Crab is Crap feat. Ståle Storløkken

Check out "Miradouro" (viewpoint in Portuguese), the new digital album from Crab is Crap feat. Ståle Storløkken (PlayDate Records 2015).

Crab is Crap is the two Bergen drummers Øyvind Skarbø and Øyvind Hegg-Lunde, and they have played live with Ståle Storløkken several times (Nattjazz and Finsejazz festivals in Norway).

The music on this album is a mix of both studio recordings and live recordings from Nattjazz 2014.

"Trying to avoid the pitfalls of the standard meet-greet-and-play way of doing improvised music, we have tried hard to give you an album that actually sounds nice on repeated listening. We've chosen parts that has the melodic, rhythmic, emotional and collaborative content you'd expect from composed material. It is all improvised, and the energy is clearly different from pre-planned music, but we strive to not use that as an excuse to do whatever. We hope you appreciate our effort."
Thanks, I do.

Mixing: Randall Dunn.

Supersilent with Stian Westerhus

Yesterday I was finally able to attend a concert again, after a (far too long) break! And what a show!

Supersilent (Arve Henriksen, Ståle Storløkken and Helge Sten) brought Stian Westerhus along to Bergen, to play at Action Jazz in the Bergen Kjøtt venue.
Rock, noise, ambient, electronica? All of it I guess, but The Supersilent way, and as usual with this group, Henriksen playing more drums and electronics than trumpet.

Great lights/visuals by Bergen´s Birk Nygård.

There have not been any Supersilent albums since 2010 (the vinyl only "11"), so it might be time for a new one?

Cameras were rolling during the concert, so hopefully we will see some of it in not too long. In the meantime, check out the video from their concert at Jazzhouse, Copenhagen in October 2013 here.

Arve Henriksen and Supersilent

Here you get Arve Henriksen (trumpet, vocal) at Jazzhouse Copenhagen (9 October 2013), with Jan Bang (live sampling), Audun Kleive (percussion), Ingar Zach (percussion) and Helge Andreas Norbakken (percussion), and Supersilent with Stian Westerhus Live at Paradox, Incubate Festival, Tilburg (17 September 2013).

Supersilent is Arve Henriksen, Ståle Storløkken and Helge Sten.

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.

Numb, Number and Voxpheria

During the Bergen International Festival last week, I heard Tone Åse perform a great "sound novel" at one of the concerts in Maja Ratkje´s series "Voices that matter".
I have heard Tone Åse in the vocal quartet Kvitretten (Norwegian link alert), but missed out on the band Bol until they hired Stian Westerhus and Motorpsycho´s Snah (Hans Magnus Ryan) for the album "Numb, number" (Gigafon 2012). Bol is Tone Åse (vocal/ electronics), Ståle Storløkken (keyboards/sampling) and Tor Haugerud (drums/electronics), and they have released records since 2001.

And not only that! Tone Åse also released "Voxpheria" with drummer Ståle Storløkken on Gigafon (2012).
Both of the albums have lyrics by the poets E.E. Cummings and Rolf Jacobsen, and on "Numb, Number" they also use words by the poet Olav H. Hauge , while Tone Åse wrote the lyrics for the beautiful title track.
The poems of Rolf Jacobsen and Olav H. Hauge (originally in Norwegian) are translated into English.

Great albums, with elegant soundscapes and poetry, the Bol-album with Westerhus and Snah sporting a couple of more energetic tracks ("You Bird" og "The Western Wind").
Please check out both of them!

Cover: Rune Nergaard (Both of them I believe. I just have too make a guess on the Voxpheria cover, since I downloaded that one).

Supersilent + Stian Westerhus + Pekka

Supersilent + Stian Westerhus + Pekka, NuMusic Stavanger 2011 from pekka on Vimeo.

Supersilent (Arve Henriksen, Ståle Storløkken, Helge Sten) with Stian Westerhus (guitar) and Pekka (lights), from a commissioned work at NuMusic in Stavanger 2011.
I am not a big fan of strobes, but this looked like a cool show!

PUNKT 2010 - Day two

Punkt (Kristiansand, Norway) is a killer festival, but the schedule is so tight you hardly have the time to eat. Here is a short (but messy) summary of Friday´s happenings.

You even go to seminars at this festival, and first out was Dino J. A. Deane, who told stories about being in the studio with Ike Turner and old ways of sampling (and more of course). Very entertaining.
Sidsel Endresen demonstrated her thoughts on improvisation by making the audience sing for her. Quite impressive, really. She confessed she sometimes could get "Lost in improvisation".
Supersilent played a great concert first, and afterwards Arve Henriksen, Ståle Storløkken and Helge Sten answered questions from the audience. They have hundreds of hours of recordings, so be warned, you might want to prepare for a jubilee and "Supersilent 50" in a couple of years.

Håkon Kornstad did a beautiful solo concert at the opening of the exhibition "Herbarium", by artists Kjell Nupen and Nils Chr. Moe-Repstad. Totally packed house? That´s an understatement.

In the Agder Teater I attended concerts with the Estonian choir Segakoor Noruus, Jan Bang´s "...And Poppies From Kandahar" (picture) (with Jan Bang, Arve Henriksen, John Hassell, Sidsel Endresen, Lars Danielsson and Erik Honoré) and Iceland´s Skuli Sverrisson.
The concerts were fine, but I´m more than impressed by the live remixes, that happen just after the shows. Sidsel Endresen, Jan Bang and Erik Honoré  remixed Skuli Sverrisson´s peaceful music, while  Dino Deane, Håkon Kornstad, Anders Engen and David Wallumrød treated "...And Poppies From Kandahar", with John Hassell listening.
Both remixes had sounds and melodies from the original concerts up front, and the same happened with Maja Ratkje´s magic remix of the choir concert. Her voice and electronics a perfect match to the choir sound.