Government Alpha, Will Guthrie & more from Pica Disk

Four new releases from one of my favourite labels, Pica Disk has just been announced. Firstly the Government Alpha "Resolution Of Remembrance 1992-1999" 4CD Box-Set looks just as fantastic as the Incapacitants box from earlier this year. Containing 4 CDs of 62 tracks, remastered from the original cassette and DAT-masters, the box also gives promises of obscure Japanese pure energy noise. Yasutoshi Yoshida's Government Alpha project is one of the leading names in Japanese noise from the 90s.


Maja S.K. Ratkje and Lasse Marhaug joins forces on their "Music For Gardening" CD. The forth entry in Ratkje and Marhaug's "Music For"-collaborative series, is meant to inspire the listener to spend more time in their garden taking care of their plants (I might spend more time inside listening to Pica releases).

Australian soundwizard Will Guthrie has created two intense pieces of drums/electronics. War metal drumming meets free-noise spazz bliss on both sides of the new "Spike-S" 7" single.

Oren Ambarchi and Lasse Marhaug did a tour of China in 2005, and they not only performed live, they also did some location recordings and studiorecordings. A tapestry of this is presented on the "Devil Wolf Men" 7" single.

Going to Schiporst again!

Long time since any updates, but I have been in holiday mode for a while. Just stepping in to inform that I will be performing 28th of august in Schiporst, Germany again this year. Probably the best festival I have ever been to, managed by Fausts Jean-Hervé Peron and Carina Varain on their farm.

Deconstruction, electronic and acoustic

On this Thursday, the 28th of May, I will participate in a special concert in Bodø Kulturhus, our main concert hall. As the last of a series of five concerts dedicated to our own hometown, Bodø, this concert will try and look towards the future somehow, how will it be to be humans. There will be dancers, choirs, a small orchestra performing various pieces to adress this. Classical composer Arnt Håkon Ånesen has also composed a brand new piece for Bodø Sinfonietta, a 14 piece orchestra, called "Historicism", and as a final I have been asked to deconstruct it somehow. I will sample parts of the piece during the concert, and use this as the only soundsources for my performance. I have also had access to the score and in co-operation with the conductor created loops for each instrument, only from the score. The Sinfonietta will play these loops during my performance and this will also be a part of my deconstruction of Ånesens piece. So, if you are around our parts of the world, you should not miss this special event.

More info for Norwegian readers here and here

Faust in Norway

Norwegians (and anyone coming this way) watch out for upcoming gigs by legendary krautrockers Faust:
March 27th 2009
Faust (Zappi Diermaier, Jean-Herve Peron, James Johnston, Geraldine Swayne, James Hodson) and local guests, will be performing their new program at the Borealis Festival of Contemporary Music in Bergen, Norway

April 18th 2009
Faust (Zappi Diermaier, Jean-Herve Peron, Geraldine Swayne, James Hodson, with guests Uwe Bastien, Terry Edwards & Ronny Wærnes (!)) will be performing during the kosmisk kveld Festival, at the Rockefeller Theater in Oslo, Norway

September 12th 2009
Faust (Zappi Diermaier, Jean-Herve Peron, James Johnston, Geraldine Swayne, James Hodson) will be performing at the Numusic Festival in Stavanger, Norway

Meanwhile, you can enjoy the new Faust album, C'est Complique, just released, but contains recordings made in 2006. Available both on CD and vinyl!

More releases

German label Pure Pop For Now People have released a limited edition LP with cover tracks by S/T. It is called "Andy", as a present to Andy Wilson, and I have done a remix of the track Heilandsbächle, other artists include Phil Wilson, Ectogram and S/T. An even more limited CDR is apparently also on its way. Available from the label.

In addition to that The Drones Club released a compilation CD with tracks from the artists participating in the 2-day festival in London last weekend. Artists where:
Phil Wilson (UK), Giant Paw (UK), The Grand Erector (UK), Ectogram (Wales), S/T (Germany) , Faust (DMZ) (appearing only on CD),Traummaschine (Spain), Ronny Wærnes (Norway). Probably available through the Drones Club myspace.


Finally I have done a compilation CDR called "Så Langt og Lenger mot Nord", and consists of various recordings over the last years, most of them previously unreleased. It is released on Go To Gate records, and will be available from the label.

