Jenny Hval: Apocalypse, Girl

Why don´t you check out Jenny Hval´s new album "Apocalypse, Girl" (Sacred Bones Records, 2015)? (Yes, we have mentioned it already, but once more does nnot hurt.)

Intense lyrics, great vocals, and with the help of these musicians: Håvard Volden, Kyrre Laastad, Øystein Moen (Jaga Jazzist/Puma), Thor Harris (Swans), improv cellist Okkyung Lee and harpist Rhodri Davis. Great stuff!

Videos for the tracks "Sabbath" and the battle is over" embedded.

Some new sounds for you

- Martin Küchen / Steve Noble / Johan Berthling "Night in Europe" from upcoming album on NoBusiness.

- Anneli Drecker "Fisherman´s Blues" from "Rocks & Straws" (Rune Grammofon 2015)

- Platform "Coleoptera" from "Anthropocene" (Va Fongool April 2015)

- Jenny Hval "That Battle is Over" from the album "Apocalypse, girl" out June 2015 on Sacred Bones.

Meshes of Voice

Hoy! You better get Jenny Hval & Susanna´s album "Meshes of Voice" (SusannaSonata 2014) right away!
This is a breathtaking album with beautiful songs, it´s spiked with noise elements and best of all - it´s a bit spooky too.

You probably know Susanna Wallumrød and Jenny Hval already, but please note that this commissioned work for Ladyfest was performed and recorded at Henie Onstad Arts Center (Oslo) with Anita Kaasbøll and Jo Berger Myhre in 2009. Not that five years is such a long time, but it does not seem dated. Jenny Hval used to perform as Rockettothesky around that time.

No plans for release on vinyl I hear, but order the CD from susannasonata.com, and read more over there.

Great cover design too, with art by Norwegian artist Arne Bendik Sjur (graphics, etchings).

Jenny Hval and Susanna: "I Have Walked This Body"

Jenny Hval & Susanna's collaboration 'Meshes of Voice' from 2009 will be released as an album on the label SusannaSonata in August 2014.
Recorded live at Henie Onstad Arts Centre together with Jo Berger Myhre and Anita Kaasbøll. Jenny Hval & Susanna has composed the music and lyrics.

Album to be released:
in Norway and Germany 15th of August
in UK 18th of August
in USA 19th of August

All info from SoundCloud.

Unseen Recordings - A web channel for experimental music

I´m quite sure a lot of you might want to follow the new channel Unseen Recordings on YouTube!
"Unseen Recordings is a web channel for experimental music. Every recording is unique, unfiltered, live and done in one take. The music here is boundary pushing and genre challenging, it is adventurous to the bone. Unseen Recordings will present around 70 new recordings each year with Danish and international artists" (from YouTube).

Here you see and hear Jenny Hval, Fire! Orchestra and Bill Orcutt.

Jenny Hval covers Paul Simon

Jenny Hval sings Paul Simon´s "The Cool, Cool River" (1990).
According to a message on Twitter it was recorded on her phone, for a compilation for Cokemachineglow.

More Jenny Hval sounds on SoundCloud.

Jenny Hval: Innocence is Kinky

Jenny Hval: "Innocence Is Kinky" (Jazzhouse (Copenhagen) Sessions), with Håvard Reite Volden (g) and Kyrre Geithus Laastad (dr).

About time to shop the Rune Grammofon album i think!

Live at Henie Onstad

Nils Petter Molvær Trio with Nils Petter Molvær (tp), Stian Westerhus (g) and Erland Dahlen (dr).

Jenny Hval (g, voc) with Håvard Volden (g) and Kyrre Laastad (dr).

Both trios recorded at the Henie Onstad Art Centre (Oslo) 10th June 2012.

Ny Musikk and Cafe Oto Presents

Norway´s "Ny Musikk" organization and Cafe Oto have programmed a concerts series, starting Friday 13th July with Minibus Pimps (Helge Sten and John Paul Jones).
Other artists sometimes seen in this blog, like Nude on Sand (Jenny Hval and Håvard Volden), Stian Westerhus, Hild Sofie Tafjord and Jazkamer, will follow.

Check out Cafe Oto´s programme here.

