric Eye (great psychedelia!) and The Sweetest Thrill with Stephan Meidell.

Have a listen to the opening track "Historia" ("The History"), a wordless song there.

For one reason or the other the Norwegian release date is 07.03.2014, while international release happens 16.05.2014. Why?

Raise Four (T. Monk)

There are cover versions and there are cover versions!

Now how about this version of Thelonious Monk´s "Raise Four"?

Min Xiao-Fen plays the Chinese string intrument pipa.

Listen to the original here, for comparision.