Møster! live at Øya 2015

Møster! playing "Bandha" (from "When You Cut Into The Present", Hubro) live at Øya (Oslo, Norway) 2015.

Møster! is Kjetil Møster (sax), Hans Magnus Ryan (guitar), Nikolai Eilertsen (bass) and Kenneth Kapstad (drums).

Play loud!

A new one from Møster!

The third album from Møster!, "When You Cut Into The Present" is set for relase on Hubro 11.09.2015!

Møster! is still: Kjetil Møster (sax), Hans Magnus “Snah” Ryan (guitar), Nikolai Hængsle Eilertsen (bass) and Kenneth Kapstad (drums).

Check out tracks from old, new and unreleased Hubro Albums on Soundcloud or on the Hubro site.

Moldejazz 2015

The Moldejazz 2015 festival is happening 13 - 18 July.

Today we learnt that Mats Gustafsson is this year´s artist in residence, and his choices are:
Fire! Orchestra, Gustafsson & Stetson, The Thing & James Blood Ulmer (!), Petter Northug Tribute Unit - New Instruments in Jazz and Sport (Northug is a master Norwegian skier famous for teasing the Swedes) and the early morning concert Break of Day in Molde with Barry Guy, Maya Homburger, Mats Gustafsson, Erik Carlsson and Anders Nyqvist.

And check out the rest of the program too, with D´Angelo, Jack De Johnette - Made in Chicago, Sly & Robbie with Nils Petter Molvær, Møster!, Zanussi 5 and lots of others!

Pretty good?

The Low Frequency In Stereo Feat. Kjetil Møster

Here is a nice one with one of of my favorite Norwegian rock bands, The Low Frequency In Stereo, paired with a favorite saxophone player, Kjetil Møster, recorded during my favorite Jazz festival in Molde in 2009: "Live at Moldejazz" (Long Branch Records 2014)!

The live recording is starting off with an eight minute long sax solo from Møster before you get rockers (or is it post rockers?) like "Texas Fox" and "Man Don´t Walk" and longer psychedelic space rockers like "Desert" and "Solar System", Møster adding jazz spices through most of it. Cool!

The musicians:

Per Steinar Lie (bass and vocals), Ørjan Haaland (drums), Hanne Eidsvåg Andersen (vocals, organs and guitar), Linn Frøkedal (organs and vocals), Njål Leinan Clementsen (guitars and vocals) and Kjetil Møster (saxophone). You might recognize Lie and Haaland from the Lumen Drones blog post a couple of days ago.

The album comes as a nice double package with colored vinyl and you have to play it really loud!

Cover photos by *cough* me!

Jü & Kjetil Møster - A38 Hajó, 13 October 2014

Halmos András - drums
Hock Ernő - bass
Mészáros Ádám - guitar

Featuring
Kjetil Møster - sax

Here is another blog post on Jü and Møster from May 2014.

And an album is on it´s way from Rare Noise.

New ones from Honoré and Møster! on Hubro

Two quite different Norwegian albums too look out for! Both released on Hubro.

Erik Honoré: "Heliographs". The Punkt man joined by Ingar Zach, Eivind Aarset, Jan Bang Sidsel Endresen, Arve Henriksen (all "Punkt musicians"), and Dutch violinist Jeffrey Bruinsma.

Norwegian release: 05.09.2014
International release: 17.11.2014.

Møster!: "Inner Earth". Kjetil Møster´s project´s second album on Hubro (Make sure you check out the first one too!). The band: Kjetil Møster, Hans Magnus “Snah” Ryan, Nikolai Hængsle Eilertsen and Kenneth Kapstad.

Norwegian release: 12.09.2014
International release: 20.10.2014.

Møster!´s September - October tour:

13 September: Blæst, Trondheim (N)
17 September: Blå, Oslo (N)
19 September: Sardinen, Bergen (N)
20 September: Consul80, Stavanger (N)
08 October: Enjoy Jazz, Mannheim (DE)
09 October: Rumor Festival, Utrecht (NL)

Jü and Kjetil Møster

The Bergen sax man Kjetil Møster (solo, The Core, Ultralyd, Datarock etc. etc.) has been to Budapest to play with the "experimental psychedelic free rock whatever trio" Jü.

They played at the A38 venue (December 2013), and it sounds like it must have been a rocking show.

The videos in this post are two out of four from neuigkeiten, and they have some interviews too (in English and Hungarian).

