Three Rune Albums You Might Like

Damn! Time flies and it seems like I have a hard time catching up with the blogging.

That´s why you get this collection of three albums from Rune Grammofon that you should check out.
What they have in common? The music is good and they are on the same label!

- "Supersilent 12" was recorded during three different sessions in 2011. Dark and stunning improv from Arve Henriksen, Helge Sten and Ståle Storløkken.

- Sidsel Endresen & Stian Westerhus: "Bonita" - A studio recording this time, and an "Essential listening for the adventurous music lover"

- Albatrosh: "Night Owl"- Eyolf Dale (p) and André Roligheten (sax). This must be jazz, and it smells good!

December Video Festival 2014

- Evan Parker, Peter Evans, Charles Evans @ The Stone 9-10-14
- Frode Gjerstad Trio (Gjerstad, Strøm, Nilssen-Love) @ Inage Candy 24 May 2014
- Supersilent @ Dokkhuset (Trondheim) 2014-11-17
- The Thing & Ken Vandermark @ Music Unlimited Wels, Austria, 2014-11-08
- Paal Nilssen-Love, Jim O'Rourke, Lasse Marhaug @ Inage Candy 19 January 2013
- Alan Silva, Mette Rasmussen, Ståle Liavik Solberg @ Dome of Visions, Copenhagen, October 23rd, 2014
- George Russell and the Big Bang Band of 1967 @ Circus in Stockholm (1), !Sweden
What an intro! What a gang! Jump to next video after 29 min.!
- George Russell and the Big Bang Band of 1967 @ Circus in Stockholm (2), Sweden
- Vashti Bunyan & Gareth Dickson @ Jazzhouse, Copenhagen, 18 November, 2014
- Charles Bradley in the backyard of Daptone's House of Soul, featuring Menahan Street Band
- Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings - "White Christmas"

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.

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!

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.

Molde International Jazz Festival 2011

Molde International Jazz Festival is happening 18 - 23 July, and today the the first list of artists was known.
Dave Holland, who has been visting the festival six times already, is going to be Artist In Residence. Supersilent will play with Led Zeppelin bass player John Paul Jones, like they did at the Punkt festival in Kristiansand (Norway) in 2010 (picture) and Stian Westerhus will perform with quite a few of  Norway´s finest!
More artists over at Moldejazz (in Norwegian), and this is only the beginning!

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 three

Saturday at Punkt was just as hectic and great as Friday, but I´ll try to make the blog post less detailed, just read the program!

Sidsel Endresen and Stian Westerhus did a well attended concert early in the evening (double bill with Norwegian guitar player Knut Reiersrud). Raw guitar and fantastic vocals, with Punkt´s super sound and lights, and you just have the perfect festival happening. In my opinion the concert was even better than the one the duo did at Moldejazz this summer.

Now how about John Paul Jones opening up for Supersilent with a bass solo piece? And how about him not leaving the stage at all, but playing with Supersilent! Well, things like that happen at Punkt! Great fun!

The festival organizers really want unexpected meetings to happen, and that´s at least one of the reasons for having a couple of live remix sessions billed as tba until the last moment.
Saturday Dino J.A. Deane and Nils Petter Molvær remixed Westerhus/Endresen and Knut Reiersrud, while the Supersilent concert was remixed by no others than Jan Bang, Erik Honoré, Skuli Sverrisson and John Hassell!

If we are lucky, at least a couple of focused pictures will soon be in the Punkt Flickr set. To be an amateur photographer at dark festivals (add some dry ice too) is some task, but I´m quite happy with the picture of Sidsel Endresen from Friday´s seminar!

At Punkt the official language seems to be English, and even the Norwegian artists speak English at concerts (far better than me, I´m glad to say). The main concerts were presented by Fiona Talkington, prooving that the organizers want quality in all parts of the festival.

Supersilent and Hans Magnus Ryan

 
And just like we wished for in the previous blog post, Henie Onstad uploaded a couple of videos from the concert with Supersilent and Motorpsycho´s Hans Magnus Ryan.
Wish I was there!

Supersilent 10

Supersilent is as silent as they can be (I believe) on Supersilent 10 (Rune Grammofon)! While Helge Sten, Ståle Storløkken and Arve Henriksen all played organ on Supersilent 9, they have found their old instruments here, and even an acoustic piano!
10:3, one of the longest tracks (6 minutes), make my try to decide which old ECM album this one might have been on. On 10:5 they really fire up the electronics, and the fantastic 10:8 (the tracks are just numbered, sorry) would fit on any Arve Henriksen solo album too.
A beautiful album indeed!

The band is playing at the Punkt festival in Kristiansand this week, and I sure hope the good people at Henie Onstad will upload some videos from the concert with Motorpsycho´s Hans Magnus Ryan held 29 August.

But, I´m starting to get a bit fed up by the Supersilent covers, I have to tell you that (and I do like Kim Hiorthøy!). When i buy CDs and vinyl albums, it would be nice to get some more info, or at least be able to read the few words printed. Hey, some of us are getting old here!

