A June Video Festival

KWAN by Kvien & Sommer from Espen Sommer Eide on Vimeo.

What a mix! Hope you enjoy some of them!

- Bernie Maupin, William Parker, Akira Sakata and Kresten Osgood (Live at Jazzhouse in Copenhagen, June 17th, 2015).

- The Living Room, live in Japan. Torben Snekkestad, Søren Kjærgaard and Thomas Strønen.

- Kvien & Sommer. "Kwan" from from the mini album “Weathering” (2015).

- Mari Kvien Brunvoll. Internet Festival 2014.

- Josephine Foster live at Issue Project Room (NY) June 13, 2013

- Martin Simpson, Andy Cutting and Nancy Kerr perform 'Seven Years' (Cutting) from the trio's debut album 'Murmurs' (2015).

- They Might Be Giants cover Destiny's Child's "Bills, Bills, Bills" (A.V. Undercover 2015).

Kvien & Sommer: Weathering

Check out Kvien & Sommer´s mini album "Weathering" (2015) on Full of Nothing.

You get "four broken suites for voice, modular synthesizers, bagpipe and various sound objects". Download or order cassette for a minimum of $7.

You have met both Kvien and Sommer several times in this blog, they being Mari Kvien Brunvoll (solo, with Stein Urheim and Building Instrument) and Espen Sommer Eide (Phonophani, Alog etc).

A Mutantine Collection

I just had a listen to a sampler from Mutantine Records, a company I have never even heard of, and it sounds good!

Not that I know many of the artists either (presented as "d'artistes de la scène avant-pop, pop expérimentale et freakfolk du monde entier") except Phonophani (also known as Espen Sommer Eide). Sommer Eide is working with Japanese Haco here on "Sorry, They Were Robots".

Listen and download from Bandcamp, or try to get hold of one of the 100 vinyl copies of the album.

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.

December in Bergen

Just a short report from an old meat factory in Bergen ("Bergen Kjøtt"), that has been turned into one of the coolest (and coldest!) concert venues in town.

On Saturday 1 December, Ny Musikk Bergen (New Music Bergen) and sax man Kjetil Møster´s concert series Action Jazz, invited to a great happening.

We had minimalist, but intense Alog (Espen Sommer Eide and Dag-Are Haugan) with Bergen artist Signe Lidén, a fantastic solo set from violin/fiddle player Nils Økland, fascinating electro-pop by Japanese Hako and a quite exciting new duo with Nils Økland and Helge "Deathprod" Sten! I bet that quite few of you have seen that duo coming along.

Perhaps a bit too much in one evening for an old guy like me, but (being one who loves to pick blueberries) I have to say I´m quite happy to see the berry picker used even when it´s snowing outside!

Pierre Bastien and Espen Sommer Eide at Mutek (Montreal)

Espen Sommer Eide (Phonophani, Alog) has played some concerts with Pierre Bastien during April and May. Here they are at Mutek in Montreal.
More videos from the concert here, here and here.

In 2011 they played at Borealis in Bergen 2011.

Bømlo brenn om natta

Espen Sommer Eide just made a video for the hit "Bømlo brenn om natta", taken from Alog´s album "Unemployed" (Rune Grammofon 2011).
Jaap Blonk is singing Nicholas Møllerhaug´s Norwegian lyrics about his grandfather, who was a road worker. The title is something like "Bømlo is burning in the night" in English, perhaps an image describing working with hot asphalt?

Buy the CD version or the glorious 4 X LP box, that was recently reviewed in The Milk Factory.

Wind Speaker

The Wind Speaker from Einar on Vimeo.

Check out Espen Sommer Eide´s (Phonophani) new instrument, and read all about it over at "Eyes On Your Instruments".

Alog: Unemployed

If you hurry up, you might be able to get your hands on Alog´s "Unemployed", a "box" with four LPs on Rune Grammofon (300 copies)! You will get three white vinyl albums and one black and a numbered fold out paper (no proper cover, and no proper box).

