Noisy Stuff from Norway

Those of you interested in the more aggressive parts of the Norwegian music scene, should check out the new albums from Noxagt and Brutal Blues on Kjetil Brandsdal´s Drid Machine Records.

Noxagt is now Kjetil Brandsdal (b), Jan Christian Lauritzen (dr) and John Hegre (g), and the music is heavy, monotonic and deeply fascinating.

Brutal Blues present themselves with first names only; as Steinar (g, voc) from PSUDOKU, Parlamentarisk Sodomi and BxSxRx (none of the band names are familiar to me) and Anders (dr, voc) from a. o. MoHa!, Noxagt, Circulasione Totale Orchestra and Ultralyd, so this is obviously Anders Hana (who used to play guitar).

Drid Machine on Brutal Blues: "Are you ready for 100% authentic deluxe delta blues from Mississippi? Too bad, because Brutal Blues is a grind band from Norway".
Fast and furious it is, and this record is one sided and runs on 45 rpm.

PNL Records

Paal Nilssen-Love, who must be Norway´s hardest working drummer, has got his own record company too, called PNL Records.
The latest from the company, to arrive in this house, is a duo with Nilssen-Love and and Terrie Ex (guitar), recorded in 2009. Four tracks, ten - fourteen minutes long, containing improv, noise jazz and rock in a fine mix.
Coverdesign as usual by Lasse Marhaug, and painting by Gebrekristos Solomon (Ethiopia).

Most releases on PNL are CDs, but they throw in some vinyl for change (pressed in limited quantities). A couple of the records have been released in cooperation with Pica Disk.
The closer you get to Paal Nilssen-Love, either on earth or in cyberspace, the easier to get the albums.

So far, I believe this is the complete PNL discography (please correct me, if I´m wrong):

Lasse Marhaug & Paal Nilssen-Love: Stalk (PNL 001, 2007)
Nils Henrik Aasheim & Paal Nilssen-Love: Late Play (PNL 002, 2007)
Magnus Broo & Paal Nilssen-Love: Game (PNL 003, 2008)
Sten Sandell Trio: Face of Tokyo (PNL 004, 2009)
Paal Nilssen-Love: 27 Years Later (PNL 005, 2010)
Paal Nilssen-Love & Anders Hana: AM/FM (PNL 006, 2010)
Paal Nilssen-Love: Miró (PNL 007, 2011)
Slugfield (Nilssen-Love, Marhaug, Ratkje): Slime Zone (PNL 008, 2012)
Lasse Marhaug & Paal Nilssen-Love: No Combo LP (PICA 028/PNL 009, 2011)
Anders Hana & Paal Nilssen-Love: Hosanna and Parallel Sevens 10" (PNL 010, 2011)
Fire Room (Nilssen-Love, Marhaug, Vandermark): Wels 2008/11/08 LP (Pica 030/PNL 011, 2011)
Terrie EX & Paal Nilssen-Love: Hurgu! (PNL 012, 2011)
Double Tandem (Nilssen-Love, Vandermark, Baars): Cement (PNL 013, 2012)

(The list was corrected 23 June 2012, and I hope it´s OK now!)

Added 25 July 2012:
Bradford, Gjerstad, Nilssen-Love: Dragon (PNL 014, 2012)
Frode Gjerstad Trio: Hide Out (PNL 015, 2012)

News from Pica and PNL

A couple of new records with noisy stuff for you all. Enjoy at parties, or alone with a cup of tea.

Anders Hana and Paal Nilssen-Love have released a 10" vinyl called "Hosanna and Parallel Sevens I" (PNL 010, 2011). The two tracks are named "Hand near ass" og "Senvill analpose" (!).

Maranata let loose "Pig Magic"(Pica Disk, Pica 029, 2011), a 7" and a CD in one package.
Maranata is Jon Wesseltoft (g, electronics) and Dag Stiberg (sax, voice, electronics). On the 7" Lasse Marhaug joins on electronics, and on the CD one of the tracks is from Oslo´s Støyfest ("Noise Fest") (May 2011), with Maja Ratkje joining. Here you may watch a video from the Støyfest happening.

I´m not too happy with the ass and blood theme/aesthetics (design by Dirty Deeds (PNL) and Lasse Marhaug (Pica)), but noise is nice!

Anders Hana

Anders Hana (Noxagt, Ultralyd, MoHa!, Circulasione Totale Orchestra) has released a solo album on Drid Machine. "Dead Clubbing" is another beautiful piece of vinyl on this company, with music (six tracks) only on one of the sides. 300 copies made.

