Action Jazz, Copenhagen

It is 31 October and halloween folks, and I have had two big pieces of pumpkin pie with my tea to celebrate.

It is also the last night of Paal Nilssen-Love´s series "Action Jazz" at Jazzhouse, Copenhagen.

We already had a post on Digital Primitives from "Action Jazz" and turns up the volume on a night like this, with The Thing and PNL Large Unit. See more videos from the Jazzhouse on Jazz Peter´s YouTube.

SPUNK: Adventura Botanica

You must not forget to get Spunk´s new album "Adventura Botanica" on Rune Grammofon (2014).
The limited vinyl versions were unfortunately gone in no time though.

The music is based on a commissioned work for choreographer and dancer Odd Johan Fritzøe. Fritzøe´s performance is inspired by the works of Charles Darwin, and here is what is written on his Vimeo: "In the same way as Darwin studied coevolution between plants and insects, Frtitzøe´s ensembly has been inspired by the Darwin ´s theories. The quartet SPUNK has created potent noise poetry provided from five sound sculptures".

The tracks are named after plants: White Water Lily, Mountain Clover and Common Hepatica. Quite an organic and evolutionary album from SPUNK this time.

Have a listen on Rune Grammofon´s Soundcloud, and watch the video from Fritzøe´s performance below.

SPUNK is: Kristin Andersen (trumpet, flutes), Lene Grenager (cello), Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje (voice) and Hild Sofie Tafjord (french horn).

Cover: Kim Hiorthøy.

Also well worth checking out: Maja Ratkje´s "Adventura Anatomica" (Semishigure 2006) for another Odd Johan Fritzøe piece.

Adventura botanica from Odd Johan Fritzøe on Vimeo.

The walls of Bergen again

Some colorful Bergen graffiti for you today, to raise your spirits.

I guess I will be back with more street art before the weekend. A releaseparty for the book "Street Art Bergen" is happening Thursday evening.

New albums on SOFA

Why don´t you have a listen to two new relases on the Sofa label?

Microtuba is Robin Hayward (microtonal F-tuba), Martin Taxt (microtonal C-tuba) and Kristoffer Lo (microtonal C-tuba). Their album "Star System" was recorded at Sjøbygda Art House in Selbu, Norway in April 2013. Microtonal and minimalistic, but please try to dance to the track "Squaredance" if you please.

Citing Sofa: "The 3-dimensional graphic scores used on the album Star System are subsets of the Hayward Tuning Vine, which arose out of a desire to visualise the harmonic space implicit within the microtonal tuba. Each of the balls represent pitches, and the struts between them musical intervals".


Michael Francis Duch´s "Tomba Emanuelle" was recorded in May 2013 at the Emmanuel Vigeland Mausoleum in Oslo, famous for it´s acoustics.

Citing M.F. Duch: "It is an unedited concert recording of a piece I have been working on since it was first commissioned by nyMusikk Bergen in 2012. It is for one or more bass instruments exploring different registers, timbres and acoustic effects of their instruments and their relation to the room it is being performed in".

Hubro

If you have visited this blog more than once, you may already have guessed that I am a big fan of the Norwegian record label Hubro.

Friday 25 October they celebrated their first five years with a Hubro Label Night at Nasjonal Jazzscene, Victoria in Oslo.
The concert was streamed, and is now edited (the full stream is on YouTube too, if you want to enjoy all the waiting between bands!) to present three fine videos with the bands Moskus, Building Instrument and Mats Eilertsen Trio.

Moskus: Anja Lauvdal (piano), Fredrik Luhr Dietrichson (bass) and Hans Hulbækmo (drums).

Building Instrument: Mari Kvien Brunvoll (vocals, sampler, zither, percussion, kazoo), Øyvind Hegg-Lunde (drums and percussion) and Åsmund Weltzien (synthesizer, electronics, melodica).

Mats Eilertsen Trio: Harmen Fraanje (piano), Thomas Strønen (drums) and Mats Eilertsen (bass).

Soundtrack of my life: Robert Wyatt

The Guardian (26 October 2014) interviewed Robert Wyatt on some favorite music. And here is "the soundtrack of his life": Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Willimas, The Miracles, Stevie Wonder, Kalinka Vulcheva, Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears and Pharrell Wilson.

Pharrell Wilson´s "Happy" is named "The recent song that is as good as the 60s classics". A fine one indeed!

"English rock is all about beer and guitars. That’s why I don’t really fit in. I’m much more wine and keyboards" (R.W.).

The Wind of Change

A very short interview with Jerry Dammers and Robert Wyatt on the SWAPO Singers/Wyatt single "The Wind of Change" (1985). I believe I have seen this somewhere else, but I´m not quite sure where.