Another video here, lasting almost 20 minutes.

On Jü´s Facebook it seems like an album might be on it´s way.

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!

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!

Møster!

Hubro must be one of Norway´s best record companies!

This time it´s Møster!, and the album "Edvard Lygre Møster", named after Kjetil Møster´s little son.
Kjetil Møster has got a super team here, with himself on saxes and electronics, Ståle Storløkken (Fender Rhodes, Moog, electronics), Nikolai Eilertsen (el-bass, electronics) and Kenneth Kapstad (dr, and the only one not allowed to play with electronics!).

The music was recorded live at Victoria - National Jazz Scene (Oslo) in December 2011, and is really hot stuff! You may hear traces of Coltrane and electric Miles, and I guess echoes of Møster´s previous bands The Core and Ultralyd, but it´s not nostalgic at all.
Let´s call it modern jazz, and run on over to the record shops to get the album!

Cover design: Yokoland.

Maja Ratkje and Kjetil Møster live in Bergen

Some glimpses from a great Saturday evening (16 March) at a newly renovated concert venue in Bergen (at USF Verftet).

- A great solo concert by Maja S.K. Ratkje. Both quiet and beautiful, and perfectly noisy. Proving that the new venue´s sound is close to perfect.

- BIT20 Ensemble: "Contr’addict – for improvising saxophonist, ensemble and pre-recorded modular synthesizer". Written by Kjetil Møster, going contemporary classical. Commissioned work. Møster delivering a hot solo in there too!

- Jørgen Træen and Frode Kvinge Flatland - Live electronics.

- Conductor Trond Madsen interviewed Maja Ratkje and Kjetil Møster during the break.

- And no photos from the BIT20 Ensemble playing Maja Ratkje´s "And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep" (using samples of her voice), and a sound installation by Luc Ferrari.

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!

Kjetil Møster at Blue Goat

Now how about this stage? At 1 PM every last Sunday of the month, you may listen to live music at the Blue Goat jazz club, situated on the top of mount Ulriken, one of Bergen´s seven mountains.

On Sunday 27 May Kjetil Møster played standards from the great jazz book (quite far from what he does on his latest solo outing), paying homage to Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Steve Lacy, Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter (and probably a few more).
"On Green Dolphin Street" and "So What" in sthe sunshine on the mountain top. It couldn´t have been better!

I will be honest with you and admit that the weather in Bergen is not always like this, but the view is great even if they have to play indoor.

Kjetil Møster and Alex Gunia

The 300 Acting Spaces kick offs are over, and the series is starting for real.
I promise not to post all videos from this series, even if several of my regular visitors are present.
Check out the tour schedule here.

The video shows a Kick Off concert with Kjetil Møster and Alex Gunia (project organizer).

And talking about Kjetil Møster again (!), I don´t think his 2011 solo album has got much press? "Blow Job" was released on +3dB, and is the second release in a series they call "Music for ONE", where bass player Michael Duch was the first one out. And I must say even the record company is pretty quiet about Møster´s album. Something wrong with the title perhaps?
Try Kjetil Møster´s album, if you can take some experimental sax playing, and why not start with the tracks "No wonder we love" and "Sayonaro"!
Tiger in Oslo seem to stock it.

Zanussi 13 Live

Moserobie already released "Zanussi Five" (2005), "Alborado" (2006) and "Ghost Dance" (2010) by bassist Per Zanussi´s band Zanussi Five (a previous blog post here). Now they are raising the stakes with Zanussi 13! This is a live recording from Nasjonal Jazzscene (Oslo January 2011), and if you want a genre to describe it, try big band free jazz, or something like that. We get Ornette Coleman´s ("Street Woman") and Fela Kuti´s ("Johnny Just Drop"), and the rest are compositions by Per Zanussi.

This is great stuff! Listen to a couple of tunes over here:
Zanussi 13 Live-Body and Zeuhl
Zanussi 13 Live - Amorous Parade

And just check out the list of musicians before you run on over to your favorite music shop:

Eirik Hegdal – Baritone sax / clarinet
Klaus Holm – Alto- and baritone sax / clarinet
Mikko Innanen – Alto sax
Per Oddvar Johansen – Drums
Martin Kuchen – Alto sax
Jonas Kullhammar – Tenor sax
Jørgen Mathisen – Tenor sax/clarinet
Kjetil Møster – Tenor sax, clarinet and percussion
Gard Nilssen – Drums
Rolf-Erik Nystrøm – Alto sax
Stian Westerhus – Guitar
Per Zanussi – Double bass

300 Acting Spaces

Some people think big! During the project "300 Acting Spaces" (2012 - 2015) there will be arranged 300 free concerts with improvised music. The shows will be streamed live, an active blog will cover the project and finally a book will be published.