London and Wales gigs

I am happy to announce that I will visit Wales and London for some gigs later this month. It will be various gigs as I will be collaborating on some and doing solo sets as well. I have been invited to join Welsh poet Zöe Skoulding to perform together with her and Alan Holmes on a poetry night. I will do a live soundtrack performance to the film ”How I Fought Bravely the Thirst for Knowledge and What Happened Then” by Russian filmmaker Elena Golovnina. I also hope to perform live with my good friends in Ectogram. Anyway, here are the dates and places:

20/1-09 Ronny Wærnes @ The Klinker Club, Maggies Bar, London, UK

21/1-09 Ronny Wærnes, Ectogram, Klaus Kinski @ Anglesea Arms, Menai Bridge, Wales

22/1-09 Zoë Skoulding/Alan Holmes/Ronny Wærnes @ The Absurd, Yr Wyddgrug (Mold), Wales

24/1-09 Ronny Wærnes, Ectogram & more @ Drones Club night at The Others, London, UK
Quote:

On 23-24 January 2009, the Drones Club returns to The Others for two evenings of avantgarde soundscapes, psychedelic space pop and motorik rhythms from S/T (Germany) and Phil Wilson/The June Brides (UK; on Friday 23 Jan) followed by Giant Paw (London), Ronny Wærnes (Norge), Traummaschine (España) and Ectogram (Cymru) on Saturday 24 January, with more to be confirmed.

Blaakraft @ Bodø Hardcorefestival #11

Hurray, it is that time of the year again! The fantastic Bodø Hardcorefestival celebrates its 10th year with festival no #11, and my band Blaakraft will rock down the house at the end of the opening day, Wednesday the 19th of November. Anyone around the arctic circle this week should pay the festival a visit. It runs from Wednesday the 19th and ends on Saturday the 22nd. It is completely free, you can find great food, record distros, and the fantastic lineup include bands as diverse as Manhattan Skyline, Manna, Julius Androide, Juvelen, Randy, Fippelectormonic, Death Is Not Glamorous, Laura and many many more. Check out the festival website for more info.

Torstein Wjiik on Tour with Animal Machine, Audun Eriksen & Swamps Up Nostrils

Our good friend Torstein Wjiik, who did a fantastic performance at this years Nødutgangfestival, is going on tour with Animal Machine (Poland), Audun Eriksen (Norway) and Swamps Up Nostrils (Norway) at the end of this month. If you're any of these places at the right time, make sure to look them up:

Nov 23 OSLO Sound of MU, Norway

Nov 25 REGENSBURG, Germany (Not included Animal Machine)

Nov 26 VIENNA, Austria

Nov 28 BARCELONA, Spain

Nov 29 BILBAO, Spain (MEM festival) (Not included Animal Machine)

Dec 1 BELGIUM (Not included Animal Machine)

Dec 2 TILBURG, Holland (Not included Animal Machine)

More info here

NXP - KELA - new release for free download

A brand new release from NXP is available for free download. Said to be one of his noisier releases for a while, it sure is worth a listen.The album is called "Kela" and is out on Requiem Productions.

You can find the download here

The Grand Erector LP

German label Pure Pop For Now People has just released an interesting project by The Grand Erector. Intended as a tribute to the group FAUST, source recordings for the project were contributed by invited members of the Faust mailing list and a few other cronies. The contributions were all then dismantled, RE-processed and RE-smeazed, before being RE-assembled to make the final album. Each track was created by combining material from several sources. Being only 100 copies on black vinyl, including an 8 page 10" booklet with photos by Ian Land, it will probably sell out fast!

Quote:

THE GRAND ERECTOR would like to thank Alan Holmes, Zoë Skoulding, Maeyc Hewitt and Ann Matthews (ECTOGRAM), Alex O’Shea, Steve Pittis (BAND OF PAIN), Ben Tinker (THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH), J.S. Adams, Dane Johnson, Gustavo Jobim, Jean-Hervé Peron (FAUST), Jim Bowers, Ian Morrison, Jim Donnelly, Ken Hyder (KSPACE), Mike Rowlands, Olivier Manchion (ULAN BATOR / PFE), Phil Wilson (THE JUNE BRIDES), Richard Fontenoy (STELLA MARIS DRONE ORCHESTRA), Ronny Waernes, Joachim Gaertner and Martin Brauner (S/T), Steve Fligelstone, Luis Forner and Paco Gomez (TRAUMMASCHINE), and Zoltan Pfefer.

Listen to a soundclip here

Noisemusic - is more better?