Alog´s Dag-Are Haugan and Espen Sommer-Eide have made some weird electronica, using custom made instruments, samples and guest artists.
I love the sad version of a well known Swedish song called "Båklandets vackra Maja", and a pretty wild story in Norwegian, sung by Jaap Blonk ("Bømlo brenn om natta", libretto: N. H. Møllerhaug). The other guests are Sigbjørn Apeland, Jenny Hval, Signe Lidén and The Sheriffs of Nothingness (Kari Rønnekleiv, Ole Henrik Moe).

This is great fun, but to be honest with you, you really don´t have to fight for a vinyl copy. The CD (or download version) might be just the selection you prefer after all.

Tracks not on the CD: "Kompass", "Leisure", "Solitaire" (10,11,12), "September", "Working the streets of San Francisco", "Piraeus", "De arbetsskyggas förening" and "Avis".

Cover: Kim Hiorthøy.

The Sound of Dead Languages

The Sound of Dead Languages by phonophani

I already mentioned Espen Sommer Eide (Phonophani), and his work with the skolt sami language. He recently uploaded a mini album called "The Sound of Dead Languages" on SoundCloud. Language made into music.

Follow Espen Sommer Eide´s blog "Eyes on your instruments".

Phonophani - "Nold" (Live)

Phonophani - "Nold" (Live) from Material Vision on Vimeo.

Phonophani (Espen Sommer Eide) Live from the 2011 Présences Électronique Festival, Paris. Video and sound by François Bonnet INA/GRM.
Amazing!

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?

The sound of dead languages

Friday evening (before the CTO concert two posts ago!) I went to hear Espen Sommer-Eide (Alog, Phonophani) present the language project "Language Memory".
In "Language Memory" all the words from the skolt sámi dictionary are read out by 23 of the approximately 300 people still speaking this language.  You may hear all the words, and read more about the project here. Sommer-Eide also played us some music he has made, by using this material. Nice!

Light painting WiFi

I first found this video on Espen Sommer Eide´s site "Eyes on your instruments", and let me just tell you that I am not going to even try to explain what these guys are doing, except that they do some "Light painting WiFi"! It looks so cool that it could have been taken straight out of a William Gibson novel (Norwegians may read my old (and a bit confused) blog post on "Spook country", where Gibson describes "locative art", using GPS and WiFi and stuff).

Read  more over at Touch , and please note that the music is by Phonophani .

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.

Espen Sommer Eide and Sigbjørn Apeland

Espen Sommer Eide and Sigbjørn Apeland are touring Japan these days. Here is a video, that according to  the live dates on Sommer Eide´s blog, was recorded in Kyoto (17 February 2011).

Let me also remind you about Apeland´s album "Glossolalia" and Sommer Eide´s project Phonophani´s "Kreken".
And check this picture from Osaka. Apeland takes no chances when it comes to harmonium playing and hygiene!

Phonophani at the Ekko festival

The Ekko festival  for electronic music and art, is happening in Bergen. Yesterday I went to see a triple bill, but had to drop most of Jeff Carey´s concert and all of Tim Hecker´s. A hard working man (*blushing*) has to get up the morning after.
I came to see  Espen Sommer Eide´s project Phonophani anyway, and the audience at this well attended concert (the young ones cross legged on the floor - how do they manage?) seemed to enjoy Sommer Eide´s quite strange electronica, made by home made instruments connected to computers.
Damned fascinating stuff, and let me recommend the album "Kreken" once more.

Alog

Alog is Espen Sommer Eide and Dag-Are Haugan. Here is a video from a recording session in St. Jacob´s church in Bergen (Mars 2010), with keyboard man Sigbjørn Apeland. This is going to be so good, check out Sommer Eide´s dance moves!

Kreken

Check out the new video for Phonophani´s "Kreken"!
Filming: Marte Aas. Editing: Espen Sommer Eide.

Here is the blog post on the album by Phonophani.