The man behind all this is Alex Gunia, and it´s happening in Oslo, Berlin, New York, Beijing and Tokyo, in what is described as "especially designed performance laborartories".

Kick Off will be in Oslo 16 - 18 February, with (among others) Kjetil Møster, Lasse Marhaug and Maja Ratkje.
Read all about it over at 300 Acting Spaces, and I think this blog will be back with more from this project too!

Kjetil Møster: "Blow Job"

This may be of interest for some of you sax fanatics out there. Kjetil Møster is a regular visitor in this blog (and visiting even more often over at my Norwegian blog Wyatting), and he´s first solo album "Blow Job" (+3dB 2011) is being released today (can´t find it on Amazon or iTunes yet). I missed his release party in Bergen Wednesday (poster), but have heard the album, and recommend this mix of just breathing, tender melodies and powerful blowouts.

Still no info to be found on +3dB´s own site, but I seem to remember hearing that other solo releases were planned too. Time will show.

Moe: It pictures

Moe is Guro Skumsnes Moe (bass, voc), Håvard Skaset (g) and Sveinar Hoff (dr). This is a powertrio, more focused on power than melodies, and they smell of both punk and metal.
I heard them at the Nattjazz festival in Bergen this June, but they did not get to me that evening. The music was too loud and monotonous for my old pair of ears. The album "It Pictures" (Conrad Sound 2011) is still not one that make you hum along to it, but the music is far more open and alive than what I heard at Nattjazz.
On the album Okkyung Lee (cello) (played in Bergen too), Lasse Marhaug ("acoustic noise") and Kjetil Møster (sax) are guesting. On "Island" Møster is honking along, making me think of Morphine (the band of course).

Guro Skumsnes Moe has visited Wyatt and Stuff several times. See posts on Art Directors (Håvard Skaset plays there too) and Sekstett.

The CD was released in May, and now they also sell (don´t ask me where) 300 copies of a black vinyl LP version and 200 copies of a blue one. Also files on eMusic and iTunes. Buy if you dare.
Listen to some tracks over at SoundCloud.

Kjetil Møster/Staer 12"

Warning: This blog post is mainly for hardcore record collectors.

Kjetil Møster and Staer released a one sided 12" clear vinyl on the new label Drid Machine (Co-released with Mozart Kebab and Action Jazz).
Møster´s track "Mø/Staer" plays the usual way (from edge to the middle of the record), while Staer´s "Triangle Pinks" plays from the label towards the middle.
The music is recorded, mixed and mastered by Møster and Jørgen Træen.
Meant for sale at concerts, but try Drid Machine or Tiger in Oslo.

Kjetil Møster´s track is on SoundCloud, and I will post it here when the site is working properly again (having trouble this Tuesday).

MÖ/STAER by kjetilmoester

Images from Moldejazz 2011

Moldejazz 2011 is over.

- Festival artist Gjertrud Hals in the gallery Kunstnersentret Møre og Romsdal.
- Michael Duch and Kjetil Møster did some fantastic solo concerts at the venue Reknes.
- Supersilent is Supersilent, even with John Paul Jones in the band.
- Michael Duch spoke about his thesis on free improvisation at the Festival Academy.
- Magnus Broo, Paal Nilssen-Love and Tyshawn Sorey played some hot improvised music at Forum. One trumpet and two drummers, one of them Sorey, who did some cleaning and drinking as part of his playing too.
- Tyshawn Sorey was at it again with John Escreet Trio for an afternoon concert Friday, with Escreet (p) and Eivind Opsvik (b). What a powerful trio! And Sorey was at it again, I was almost impaled by a drum stick. The first row might not be the best place with him on stage.
- Dave Holland talked at the Festival Academy, and did five concerts as Artist in Residence. I attended a fine solo concert and the final concert of the festival in the Molde Church with Thimar. Dave Holland (b), John Surman (soprano, bass clarinet) and Anouar Brahem (oud) dedicated their music to the victims of the terrible killings in Oslo and on the Utøya island the previous day.