Moldejazz 2015

The Moldejazz 2015 festival is happening 13 - 18 July.

Today we learnt that Mats Gustafsson is this year´s artist in residence, and his choices are:
Fire! Orchestra, Gustafsson & Stetson, The Thing & James Blood Ulmer (!), Petter Northug Tribute Unit - New Instruments in Jazz and Sport (Northug is a master Norwegian skier famous for teasing the Swedes) and the early morning concert Break of Day in Molde with Barry Guy, Maya Homburger, Mats Gustafsson, Erik Carlsson and Anders Nyqvist.

And check out the rest of the program too, with D´Angelo, Jack De Johnette - Made in Chicago, Sly & Robbie with Nils Petter Molvær, Møster!, Zanussi 5 and lots of others!

Pretty good?

Some new sounds for you

- Martin Küchen / Steve Noble / Johan Berthling "Night in Europe" from upcoming album on NoBusiness.

- Anneli Drecker "Fisherman´s Blues" from "Rocks & Straws" (Rune Grammofon 2015)

- Platform "Coleoptera" from "Anthropocene" (Va Fongool April 2015)

- Jenny Hval "That Battle is Over" from the album "Apocalypse, girl" out June 2015 on Sacred Bones.

Daevid Allen interviewed

In March (2015) Australia´s Radio National replayed a 15 year old great interview with Daevid Allen.

Allen was then in Finland to play on a Big Band Festival!

Link to audio right here (let´s hope it will stay there for a while).

Thanks again to "What´s Rattlin´?".

Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld

Sarah Neufeld at The Kitchen with Colin Stetson (February 14, 2014) from The Kitchen on Vimeo.

Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld´s album "Never were the way she was" is out on Constellation Records these days. Stream full album on Fader.

They are playing three dates in Norway (rest of the tour dates on Colin Stetson´s web site):

Victoria – Nasjonal Jazzscene (Oslo) 23 April

Sardinen, USF (Bergen) 24 April

Dokkhuset Scene (Trondheim) 25 April

Soft Machine for Record Store Day 2015

OK, so some of you found a Soft Machine LP on Record Store Day?
Not here in Bergen, Norway I believe.

Secret Records pressed 1000 copies of a 9 track album (180 g vinyl).

Hibou, Anemone & Bear seem to know that it´s called "Wonderland", and if you follow the link to get there, you will find the tracks too.

All songs are probably taken from the Secret Records 2014 release "Tanglewood Tails".

Me, I came home from Record Store Day with a Todd Rundgren 12" (with Lindström and Emil Nikolaisen) and a 10" with Frank Sinatra. On my way home I picked up the first Incredible String Band album in a used store too, focusing on no style or genre as usual.

Susanna - Who by Fire

Here is the first single from Susanna's upcoming "Songs Revisited" EP to be released in May 2015.
A fine cover of Leonard Cohen´s "Who by Fire".

Tracks:

01 “Who By Fire” (Leonard Cohen)
02 “Everything Is Everything” (Phoenix)
03 “Traveling” (Susanna)
04 “What’s Love Got To Do With It” (Tina Turner)
05 “Death Hanging” (Susanna)

Susanna: vocals, grand piano.
Helge Sten: guitar
Fredrik Wallumrød: drums, vocals
Produced by Susanna and Deathprod

See Stereogum.

A Mutantine Collection

I just had a listen to a sampler from Mutantine Records, a company I have never even heard of, and it sounds good!

Not that I know many of the artists either (presented as "d'artistes de la scène avant-pop, pop expérimentale et freakfolk du monde entier") except Phonophani (also known as Espen Sommer Eide). Sommer Eide is working with Japanese Haco here on "Sorry, They Were Robots".

Listen and download from Bandcamp, or try to get hold of one of the 100 vinyl copies of the album.

Bergen Street Art Spring 2015

Here are some of my last street art shots from Bergen.

From the top:
Eagle by anonymous.
MuM has been painting in the woods.
Insects by Dake.
Fuck da pol... by Skurk.
Troll pushing souvenirs by Skurk.
Motorcycle by Newton and older works by DotDotDot and Torso (Je suis).
Pasteup by Teg.
MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction) by Joy.

As always: Click on pictures for larger versions and feel free to visit my Flickr.

Cold Mailman

Cold Mailman - Something You Do from André Chocron on Vimeo.

Check out the new Cold Mailman song "Something you do" and Andre Chocron´s video.

Sweet?

See if you can find the nods to Chocron´s videos to Cold Mailman´s "My recurring dream" and "Time is of the essence" too.

