Bergen´s Borealis Festival

The 2015 version of Bergen´s Borealis festival for experimental music is over.

Check the programme and see if you find the selection of artists interesting!

When you hear that after months of heavy rain (no kidding!), the sun was in fine form during the whole festival, you might consider visiting the festival next time.

The pictures are from most of the concerts I attended. From top to bottom:

- The opening concert in Bergen´s old swimming pool, where the highlight for me was Oliver Coats playing cello and electronics from the top of the diving tower!

- Tomoko Sauvage´s beautiful installation and performance with melting ice at the Sound Gallery ("floe/flow", Lydgalleriet).

- Local pianist Else Olsen S. and veteran composer Christian Wolff: "Konsertsirkus" (Concert Circus). Three hours of open form for the whole family with Christian Wolff (composer and piano), Else Olsen S. (composer and prepared piano), Guro Moe (double bass), Lisa Dillan (voice, measuring cup and glasses), Maja Ratkje (voice and electronics), Mia Göran (flute), Michael Duch (double bass), Sigyn Fossnes (violin) and Øyvind Skarbø (drums).

- Guro Moe, Maja Ratkje and audience at "Konsertsirkus".

Borealis 2015

In one month (11 - 15 March) the Borealis Festival for experimental music is happening in Bergen again!

Here is the programme, and it seems like they are promising more artists to be announced.

The following info is stolen from the Borealis newsletter:

"We’ll be exploring gender power dynamics, hip-hop and experimental singing with Lithuanian composer Lina Lapelyte; making music with typewriters thanks to South Korea’s A. Typist; watching the world premiere of an opera about madness and electricity from British composer Emily Hall; and discovering extended instrumental textures alongside Danish composer Christian Winther Christensen.

There’ll be a raft of world premieres from Bergen based composers; a new commission for cello and electronics arriving from the landscape and buildings of the far North East of Norway in the hands of Lucy Railton and Russell Haswell; immersive 3D sound work from Thorolf Thuestad; and you can drop in to listen to part wild horses mane on both sides build their cassette library of Bergen field recordings for a whole month.

We also have an automatic instrument crafted from ice, porcelain and hydrophones by Tomoko Sauvage; the stratospheric vocal stylings of Newcastle's Richard Dawson; Norwegian premieres of works for sinfonietta by Larry Goves and Johannes Kreidler; an all night sleeping performance hosted by Peter Lenaerts; Sons of Kemet a band with two drummers and tuba for bassline; talks and films and more…!"

Borealis 2014

Borealis, Bergen´s festival for contemporary experimental music and sound art, is happening 19 - 23 March, with a warm-up week 11 - 18 March.

Citing info from the Borealis web site: "This year the theme is Alchemy, the mother of modern chemistry and an esoteric philosophy rich in mythology and magic. In its quest to transform base metals into gold, alchemy evolved a wealth of scientific and spiritual theories, beliefs, practices and rituals from which this year’s programme has evolved".

Check out the programme, and see if you want to come.

Rob Young´s talk seems to fit the main theme: "A history of magic and the occult in music".

Borealis 2013: Notation Project

Borealis: 2013: Notation Project Documentation Film from Borealis Festival on Vimeo.

This one is for those of you (both of you?) interested in graphic scores.

Bergen´s (and the world´s!) Borealis Festival present their Notation Project, and if you have read this blog regularly, you will perhaps recognize several of the people being interviewed.

My photos from the 2013 Borealis Festival are on Flickr.

Borealis 2013 - The End

Just a very short short round up of the Borealis festival in Bergen. It has been a great festival, and quite good attended, even if the festival theme was "The End".

- The Swedish guitarist David Stackenäs played a graphic score as part of the Festival´s notation project.
- Felix Kubin did the presentation "Kassettentäter", on the cassette culture of the German underground. Perfect in a club close to midnight on a Saturday? Yes!
- Dave Tompkins did the talk "The Beat Who Cheated Death: Endless Low in Miami". This man loves his bass! How about "Bass semantics"? "Oh my guts!"? We were all discretely headbanging while listening. A bit more here.

- I have to admit I am not an expert in contemporary classical, but realize that it was a really big thing to have Vinko Globokar at the festival.

- The final concert was organized in cooperation with Bergen Jazz Forum, and let me tell you that Colin Stetson impressed a packed house! One of the more quiet pieces may be heard in the video below. Stenton or Stetson, who cares!