Hild Sofie Tafjord will also be playing at the Tusk Festival in October, and since the festival has posted her solo album "Kama" (Pica Disk 2007) on SoundCloud, I guess it´s OK to put it here too!
Fantastic noise for French Horn (!), and I seem to remember some talk about a new solo album too?

ULTIMA 2012

The program for ULTIMA - Oslo contemporary music festival was released today.
The festival starts 6 September, the same day as PUNKT in Kristiansand, but ULTIMA lasts until 15 september!

I must admit that I have never visited ULTIMA, but this year´s festival would be worth a visit for (among others!) Diamanda Galas (video 1) with The Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Hans-Joachim Roedelius (Cluster), Killl (10th anniversary and farewell concert ) (video 2), Trondheim Jazz Orchestra and Kim Myhr with Jenny Hval and Jaga Jazzist with Britten Sinfonia. A new work by Lene Grenager will be performed too.

But please study the program on your own. OK?

The Cherry Thing

Yes, you have already heard about it in this very blog, but now I finally got hold of Neneh Cherry and The Thing´s album "The Cherry Thing" (Smalltown 2012). It seems like the international release date is 19 June.

Check out two of the tracks right here, Suicide´s "Dream Baby Dream" from SoundCloud and the video to "Accordion" (Madvillain/MF Doom), before you run on over to the nearest store. The album is a fine mix of jazz, rap og rock tunes, and Neneh Cherry´s voice is perfect for Mats Gustafsson, Paal Nilssen-Love and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten in The Thing, and they are the perfect band of course.

There are originals by Gustafsson and Cherry, and covers of Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry (Neneh Cherry´s step father), The Stooges, Martina Topley-Bird and The Stooges, in addition to the two already mentioned above.

I bet they are even tougher live, and look forward to their concert at the Molde International Jazz Festival in July.

If you are able to read Norwegian, Jenny Hval has an interesting piece in Bergen´s local newspaper Bergens Tidende (3 June 2012) called "Kjøtt og kirsebær" (that is "Meat and cherries").

Here are the tour dates, taken from Smalltown´s site:

SATURDAY 30/06/ Ljubljana Jazzfestival/Slovenia
SUNDAY 01/07/ Porgy & Bess/Vienna/Austria
MONDAY 02/07/ Lucerna Music Bar/Prague/Czech
TUESDAY 03/07 Zaporochye/Ukrain
THURSDAY 05/07/ Trænafestivalen/Træna/Mo i Rana/NO
SATURDAY 07/07/ Kongsberg Jazzfestival/N (the thing + Augusti Fernandez and Peter Evans)
TUESDAY 10/07/ Copenhagen Jazzfestival/Denmark
THURSDAY 12/07 Moriska Paviljongen/Malmö/Sweden
FRIDAY 13/07 Nefertiti/Göteborg/Sweden
SUNDAY 15/07/ Village Underground/London
MONDAY 16/07/ MelkwegAmsterdam/Netherlands
TUESDAY 17/07 Karlsruhe/Germany
WEDNESDAY 18/07/ A l´arme Festival/Berlin/Germany
FRIDAY 20/07/ Molde Jazzfestival/Molde/NO
SATURDAY 21/07 Konfrontationen/Nickelsdorf/Austria
SUNDAY 22/07 Girona/Spain
MONDAY 23/07/ San Sebastian/Spania

Jenny Hval Video portrait

Jenny Hval Video Portrait from The Wire Magazine on Vimeo.

This seems to be the first in a series of video portraits of artists, dircted by IJ Biermann. Jenny Hval (aka Rockettothesky) was filmed in  Oslo 7th March 2011, and the music is from her new Rune Grammofon release"Viscera" (recommended!). Some more info over at Vimeo, or at  Wire.

The very same  Biermann is also making a documentary on Maja Ratkje  (as mentioned in the blog already),  and it´s probably being finished this year.

Jenny Hval: "Viscera" (Rune 2011)

Jenny Hval - Blood Flight (official video) from Jenny Hval on Vimeo.

How Gentle (official video) from Jenny Hval on Vimeo.

Jenny Hval (ex-Rockettothesky) uploaded two new videos on Vimeo. You may see "Blood Flight" and "How Gentle" from the album "Viscera", to be released on  Rune Grammofon February 18th.
The videos are made by Håvard Volden and Jenny Hval.

