Thore Hansen

Thore Hansen is well known (in Norway at least) for his own books and his collaborations with other authors as illustrator. He has also made great illustrations for records. We have mentioned Kiruna in an earlier blog post, and now i own the sampler "Aerien Voyage" (picture) too.

So far I found out he illustrated these records:
Various Artists: "Maiden Voyage" (Melodisc 2002)
Kiruna : "Irun" (Melodisc 2003)
Various Artists: "Aerien Voyage" (Melodisc 2004)
Various Artists: "Stellar Voyage"(Melodisc 2005).

The samplers contain rare and unreleased Norwegian music. See info and covers here. There are probably others too, so please write a comment if you know more record covers by Thore Hansen.

Thomas Watkiss

Lydgalleriet in Bergen(the Sound Gallery) invited to a Sunday matiné in their loft yesterday. Thomas Watkiss did a concert for a small gathering of listeners, and we even got a CD and several glasses of wine on the ticket. He did a kind of ambient, droning electronica, (don't ask!), with lots of found sounds (church bells, birds, water, real instruments (!) and so on). This gallery has got a wicked sound system, and the whole building was shaking from time to time. You should have been there, sitting on pillows on the floor and drinking wine (it's damned hard to rise after one hour, for some of us older people). Listen to Watkiss on MySpace.
So far a great Sunday evening. What happened next was that I suddenly realized that the home team (Brann) had played a game against Lyn (Oslo), and the fans must have hijacked my bus. At least it never showed up in the rain.

Huntsville

Huntsville is a strange band, and now they're out with a new strange album called "Echo, Arches & Eras" (Rune Grammofon 2008). I don't really know what these guys do, but the music humps along in a nice way with the help of banjo, tablas and steel guitar. Huntsville is Ivar Grydeland, Tonny Kluften og Ingar Zach.
CD 1 is a new studio album. Sidsel Endresen guests on "Eco".
CD 2 is a live recording from The Kongsberg Jazz Festival (2007), with Nels Cline and Glen Kotche from Wilco helping out.
And Kim Hiorthøy's cover is excellent as usual!

The best Robert Wyatt records?

Mojo need your help. What are the best Robert Wyatt records?
Wyatt is also on the new Mojo Sampler "Rebel Music".

Moo

I got my new mini cards from Moo/Flickr today. They were a bit small (probably that's why thy're called mini cards?), but quite cool! So now I've got my home made cards to make people visit my blogs and Flickr pictures. Next you'll see me trying to hand them out in the city center, going "Hello. Excuse me sir, have you got a couple of minutes to talk about my blog? No? OK, have a nice day! Grrr!"

Good old Wyatt stuff

Domino starts reissuing classic Robert Wyatt albums 27 October. Drury Lane, Rock Bottom, Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard and Nothing Can Stop Us are the first ones out. Old Rottenhat, Dondestan, Shleep, EPs and Cuckooland are following 17 November. All of the albums will come in both formats (LP and CD), Drury Lane, Shleep and Cuckooland on vinyl for the first time. As a starter a 12” version of Bertrand Burgalat’s This Summer Night will be out 20 October. Some of this good stuff may be pre-ordered at Domino (look here and here).
And in December a Robert Wyatt box will be ready too!

Dømkirke

Southern Lord's sunn o))) album from a cathedral concert in Bergen (Borealis festival 2007) is now for sale. Attila Csihar (Mayhem),Lasse Marhaug and Steve Moore (Earth) played on this massive sound happening. To hear music like this in a medieval cathedral was some experience, I'll tell you that, and I'm excited to see how it sounds on record.
CD? I-Tunes? Forget it, "Dømkirke" will only be available as double vinyl LP (black or gray vinyl).