Crab is Crap feat. Ståle Storløkken

Check out "Miradouro" (viewpoint in Portuguese), the new digital album from Crab is Crap feat. Ståle Storløkken (PlayDate Records 2015).

Crab is Crap is the two Bergen drummers Øyvind Skarbø and Øyvind Hegg-Lunde, and they have played live with Ståle Storløkken several times (Nattjazz and Finsejazz festivals in Norway).

The music on this album is a mix of both studio recordings and live recordings from Nattjazz 2014.

"Trying to avoid the pitfalls of the standard meet-greet-and-play way of doing improvised music, we have tried hard to give you an album that actually sounds nice on repeated listening. We've chosen parts that has the melodic, rhythmic, emotional and collaborative content you'd expect from composed material. It is all improvised, and the energy is clearly different from pre-planned music, but we strive to not use that as an excuse to do whatever. We hope you appreciate our effort."
Thanks, I do.

Mixing: Randall Dunn.

Strings & Timpani

Talk about being slow, but here is finally a post on the final release from the Bergen kraut-noise-rock duo The Sweetest Thrill. And it´s no less than a limited cassette (100 copies?), but also available digitally (iTunes, eMusic, streaming services)!

The Sweetest Thrill is Øyvind Hegg-Lunde (drums) and Stephan Meidell (guitar), both hard working guys on the Bergen scene, and they called it a day (for The Sweetest Thrill) this spring with "Strings and Timpani" (Klangkollektivet 2014).

While their previous release "Jewellery" (PlayDate / Klangkollektivet 2012) was a duo album, they have several guests on the new one, and some of the names should be familiar to readers of this blog. They are: Mari Kvien Brunvoll, Espen Sommer Eide, Kristian Stockhaus, Bjørn Torske, Bjørnar Habbestad, Per Zanussi, John Hegre and Jørgen Træen.

Highly recommended!

It even seems like it still is possible to order cassettes (100 NOK), and the Norwegian krone is low these days too, just saying.

Christmas To Be Announced

I´m not that wild about Christmas calendars, but I Check a few, even if they don´t have any chocolate surprises.

On Soundcloud you may find an alternative calendar with Norwegian artists, and today´s surprise was The Big Almost, with Alexander Simm (g) Jacob Öhrvall (b, keyb) and Bergen´s own drummer Øyvind Hegg-Lunde. Two Swedes and one Norwegian there, and they are in a quite noisy festive mood today.

Check out their album "Mouth"(2014) too!

Building Instrument

How about giving the Bergen trio Building Instrument a chance?

Their record company Hubro describes their development like this: "The trio began to play together in Bergen in 2008, and their original idea was to explore electronic music. This project was quickly abandoned in favour of a more acoustic and home-grown focus. The members of the trio have now found their own self-defined niche within a genre that could be described as a no-man’s-land"

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

Mari Kvien Brunvoll has been a regular in my blogs as a solo artist, in Tim Tygg and working with guitar player Stein Urheim. And on this record she is singing, using her own glorious Molde dialect of Norwegian, on some of the tracks.
*Cough* I might be a bit biased here, when it comes to how glorious that dialect is.

Øyvind Hegg-Lunde is a member of Crab Is Crap with drummer Øyvind Skarbø, Electric Eye (great psychedelia!) and The Sweetest Thrill with Stephan Meidell.

Have a listen to the opening track "Historia" ("The History"), a wordless song there.

For one reason or the other the Norwegian release date is 07.03.2014, while international release happens 16.05.2014. Why?

Nattjazz (Bergen) Saturday 25 May. A short summary.

Saturday evening was all Norwegian at Nattjazz.

- Beginning with the end, as I was on my way to leave the venue, I met Dr. Kay and The Interstellar Tone Scientists coming back in after an outdoor walk with the audience.

- I started the evening with Mathias Eick and his commissioned work for the Vossajazz festival: "Voss". Much more powerful and intense than what I (for some reason) expected. Really good, to tell you the truth.
The band: Mathias Eick, Torstein Lofthus, Gard Nilsen, Nikolai Hængsle Eilertsen, Even Helte Hermansen, Andreas Ulvo, Erlend Slettevoll and Anders Aasebø (sound), and only one of the guys on stage without a beard! What´s happening?

- The jolly drummers Øyvind Skarbø and Øyvind Hegg-Lunde of Crab is Crap was joined by Ståle Storløkken for a fun and partly funky happening. The guys had been visiting a studio earlier in the day, so we might expect a recording soon?

- And finally Møster!, now without the already mentioned Ståle Storløkken, who played on Møster!´s fine album "Edvard Lygre Møster" (Hubro 2013). The band these days: Kjetil Møster, Kenneth Kapstad, Hans Magnus "Snah" Ryan and Nikolai Hængsle Eilertsen. The sound wasn´t too good in the beginning of the concert (damn, I couldn´t hear the saxophone!) but improved very much, and it turned into a tight, noisy, rocking and rolling show. With half of Motorpsycho present, no wonder!