The first track on the record ("Iskoras") is on SoundCloud.

Anders Hana: Iskoras by kjetildb

News from Frode Gjerstad

If you collect Frode Gjerstad, I hope you have some money to spend!
Here are some new albums I have heard recently:

Circulasione Totale Orchestra: "PhilaOslo" (Circulasione 2011). A double album recorded in Philadelphia (30 Jan 2010) and Oslo (9 March 2011). Tough enough, this electro-acoustic gang: Louis Moholo Moholo (dr), Morten J. Olsen (dr), Anders Hana (g - only on "Oslo"), Frode Gjerstad (Sax, clar), Nick Stephens (b), Paal Nilssen-Love (dr), Ingebrigt Haaker Flaten (el b - only on "Phila"), Per Zanussi (el b - only on "Oslo"), Kevin Norton (vibtraphone), Børre Mølstad (tuba), Sabir Mateen (sax, clar), Bobby Bradford (cornet), Lasse Marhaug (electronics).
Cover: Lasse Marhaug.

Frode Gjerstad Trio:"East of West" (Circulasione 2011).
Frode Gjerstad Trio: "MIR" (Circulasione 2011).
The trio is Frode Gjerstad (alto sax, clar), Jon Rune Strøm (b) and Paal Nilssen-Love (dr). "East of West" was recorded in Stavanger in April 2011, while practicing for the May tour, and "MIR" was recorded live at the club MIR (surprise!) in Oslo in September 2010. Good stuff on both of them.
Cover:Lasse Marhaug.

Motland/Lonberg-Holm/Solberg/Gjerstad: "VC/DC" (Hispid 2011). Stine Janvin Motland (Voice), Fred Lonberg-Holm (Cello), Ståle Liavik Solberg (Drums) and Frode Gjerstad (Clarinet). A fine first release from the new label Hispid. Great playing and singing!.
Rock cover by Dirty Deeds Design.

And there are more albums to! Check Frode Gjerstad and Paal Nilssen-Love´s sites for more info.

Watch Frode Gjerstad Trio live in Austin (August 2011).

Bergen Støyfest - Bergen Noise Festival

If you are interested in noise music, and happen to be not too far from Bergen next weekend, seek out Bergen Støyfest at the Landmark club (27 - 29 October).
Links are leading to some info (quite witty too) in Norwegian.

27. oktober: Jazkamer (Lasse Marhaug, John Hegre, Nils Are Drønen), Hair Stylistics, Anla Courtis.
28. oktober: Jazkamer Metal (Ivar Bjørnson, Iver Sandøy and Jørgen Træen), Reiko. A, Robert Oiotrowicz/ Lasse Marhaug, Black Packers.
29. oktober: Jazkamer The Big Picture (big band including all artists at the festival!), Astro, Anders Hana, Ambolthue.

CTO live in Bergen

Friday night the free jazz warriors of Circulasione Totale Orchestra played in Bergen. Frode Gjerstad seemed to be smiling his way thriugh most of the concert, guiding his troops with nods and hiddden signs. It may sound strange to some of you, but this is free jazz that swings and rocks.

Check out this bunch of musicians: Louis Moholo-Moholo (drums), Morten J. Olsen (drums), Anders Hana (guitar), Nick Stephens (bass), Paal Nilssen-Love (drums), Per Zanussi (el-bass), Børre Mølstad (tuba), Sabir Mateen (saxophone, flute), Kevin Norton (vibrafon), Bobby Bradford (cornet) Lasse Marhaug (electronics), Frode Gjerstad (saxophone, clarinet) and John Hegre (sound).

This big orchestra does not travel much, but if you get the chance to see them, do it! The concert was close to perfect, with the audience near the stage, and with great sound (at least for us wearing ear plugs).
It was a bit difficult to see all the musicians in action, and the light was too bad for the amateur photographer, but come on, a great evening!

I hope they recorded the show, and don´t forget "Bandwith" released by Rune Grammofon.

Ultralyd: "Inertiadrome" (Rune 2010)

Ultralyd´s new album "Inertiadrome" is out on Rune Grammofon. Kjetil Møster (sax), Anders Hana (guitar, synth), Kjetil Brandsdal (bass) and Morten Olsen (drums, vibraphone) make heavy industrial rock. I only see shipyards and large halls full of machines, when Brandsdal´s rock steady bass is pumping from the speakers, and he and the rest of the crew make a (quite monotonous) soundtrack to some imaginary film about industry, or the fall of the industry.
I´m sorry I went a bit off the track here, but just count it as another recommendation

I´m usually not too focused on sound quality, but here it struck me, that this must be quite good. Recorded and mixed by Jørgen Træen at Duper Studios (Bergen).