The uploader says this about the quality of the video "many of my videos are old versions from VHS that are copies of copies of copies that 30 years ago I had clandestinely from a friend of mine that he had from a friend of a friend of a friend of his".

Digital Primitives

Wow! Check out Digital Primitives at Jazz House (Copenhagen)! They were a part of the Paal Nilssen-Love curated "Action Jazz" concert series (still going on, October 2014).

This makes me happy, happy, happy - happy to be alive!
No I haven´t taken any drugs, see last part of part 2, and you might agree with me!

Musicians: Cooper-Moore (hand crafted instruments - diddley-bo, banjo, mouth bow, flute, drums, vocals), Assif Tsahar (tenor sax, bass clarinet9 and Chad Taylor (drums, M'bira).

Pataphysics

Marcus O´Dair on pataphysics and Robert Wyatt in "Pataphysics: Your Favorite Cult Artist’s Favorite Pseudoscience" - Pitchfork 21 October 2014.

"In terms of his music, the influence of what Wyatt refers to in emails as “Patafizzix” is perhaps most obvious in “Signed Curtain”, a meta-ballad he recorded shortly after leaving Soft Machine. “This is the first verse, this is the first verse,” it begins, and continues in similarly self-referential fashion: “this is the chorus or perhaps it’s the bridge…” And when Wyatt sang on a song for composer John Greaves’ 1996 album Songs, he finally got his chance to deliver the line: “Peel’s foe, not a set animal, laminates a tone of sleep.”"

Jü & Kjetil Møster - A38 Hajó, 13 October 2014

Halmos András - drums
Hock Ernő - bass
Mészáros Ádám - guitar

Featuring
Kjetil Møster - sax

Here is another blog post on Jü and Møster from May 2014.

And an album is on it´s way from Rare Noise.

Signed copies of the Robert Wyatt biography

Two weeks ago we had a post on Hypergallery selling the prints of Alfreda Benge´s cover art for Robert Wyatt´s albums "Rock Bottom" and "Ruth is Stranger than Richard".

You probably remember that, but have you seen this on the Hypergallery site?: "Hypergallery is delighted to offer pre-publication hardback copies of Different Every Time with a colour bookplate signed by Robert Wyatt and his wife and creative partner, Alfreda Benge. These will be dispatched in advance of the book’s official publication date (October 30 2014) at the regular retail price".

Evan@70

To mark his 70th year, Evan Parker curates a week of performances at the Vortex and Cafe Oto in London. Starting tonight!

Evan@70 Full Programme:

Monday October 20 – Cafe OTO
Evan Parker + The Necks

Tuesday October 21 – The Vortex
Evan Parker / Chris Corsano / John Edwards (trio)
Evan Parker / Joe McPhee (duo)
Evan Parker / Chris Corsano / Joe McPhee / John Edwards (quartet)

Wednesday October 22 – Cafe OTO
Evan Parker + AMM (John Tilbury & Eddie Prévost)

Thursday October 23 – The Vortex
Evan Parker with Black Top (Pat Thomas & Orphy Robinson)
Evan Parker / John Edwards / Steve Noble

Friday October 24 – Cafe OTO
Evan Parker / John Edwards / John Russell

Saturday October 25 – The Vortex
Trance Map Quartet with Matt Wright computer and turntables/Hannah Marshall cello/Barry Guy bass

Sunday October 26 – Cafe OTO
Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble

Lullaby for Hamza and Sea Song covers

Found these tweets from The Unthanks today (19 Oct):
"As we hear #Covers6Music on @freshnet we're told by Robert Wyatt himself of an act doing covers of our covers of him" and "#Covers6Music @freshnet Robert was all for it, as are we!"

And then I found the Robert Wyatt covers "Lullaby for Hamza" and "Sea Song" uploaded on YouTube in October 2012. No tags, If you want an excuse for me missing them.

Now, who is the singer and who are the the musicians? Anyone know?

Added 20 October:

That did not take long! Comment from Strong Comet:

"She is Bella Stone, a Brazilian singer.
With Cau Netto on keyboards and Marcello Truda on guitar."

Haugaland Prog & Rock Festival

A new prog & rock festival, Haugaland Prog & Rock Festival, is happening in Haugesund Norway 31 October - 1 November.

I can´t find any time schedule for the concerts at the Høvleriet venue, but the bands are:

Caravan - (according to Calyx: Pye Hastings, Geoffrey Richardson, Jan Schelhaas, Jim Leverton & Mark Walker)

Martin Barre Band - "classic music from the Tull catalogue".