You will of course find more info on the festival site, if you want to.
More unfocused photos will end up on Flickr in a short while.

Borealis 2013 (From the chapel to the club)

Borealis are continuing their quest for the strange concert venue. Some of the previous festivals had concerts at the racetracks and in the living rooms of the good people of Bergen, and as you might have read yesterday, we were at a waste plant to listen to Lasse Marhaug and others.

On Thursday night the double bass ensemble Ludus Gravis, played at the Solheim chapel (8 basses at most), and we even heard a solo performance down under the chapel, in a crypt where they used to store urns. Intense!
Let me remind you that the theme of the festival this year is "The End".

Later we heard Langham Research Centre and Peter Blegvad perform the new piece "Eschatology" at the Landmark club. The text is written by Blegvad and read by him to soundscapes, partly made by sounds sampled in Bergen.
"Eschatology" explores different kinds of endings, and I had some kind of apocalyptic sci-fi feeling while listening. Bloody marvelous!
And with Peter Blegvad! I was a bit starstruck, but managed to take an undercover photo of him, while he was listening to the last act of the evening at Landmark:*AR.

* AR is Richard Skelton and Autumn Richardson. I have listened a bit to Skelton before this, and recognized the quiet and melancholic music made by samples, this time from the mountains of Northern England. They played in front of one of the slowest videos I have ever seen, showing the fog floating into the mountains. Absolutely beautiful!

Read and listen (to some of *AR´s last album) over at Corbel Stone.

Borealis 2013

I´m a bit busy this week! The Borealis festival of Bergen is happening right now.

Wednesday I went to the grand festival opening with (among other concerts) Lasse Marhaug´s powerful commissioned work for Ny Musikk (New Music org); "Waste music (for two furnaces )" - giving us the sonic recycling of a waste plant. Both earplugs and helmets this time! Great day at the waste plant!

Espen Sommer Eide has several performances in his exhibition "Dead Language Poetry" at the Bergen Kunsthall, Wednesday hi deid one together with Alexander Rishaug, Janne-Camilla Lyster, Signe Lidén, Tolga Balci and Trine H. Friis.

Trond Lossius is presenting his sound installation "Lontano" in the Haukeland Unversity Hospital´s anechoic chamber. The sounds of railway stations, parks, the birds at night and a even a full storm, is a strong and strange experience in a completely sound isolated room like this one.

Read more about all this over at Borealis, and feel free to check out more of my photos on Flickr.

BOREALIS 2013

This year´s Borealis (festival for contemporary experimental music and sound art) is happening in Bergen 6 - 10 March.

It may become a grim month of March, since the festival theme is "The End", but the program is promising still!

It all starts with garbage, and Lasse Marhaug ´s "Søppelmusikk (for to avfallsovner)" ("Waste Music (for two furnaces)"), and I´m happy to say that Peter Blegvad and Richard Skelton is coming to town!

There will also be performances in Espen Sommer Eide´s March exhibition at Bergen Kunsthall.

John Cage: 4´33´

The Norwegian brass and percussion band Eikanger Bjørsvik Musikklag performed John Cage´s famous piece 4´33´´ at the Borealis festival in Bergen yesterday. The piece should last 4 minutes and 33 seconds, but Eikanger Bjørsvik clocked in at 5 minutes and 20 seconds. I don´t know how Cage fans will react to that, but some improvisation must be OK, or?

I have to say that it sounded best when they did not mute the horns.
And of course somebody uploaded the concert on YouTube. Not great filming, but quite good sound quality. Should be played loud!

You will find my pictures from Borealis 2012 on Flickr.

Borealis Avgarde Extreme

Borealis 2011 is over. The hardest working musicians the last day of the festival must have been Le Jury: Ricardo Odriozola (violin), Jostein Stalheim (accordion) and Einar Røttingen (piano), who improvised for twelve hours during the Borealis Avgarde Extreme happening (Avgarde being the organization of new music in Bergen). The guys had short breaks to order food  and have necessary timeouts, but most of the time all three were playing.
The musicians had electrodes attached to their scalps, and we were able to see the EEG, a graphical representation of electrical activity in the brain. The signals were also used by electronic media artist Trond Lossius, creating a live visual display.

I visited five or six times during the performance, and was impressed by the energy! The video in this post was filmed when they had been playing for eleven hours, and the violin player had recently been dancing so hard that he pulled out all the wires!
Towards the end they had burnt most of the fuel, and I guess it was just as good that the brain activity was not monitored then.

