Sunday evening I went out to get myself a solid dose of improvisation! The SOFA label trio MURAL was playing in Bergen with visual artist Kjell Bjørgeengen.
The concert was scheduled to last for four hours (no less!), so I settled for most of hours number 2 and 3, and what a fine experience it was!
Jim Denley (wind instruments), Kim Myhr (guitar, zither) and Ingar Zach (percussion) enveloped the small audience (some lying flat out on pillows) in varied and relaxing music, while the videoart added magic to the room.
MURAL released "Tempo", a recording of another four hour performance, on a 3CD-box set not long ago.
Have a listen to some of it here!
Oslo´s imrov and noise festival, All Ears 2014, is over.
The videos of Ken Vandermark and Kim Myhr & Axel Dörner are from the festival´s first day (January 9th), and you will find more on Håvard Skaset´s YouTube channel.
Oslo´s great All Ears festival 2014 is happening 9-12 January.
Unfortunately I´m not able to go, but recommend the festival, both for the music (impro, noise ++) and the atmosphere.
9 January:
Kim Myhr / Axel Dörner
Jooklo Duo
Ken Vandermark
10 January:
Lasse Marhaug in conversation with Thurston Moore
Ståle Liavik Solberg / John Russell
Pär Thörn
Great Waitress
Aspec(t)
Thurston Moore / Pika
11 January:
Rob Young in conversation with John Tilbury and Eddie Prevost
Elisabeth Harnik
Frode Gjerstad / Monkey Plot
Thurston Moore
Kjetil Hanssen / Ronny Wærnes / Pika
Selvhenter / Staer
12 January:
Agnes Hvizdalek
Ken Vandermark / John Tilbury / Eddie Prevost
Friday night I´m glad I chose to go and see Mikkelborg/Rypdal/Rypdal (Palle Mikkelborg (tp), Terje Rypdal (g), Marius Rypdal (electronics)), at the Bergen Jazzforum club. The audience were stunned by the music of Mikkelborg and father and son Rypdal, and their soundscapes, electronica and howling guitar solos.
As an encore Palle Mikkelborg promised an extraordinary Danish-Norwegian cooperation, and you may enjoy all of it in the video below.
Saturday I attended a double lunch concert at Bergen´s music library with the guitar duo Frevo (Pål Granum and Andreas Karlsen) and Kim Myhr.
Frevo played a set of composed contemporary music (very fine indeed, especially when Robert Johnson met Vivaldi) and Kim Myhr played a fantastic (partly) improvised set on 12 string guitar. I was surprised he didn´t use electronics, but had to realize the droning was made by overtones.
Amazing music!
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.
The musicians in Silencers have played together for five years, and finally their debut album "Balance des Blancs" (SOFA 2011) is here.
I heard them in Bergen in 2010, playing a great concert, using Rhododendron branches from the nearest park. It may sound like they have been fetching some materials from the botanical kingdom on "Balance des Blanc" too, at least i think I hear some leaves in the wind here. And yes, the music is kind of "natural", as at flows onward and the acoustic guitar, xylophone, trumpet and more or less prepared pianos are weaved together. This must be some kind of ecological improvisation.
The music is mostly slow and quiet (to be expected by a band called Silencers I guess), but it is exciting still, and just as fit for concentration indoors by your stereo, as for listening outdoors on your iPod with the sounds of the environment blending in.
Fine stuff indeed!
The band is:
Benoit Delbecq - Piano, prepared piano
Kim Myhr - guitar, resonant objects
Nils Ostendorf - trumpet
Toma Gouband - percussion
I don´t know how things are at your place, but here in Norway we are still celebrating Easter! But since it´s the last day today, let´s have a mini festival.
The Silencers with Benoit Delbecq, Kim Myhr, Nils Ostendorf and Toma Gouband are opening the festival. Here they seem to be playing with dried grasses, but in Bergen they used fresh rhododendron. You will find more from this March 2011 performance on YouTube if you want to.
Kim Myhr is at it again in the video with Michel Doneda, Mathias Muche, Clayton Thomas, Sven Hahne and Clare Cooper, recorded in 2010. I heard some of the same people play in Bergen.
Let´s hear it for Fred Frith live and alone, recorded in France (?) a couple of days ago (part two here), and with Ryan Gregory Tallmann on theremin, from San Fransisco (March 2011).
Mostly Other People Do The Killing are the last ones out, with a new video. I´m looking forward to hear these guys at Moldejazz this summer!
Instead of going to see Motorpsycho again, I chose a double bill with the band Silencers and the duo Espen Sommer Eide and Sigbjørn Apeland.
Silencers is Benoit Delbecq (France) – piano, prepared piano, Kim Myhr (Norway) – guitar, prepared guitar, Nils Ostendorf (Germany) – trumpet and Toma Gouband (France) – percussion. They played one hour of quiet impro, and knew how to get attention without shouting! Not everybody can do that, but Silencers delivered the goods, with prepared piano and a drummer who must have raided the nearest park to find something to hit the drums with. Toma Gouband played with Rhododendron branches for drum sticks most of the concert, so if you have a vacant position for a drumming gardener, he might just be your man. The only musician I know in this band is Kim Myhr (Trondheim Jazzorkester, Mural), and I´ll let you Google the rest of them yourselves too. A fine concert, thanks a lot.
Sigbjørn Apeland (organ) and Espen Sommer Eide (concertinome) were next on stage, and I would need help to describe what kind of music they played. Sommer Eide introduced a couple of tunes saying "I think we´ll play another one for organ and accordion", and that´s what they did of course, adding some electronics too. See the video! It´s not high quality at all, but you will get the general idea. And, yes!, they started throwing Rhododendron leaves at the end of the concert. Smiles all over the house after the concert (all 35 of us that is). Check out Sigbjørn Apeland in 1982 and Espen Sommer Eide in Alog.
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.
Here is a list of albums I listen to (and enjoy) these days: - McPhee, Brötzmann, Kessler, Zerang: "The Damage is done" (Not Two 2009). Joe McPhee (sax, tp), Peter Brötzmann (sax), Ken Kessler (b) and Michael Zerang (dr). Here you even get a death cycle with "With Charon", "On the Acheron" and "Into the Hades". Energetic, but with quiet moments. - Dave Rempis and Frank Rosaly: "Cyrillic" (482 Music 2010). Hot sax-drum-duo, with the new Scorch Trio drummer Frank Rosaly. - Satoko Fuji Ma-Do: "Desert ship" (Not Two 2010). Satoko Fujii (p), Natsuki Tamura (tp), Norikatsu Koreyasu (b) and Akira Horikoshi (dr). Cling to the desert ship, this is not a smooth journey all the way. - Mural: "Nectars of emergency" (Sofa 2010). Jim Denley (as, fl), Kim Myhr (g) and Ingar Zach (perc). Minimalism, and more sounds than melodies.
Yesterday news started to come from Molde according the Molde International Jazz Festival 2009 (13 - 18 July). Here are the official artists so far: Joshua Redman Trio Otomo Yoshide Sextet with Mats Gustafsson Cecil taylor (solo) Supersilent (as a trio, no bass) Bikk Brent Braam.
Wyatting also add Christian Wallumrød with Kim Myhr and Trondheim Jazz Orchestra. They play in Molde 14 July.
The best week to visit Molde, if you can stand jazz (and lots of people in a small town).
