1982 Festival

What a great music weekend we just had at the 1982 Festival at Bergen Kjøtt, with four evenings dedicated to the music of 1982 and friends.

A short version of the happenings:

- BJ Cole playing pedal steel with the trio, and no doubt enjoying it. Very nice!
- Kristin Bolstad adding electronics, and both prerecorded and live samples to the folk improv. Worked fine!
- Lumen Drones (check their ECM album!) bringing some volume, rock and drones, ending up inviting the full 1982 trio to participate on a couple of wild numbers!
- Fredrik Rysjedal´s animation, telling the story of his grandfather, to 1982´s music. Touching!
- Trygve Seim and Stian Omenås making 1982 a quintet for the first time, and you may also spot a little guest behind the drums there, making it the 1982 sextet.
- Sigbjørn Apeland presented his new solo project working with instruments that are not working! Quite dusty too some of them. First time I have seen him with a guitar!
- Fredrik Ljungkvist and 1982 playing a quiet and beautiful Sunday concert.
- Elisabeth Færøy Lund exhibiting her photos of houses in a Swedish street.

All four (highly recommended!) 1982 albums have Elisabeth Færøy Lund´s photos on the cover.

As always click on photos for larger versions. If you still wonder about that person with "wings" in photo number two, let me tell you that it is just Sigbjørn Apeland and the only (and quite dead) houseplant in the venue.

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.

BMX: Rozel Point

I know I´m getting older and slower, but it will be hard to find a good excuse to have totally missed out on the Bergen band BMX´s great second album "Rozel Point" (Øyvind Jazzforum) that was released almost exactly one year ago!

BMX is Njål Ølnes (sax), Thomas T. Dahl (g) (with Mats Eilertsen), Øyvind Skarbø (dr) (with 1982) and Per Jørgensen (tp, voc) (with Jøkleba).

You get seven improvised pieces and two composed, the composed ones being a beautiful version of Carla Bley´s "Jesus Maria" and Njål Ølnes´ "Joey´s Spring" that is supposed to be loosely based on a composition by Olivier Messiaen. I´ll just take their word for that.

I might hear a touch of Miles and a nod to Jøkleba, but most of all BMX music. And that´s fine!
Seek this one out! I haven´t got the CD yet, but the album is at least on iTunes, eMusic and Spotify.

Recorded by Jan Erik Kongshaug.

1982 at Inage Candy (Japan)

1982 at Jazz Spot Candy, Inage, Chiba (Japan), 17th October 2013 (via EigenKino on YouTube).

Musicians: Sigbjørn Apeland (piano), Nils Økland (Hardanger fiddle) and Øyvind Skarbø (percussion).

Bly De Blyant vinyl

We have had some posts on the trio Bly De Blyant and their two Hubro albums in this blog.

Their second album "Hindsight Bias" (Hubro 2014) has been out on CD since January, and now the vinyl is finally ready too.
I heard them last night at the Bergen Kjøtt venue, playing a solid mix of most genres around. Nice!

Bly De Blyant is Øyvind Skarbø (dr), Hilmar Jensson (g) and Shahzad Ismaily (b, synth).

Check them out!

Håkon Kornstad Tenor Battle at Nattjazz 2014

Here is a video of Håkon Kornstad Tenor Battle at the Nattjazz festival in Bergen in May 2014.

See also a video from a church concert at Nattjazz 2012 right here.

Musicians:
Håkon Kornstad (sax, voc)
Per Zanussi (b)
Øyvind Skarbø (dr)
Sigbjørn Apeland (org)

1982: "A/B" (Hubro 2014)

"A/B" (Hubro), The fourth album from the trio 1982, is out in record shops (and on digital shops too I hope) tomorrow (2 May 2014).

This time they move a bit away from the folk-improv they have stuck to until now. I only have the CD version so far, but the album is easily recognized as an old fashioned LP with two quite different sides (A/B).

The first track is an eighteen minutes long contemporary classical piece (named 18:16 of course!), where Stian Omenås composed music for five horns, that was overdubbed on music recorded during the sessions for the Pintura album (Hubro 2011). A fascinating and really nice piece!

The 1982 trio is Nils Økland (hardanger fidle, violins, voice), Sigbjørn Apeland (harmonium, piano) and Øyvind Skarbø (drums, percussion).
The extra musicians on the track "18:16" are: Fredrik Ljungkvist (clarinet), Erik Johannessen (trombone), Sofya Dudaeva (flute), Hanne Liland Rekdal (bassoon), Matthias Wallin (tenor horn) and Stian Omenås (conductor).

