Friday Videos

No dance videos this Friday (well what do I know!?), just a few I have liked lately.
Starting off in a quiet mood and ending quite energetic and brutal. That might sound like a description of Friday to some of you I guess?

- Rembrandt Frerichs Trio & Frode Haltli, live at Jazz in Duketown Jazz Festival Holland 2014. New album from Frode Haltli coming up on the Hubro label later this year. Frode Haltli (accordeon), Rembrandt Frerichs (piano), Tony Overwater (acoustic bass) and Vinsent Planjer (drums)

- Thomas Strønen´s Time Is A Blind Guide at Chelthenham Jazz 2014 (part 2 of 4). Kit Downes (piano), Nils Økland (violin, hardanger fiddle), Lucy Railton (cello), Ole Morten Vågan (bass) and Siv Øyunn Kjennstad (drums).

- Brian Chippendale, Massimo Pupillo and Mats Gustafsson at Jazz House (Copenhagen) August 2014 (part 7 of 7). (Follow Jazz Peter on YouTube).

Food and Fennesz live

Thomas Strønen - drums - electronics
Iain Ballamy - saxophones/ electronics
Christian Fennesz - guitar/ electronics

Live at Haus Der Kunst, Munchen Jan. 10th 2013.
ECM Exhibition and concert series.

You will find the same info, and some more videos, over at pohlitz on YouTube.

Check out Food on ECM, and please note that Fennesz is coming to PUNKT with The Kilowatt Hour.

Numb, Number and Voxpheria

During the Bergen International Festival last week, I heard Tone Åse perform a great "sound novel" at one of the concerts in Maja Ratkje´s series "Voices that matter".
I have heard Tone Åse in the vocal quartet Kvitretten (Norwegian link alert), but missed out on the band Bol until they hired Stian Westerhus and Motorpsycho´s Snah (Hans Magnus Ryan) for the album "Numb, number" (Gigafon 2012). Bol is Tone Åse (vocal/ electronics), Ståle Storløkken (keyboards/sampling) and Tor Haugerud (drums/electronics), and they have released records since 2001.

And not only that! Tone Åse also released "Voxpheria" with drummer Ståle Storløkken on Gigafon (2012).
Both of the albums have lyrics by the poets E.E. Cummings and Rolf Jacobsen, and on "Numb, Number" they also use words by the poet Olav H. Hauge , while Tone Åse wrote the lyrics for the beautiful title track.
The poems of Rolf Jacobsen and Olav H. Hauge (originally in Norwegian) are translated into English.

Great albums, with elegant soundscapes and poetry, the Bol-album with Westerhus and Snah sporting a couple of more energetic tracks ("You Bird" og "The Western Wind").
Please check out both of them!

Cover: Rune Nergaard (Both of them I believe. I just have too make a guess on the Voxpheria cover, since I downloaded that one).

Food live in Oslo

Since today (17th May) is The National Day of Norway, I want to quiet things down a bit with this beautiful tune by Food. The video was recorded live at Victoria in Oslo in March (2011).
The band is Thomas Strønen, Iain Bellamy and Christian Fennesz.

Let me suggest that you check out Food´s albums. See this old blog post on Wyatt and Stuff for a start.

Food: Quiet Inlet (ECM 2010)

Food now seems to be the duo Thomas Strønen (drums, electronics) and Iain Bellamy (tenor and soprano saxophones). On their new album "Quiet Inlet" (April 2010) they are joined by Nils Petter Molvær (trumpet, electronics) and Christian Fennesz (guitar, electronics).
What do you get? Beautiful melodies and elegant soundscapes! This is perfect both on a late Saturday and an early Sunday morning.

I can´t find any title related to food on "Quiet Inlet"! If quiet and beautiful music scare you off, you might find some more to chew on on some of their earlier stuff, with Arve Henriksen (trumpet, voice) and Mats Eilertsen (bass) in the band. Titles on the album "Veggie" (Rune 2002) are all about food ("Tofu", "Chickpea" "Mushroom" etc), and the other day I found a used copy of their first album "Food" (Feral Records 1999) with inlays, pasta and laurel leaf!

