Summertime Watermelon Man

Have a nice summer all of you!

I might pop in here a few times, but will try to stay quite a lot offline for some weeks.

A June Video Festival

KWAN by Kvien & Sommer from Espen Sommer Eide on Vimeo.

What a mix! Hope you enjoy some of them!

- Bernie Maupin, William Parker, Akira Sakata and Kresten Osgood (Live at Jazzhouse in Copenhagen, June 17th, 2015).

- The Living Room, live in Japan. Torben Snekkestad, Søren Kjærgaard and Thomas Strønen.

- Kvien & Sommer. "Kwan" from from the mini album “Weathering” (2015).

- Mari Kvien Brunvoll. Internet Festival 2014.

- Josephine Foster live at Issue Project Room (NY) June 13, 2013

- Martin Simpson, Andy Cutting and Nancy Kerr perform 'Seven Years' (Cutting) from the trio's debut album 'Murmurs' (2015).

- They Might Be Giants cover Destiny's Child's "Bills, Bills, Bills" (A.V. Undercover 2015).

Hopper-Dean-Tippett-Gallivan Quartet 1977

Now check this one out! A (not exactly HD) footage of the Hopper-Dean-Tippett-Gallivan Quartet live in 1977. - Oh, I wasn´t allowed to embed it, so you better watch it on Vimeo.

The musicians are Hugh Hopper (b), Elton Dean (sax), Keith Tippett (p) and Joe Gallivan (dr).

I know this group only from the fine "Cruel But Fair" album that was released on the Oslo based record company Compendium back in 1977, but there is also "Mercy Dash" (Culture Press 1985).

So That You Can Live

Thanks to Wire magazine on Twitter I found this info about the screening of two Cinema Action films "Squatters" (1970) and "So That You Can Live" (1981) at the British Film Institute today.

The soundtrack to "So That You Can Live" is music by Robert Wyatt, Scritti Politti and Lindsay Cooper.

Registered users in UK libraries, colleges and universities may watch clips over here.

This is what I wrote in an old blog post on Neil Taylor´s Rough Trade book back in 2010:

"Green Gartside (Scritti Politti) mentions a soundtrack he made with Robert Wyatt for a Cinema Action film called "So that you can live", about striking miners in Wales (Lindsay Cooper is also represented). I checked with Michael King´s "Wrong Movements. A Robert Wyatt history" (SAF 1994), and a "slow tempo performance of "Born Again Cretin"" seems to be on the soundtrack".

Hilde Marie Holsen live at Victoria Jazzscene

Hilde Marie Holsen's release concert for her debut album "Ask" on Hubro (2015) at Victoria Jazzscene (Oslo) 29th of May 2015.

This was also her graduation concert from the Norwegian Academy of Music.

ULTIMA 2015

The ULTIMA 2015 programme is out

Oslo´s contemporary music festival is happening 10 - 19 September.

Some of the artists we have (or should have!) mentioned in the blog one time or the other: Nils Petter Molvær, Kim Hiorthøy, Microtub, David Toop, Helge Steen and there is a SOFA label evening.

Full programme here.

Jaga Jazzist: Starfire (Ninja Tune 2015)

Wow! You have to check out the new Jaga Jazzist album, "Starfire", on Ninja Tine (2015).
Get blown away and still hum a long to this big band jazz electronica prog amalgam.
According to Ninja Tune it is L.A. inspired too, since Lars Horntveth moved there in 2012.

The Band is:

Lars Horntveth
Martin Horntveth
Line Horntveth
Øystein Moen
Marcus Forsgren
Andreas Mjøs
Even Ormestad
Erik Johannessen

Cool cover design by Martin Kvamme. Striped plastic makes the images move when you move it. Psychedelic!

Watch "Starfire" Live on KCRW and "Oban" Live on NRK P3 (with a choir of Norwegian musicians, whose names you will find on YouTube)

More Ice For The Polar Bears Please!

I went for a good walk today, to the top of mount Ulriken, the highest one of Bergen´s seven mountains (643 meters above sea level).

There, on the very top, is street artist AFK´s comment on the climate troubles we are all facing.
The piece is called "Diamond Ice".

If you are a new visitor and ended up here because of a search on polar bears or climate changes, Bergen is in Norway. And no, we don´t have polar bears here (you have to go to Svalbard to se one on Norwegian ground - or ice)!

Lol Coxhill, Steve Noble and Alan Niblock

Lol Coxhill, Steve Noble and Alan Niblock at The Playhouse Theatre - City of Derry Jazz & Big Band Festival, 2011.

I posted this one back in 2011, but the video seems to have been off YouTube for a while, and is back thanks to Alan Niblock.