Nils Økland Band

The band: Nils Økland Band

The album: Kjølvatn (ECM 2015)

The musicians:
Nils Økland (Hardanger fiddle, violin, viola d´amore)
Rolf-Erik Nystrøm (alto and baritone saxophones)
Sigbjørn Apeland (harmonium)
Mats Eilertsen (double bass)
Håkon Mørch Stene (perc, vibraphone)

The music:
Either folk or jazz with some contemporary spices? Or perhaps not? A Norwegian reviewer called it folk for jazz lovers.
It´s very, very beautiful and melancholic, but it will still make you happy.
A must listen.

New Bristol £5

Street Artist Stewy has redesigned a new Bristol £5 note, and who will be pictured on the note but Robert Wyatt (and Banksy, Tricky and others)!

Not that I knew there were any Bristol pound notes, but see "Bristol Pound redesigns unveiled" over at BBC News.

More info for you if you check the tags on Stewy´ s Flickr.

Verlaine Gisant

A new John Greaves album focusing on Paul Verlaine is soon to be released.

A release concert for "Verlaine Gisant" is scheduled for 25 April at Studio 105 de La Maison de la Radio, Paris.

Musicians on the album:

Vocals: Elise Caron, Jeanne Added, Thomas de Pourquery, John Greaves
Piano: Eve Risser
Viola: Guillaume Roy
Guitar: Olivier Mellano
Percussion: Leon Milo
Drums: Régis Boulard

The album is based on the book “Les Derniers Jours de Paul Verlaine” by Gustave Le Rouge.
Music - John Greaves. Lyrics - Emmanuel Tugny.

Check out more John Greaves albums (including the two previous ones with Verlaine lysrics) right here.

Arild Andersen and Mingus in Oslo

We already had a couple of posts on Oslo Jazzfestival´s "Arild Andersen Sextet plays Charles Mingus concert" from 2014, but here we go again.

The concert was a celebration of Charlie Mingus concert in the Oslo university hall 50 years earlier.

Arild Andersen has now posted the full concert on YouTube.


Arild Andersen Sextet:

Mathias Eick – trumpet
Klaus Holm – alto, bass clarinet
Petter Wettre- tenor
Bugge Wesseltoft – piano
Arild Andersen – bass
Gard Nilssen – drums

Romantic Warriors III – Canterbury Tales

"Romantic Warriors III – Canterbury Tales" (USA/2015/118 min.) - DVD now available at www.progdocs.com.

Prog documentary series's directors: Adele Schmidt and José Zegarra Holder.

The film highlights these bands:

Wilde Flowers, UK
Soft Machine, UK
Caravan, UK
Gong, France
Delivery, UK
Egg, UK
Matching Mole, UK
Hatfield and The North, UK
Gilgamesh, UK
National Health, UK
In Cahoots, UK
Quiet Sun, UK
Supersister, Netherlands
Moving Gelatine Plates, France
Forgas Band Phenomena, France
Glass, USA
The Muffins, USA

More Goat Horns!

The Norwegian jazz musician Karl Seglem needs your support for his "Jazzbukk" - The Goat Horn Project.

The primary objective of JazzBukk is to ensure that access to goat horns for making instruments is maintained in the future, and that more people want to and are able to learn both to make instruments and to play.

Some of the goats will have the chance to live a few years longer than usual to grow big horns.

No more cow bells, more goat horns! Head on over to Pledge Music for more info.

Phil Manzanera and Robert Wyatt talking (2005)

As part of the Unthanks' Easter Folk curation on BBC Radio 6 Music, they selected a programme, first broadcast in 2005, with Phil Manzanera talking to Robert Wyatt (and Alfie, Peel, Eno and others).

Listen to the 1 hour long "Soupsongs: The Music of Robert Wyatt" right here.

You have 29 days left to listen (from 7 April 2015)!


"..jazz records, the most wonderful thing since fried eggs!" (Robert Wyatt)

EEEEE - Albatrosh

I just arrived Bergen after a long drive along the west coast of Norway from Molde, and is happy to see that the fine duo Albatrosh (Eyolf Dale and André Roligheten) has been in the same area not long ago!

Listen and watch them do EEEE!

And don´t forget their album "Night Owl" on Rune Grammofon (2014). It´s great (and nothing like what you hear here!).

Grasscut: Curlews

Grasscut´s new album "Everyone Was A Bird" will be released 18th May 2015.

Here is the video for the track "Curlews".

See also this blog post.