Take a look at another video filmed after one hour of playing, and this one filmed after five hours of playing, and my pictures from Borealis Avgarde Extreme, and other Borealis concerts, on Flickr.

Borealis on a Thursday

A report from a Thursday evening at the Borealis Festival in Bergen coming up.

Thomas Bonvalet (France) and his solo project "L’Ocelle Mare" started the show. He plays banjo, harmonica and kicks percussion instruments! I can´t really explain what he does, but the concert was fantastic and intense, and I think I´ll go for the genre contemporary-classical-blues? No? Great anyway.

Japanese drummer Tatsuya Nakatani was next, delivering a sweaty solo set, both attacking the skins (I mean it!) and carefully stroking cymbals with bows. Nakatani invited Norwegian cello player Tanja Orning for a short set to end the concert. Very nice!

Nakatani told me after the concert that he really enjoyed playing in an intimate setting like the Landmark club, with the audience being very close to the drums.
He also said I was the first man in Europe to buy the new album (CD-R with hand made cover) named "Bigger Country Boobs" (!), that he recorded with the one and only Eugene Chadbourne. Alternative Country this!

Pierre Bastien & Phonophani (Espen Sommer Eide) were on as the last act, playing electronica-ambient-minimalism on self made instruments and machines (including mekano). Very fascinating stuff! Unfortunately I missed the open workshop they had on Friday, but hopefully someone filmed or took pictures to share?

Borealis 2011

If you are not too far from Bergen 22 - 26 March, please note that the  Borealis 2011 festival is happening at that time. Borealis is a festival dedicated to contemporary music, noise and sound art, and the theme of the year is "tripping"! The organizers tell us that tripping is also something you may do without chemical substances, so they will travel to Odda for one day to prove it! Far out!

The program was released yesterday (25 February) at one of the festival´s "satelite events", the exhibition "Reading Dante III" by  Joan Jonas who also gave a lecture before the exhibition opening.

Please check out the  program yourselves, but let me point you towards sax man Kjetil Møster, who will play at another satelite event 2 March, Espen Sommer Eide (Pohonophani) will play with Pierre Bastien and Tanya Orning will play a new piece for cello by Maja Ratkje.

Tripping in Bergen

BOREALIS 2011: Festival theme from Borealis Festival on Vimeo.

The Borealis festival in Bergen will happen 22nd - 26th of March, and the festival theme is tripping! Of course! Festival director Alwynne Pritchard explains it all on the video.

Borealis is dedicated to contemporary music, noise and sound art (and more), and the psychedelic program will be dropped in the end of February.
Expect cynical drug jokes whenever the festival is mentioned.

My pictures from previous Borealis festivals here, from  2010, 2009 and 2008.

Borealis 2010 - Day number five

Saturday, and the final day of Borealis 2010! I started in church listening to two works by Gerhard Stäbler and Kunsu Shim mixed into one. Military orchestra, choirs and even perfume sprayed by the composers. Pretty easy to pick out the ones who were allergic to perfume there.
This church (Korskirken) is situated in an area of Bergen where you have a lot of heavy drinkers and drug addicts, and since the double doors were not closed, their noise added some extra flavor to the music. Usually I´m not tolerant at all to disturbances during concerts, but here it was OK.

Later in the evening there was a screening of a film about drummer Øyvind Skarbø (1982) and his thoughts about transferring experiences as an inexperienced skater into music in "This is why people O.D. on pills" by Jennifer Walshe! I hope they put it on YouTube with english subtitles for you all.
Danish Dygong played noise and electronica, commented by the one and only Boris Jeltsin (picture).
And I´m not lying to you, suddenly we had a dirty disco party, with audience and organizers all jumping around with their hands waving, like this is what we really were waiting for. Party! Not lying, but to be completely honest, the London band The Chap worked pretty hard to make it! Sound clips and videos on The Chap´s MySpace site, but they sounded even better at the Landmark club. A bit like B-52s on too much espresso?

Borealis is a great festival, no doubt about it, but let me offer a kind advise to composers and musicians in the contemporary field (from an amateur, yes I know): Don´t keep going as long as you intend to. Please?

