Stopsmiling

Stopsmiling ("The magazine for the high-minded lowlifes"!) interviewed  Robert Wyatt  for their issue 26 (2006). I know I have read it before, but can't see that I have blogged it, so here it is - online for you all to read.

Let's just have a couple of examples here. Wyatt on drumming:
"I conquered my fear of what jazz fans would compare white drummers with by watching Keith Moon, who didn’t give a shit. He wasn’t sitting there thinking, “Am I reaching some standard set by somebody else?” Keith freed me from trying to think about standards set by someone else. Moon sustained a kind of momentum on the kit, plus a kind of human uncertainty about what was going to happen next. Which is what I wanted to do with my drumming. So, while I got my inspiration from black drummers, I got my confidence from Keith Moon".

And he is not one to brag about his own music:
"Alfie and I used to frequent Ronnie Scott’s a lot in the ’60s. It was a place you’d go to after you’d done a rock gig and wanted to hear some decent music after all the rubbish you’d been playing".

Good Vibrations

To organize outdoor concerts in a rainy town like Bergen, is a game only the tough ones may stand. The Bergen International Festival try, even if the end of May has been so cold this year, that people are wearing scarves and mittens. Saturday evening, electronica artists like Biosphere and Bjørn Torske had to run indoors for protection.

So what can you do? Hire honest working men of course!
Last year Staffan Mossenmark worked with shiny body builders, but this year he was smart, and used asphalt workers! Together with local rock heroes Kakkmaddafakka they made a hell of a noise, and some of the audience even laid down to feel the vibrations. Surf rock, Bergen style!

Spunk live in Bergen

I own all their albums, but finally I got to hear Spunk live too! Unfortunately Hild Sofie Tafjord was not playing this evening, but Kristin Andersen (tp, fl), Lene Grenager (cello), Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje (voice, electronics) played an intense, improvised and fine concert!
Just as important (?) as the music was videos (from cameras attached to the musicians) and live drawing by Asbjørn Flø and Andreas Paleologos. I really enjoy watching videos at concerts!
Perfect sound (but not on my videos I'm afraid) by John Hegre.

I'm really  looking forward to hear Spunk with Joëlle Léandre at Moldejazz this summer, and please note that Rune Grammofon just released the Spunk video "Light",  from a commissioned work for the Henie Onstad Museum (Oslo)  in 2008. I have just had quick view, but it's looking good!

Nattjazz (Bergen), Thursday 26 May

The Nattjazz festival is happening in Bergen right now, and what a Thursday evening it was yesterday!
My first concert this evening was with Sidsel Endresen (voc) and Stian Westerhus (guitar and pedals), who built fantastic (and a bit scary) soundscapes, and told wordless stories too. I have heard this duo several times now (and mentioned them in the blog of course) (Moldejazz, Punkt in Kristiansand), and a concert with these people will always be fascinating.
We got some improv, noise and rock, in a stuffed and very hot venue too, even if some of the festival audience disappeared after a while (Al  Di Meola was playing downstairs).

Endresen and Westerhus were among the artists who were to perform short commissioned works at the festival. The festival director has obviously heard the improvising duo play, because during his introduction he kindly asked Sidsel Endresen to please tell when the commisioned work was played! To no use!



Then I finally got to hear The Source. For some reason I don't think  have heard this band live?!  The musicians areTrygve Seim (sax), Øyvind Brekke (tb), Mats Eilertsen (b) and Per Oddvar Johanssen (dr). They started out in pretty free form, causing a bit of stir among some of the audience, who also left to see if Al Di Meola was still playing, but ended up playing hot swinging stuff too! Great band, great solos, three of them wearing suits, lots of hair and beards and a lot of fun! Now you beat that!

More unfocused photos from this year's Nattjazz, and previous festivals on Flickr.

Moe

It Pictures - MOE from conrad sound on Vimeo.

About time you got some Norwegian avantpunk power-trio style? No? Anyway here comes Moe, with bass player and singer Guro Skumsnes Moe (Art Directors, Sekstett), Håvard Skaset (guitar) and Sveinar Hoff (drums). Their album "It pictures" is ready, and they are joined by Okkyung Lee (cello), Lasse Marhaug (cover design) and  Kjetil Møster (saxophone).

The press material cite an anonymous source who seem to have described Moe as "2010 avant garde version of Henry Cow", and that might be a fitting description in 2011 as well?

Moe play atLast Train in Oslo 31 may and on Bergen's  Nattjazz festival 3 June.

MOE - It Pictures by hvards

MOE - I go down I go bright by hvards

Tricatel and Chris Cutler

Here are some articles that may be of interest:

- "How Not To Run A Record Label: Bertrand Burgalat On 15 Years Of Tricatel" - published in The Quietus May 20th.

- "Collateral damage" - Chris Cutler on the cost of free music - published in The Wire issue #328.

Bob Dylan 70!

Of course we want to celebrate Bob Dylan on his 70th  birthday!
The soundtrack on the first video is "Thunder on the mountain" from the great album  "Modern times" (2006).

This is not the blog to discuss good and not so good Dylan albums, but let me mention one good one, where he is really seeking out his roots, namely "World gone wrong" from 1993. I think this is the only record I have seen being reviewed by Robert Wyatt! Wyatt´s "Hear this man do it, and take courage" was published in Mojo in December 1993 (p 104-105).
Wyatt finishes is review like this: "World Gone Wrong finds Dylan strumming again through songs from what he sees as his tradition. It is still totally a Bob Dylan record. Hear this man do it, and take courage. How great it could if everybody struggling to find their own voice were able to just stop struggling and ... well, use their own voice. We all got one, unique as a fingerprint".


And here is Robert Wyatt´s own "Bob Dylan song" "Blues in Bob minor" from "Shleep" (1998). I usually don´t post sound files like this (not uploaded by the artist) but you have already bought this one I hope? If not, do it!

 Don't Think Twice, It's All Right by susannawallumroed

And finally a cover. Susanna and the Magical Orchestra did "Don´t think twice" on "Melody Mountain" (2006).