Someone said to me in a very noisy room: "I guess you like this, being so much noise here!" This made me reflect a bit. Some of my friends, colleagues or family have no clue what this is about. They know I like noise, they know I make noise, hell they even know I am performing occationally. They would never say noisemusic, btw... But is more better? My instant reply was: "I’m not sure, it’s not that good." And good is usually better than more. Not that I am not a fan of more. No, but better is usually…well...

Maybe I should start explaining what I mean. Someone told me that they prefered noisemusic that is possible to play at a low volume. How does that relate to noise? Is this not a contradiction? Yes, it can be. If you are interested in the sheer energy and the massive wall of sound some of these artists can produce, it would be relevant. But I think that it is possible to listen to noisemusic at a very low volume, if the noise itself is interesting enough. Some prefer the repeptetive side of it, and some people enjoy the more structured side of it. The depth of a track would mean a lot to me also. When exposed to noisemusic with a minimal range of frequencies, it is harder to listen to it for a longer periode of time. One example of this can be some of the early recordings of Whitehouse which have some needling high frequencies, and nothing more.

Melodic and compositional structures can sometimes be hard to find for an untrained ear, but that is also something that would improve the listening experience. Many noiseartists would regard Lou Reed – Metal Machine Music as a pioneering work for this approach. If this is combined with depth and a wider range of frequencies, it would be easier listening to and for some considered better. Fine examples of this can be found in Fe-Mail – Voluptous Vultures, later recordings from Wolf Eyes and Lasse Marhaug. Interesting is also albums/releases that have a very wide range of different approaches or sound. Noise compilations have usually these qualities, as they have lots of different bands and artists, who naturally sound very different.

Other than that, there is also the massive amount of artists incorporating instruments and/or voices that you would easily recognise. And the other way around.

Ultima Contemporary Festival

Today is the opening day of Ultima, Oslo Contemporary Music Festival. If you are anywhere near Oslo the next 2 – 3 weeks, you should try and find time to check out some of the events. To many events to present here, but only a few recommendations:

Saturday 4th - 19:30 BODØ SINFONIETTA @ KULTURKIRKEN JAKOB w/soloists, will perform ao Arnt Håkon Ånesen (NO) Frames (2006/07), John Cage (US) Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1957/58), Sven-David Sandström (SE) Konsert for fløyte og orkester (1980), Jonathan Harvey (UK) Wheel of Emptiness (1997).

Wednesday 8th - 10:00–12:00 THE LAPTOP AS INSTRUMENT @ AUDITORIET, NORGES MUSIKKHØGSKOLE - A presentation of eksperimental music technology by Dan Trueman.

19:30 ensemble recherche @ KULTURKIRKEN JAKOB - performs Cecilie Ore (NO) Cirrocumulus (2002/2004), Klaus Huber (CH) Plainte (1990), Younghi Pagh-Paan (KR) Hang-Sang III (2005), Karlheinz Stockhausen (DE) 7. Stunde aus KLANG: Balance (2007).

22:00–23:30 STOCKHAUSEN @ LINDEMANSALEN, NORGES MUSIKKHØGSKOLE - Kazuko Ihara, flute performes Karlheinz Stockhausen (DE) Freia (1991), In Freundschaft (1977), Ypsilon (1989) & Mikrophonie I (1964) for 6 players with tam-tam, 2 microphones, 2 filters with potentiometers. Other artists: Asbjørn Flø, Mats Claesson, Jøran Rudi, Kjell Samkopf, Rob Waring og Kjell Tore Innervik.

Friday 10th - asamisimasa w/Mark Knoop @ LINDEMANSALEN, NORGES MUSIKKHØGSKOLE - Performes Karlheinz Stockhausen (DE) Refrain (1959), Karlheinz Stockhausen (DE) Klavierstück XI (1956), Brian Ferneyhough (UK) Bone Alphabet (1991), Karlheinz Stockhausen (DE) Plus-Minus (1963).

Sunday 12th - 19:00 AL KAMANDJATI – The Violinist @ OSLO KONSERTHUS

Monday 13th - 18:00 & 19:00 DRÅPEN - SOUND INSTALLATION by ARNE NORDHEIM @ BEKKELAGET RENSEANLEGG

Thursday 16th - 19:30 NORDIC VOICES With PETER BRÖTZMANN & FRODE GJERSTAD @ KULTURKIRKEN JAKOB - Concert for clarinet and voices. Nordic Voices and soprano Ellen Aagaard meets legends of improvised music, Peter Brötzmann og Frode Gjerstad.