Pat McManus Band

Yuma Sun

Jackman Lie Haaland Set

D´Accord

The Topography of The Lungs

Cafe Oto/Otoroku celebrates Evan Parker's 70th birthday with a vinyl re-issue of Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, Han Bennink: 'The Topography of The Lungs' (Incus 1979).

Release date: 15 December 2014.

Robert Wyatt Biography

Folks, 30 October Marcus Odair´s Robert Wyatt biography on Serpent´s Tail is out there in old fashioned bookshops and on net shops for you all!

"Different every time. The authorized biography of Robert Wyatt" is a 400 page story (+ index, credits sources etc), containing most of what you want to know about Robert Wyatt. The story is told in a pretty linear (straightforward?) way, from the beginning to this day, which is fine with me, because it makes it easy to go back and read once more about certain periods and happenings.

You get all the well known (but important) stuff of course like family, Canterbury, touring USA with Jimi Hendrix, the bands and their famous members (Daevid Allen Trio, Wilde Flowers, Soft Machine, Matching Mole), the fall from Lady June´s window at a party in 1973 leaving Wyatt a paraplegic, the left wing politics, the magnificent solo albums and their guest musicians, and the guest spots on other people´s albums. Puh!

The book gets quite personal too, not hiding Wyatt´s problems with too much alcohol (but no illegal drugs!), not being confident about his musical abilities and depression. But thankfully the focus is more on all of his friends and, last but not least, his relationship with wife and collaborator Alfreda "Alfie" Benge.

The author links Wyatt´s personal life with the music and the Wyatt/Benge lyrics in a very fine way.

Great intro by Jonathan Coe, and nice chapter headings taken from track titles or parts of lyrics, and lots of photos (b&w), some of them bound to be new even for people who have followed Robert Wyatt for some time. Damn, I liked the one with Alfie and Warren Beatty from the the set of "McCabe and Mrs Miller"!

And of course, Robert Wyatt is a well spoken man! Here is one comment on his slow working rate:

"I am a real minimalist, because I don´t do very much. I know some minimalists who call themselves minimalists, but they do a lot of minimalism. That is cheating!".

Buy or borrow this book as soon as you can. Don´t steal it, that´s cheating!

Solo drums and solo saxophone

- Chris Corsano at Météo - Mulhouse Music Festival 2014.
- Mette Rasmussen at Météo - Mulhouse Music Festival 2014 (sunshine and kids and all).
- Mette Rasmussen at Blow Out! Festival, Oslo 2014.

And this spring we had a post showing a video where Corsano and Rasmussen played togehter.

Cakewalk — Transfixed

Cakewalk — Transfixed from Blank Blank on Vimeo.

Music: "Transfixed" from the Cakewalk album with the same name.
Paint and perforation on 16mm film: Blank Blank.

Cakewalk is: Stephan Meidell (The Sweetest Thrill), Øystein Skar (Highasakite, Sacred Harp) and Ivar Loe Bjørnstad (Hedvig Mollestad Trio).

Check out Hubro´s interview with Stephan Meidell too, on among other stuff hypnoritualistic rhythms, Japanese food and Bergen´s EKKO Festival and Bergen Kjøtt venue.

John Surman and Bergen Big Band

Good news first: John Surman and Bergen Big Band will perform music from their new album "Another Sky", as part of the ‘Surman at Seventy’ residency, at London Jazz Festival in November.

And the really sad news is that long time Bergen Big Band leader and sax player Olav Dale died yesterday at the age of 55. May he rest in peace.

The video is from a concert at Bergen Jazzforum, October 2013.

Sky Travellers

I know a lot of you have been waiting for the first blog post on embroidery, and here it is!

Today I visited the exhibition "The needle´s eye. Contemporary embroidery" at Bergen´s Kode, and found among other impressive pieces of art Regien Cox´s "Sky Travellers".

Sewing on concrete mixers might make it a bit more cozy at building sites too!

Mary Halvorson's Reverse Blue

Mary Halvorson's Reverse Blue plying "Hako" at Cornelia Street Café 3 October 2014.
Lovely, heh?

Mary Halvorson - guitar
Chris Speed - tenor saxophone, clarinet
Eivind Opsvik - bass
Tomas Fujiwara - drums

The Free Jazz blog has nothing less than a triple review of their first album on Relative Pitch (2014).

Evan Parker x 2

Evan Parker - Solo Tenor Improvisation at The Kernel Brewery, London - 5/10/2014

Evan Parker (sax), Paul Rogers (b) and Mark Sanders (dr) at Instants Chavirés - 3/10/2014

Four albums

Today, four albums for you to check out! We move from impro - contemporary, through electronica to dark ambient, even if you all probably hate those labels!
But come on, I´m only trying to spread some good music here! Please take the chance, and have a listen.