John Greaves: Homage to Ivor and Robert

This is a nice "Homage to Ivor and Robert"! John Greaves sings Ivor Cutler´s part of "Little Red Robin Hood Hits the Road", from Robert Wyatt´s "Rock Bottom" album!

Not much info on John Greaves´ Soundcloud, but taken from a live performance somewhere.

Grasscut: Everyone Was A Bird

You still haven´t got the new Grasscut album "Everyone Was A Bird" (Lo Rec 2015)?
It´s about time you do!

Listen to the beautiful track "Snowdown" in the video, and you will probably be as happy as me to hear John Surman in there too!

You will find more info over at Lo & Behold, where they describe the album as "a search for identity and meaning, both through closely observing the places in which we live, and through digging around in the landscapes of our ancestors", and on Grasscut´s site.

Grasscut are Andrew Phillips (composer, producer, vocals, guitar, keyboards) and our favorite Robert Wyatt biographer Marcus O’Dair (manager, piano, synth, vocoder).

Follow Grasscut on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

Ornette Coleman 1930–2015: Robert Wyatt

Read Robert Wyatt´s tribute to Ornette Coleman in The Wire (online June 2015).

"Ornette dead? The way I hear it, Ornette's heartbeat's as alive, in the ether, as it ever was".

We Picked Apples In A Graveyard Freshly Mowed

Richard Dawson performs “We Picked Apple In A Graveyard Freshly Mowed” from the album “The Magic Bridge” (2011).

Recorded in a hotel room in Copenhagen. Thanks to Unseen Recordings.

Lindsay Cooper Rarities

Now here is a double CD that got under my radar:

Lindsay Cooper: "Rarities from the Lindsay Cooper Archive" (ReR Megacorp 2015 - or 2014?).

I contains "In the Dark Year", from "The Last Nightinggale" (1984), sung by Robert Wyatt.

Track by track info on Discogs.

PUNKT 2015

PUNKT Documentary - Teaser from Adrien Le Gall on Vimeo.

Finally Kristiansand´s (Norway) PUNKT festival program 2015 is here:

— Thursday 3 September:

Klubben 18:00: Mei Yi Foo and Mieko Miyazaki

Kristiansand Kunsthall 21:00: Aernoudt Jacobs exhibition opening with performance by Nils Christian Moe-Repstad


— Friday 4 September

Fønix 17:00 – 23:00: Saskia Lankhoorn, Jacaszek & Quartludium, Vegan Dallas, Fennesz / Arve Henriksen, Per Martinsen (Mental Overdrive), Marilyn Mazur / Nils Petter Molvær / Eivind Aarset / Jan Bang, Vu Nhat Than / Luong Hue Trinh / Nguyen Xuan Son, Dai Fujikura, and more.

Fønix 11:00 – 14:00: Punkt Seminar

Kristiansand Kunsthall 16:00: Espen Reinertsen

Fønix 11:00 – 23:00 Punkt Film (continuous programme)


— Saturday 5 September:

Fønix 17:00 – 23:00: AtomTM , Nguyen Le: Music for the silent movie «A Page of Madness» featuring Nils Petter Molvær, Jan Bang, Mieko Miyazaki and string quartet. Double concert: Morten Qvenild «Personal Piano» + In the Country / Frida Ånnevik «Skogenes Sang». Robert Lippok, Hilde Marie Holsen, Greta Aagre / Erik Honoré, and more.

Fønix 11:00 – 14:00: Punkt Seminar

Kristiansand Kunsthall 16:00: Markus Schmickler

Fønix 11:00 – 23:00 Punkt Film (continuous programme)

The film programme includes Ingo Biermann’s documentary about Maja Ratkje.

Ratkje, Wesseltoft, Norment and Galåen

The teaser for Ratkje, Wesseltoft, Norment and Galåen´s album "Celadon" (Important Records 2015) sounds great!
A must have - to be released 30 June.

Maja S.K. Ratkje - Voice and Bells
Jon Wesseltoft - Accordion Organ and Harmonium
Camille Norment - Glass Armonica
Per Gisle Galåen - Zither and Harmonium

Recorded at Emanuel Vigeland Mausoleum (Oslo) May 2013 by Thomas Hukkelberg.

Gong - Camembert Electrique Cheese Plate

I bet you didn´t know you needed this one for your cheese!

Head on over to Burning Shed to get a china cheese plate decorated with Gong's "Camembert Electrique" album cover.

"Perfect for creamy French-style cheeses, or firm mature English Cheddars alike.."

Kvien & Sommer: Weathering

Check out Kvien & Sommer´s mini album "Weathering" (2015) on Full of Nothing.

You get "four broken suites for voice, modular synthesizers, bagpipe and various sound objects". Download or order cassette for a minimum of $7.