Number 100 from Rune Grammofon

I already bragged about my copy of the jubilee box from Rune Grammofon, but let´s not forget that you also may buy  the sampler "Twenty centuries of stony sleep" without getting the whole box!

You already know of course, but here is the proof that  Rune is a killer company, with great musicians. You meet several of them quite often in this blog, like Maja Ratkje, Stian Westerhus and Supersilent. They deliver the goods on this album too, but check it out and you will hear a fine mix of beautiful songs (Hilde Marie Kjersem, Jenny Hval, In The Country), improv-noise-elektronica (Ultralyd, Puma, Deathprod), piano jazz (Espen Eriksen Trio) and rock (Low Frequency in Stereo, Bushman´s Revenge).

I have to count Alog among the rockers here, doing a post punk song called "My card is 7".

PUNKT 2010 - Day one

The PUNKT 2010 festival started in Kristiansand Thursday, with concerts and live remixes, and later we may even attend seminars (this is serious stuff).
I attended my first concert ever with Frøy Aagre (sax),  and Andreas Ulvo (p) and Freddy Wike (dr), who did a great concert (jazz with melodies folks, I needed that!), later remixed by Splashgirl (picture). And note to myself: check out Frøy Aagre´s album too.

Rockettothesky did music from an album soon to come, but also some tunes fro the beautiful "Medea" album (2008). Jenny Hval has a fantastic voice, and things are not getting worse at all by having Susanna Wallumrød on stage too. The boys in the band were Håvard Volden (g) and Kyrre Laastad (dr). This concert was remixed by Terje Evensen.

Doing live remixing is a great idea (even if you have to run up and down stairs all evening to catch it), but I wonder why I could not recognize more of the material remixed? My ears, or is that the point? And damn it, PUNKT did spend lots of money on dry ice!

Not too good pictures (I´m afraid) will end up in a set on Flickr.

Phonophani

Espen Sommer Eide´s (aka "Phonophani"), new album "Kreken" is out on Rune Grammofon. This is some kind of strange and beautiful, organic sounding electronica, with a taste of Norwegian folk. It´s not easy to tell what Sommer Eide is playing, but check out a couple of videos (here (solo) and here (with Sigbjørn Apeland)), and get an idea of what he may do.
On this album we also find Jenny Hval (Rockettothesky) (voc), Davidd Grubbs (g), Haco (voc), Agnethe Christensen (voc) and Sigbjør Apeland (harmonium).
The local Bergen newspaper "Bergens Tidende" rolled the dice, and gave "Kreken" 6 points. We don´t roll dices here in Wyatt and Stuff, but if we did, I think this music at least would deserve a dice falling from the table and get lost under the sofa.
If you are as lucky as me, you just might get hold of the limited editon (250 copies) album, with an extra 10" vinyl with two exclusive tracks ("Kreken II" og "Mendel II").

The best Phonophani album so far (in my humble opinion only), but please check out the previous ones too:
"Genetic Engineering" (Rune Grammofon 2001) (Rama vocal on one track).
"Oak or rock" (Rune Grammofon 2004) (Maja Ratkje vocal on one track).
"Phonophani" (Rune Grammofon 2006, originally on Biophon 1998).

Live at Henie Onstad 2010

The good people at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter gladly share videos on YouTube! Stian Westerhus, Paal Nilssen-Love and Rockettothesky (Jenny Hval) performed in the sun at the "På med ørene" Festival 30 May. ("På med ørene is Norwegian for "Put your ears on")

Hard work and fate

Egil Olsen, Jenny Hval (aka Rockettothesky), Erlend Slettevoll and Stig Ulv perform "Hard work and fate" from Olsen´s "Nothing like the love i have for you", live at Victoria, Oslo (8 December 2009). Beautiful, or what?
And it´s not the football coach Egil Olsen, just to make that clear.

Nattjazz, Mai:Jazz, Ladyfest

Bergen's jazz festival Nattjazzen (20 May - 30 May) present more artists. Bass hero Miroslav Vitous play 25 May and Arve Henriksen is back with a trio, this time with Eivind Aarset and Jan Bang (21 May).
Arve Henriksen will also be at Mai:Jazz in Stavanger (6 May - 10 May).
The place to be in Oslo 8 March is the Henie Onstad Arts Center! Jenny Hval and Susanna K. Wallumrød will perform the commissioned work "Meshes of voice", as part of Ladyfest 2009.