Saturday 18th – 1800 CIKADA @ KULTURKIRKEN JAKOB
Performs pieces by Nils Henrik Asheim (NO) Ensemble music for 5 (1985), Lars Petter Hagen (NO) Sørgemarsj over Edvard Grieg (2008), Henrik Hellstenius (NO) Hi Ophelia! (2006), Eivind Buene (NO) Nature Morte (2008), Arne Nordheim (NO) Partita per viola, clavicembalo e percussione (1963).

Much, much more at ULTIMA

Lasse Marhaug – Ear Era CD (Review)

Earlier this year Lasse Marhaug got an interesting opportunity. The Henie Onstad Art Centre invited him to go through its massive audio archive. An archive of recordings from concerts and also recordings made in the Norwegian Studio for Electronic Music, located at the centre for some years in the 70s. Recordings (about 800 tapes) filled with artists as different as Karlheinz Stockhausen, Jan Garbarek, Arne Nordheim, Mauricio Kagel, Webster Lewis, Steve Reich, Laurie Anderson, Soft Machine, and various Norwegian jazz and rock artists. Marhaug was asked to make use of these recordings to make his own piece. The result was presented at three concerts at The Henie Onstad Art Centre, and also as this CD version released by Prisma Records. It is in only 500 numbered copies, and there will also be a deluxe box-set of 50 copies available.

Being only about 30 minutes divided into 11 unnamed tracks, it promised some excitement and variety. The first track starts with wind, voices and some naïve synth playing, making you wonder who initially recorded it. For most of the CD it is difficult to identify the original artist, unless you have a very specific knowledge of some of the pieces being used. Instruments and voices are easy to spot though. Marhaug process them slightly, inlcudes various bits and pieces, and makes the track sound a bit melancholic or sad. This first track sets the direction for the majority of Ear Era. It is almost to the end a CD filled with melancholy and sadness, only with a few exceptions, and it makes me wonder if it was made on a rainy day.

One of the techniques Marhaug uses is to cut out bits of music, and loop it, but also twist the pitch, speed it up, slow it down to make it change its mood or pace. A good example of this is in track three where a couple of loops are mixed together during the first half of the track and the loops themselves are slowed down from beginning to end, and thus making them sound sad. Other cut out bits are added to the track and many of them treated the same way.

To draw attention to the point an opposite effect is added in track four, which starts off with a rather noisy, less sad loop, making a happy rhythm. But after a minute the rhythm dissapears and what’s left is some strange sounds being quite mellow also, and the track ends just after two minutes.

So the album continues, a mix of strange, weird sounds and noises, mixed carefully with some more noisier, harsher bits. Melancholy being the most prominent mood to me, but also occasional happiness and energy. What is really striking about this release, is the gentle way Marhaug mixes it all together. No part, strange or noisy is overfocused, and everything comes together as a nice whole. When seeing Marhaug live, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer energy of his noise and performance, and it can be easy to presume that he would translate that to all his recordings, but here he proves just the opposite. Nice, gentle, short tracks, but still challenging to listen to, and after 3 – 4 listens, I still find myself being surprised.

The CD ends in a way that makes me think it needed a happy or more promising finale. Track 10 is a short track of just over two minutes, and has almost the same sadness as the rest of the album. It starts with some rumbles and a rythmic sad loop, but when left with 30 seconds a female voice enters the track, and at the very end it is clearly that she is saying: “it will be best for you if anything is good for you”. And so the track ends, leaving the door open for track 11, which starts with a simple, almost generic loop. After a while some more driven parts come to life, and the track gets more and more noisy, but in a much more happy mood than the previous tracks.

This CD made me sad and made me smile. It even made me want to dance occasionally, but also made me wanting more. Ear Era is a piece of music with lots of diversity and it triggers various moods. What more can you ask? Some more, maybe?

Available from the artist.

Faust announces new release!

Legendary krautrockers Faust announces that they are about to master their brand new studio album. The album was recorded in the Fortress Studios London in August this year, and will be released some time late November by Fred Label Limited. It will be first released as a CD and shortly after there will be a vinyl release available. Featuring on the album are Zappi, Jean-Hervé Peron, James Johnston, Geraldine Swayne and James Hodson with special guest Terry Edwards. While waiting for the new album, there is a chance to see Faust at these venues and dates:

October 3rd @ the INTERZONA in Verona, Italy

October 4th @ the INIT in Rome, Italy

October 10th @ the Raindance Film Festival in London, UK - Zappi and JHP will attend a session of Q&A after the screening of "IST FAUST SCHOEN", a critical documentary film by Julien Perrin