Borealis 2010 - Day number four

Friday, and another marathon day at the Borealis festival. In the afternoon I heard Anders Førisdal play Clemens Gardenstätter. The same guitar player ran through close to all rock cliches known to humankind, with composer Laurence Crane in "Some Rock Music for Alan Thomas"., and we even got some headbanging at Borealis. Yeah! Yeah!
In the evening there was a "cabaret" at the Logen theatre, and again let me point to the rhythm doctors of Madras Curry, playing Siegfried Kutterer´s music! Robyn Schulkowsky joined them in "Indigo" (top picture), and she also played a set on her huge "sub-contrabass marimbas" with local musicians.
And poor Trondheim Jazzorkester (bottom picture), did not get on stage until after one o´clock. This orchestra, with among others Kim Myhr, Sidsel Endresen and Christian Wallumrød, deserve better than the half sleeping (and sleeping!) bunch left in the hall. I hoped they would wake us with a big band bang, but the music was quiet and beautiful as long as I was present (night bus two o´clock sharp!), and for all I know they might have slept both on and off stage in the end.
And if you are still awake, you may want to see some Flicker pictures from the festival.

Borealis 2010 - Day number three

The Borealis festival in Bergen is still happening in different kinds of concert rooms. Wednesday was in an old factory (but I had a day off), but Thursday I attended a fantastic lunch concert in a bank building. Madras Curry played works by Siegfried Kutterer, who is a part of the trio together with Domenico Melchiorre and Szilard Buti. Great stuff! Borealis call these fine gentlemen "contemporary music´s Crosby, Stills & Nash"!
At the public library Norwegian poet Erlend Nødtvedt read his poems in such a musical way, that you would have loved it, even if you didn´t understand a word. But watch out! This guy reads, and one second later he has left the building!
Kerry Yong played Stockhausen, Clementi and Knut Vaage on his Casio keyboard. This happened in an art exhibition, and later in the evening, he even played an Ivor Cutler tune with Casiokids at a club!
This evening was close to perfect, but hell, they did it again! They dragged the audience along to perform! I mean, putting masks on grown ups like that! I´m sweating.

Borealis 2010 - Day number one

I really like the way the Borealis festival in Bergen use different arenas for their concerts. Tuesday they really got going, and i managed to hear and see Norwegian author Mette Karlsvik in the public library, the opening of the exhibition "Catabolizer" by Gerhard Eckel in the Lydgalleriet, the opening concert "Helios Nordwärts" by Gerhard Stäbler (composed for orchestras, fire engines and helicopters) inside and outside a hotel, a nice concert by Else Olsen Storesund (picture) (works by John Cage and Storesund) in a piano store and then concerts in the homes of families in the Kalmarhuset building!
In Kalmarhuset we were divided into groups and guided up and down stairs to the different appartments. I managed to switch groups after a while, so I got to hear Stian Westerhus (picture) twice. Westerhus close up, and not so loud as he usually plays was just fantastic.
And we even got wine!
Check out my photos.

Borealis 2010

The Borealis festival is happening in Bergen these days, and reports will come in this very blog. Today, meet the festival dog Zulu. Rumors say that this is the only dog that festival director Alwynne Pritchard does not react allergic to.

BOREALIS 2010

The program of the BOREALIS festival of Bergen is here . I know the local artists, but not many of the others, one exception being Steve Reich! If we are going to go minimalistic, let me mention that Phillip Glass will be here at the Bergen International Festival in May and Terry Riley visited BOREALIS some years ago. Next year go for La Monte Young and Eno.
I also look forward to percussion player Robyn Schulkowsky. I have heard her live (Molde Jazz Festival) and on CD with Nils Petter Molvær.
The festival is happening 9 -13 March, but they already had a satellite in London, and the good Mapsadaiscal was there.
Here are my BOREALIS pictures from 2008 and 2009.

Earth Hour

Yesterday the rest of the world saved energy during "Earth Hour", but MoHa! ruined it all by burning off just as much energy in a brutal 30 minute concert at the Borealis festival in Bergen.
Anders Hana and Morten J. Olsen cooperate with Anu Vathra and Idan Hayosh, who "play" 30 lamps manually. MoHa! play so loud, and the lights are so strong, that the whole body (and soul) of the listener is shaken. The way they use long pauses from the noise, makes the concert exciting as a horror movie as you are just waiting for the next shock. Next time I'll bring sun glasses, and not only earplugs (I finally managed to pick them out).
Great show!

Added later: I've been told in a comment to get my "god damn shit right" here in the blog, and inform you all that the ensemble with Anders Hana, Morten J. Olsen, Anu Vathra and Idan Hayosh is called "Fire and Ignorance". Ah, that was much better.