If this is not too much for you, look for a new 12", probably on sale at concerts, and probably released later. I really don´t know, but I´ve been lucky,  and have received a copy with silvery cover, and two tracks, recorded by the same mr Træen at Duper.

Ultralyd

Yesterday Ultralyd visited Landmark in Bergen for a concert in the Playdate series.
Ultralyd is Kjetil Möster (sax), Anders Hana (g), Kjetil D. Brandsdal (b) and Morten J. Olsen (dr). I don´t really know what to call their music, but how about an ear plug demanding mix of rocked out jazz, with some noise and contemporary elements on the side. It does not matter what we call it anyway, because they delivered a great one hour long set with music composed for their album scheduled for release in 2011. The album is being mixed in Bergen these days.

Let me recommend the Ultralyd albums, and this might be a complete discography:

"Ultralyd" (FMR Records 2003)
"Chromosome Gun" (Load Records 2005)
"Throb and Provision" (Utech Records 2006, 200 copies)
"Noxagt/Ultralyd" split LP (Textile Records 2006)
"Conditions for a Piece of Music" (Rune Grammofon 2007)
"Renditions" LP (TLRC 2009)

Frode Gjerstad (not Möster) plays saxophone on the first two albums, and on the split-album with Noxagt they appear as a saxless trio. "Throb and Provision" and the split-album is more out in the noise landscape, than the other releases.

Cover and concert photos of varying quality on Flickr.

During the concert I appeared as the sensible old gentleman with umbrella that I am (of course), using my umbrella to stop glasses from falling over the edge of the high table in the back of the concert hall. The sound waves were just to much for them, and they started to move towards the edge. Sorry I couldn´t help the young ladies in the sofa, who were hit by a falling glass of red wine. Now remeber this, since Ultralyd are touring: Never leave something breakable alone when this band is on stage!

PNL 5 and 6

I just want to point out two new releases on Paal Nilssen-Love´s record company PNL:
Paal Nilssen-Love: "27 years later" (PNL005, 2010)
Paal Nilssen-Love & Anders Hana: "AM/FM" (PNL006, 2010).

"27 years later" is a solo drum album, recorded live at the Molde International Jazz Festival in 2002. This must be one of the best solo drum albums I have got. The other one I have is Paal Nilsen-Love´s "Sticks and stones" (SOFA 2001). I think it IS possible to concentrate and dig drum solo playing on record, for short time spans.

"AM/FM" is 33 minutes of improv/noise with Nilssen-Love and guitarist Anders Hana (Noxagt, MoHa!, Ultralyd), recorded live at Tou Scene in Stavanger in 2004. The first half of the piece has got its moments of rock & noise, but the album finally ends in what´s close to silence (I now most albums do in the end, but look some minutes further back then). Great album!

Cover design: Lasse Marhaug (and since I´m a very shy guy, I only show the front cover of the AM/FM album).

Both albums have previously been released on Utech Records (2005) (150 copies of each).

This is he PNL-discography (the company that is!) so far:
Lasse Marhaug and Paal Nilssen-Love: "Stalk" (PNL001 2007).
Nils H. Asheim and Paal Nilssen-Love: "Late Play" (PNL002 2007)
Magnus Broo and Paal Nilssen-Love med "Game" (PNL003, 2008)
Sten Sandell Trio: "Face of Tokyo" (PNL004, 2009)
Paal Nilssen-Love: "27 years later" (PNL005, 2010)
Paal Nilssen-Love & Anders Hana: "AM/FM" (PNL006, 2010).

