1982 Festival

What a great music weekend we just had at the 1982 Festival at Bergen Kjøtt, with four evenings dedicated to the music of 1982 and friends.

A short version of the happenings:

- BJ Cole playing pedal steel with the trio, and no doubt enjoying it. Very nice!
- Kristin Bolstad adding electronics, and both prerecorded and live samples to the folk improv. Worked fine!
- Lumen Drones (check their ECM album!) bringing some volume, rock and drones, ending up inviting the full 1982 trio to participate on a couple of wild numbers!
- Fredrik Rysjedal´s animation, telling the story of his grandfather, to 1982´s music. Touching!
- Trygve Seim and Stian Omenås making 1982 a quintet for the first time, and you may also spot a little guest behind the drums there, making it the 1982 sextet.
- Sigbjørn Apeland presented his new solo project working with instruments that are not working! Quite dusty too some of them. First time I have seen him with a guitar!
- Fredrik Ljungkvist and 1982 playing a quiet and beautiful Sunday concert.
- Elisabeth Færøy Lund exhibiting her photos of houses in a Swedish street.

All four (highly recommended!) 1982 albums have Elisabeth Færøy Lund´s photos on the cover.

As always click on photos for larger versions. If you still wonder about that person with "wings" in photo number two, let me tell you that it is just Sigbjørn Apeland and the only (and quite dead) houseplant in the venue.

Grasscut: Radar

Grasscut´s "Radar" (Lo Recordings) is just released as a single, taken from their third album "Everyone Was A Bird".

No physical format as far as I can see, but you get a fine remix done by John Metcalf.

On the song (stolen from the Lo Recordings site): "Literally, and metaphorically, about the search for illumination ‘Radar’ was written by Phillips on a clear cold night in a forest in mid Wales, whilst lights from both across the estuary and the ancient stars above flickered through the trees, and borrows its title and chorus line ‘the world is dark as radar’ from American poet George Oppen".

Slapp Happy with Robert Wyatt: A Little Something

Slapp Happy and Friends with a sweet version of "A Little Something" here, recorded June 25 1974 for John Peel, and broadcasted July 16 1974.

Musicians: Peter Blegvad, Dagmar Krause, Fred Frith, Lindsay Cooper, Geoff Leigh and Jeff Clyne.

"Europa", "War Is Energy Enslaved" and "Me and Parvati" were also recorded, and Anthony Moore played on all tracks except "A Little Something".

All info taken from Michael King´s book "Wrong Movements" (SAF 1994).

Soft Machine: Live At The Paradiso 1969

Soft Machine´s "Live at the Paradiso 1969" is being re-released by Retroworld/Floating World (2015).

This recording from 1969, based on the second Soft Machine album, has been bootlegged several times (not that I have seen them!), and a remastered version was released on CD by Voiceprint in 1995 (cover to the left). A pretty good live album if you ask my opinion, but you might rather listen to John Kelman of AAJ?

The band: Mike Ratledge (organ), Hugh Hopper (bass) and Robert Wyatt (drums, vocals).

Stephan Meidell Live Video

STEPHAN MEIDELL from Stephan Meidell on Vimeo.

Check out Stephan Meidell´s video, recorded live 4th of February 2015 at Bergen Kjøtt, Bergen (Norway).

Visuals: Tolga Balci.

From Meidell´s Vimeo: "The idea for this video was to make something between a concert video and a music video. Creating an engaging visual experience from something that is - at it's core - slow and static. Only one performer playing 25 minutes of improvised, repetitive loop/drone based music utilizing computer and a cassette-player is maybe not the most exciting thing to see on a video, but hypnotic visuals created by the Turkish artist Tolga Balci, and a crew of five photographers made this performance special.
The music is mainly improvised, with a framework worked out beforehand".

Trondheim Chamber Music Festival

Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje is festival composer at the Trondheim Chamber Music Festival 20 - 27 September. A total of 15 works by/with Ratkje will be on the festival program.

The festival also celebrates a film premiere: I.J. Biermann´s "Voice - sculpting sound with Maja S.K. Ratkje".

Check out the program right here.

September in Trondheim might just be the time and place.

Jono El Grande

Listen to this one by Jono El Grande (real name Jon Andreas Håtun)! It´s "Bach´s Beach" from "Melody Of A Muddled Mason" to be relased on Rune Grammofon in September 2015.

Like it? If your tastes are in the prog - Zappa - Canterbury area you should check out his other albums too!

David Gilmour

Eleven pages and front cover with David Gilmour in Uncut (Take 220 September 2015), focusing on the new solo album "Rattle That Lock" to be released in September.

Robert Wyatt is one of the people interviewed for the piece.

Wyatt on Pink Floyd versus Gilmour´s solo work: ""The Floyd was more overtly dramatic," he offers. "The climaxes were were more climactic. The wait-for-it-bits were more wait-for-it. There´s almost a kind of folk-music flow to what David does now. It´s more undulated landscape than mountains and valleys"".

Wyatt is playing cornet on the track "The girl in the yellow dress" on the new album.
On other tracks too?

Glasgow Dreamer: The Music of Ivor Cutler

Sax player Ben Bryden and his band, Ben Bryden’s Velvet Donkey, is "working on a real labour of love, bringing the music of the cult Scottish poet, humorist and songwriter Ivor Cutler, into the jazz canon".

You may support the making of the album "Glasgow Dreamer: The Music of Ivor Cutler" on Indiegogo. Release set for 2016.

Street Art In The Woods

Here are some photos from a great stunt made by Bergen based street artists Barnslig, MuM, Dake and Bares on Mount Fløyen (one of seven mountains surrounding the city).

Trolls, monsters and animals painted on plastic among the trees, made an exciting exhibition (lasting only a couple of days).

Watch a video from the work right here.

BLOW OUT! (Oslo) 2015

The Blow Out! festival in Oslo is happening 19 - 22 August at Café Mir (and a matiné at Cappelens Forslag).
More on Facebook.


Wednesday 19 August

Maria Chavez / Evan Parker / Paal Nilssen-Love / Ståle Liavik Solberg

Tommi Keränen solo

Susana Santos Silva / Christine Wodrascka / Christian Meaas Svendsen / Håkon Berre

Frode Gjerstad / Nick Stephens / Magnus Skavhaug Nergaard / Andreas Wildhagen


Thursday 20 August

Joe McPhee / Alex von Schlippenbach / Per Zanussi / Paal Nilssen-Love

Maria Chavez solo

Magda Mayas / John Russell

Heat Death


Friday 21 August

Will it float?

Joe McPhee solo

Not On The Guest List

Schlippenbach trio


Saturday 22 August

Matiné at Cappelens Forslag

DUO - Natalie Sandtorv / Steve Beresford

TRIO - Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø / Kristoffer Alberts / Nick Stephens

Evening programme at Café Mir

Extended Ground: Frode Gjerstad / Martin Küchen

Per Oddvar Johansen / Trygve Seim

Bauer-Anker Kvartett

Kresten Osgood Organ Bonanza

Jenny Hval: Apocalypse, Girl

Why don´t you check out Jenny Hval´s new album "Apocalypse, Girl" (Sacred Bones Records, 2015)? (Yes, we have mentioned it already, but once more does nnot hurt.)

Intense lyrics, great vocals, and with the help of these musicians: Håvard Volden, Kyrre Laastad, Øystein Moen (Jaga Jazzist/Puma), Thor Harris (Swans), improv cellist Okkyung Lee and harpist Rhodri Davis. Great stuff!

Videos for the tracks "Sabbath" and the battle is over" embedded.