You have met both Kvien and Sommer several times in this blog, they being Mari Kvien Brunvoll (solo, with Stein Urheim and Building Instrument) and Espen Sommer Eide (Phonophani, Alog etc).

Karin Krog and John Surman at Henie Onstad

A beautiful video (could have been a bit longer) of Karin Krog and John Surman plying "The Wild Bird" at the Jazzbasillen Jazzfestival, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, October 26th, 2014.

The concert was arranged in relation to the exhibiton "Christopher Nielsen: I'm Just A Simple Conceptualist from Ulsrud" (link to site in Norwegian).

Fred Frith Café Oto Residency

photochronista uploaded a video mix from the different concerts happening during Fred Frith´s Café Oto Residency 29 - 31 May 2015.

Please follow link to photochronista for the video, no embedding allowed.

The programme:

May 29
Set 1: duo with John Butcher
Set 2: duo Theresa Wong
Set 3: trio

All with live visuals by Heike Liss

May 30
Set 1: Fred Frith solo
Set 2: trio Tim Hodgkinson and Roger Turner

May 31
Set 1: duo Lotte Anker
Set 2: duo Hannah Marshall
Set 3: trio

All with live visuals by Heike Liss

Ivor Cutler Spotify Playlist

Twenty of my favorite Ivor Cutler songs. A perfect Sunday soundtrack (at least for me!).

Listen to all of them on Spotify.

(Sorry I can´t get the first song on the list ("Good morning...") embedded here. Any ideas?)

LUFT at Nattjazz 2015

Holy mackerel what a concert the duo LUFT performed at the Nattjazz festival in Bergen last night! Wild duo playing and fine solos.

LUFT is Mats Gustafsson (sax) and Erwan Keravec (bagpipe), and a fitting name they have too, as "luft" means air in Mats Gustafsson´s own Swedish (and in Norwegian I must add).
These guys need some proper lungs to play what they do!

Wonder how they sound like? Click right here for one of four videos from their concert at Jazzhouse (Copenhagen) in February 2015.

Gustafsson said a studio album had recently been recorded by LUFT, but no deal had been done with a record company.

3 Degrees of Robert Wyatt

Damn, I am one day late with this one:

Spinning on Air Series: 3 Degrees of Robert Wyatt, Curated By and Featuring Invisible Familiars (4 June 2015).

"These gently-chosen musicians (and their constituents) play the music of the aforementioned and much-beloved man, as well as extrapolate (speculate?) as to his influence and his influences.
original compositions by the performers also figure in the proceedings, played in loving tribute to his impact on this modern past and the past’s post, as well as our imminent future.
Invisible Familiars are lead by Jared Samuel. he has played with Cibo Matto, Goastt, Superhuman Happiness, Martha Wainwright, Sharon Jones, Yoko Ono and more.
Collaboration featuring:
Joan Wasser
Oren Bloedow (Elysian Fields, 101 Crustaceans) & Adam Minkoff
Ryan Sawyer (Thurston Moore, Boredoms, Charles Gayle)
David Garland
Invisible Familiars
Michael Leonhart (Steely Dan, Plastic Ono Band, Truth & Soul Records)"

Info and picture stolen from the Roulette Events site.

Let´s hope for some videos from the show.

Moers Festival 2015

The three day German festival at Moers, seems to have been packed with great music!

Some fine videos on the net too. Here are:

- Colin Stetson & Sarah Neufeld
- Colin Stetson „SORROW, a reimagining of Gorecki's 3rd Symphony”
- Eve Risser "White Desert Orchestra"
- Michael Mantler "The Jazz Composer’s Orchestra Update"

Hilde Marie Holsen: Ask (Hubro 2015)

Trumpet and electronics improviser Hilde Marie Holsen´s debut album "Ask" is out on Hubro now!

I have listened on Spotify so far, and I like it a lot! Hubro´s description of the music as quite contemplative and drenched in melancholia, but with room for noise, great dynamics and plenty of drama, is well put.

The album was co-produced, mixed and mastered by Maja Ratkje

Want to fight with me for one of the LPs limited to 200 copies, after you have listened to "Plagioklas"?

Bucket In My Hand?

So it is "Bucket in my hand" now, and filled with Kentucky Fried Chicken too, not "A doughnut in my hand" as in the original version by Ivor Cutler?

Damn. I am waiting for an Ivor Cutler revival, but selling fried parts of chicken with his ideas? I´m not sure at all!

I had a post on Ivor Cutler and advertising back in 2012 too, click here to see.

The song is taken from the Ivor Cutler and Linda Hirst album "Privilege" (Rough Trade 1983).

They should have added this scene to the video:

I stumbled by a sailor
Who was lying by the road
I kissed his lips
And made him wince
And then I stumbled on

Listen to (and read) Mr. Cutler himself folks! That´s and order!