Circulasione Totale Orchestra x 3

Please check out Rune Grammofon's 3 CD collection of live recordings of Circulasione Totale Orchestra called "Bandwith". The recordings were done at festivals in Molde, Moers og Zürich. I attended the concert in Molde, and even if I usually say that free jazz is best experienced live, I think these recordings in fact make the music sound more organized and interesting than what I felt at the concert. For the price of one ordinary full priced CD you get 3 CDs,nicely packed in a cover by Kim Hiorthøy and a bunch of fantastic musicians (see info from Rune below)! Just buy it!
Frode Gjerstad (sax and clarinet), Louis Moholo-Moholo (drums), Morten J. Olsen (electronics and drums), Anders Hana (electric guitar), Nick Stephens (acoustic bass), Børre Mølstad (tuba), Sabir Mateen (sax and clarinet), Kevin Norton (vibraphone), Bobby Bradford (cornet) and Lasse Marhaug (electronics). Paal Nilssen-Love (drums) and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (acoustic bass) are playing on disc one and two while Per Zanussi (electric bass) and Hamid Drake (drums) are playing on disc three.

Crimetime Orchestra

Crimetime Orchestra´s concert at The Molde International Jazz Festival was pretty wild, noisy and lots of fun. You may see 10 minutes from the concert at YouTube, uploaded by gaburu .

Jazzaway Records recently released the double CD "Atomic Symphony" with Crimetime Orchestra , Sonny Simmons and KORK (Norwegian symphony orchestra). The material on this release was recorded at the Oslo Jazz Festival in 2007, and is something else. I´m quite sure it´s better to listen to this concert several times, than the one we heard in Molde. Great album, to tell you the truth.
Musicians on the album are Vidar Johansen, Jon Klette, Gisle Johansen, Kjetil Møster, Øyvind Brekke, Sjur Miljeteig, Hild Sofie Tafjord, Anders Hana, Bugge Wesseltoft, Per Zanuzzi, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Mats Eilertsen, Per Oddvar Johansen, Paal Nilssen-Love, Sonny Simmons And Erlend Skomsvoll.
Kjetil Møster was not on stage in Molde (at this concert!) , Stian Westerhus replaced Anders Hana and Christian Wallumrød replaced Bugge Wesseltoft. feel free to comment if you know other differences in the two versions of the band.

Athana

The fiirst time i ever heard Athana was at last month's Nattjazz in Bergen. Now I own their "L.E.D. Light Galaxies" (WAM 2009) too. The subtitle of the album is "Ambient Exhibitions vol.2", and is a follow up to "Ambient Exhibitions vol.1" (surprise!) that was written for an art installation at Jæren (south of Stavanger) in 2006.
The music gives me a soundtrack-feeling, but is quite insisting, and the description "ambient" is probably not meant to indicate that this is an ambient sound tapestry. I think this is a pretty good album, and played loud it will bring you out into space too, probably because the band tries to "imagine our planet from far away, in an electronic and futuristic way" (I've got the press material!).

Athana is: Alf Terje Hana, Helge Olav Øksendal, Torgeir Nes and Øyvind Grong, and they have got a long list of guests tto, among others are Sternklang (remixing), Anders Hana and Andrew D'Angelo.

I think I'll check out their discography later (taken from their own site):
Athana - L.E.D. Light Galaxies - Ambient:Exhibitions Vol. 2(2009)
Athana - Remixed 0508 (2008)
Athana - Corridor (2007)
Athana - The Ridgewell Connection (Single, 2006)
Athana - Ambient:Exhibitions Vol.1 (2006)
Athana - Dandy Lines and Nevergreens (2005).

Ultralyd with shanty choir!

Ultralyd performed in Bergen's Grieghallen yesterday with the shanty choir Navy Vocalis. All this as a part of the Bergen International Festival, and as a hommage to the late Bergen photographer J.A. Løtvedt. Løtvedt made a lot of documentary film, and this performance ("J.A. Løtvedt on the Seven Seas") focused (of course) on the maritime areas (travels in the arctic, oil, shipping etc). Ultralyd did a lot of ambient film music (bows on guitar, bass and percussion), but took the opportunity to make some noise too (thanks!), and had a fantastic piece where Fredrik Saroea from Datarock sung the words of shipowner Hilmar Reksten from an interview we just had seen. I'm not sure how cool the use of shanty choir was, but Kjetil Møster's saxophone works fine with oil tankers, helicopters and musk ox.
Ultralyd is Kjetil Møster, Anders Hana, Kjetil Brandsdal and Morten J. Olsen. Director was: Morten Traavik.

Earth Hour

Yesterday the rest of the world saved energy during "Earth Hour", but MoHa! ruined it all by burning off just as much energy in a brutal 30 minute concert at the Borealis festival in Bergen.
Anders Hana and Morten J. Olsen cooperate with Anu Vathra and Idan Hayosh, who "play" 30 lamps manually. MoHa! play so loud, and the lights are so strong, that the whole body (and soul) of the listener is shaken. The way they use long pauses from the noise, makes the concert exciting as a horror movie as you are just waiting for the next shock. Next time I'll bring sun glasses, and not only earplugs (I finally managed to pick them out).
Great show!