Even if Sigbjørn Apeland plays the piano too , not only the organ, and Nils Økland sings on one track, the music on "side B" is more like the old folk-improv we all love, and some of it is so beautiful that it almost hurts.

Cover: Elisabeth Færøy Lund / Yokoland.

Buy or borrow this album (and their previous ones), don´t steal.

Taken from Hubro´s site:
"Recently 1982 has also made a recording, not yet finished, with a fourth person. The group will participate in a live project related to animated film, and will compose a commissioned work for NOTAM (the Norwegian Center for Technology in Music and the Arts). The members of the group have also begun thinking about yet another recording project to be completed for the trio’s 10th anniversary in 2017".

Concert and festival organizers beware!

Bly DeBlyant: Hindsight Bias

The members of Bly De Blyant are Øyvind Skarbø (dr, perc, voice), Shahzad Ismaily (b, moog, voice, banjo, drum machine, org) and Hilmar Jensson (g, b, p, voice).

Their previous album on Hubro ("ABC" 2013) was creme de la creme, and the new one, "Hindsight Bias" (2014) is even better. They still play all kinds of genres (!), and the album has the feeling of a relaxed jam even if most of the music this time, was written by Skarbø before they started.

Bergen sax man Kjetil Møster visits on one track ("Bunker Hill").

Read more on Soundcloud or on Hubro´s site.

I heard them do a secret pop-up concert in Bergen earlier this week, with Anders Bitustøyl (b) replacing Shahzad Ismaily for the occasion (lousy flash photo here). Funky stuff live!

1982 + BJ Cole and BJ Cole + Poulomi Desai

Sigbjørn Apeland (fiddles, violins), Øyvind Skarbø (dr, perc) and Nils Økland (org), aka the great folk-impro trio 1982, were invited to play at the Sildajazz festival in Haugesund (Norway), with pedal steel guitarist BJ Cole.

1982 played while walking the stairs too, and don´t forget the "1982 + BJ Cole" album on Hubro!

In July, BJ Cole (pedal steel guitar) and Poulomi Desai (prepared sitar) played at Cafe Oto in London.
More info on that happening to be found on YouTube.

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!

1982 and B.J. Cole live in Copenhagen

Thanks to Jazz Peter) we now have three videos from 1982 and B.J. Cole´s concert at Copenhagen´s Jazzhouse 5 April!
Nils Økland (fiddles, violins), Øyvin Skarbø (drums, perc), Sigbjørn Apeland (harmonium) and BJ Cole (pedal steel). Enjoy!

Please go back to a previous post with Nils Økland solo during the same concert too.

1982 - Live at Kaleidophon Ulrichsberg

My favorite folk imrov trio 1982, filmed 3 May during Kaleidophon Ulrichsberg 2013.

Sigbjørn Apeland (harmonium, piano), Nils Økland (Hardanger fiddle, Viola d´amore, fiolin) and Øyvind Skarbø (drums).

Blyant and Motland at PlayDate

We had two release concerts in one at the PlayDate concert series at the Landmark club in Bergen Tuesday evening.

Stine Janvin Motland (last picture) did a fantastic solo concert, to promote her new album, soon to be released on the Bergen record company +3dB.

We have mentioned Bly de Blyant´s album "ABC" (Hubro 2013) already, and Hilmar Jensson (g), Shahzad Ismaily (b, banjo) and Øyvind Skarbø (dr), were great live too. No tunes shorter than one minute here (even if they have them on the album!), and they ended the show with a wild version of Prince´s "Controversy". Great fun!

Live animation worked fine with Bly de Blyant, but I´m sorry to say I din´t get the name of the animator. I really like videos/animations behind bands playing. That usually adds value to the music, at least for me.

--------------

Via twitter I got the message that the animator was Marieke Verbiesen.

Bly de Blyant: Rope

"Rope" by Bly de Blyant from Fredrik Rysjedal on Vimeo.

We recently had a blog post on Bly de Blyant´s album "ABC" (Hubro 2013), and here we go again with a video for the track "Rope".

Video: Fredrik Rysjedal.
Bly de Blyant: Hilmar Jensson, Shahzad Ismaily and Øyvind Skarbø.

