Robert Wyatt box set

Robert Wyatt
Originally uploaded by SputnikTV

NME (and several others) got news today about a Robert Wyatt box set, containing all studio albums and "EPs" (Domino). Do we hope for extra material, so we just have to buy the albums once more? Yes! This is in the box:

'Rock Bottom' (1974)
'Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard' (1975)
'Nothing Can Stop Us' (1981)
'Old Rottenhat' (1985)
'Dondestan Revisited' (1991/1998)
'Shleep' (1997)
'EPS' (1998)
'Cuckooland' (2003)
'Robert Wyatt & friends, Theatre Royal Drury Lane 8th September 1974' (2005)
'Comicopera' (2007)

Oh, here is Domino's info. Looks like no extra material, but a nice box with new illustrations by Alfie. 60 GBP + postage (and taxes in some countries!).

Numusic 2009

Start checking Numusic's new website, if you're thinking about visiting Stavanger 9 -13 September. Some great artists have been announced so far: Arvo Pärt, Faust, Fennesz, Biosphere, Shining and there are more to come. They focus on street art too, but no news on that so far.
Stavanger in the autumn? These are probably the best days then.

New Riders Of The Purple Sage

I've been listening a lot to the new sunn O))) album lately, but found it hard to write about it, and realized I needed a country break. So instead of the growling noise of sunn O))), you get "New Riders Of The Purple Sage's" self titled album from 1971 (Wikipedia on the band). This is the only album I have with the band, but I have played it a lot! It's perfect for any Grateful Dead fan (and almost everybody else, as long as they're able to swallow their country).
The music is made by guitar player and vocalist John Dawson, and the other guys are David Nelson (g, voc) and Dave Torbert (b, g, voc). On the album you'll also hear Jerry Garcia (who might be a real band member?), Spencer Dryden, Micky Hart and Commander Cody, and if you have to Google these guys, you're probably young (OK, check your year of birth, just to be sure).
And the album's on Spotify too! Nice?

JazzNorway in a Nutshell 2009

Now you may read John Kelman's story from Nattjazz and "JazzNorway in a Nutshell 2009" in AllAboutJazz. Pity none of them seem to have recorded Kjetil Møster's solo performance from the buffet and put it on YouTube!

As if this was not enough, see also Peter Margasak's "Norwegian Jazz Report" from a Chicago Reader blog.

GammalGrass

One of the bands i missed at the Nattjazz festival was GammalGrass (I just heard their sound check for an OiOi performance) ("Gammal" = Old). This is a trio with Stian Carstensen of Farmers Market fame (banjo, accordion), Ola Kvernberg (fiddle) and Andreas Amundsen (bass). They seem to play a hot mix of country, bluegrass, folk and rock covers. Check out their MySpace site and see the videos there. You'll find a pretty strange cover of Green Days' "Basket Case" and the hysterical "archive material" shown in this blog post. This is supposedly recorded on the west coast of Norway in 1967, but the musicians look quite familiar I think (Kvernberg and Carstensen). Each man his own rhythm!

Gong and Steve Hillage

Trondheim and Oslo are visited by Gong (with Steve Hillage?) and Steve Hillage Band in a couple of weeks.

We cut and paste from Planetgong:

12 Jun - Norway, Trondheim, Blaest - GONG + STEVE HILLAGE BAND
13 Jun - Norway, Oslo, Rockefeller - GONG + STEVE HILLAGE BAND

"What is it with Gong and Norway - something to do with gnomes? Who cares we love it - the Scotland of Scandinavia".

The Core & More vol. 1

The Core's new album "The Art Of No Return" (Miserobie 2009) has been out here for a month or so. The Core is Espen Aalberg (dr), Erlend Slettevold (p), Steinar Raknes (b) and Jørgen Mathisen (sax), but here they have Magnus Broo (tp), Jonas Kullhammar (sax) and Vidar Johansen (sax, bass clar) guesting too.
The music is composed by Vidar Johansen, and for long periods this is stricter composed, and even more relaxed than the first energetic albums from this band. The first albums had a Coltrane feel, this one's perhaps more Miles (?), and it swings real good too when necessary. I seldom play a new album 3 or 4 times in one go, but that happened with this one. Just buy it.