October 11th @ The Secret Market for One of One London, UK

October 16th @ the GARAJ in Istanbul, Turkey

Spectrum XXI Festival 2008

The third international festival of spectral music will take place this year in London, Paris, Brussels, Mons and East Grinstead from 16th through to the 26th of November. This is a festival curated by Iancu Dimutresu and Ana-Maria Avram from Romania and performers will be The Hyperion Ensemble with soloist Tim Hodgkinson, Gustavo Aguilar, Robert Reigle and the iO quartet of New York. They will present works by Dumitrescu, Avram, Hodgkinson, Petrescu, Cazaban, Vlad, Geers and others including myself. Dumitrescu and Avram with the Hyperion ensemble is probably the most vital conductors and performers (and composers!) I have seen and heard in the classical avantgarde, so if you are anywhere near one of these location at the time they are, you would not want to miss an opportunity to see a great event.

Other links: 1#, 2#, 3#, 4#, 5#

Puma & Lasse Marhaug - on vinyl!

One of my favourite combos, the hard-hitting improv trio Puma, and the Norwegian king of noise, Lasse Marhaug have announced that they will release an album of some of the recordings they have done. Puma has made a snip available at their myspace. They will also perform together live in 2009, which they have had trouble finding time to in 2008. They will visit Japan in January and February of 2009, and also Denmark, Germany, France, Benelux and England will be visited. Dates to be announced later. The even better news is that they will make the release available on vinyl only!


I was fortunate enough to see this combo live at Nødutgangfestivalen last year, and that performance made a huge impression on me. This video is from Ekkofest in Bergen (N):

Nødutgangfestival 2009 news!

The avantgarde festival Nødutgangfestival dates for 2009 are set! This time it will be a festival in the dark autumn! This festival held just above the arctic circle in the north of Norway, has a wonderful mix of avantgarde and experimental artists and bands. Previous headlines as Faust, KK Null, Lasse Marhaug, La STPO, S/T, Jazzkammer, and lots of Norwegian and local exciting artists has made this festival an interesting event of the year.

As opposed to the previous years, where the festival has been held in June and July, the next year will see Nødutgangfestival in the late autumn. The dates has been set to 22nd to 25th of October. The main venues will continue to be Sinus, Gimle and Bremnes Fort, but with additional venues as Bodø Kunstforening and who knows, maybe some new exciting ones as well. The goal for the future is still to surprise, create joy and also provoce, and 2009 will also meet those goals. The festival will continue to develope its profile, and Nødutgangfestival will show new sides of itself next year and in the years to come.

http://www.emergency.no/

Belles Alliances - free download

My collaboration with Brazilian artist Gustavo Jobim has recently been released on a compilation of collaborators, Belles Alliances. Last year I was given two soundclips by Gustavo, on which he played syntheziser. So I did some cut ups, processed and mixed it all in to one track, Abstract Painted Train. The release consists of great tracks all made by remixing or collaborating with Gustavo in some way. In addition to yours truly, the artists are: The Chorlton Radiophonic Workshop (UK),That Hideous Strength (USA), Nathan Siter (USA/Finland), Conrad Schnitzler (Germany), Helder Correia (Portugal), Amyr Cantusio Jr. (Brazil), Robert Jaz (USA), Member (Germany), Daniel Bordini (Brazil), Leandro Theodorico (Brazil), Justynn Tyme (USA). Check out Gustavos main page or go directly to the release for a free download of this wonderful album, booklet and all. Photos by Ian land, and artwork by Helder Correia.

Back with a track!

Finally I am back at my blog after a long brake. It has been a long eventful summer, that I will not bore you with here, but I promise that I will post more frequent after this.

Meanwhile a track has been put out (again) at the Chain Tape Collective. This time it was a project inspired by the signs of the zodiac, so the project Zodiac, consists of twelve tracks. I am not a fan of those signs, but I have learned that there is actually a thirteenth sign called the Ophiucus - the serpent holder, but the only one not included as an astrological sign. So I decided that I could be a part of this project with this bonustrack called Ophiucus. The track itself consists of snake sounds, and some spoken parts of a well known actor. Guess who?

Download the track here

Check out the entire project here

New track for download

A new compilation is ready from the Chain Tape Collective, and I have done one of the tracks. CT-Bugs is a collection of compositions based on a set of sample recordings of a various insects from around the world. No other sound sources were used other than the insects. The artists, all members of (CT) Collective, manipulated these sample recordings with various effects and audio software, in order to produce their final work of musical art.

Download my track here

or check out the entire album with lots of magnificent tracks from the other artists!