The discography before "Quiet Inlet", all stolen from Thomas Strønen´s site:
Food (Feral Records 1999)
Organic and GM Food (Feral Records 2001)
Veggie (Rune Grammofon 2002)
Last Supper (Rune Grammofon 2004)
Molecular Gastronomy (Rune Grammofon 2007)

Sidsel Endresen Jazz Sessions

Bergen Jazzforum invited Sidsel Endresen to choose her own musicians and do a Bergen Jazz Sessions on Friday night.
First we got a quite calm trio with Endresen and Håkon Kornstad (saxes and flutes) and Jan Bang (electricity and sampling), before a harder set with Ståle Storløkken (keyboards) and Thomas Strønen (drumstick eating, electricity and drums) happened, and the whole bunch ended the show together. A great evening indeed, and a great listening Friday audience too.
Somebody uploaded some videos on YouTube too, that are not at all fair to the artists, but you get the general idea!

Sidsel Endresen live

See Sidsel Endresen live and outdoor at Jazzebre Salses 17 October 2009 (3 more videos from the same concert on YouTube). Friday 13. November she will perform at the Bergen Jazzforum with Jan Bang – sampling, live re-mix, Håkon Kornstad – saxophone, Ståle Storløkken – keyboards and Thomas Strønen – drums.

Christian Fennesz and Thomas Strønen

Yesterday I went to a duo concert with Christian Fennesz (guitar, laptop, electronics) and Thomas Strønen (drums, electronics) at the Bergen Jazzforum. I have seen Strønen in several bands, but know Fennesz mainly from his beautiful "Black Sea" album. These guys worked out a very good show, with a mix of ambient floating music and more rocking, loud stuff. The house was not packed, but after one long set we managed to get one extra. To be honest they just as well had to play, because the door to their backstage room was closed. Way to do it!

Sidsel Endresen and Humcrush

How about this great concert recording of Sidsel Endresen and Humcrush (Ståle Storløkken and Thomas Strønen) from Amsterdam (October 2008)? I heard the same people at Molde International Jazz Festival in 2006, and they were fantastic.

Trinity

Thanks to the friendly people of Bergen Jazzforum who gave us another free concert at the Landmark club Wednesday. This time Trinity with Kjetil Møster (sax, clar), Morten Qvenild (keyb), Thomas Strønen (dr) and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (b) played two long sets with contemporary free jazz impro (ah, the genres), being both quiet and lyrical, and blowing up a full storm. Qvenild even fronted the band in a beautiful lullaby (Brahm's lullaby I think).
Since my pictures were even worse than usual, I hereby give you the cover of the album they have just released on Clean Feed called "Breaking the Mold" (the concerts are free, but the money is spent on the records they sell!). This one was recorded at the Molde International Jazz Festival in 2006, and the title just might be a response to Karin Krog's "Break of day in Molde". The record sounds good too, and since I'm fond of crazy titles, here they are:"Mold", "MoL ded", "MolDer" og "Breaking Them Old".

Bergen Jazzforum

If you are visiting Bergen this winter or spring, check out the Bergen Jazzforum program.
My first choices are:
- Arve Henriksen Trio 6 February (Arve Henriksen, Morten Qvenild, Martin Horntvedt).
- Trinity with Morten Qvenlid 11. February (Kjetil Møster, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Thomas Strønen, Morten Qvenild).
- Maria Kannegard Trio 13 March (Maria Kannegaard, Ole Morten Vågan, Thomas Strønen).
- The Thing 20 March (Mads Gustavsson, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Paal Nilssen-Love).
- BMX with Per Jørgensen 31 March (Thomas Dahl, Njål Ølnes, Øyvind Skarbø, Per Jørgensen).

Fred Frith to play at Moldejazz

Im really looking forward to the summer festival season now! The programme for The Molde International Jazzfestival is almost ready (?), and yesterday we got some nice news. "Robert Wyatt and Stuff" will fight for tickets to see several of these artists:
Food (Iain Ballamy and Thomas Strønen + Christian Fennez)
Frode Gjerstad and Circulatione Totale Orchestra
Paal Nilssen-Love and Townhouse Orchestra with Evan Parker
Fred Frith and Lucia Recio.
See if you are able to find some more among all that Norwegian writing on the festival site.