Added later: I've been told in a comment to get my "god damn shit right" here in the blog, and inform you all that the ensemble with Anders Hana, Morten J. Olsen, Anu Vathra and Idan Hayosh is called "Fire and Ignorance". Ah, that was much better.

Andrew D'Angelo Trio

Bergen Jazzforum invited us all to a free concert Wednesday, with Andrew D'Angelo Trio, being Andrew D’Angelo(sax), Trevor Dunn (el-bass) and Jim Black (drums). This was hard swinging, great jazz, with rock elements (Black's muscles may be the reason for that). I started thinking of Back Door there, for some moments!
D'Angelo has also made records with Norwegian MoHa! guys Anders Hana and Morten Olsen as Morthana, but the newest album from them is in the name of Andrew D'Angelo Trio, since the Japanese record company wanted it that way. I hope I got that one right, but they only had one of those CDs left, and some other guy grabbed that one. Me, I spent almost the same amount of money I guess on a pint of dark, strong Christmas beer.

Circulasione in Finland

Circulasione Totale Orchestra played in Tampere in Finland yesterday, with this crew:
Louis Moholo-Moholo - drums
Morten J. Olsen electronics - drums
Anders Hana - el.guitar
Frode Gjerstad - sax,clarinets
Nick Stephens - acoustic bass
Paal Nilssen-Love - drums
Ingebrigt H. Flaten - acoustic bass
Børre Mølstad - tuba
Sabir Mateen - sax and clarinets
Kevin Norton - vibraphone
Bobby Bradford - cornet
Hild Sofie Tafjord - electronics
John Hegre - soundman
This is the same band as the one that played at the Molde festival this summer, except from Hild Sofie Tafjord, who stepped in for Lasse Marhaug.
Frode Gjerstad writes that Finnish television recorded the concert, and it will be offered European Countries through EBU. Great news!
Sorry to the ones who wrote me after the Molde festival and asked if I knew if anything was recorded. I messed up my e-mails and lost the addresses (and, no I don't deal in sound files). Perhaps someone out there knows more than me: Was the Circulasione concert (or other concerts) recorded for radio or CD release in Molde?

Moha! and Marhaug!

The things you may experience on a Tuesday night in Bergen! Yesterday the organization Ny Musikk ("New Music")offered a free concert with Moha! and Lasse Marhaug. Moha! played a hard rocking (OK, that might be pushing it) set, real loud and with lots of lights too! Anders Hana and Morten J. Olsen have grown real tight, and I think this was even tougher than their new album (and I like that one a lot).
Lasse Marhaug performed a version of "Ear Era", and was great on cassettes and cassette players.
More pictures here.

Moha!

Rune Grammofon releases two Moha! records this year. First out was the 7" "Jeff Carey's Moha!" (white vinyl) and now the album "One way ticket to candyland". This is prognoise, and with a surprisingly high rock factor. If you can take a little noise, this might be for you too, if you are not put off by bands getting rave reviews in newspapers. Moha! is Anders Hana (g, keyb, drum machine!) and Morten J. Olsen (dr). On the 7" Jeff Carey joins, and both he and Olsen play something called "supercollider3". This makes me think of CERN and black holes and the world going too pieces, but in fact Moha! makes the perfect soundtrack to thoughts like that.

Short info, but you really need it

- John Hegre is in Noxagt now, instead of Anders Hana. They play The Øya festival in Oslo Friday.
- Jørgen Mathisen is in The Core instead of Kjetil Møster. Visit the Bootleg-department on The Core's website. You'll find three concerts ready to be downloaded, at no cost.
- EKKO, Bergen Electronic Music & Art Festival, is scheduled for 5-6 September, with Annie, The Whitest Boy Alive, A Certain Ratio, and a lot of artists nobody ever mentioned to me.
- Artists are ready for The Phonofestival in Bergen 15-20 September, and so far I have only heard about Syntax Terrorkester.
I might be wrong, but my guess is that the EKKO and Phono festivals are for clubbing young people. Tch.Tch.
- A reminder: Hole in the Sky is happening 27-30 August. You may se bands with names like "Dead to this World", "Toxic Holocaust", "Brutal truth" and "3 inches of blood". Dance me to the end of time, baby.