Bly de Blyant: ABC (Hubro 2013)

Bly de Blyant may have released the most cocky album of 2013 so far with "ABC" (Hubro 2013). They try most known genres in a bit more than 30 minutes, and check out the cover bird (cover: Erik Olsson/Yokoland)!
I believe I hear (among other stuff) jazz, jazzrock, heavy monotonous rock, scandinavian mountain jazz and what else? Funk! Blues! They borrow music from Prince and Willie Dixon too.

Let me just point out that some tracks are a bit on the short side, and feel more like sketches. The shortest two are 15 and 34 seconds, but still I think this is quite good fun! A bit hard to relax while listening perhaps, so you might want to take that as a warning.

Listen to "Curtis" (Skarbø) below. It´s the longest track on the album (5:45).

The trio: Øyvind Skarbø (dr, org, Moog), Shahzad Ismaily (b, g, voice, dr, org) and Hilmar Jensson (g, org).

Bly de Blyant is Creme de la Creme.

Honeyleap

Meet Honeyleap, another Swedish-Norwegian cooperation you might want to check out.
The band is Fredrik Ljungkvist (sax, clarinet), Klas Nevrin (piano), Per Zanussi (bass) and Øyvind Skarbø (drums), and their new eponymous album is out on Øyvind Jazzforum.
Since Klas Nevrin is new to me, he is the only one of the musicians who gets his own link.

The music on the album is composed by Ljungkvist, Zanussi and Nevrin, and you get a fine mix of pretty hard swinging jazz and something close to contemporary classical. I was wondering how much was composed and how much was improvised during the record release concert in Bergen earlier this week, but Klas Nevrin has at least written liner notes on the pleasures and hard work of improvising.

"Honeyleap" should be available in iTunes and eMusic, and head on over to SoundCloud for some more info. I got my CD at the concert, with fake tattoo and all!

Watch and listen to "Ebony Swing" (Ljungkvist), recorded at Bergen Jazzforum 20 February 2013.

Soon to be released on Hubro

Øyvind Skarbø (dr) and Kjetil Møster (sax) are probably the two musicians I have heard the most on the scenes of Bergen these last six or seven years. They both play lots bands (of course!), and both have new albums to be released on the great Hubro label.


The first one out is Bly De Blyant with "ABC" (Norway release March 1st). Bly De Blyant is Øyvind Skarbø, Shahzad Ismaily and Hilmar Jensson.


The next one is Møster! and the album "Edvard Lygre Møster" (Norway release 15 March).
The musicians of Møster!: Kjetil Møster, Ståle Storløkken, Nikolai Eilertsen and Kenneth Kapstad!

Die, Allround Handwerker!

Friday night I attended the release concert for Øyvind Skarbøs drum album "Die, Allround Handwerker!" (+3dB SUB 2012) at Bergen Kjøtt.

Skarbø did a short, but elegant concert, surrounded by video projections, in what was a fantastic use of the industrial concert hall. Light man Birk in full control here.
The videos will be uploaded later, probably on Skarbø´s own site.

If you have seen Skarbø live with 1982, BMX or solo, then you know that "drumming" also means, blowing through your drum, creative use of corn and throwing and shaking tealight holders.

The new album will make an exciting soundtrack to around half an hour of your life, mostly solo Skarbø, but with Kresten Osgood joining on one track.
Only 100 CD-Rs made, all numbered by hand (I have got 1/100).

Cover design:Blankblank.

Øyvind Skarbø might want to think before he prints "blurbs" the next time (check out the critics on this one here).

1982 + BJ Cole album

After several blog posts, I guess it is no secret that I´m a fan of the folk improv trio 1982 (Sigbjørn Apeland, Nils Økland, Øyvind Skarbø). Now they are joined by pedal steel man BJ Cole for their new album on Hubro.

I really liked their previous albums ("1982" and "Pintura") a lot, and it works fine with BJ Cole joining the team too! It´s still folky, with a melancholic twist, and I don´t mind that some parts even make me think of Brian Eno´s "Apollo"!
Play loud, mornings and evenings!

If you happen to be in London today, make sure you see them at Kings Place with Moskus, another Hubro label band.

1982 + BJ Cole

Hubro has uploaded a taste from the forthcoming album from 1982 (Øyvind Skarbø, Sigbjørn Apeland, Nils Økland) and BJ Cole on Soundcloud, and it´s sounding good!

Album launch concert to be held at Hubro Label Night, Kings Place (London) 20 October, together with young Norwegian band Moskus.

1982 and BJ Cole played at the Nattjazz festival in Bergen in May.