Supersilent live in Bergen

Friday evening I went to see Supersilent at the Bergen Jazzforum. I was a bit surprised (but happy for the band) when I had to que up among lots of people. After a while I realized I had to leave, because they were all waiting to get in to see the Norwegian rock band Dum Dum Boys, so I had to go looking for the hidden entrance to Supersilent.
Supersilent is now Ståle Storløkken (keyboards), Helge Sten (guitar, electronics) and Arve Henriksen (trumpet, drums, song). I would not mind if Arve Henriksen played more trumpet and less drums, but the concert was fantastic. The band fed us some quiet music focusing on Henriksen, some ambient soundscapes and some electric storms, making a fine mix of it all.
The place was far from packed (the band might have scared some people off with their hammond album), but people looked quite happy, and didn´t mind only a deep bow as an extra, after 90 minutes of music. Enough is enough, even from a cool trio like Supersilent.

Supersilent and Golden Serenades

The last couple of days I have bought two organ albums, a pretty unusual thing for me to do. Now if there are organ purists out there (feel free to comment), I’m not sure they will jump from joy after hearing these ones.

Supersilent dress up in turquoise this year, for the album “9” (Rune Grammofon 2009). Supersilent is Arve Henriksen, Ståle Storløkken and Helge Sten, and if Storløkken is master of the keyboards on the other albums, they all play hammond organ here, and nothing else. Minimalistic as always they call their tunes 9.1, 9.2, 9.3 and 9.4, and offer close to nothing on Kim Hiorthøy’s cover. On track 9.2 they kick up some loud music, but the rest of the album is (super)silent. Imaging passing a church while walking at night, and you hear somebody playing inside. It sounds a bit like that (not that I hang around churches at night). And, yes, it’s quite spooky too.


Golden Serenades is John Hegre and Jørgen Træen. They sometimes ruin expensive guitars, but on ”Hammond Pops” (+3dB 2009) they have chosen to make som serious noise from Sigbjørn Apeland’s organ music instead. Strange thing, as i copied my CD, iTunes claimed my CD was played by Leon Russell! I don’t think so.

”9” and ”Hammond Pops” are strange and pretty tiresome albums. I suggest you check them out.

Thursday at Moldejazz

- Ingebrikt Håker Flaten was interviewed at the "Jazz Academy". Not too many people awake this early in the morning, but an interesting hour with Håker Flaten. I know him best from Scorch Trio, The Thing and Atomic, but I'll just have to check out his earlier stuff too.
- You think free jazz is boring? Not if you see Han Bennink and Frode Gjerstad. Bennink worked the room, and even moved out into the sunhine to drum and talk, while Gjerstad played saxophones and clarinettes inside. Bennink even managed to hurt Gjerstad by tearing down cymbals and hitting Gjerstad's foot (only sandals there)! Bennink seemed a bit shocked himself, but told jokes as Gjerstad had a rest. I was impressed by Gjerstad's playing too, and It's hard work to get people to see and hear you alongside a drummer like Bennink.
- Artist in residence Arve Henriksen was on stage with Ståle Storløkken and Helge "Deathprod" Steen in Supersilent this evening. Rythmic, noisy and perhaps a bit scary to those in the audience that knew Arve Henriksen only from his more friendly stuff.

Molde International Jazz Festival 2009

Just a few hours after I fetched my tickets for the Molde festival, I see that the crazy organizers have come up with another bunch of "must see" artists. So far I have tickets to Arve Henriksen in different settings (Supersilent, Trio Mediaeval, Wallumrød), Atomic, Maja Ratkje, Mary Halvorson and Low Frequency in Stereo with Kjetil Møster. Then they come along with Crimetime Orchestra, Ipa, Han Bennink & Frode Gjerstad and Ingebrikt Håker Flaten & Håkon Kornstad, and more! The 2009 program is great, if you ask me.
And Moldejazz don't go easy on their visitors. This year Arve Henriksen will play a concert at 07:00 in the morning (outdoors), as Karin Krog did last year.

Maps and tourist info here.

Molde International Jazz Festival 2009

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).

Supersilent 7

Supersilent 7 (Rune RDV 2047, 2005) is one of the coolest concert films I have ever seen. I thought it was sold out, but suddenly it was in the shops. After a concert, recently held in Bergen, I had to get some more live stuff from this bunch. What you get is 109 minutes black and white film, and 6 numbers just as they were played at Parkteatret, Oslo, Norway, 16.08.04. Director (and cover designer): Kim Hiorthøy.
Let me add one more concert film to remember: "Stop making sense" with Talking Heads (Jonathan Demme, 1984).

Supersilent

Finally I got to hear Supersilent live. They have played together for 10 years, and I really don't know how much of the stuff that is totally improvised when they play. As Arve Henriksen said: We will play a sequence now, that may be on the new album, I don't know. But the music is pink this time" (see cover). These guys are in the band: Jarle Vespestad, Arve Henriksen, Helge Sten and Staale Storloekken. The concert was a mix of a hell of a noise, and supersilence, and thank God for my earplugs. Check out this band if you dare.