Vilde & Inga: "Makrofauna" (ECM 2014). Vilde Sandve Alnæs (viol) and Inga Margrete Aas (b).

Shivers: "Shivers" (Miasmah 2014). Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek), Gareth Davis and Leo Fabriek.

Erik K. Skodvin: "Flame" (Sonic Pieces 2014). Other musicians: Anne Müller and Mika Posen on strings and Gareth Davis on clarinet.
The record company is calling this "Americana-inspired".

Deaf Center: "Recourt" (Sonic Pieces 2014). Erik K. Skodvin and Otto Totland".

Catholic Architecture cover

I mentioned this new record one month ago, but here we go again, this time with sound!

Grasscut (Andrew Phillips and Marcus O’Dair) is releasing an AA sided single on Lo Rec. October 20, with one of the A sides being a really fine cover of the Robert Wyatt / Alfreda Benge song "Catholic Architecture" from Wyatt´s "Dondestan" album (1991). It comes (citing Lo Records´ home page) with a nod to the "sound of Robert’s 1982 Rough Trade compilation, Nothing Can Stop Us".

The other A side is the beautiful and mellow "Beacon" inspired they say "by a 12-mile walk from the English Channel to the top of Firle Beacon on the South Downs, on the occasion of the Summer Solstice. It's about leaving the place you live and, when looking down on it from a height, finding it unfamiliar".

Benge - Wyatt album artwork for sale

"Rock Bottom" and "Ruth is stranger than Richard" album artwork for sale over at Hypergallery (198 GBP).


LIMITED EDITION OF 100

Artwork by Alfreda Benge

Signed and numbered in pencil by Alfreda Benge

Countersigned by Robert Wyatt

Giclée in pigment inks on acid free art paper

Published: 2014

PRE-PUBLICATION ORDERS ONLY. PRINTS WILL BE SUPPLIED BEFORE THE END OF NOVEMBER.

Image size: 19.00" x 17.00"

Paper size: 24.00" x 24.00"

Snakes and Ladders: Lucky Day

This is beautiful! Snakes and Ladders performing "Lucky day" in June 2014.

Sophia Domancich (keyboard)
John Greaves (voc)
Himiko Paganotti (voc)
Eric Daniel (g)

"Lucky day" is a track from the Sophia Domancich album ‎"Snakes And Ladders" (Cristal Records 2011).
On this album you will also find "Wilderness" sung by Robert Wyatt, with lyrics by Alfreda Benge.

Stoned Innocent Frankenstein

"Stoned Innocent Frankenstein", a double album of unreleased alternative versions and different mixes of Gong man Daevid Allen´s first solo album, is scheduled for release 27 October 2014.

The first solo album is better known as "Bananamoon" (1970).

More info on Planet Gong Bazaar, where I copied this about the three tracks with Robert Wyatt participating:

Memories (alt. mix) - [3.35] (H. Hopper)
Who wouldn't be happy with an un-heard mix of Robert Wyatt singing Hugh Hopper's beautiful song with clearer vocals and guitar.

Out Of Here (alt. version) - [5.37] (C. Tritsch)
The most startling difference here the use of Robert Wyatt's high, angelic-sounding solo vocal for the chorus line as a counterpoise to daevid's deliberately gruff, rough delivery of the verses. On the released version that idea was abandoned and daevid sang all the lyrics in the throaty style.

Instrumental In The Land Of Flip - [11.58] (d. allen)
The clarity and crispness of Robert Wyatt's drumming and Gerry Field's violin playing are the standout features on this layer of the 'Land of Flip' strata, in essence it's the drum track. The drumming is so good and sharp that it makes one wonder that had this been available years ago would it have become one of those eagerly sampled drum tracks?

Hoping Daevid Allen is doing fine!

Karl Seglem at Bergen Jazzforum

Karl Seglem may be a bit underrepresented in this blog, so let´s hear it now for Seglem and his project "Som spor". "Som spor" is originally a work commissioned for the Vossajazz festival in 2012, but a new recording for the album was done at Victoria, Nasjonal Jazzscene in Oslo and released on NORCD right now.

The videos are from a concert at Bergen Jazzforum 26 September 2014.

Karl Seglem: saxophone and goat horn
Sigrid Moldestad and Håkon Høgemo: hardanger fiddles
Lars Jakob Rudjord and Andreas Ulvo: keyboards
Sigurd Hole: bass
Kåre Opheim: drums and percussion