Lasse Marhaug & John Wiese US west coast tour

This tuesday Norwegian noise master Lasse Marhaug meets up with John Wiese in LA to start a short west coast tour. A new duo album "Country & Western" will be available at the gigs. The announced dates are as follows:

02.02
KXLU 88.9FM at Midnight
Los Angeles, CA

02.06
w/ Gerritt Wittmer
The Lab (23Five Presents)
San Francisco, CA

02.07
w/ Ryan Jencks, Michael Gendreau
Terminal
Oakland, CA

02.10
w/ Dried Up Corpse, Physical Demon
The Black Lodge
Seattle, WA

02.11
w/ Sex Negatives, The Rita
Hotel Gallery
Vancouver, CANADA

02.12
w/ Zbigniew Karkowski, Daniel Menche
Reed College
Portland, OR

02.14
w/ Seven Depressions, Joe & Joe
The Smell
Los Angeles, CA

Metal Merchants Festival this weekend

Metal Merchants Festival kicks off on this friday the 29th @ John Dee, Oslo. They promise a weekend filled with metal, screams and pounding drums. Starting off in 2009, they wanted to bring back heavy metal heroes from the past, heavy metal hopes for the future, and heavy metal maniacs of all ages. Line up:

OMEN (US)
TANK (UK)
SLOUGH FEG (US)
THE LAMP OF THOTH (UK)
NECRONOMICON (GER)
DARK QUARTERER (ITA)
ANIHILATED (UK)
TORCH (SWE)
SOLITAIRE (FI)
LAMENTED SOULS (NOR)

More details on the festival website.

Metronomicon Audio release party

For those around or near Oslo, make sure to find your way round to Metronomicon Audio releaseparty on this Thursday the 28th of January @ John Dee: METRONOMICON AUDIO 4.0: Center of the Universe - Magnus Moriarty™ Pilemil – Hanny – Ergo - CyranoArmageddon Koppen - Siv Sperati, Science & Spheres.
From the Metronomicon Audio website:
Metronomicon Audio is a little CD-R and CD label based in Oslo (Norway) that has chosen to go straight against the massive commercialism, double standards, vanity and unserious behaviour of the music industry.

Metronomicon Audio has focused on the fredom to make the music we like, and our never-resting design and typography crew Yokoland has done the very same in visual terms.

Metronomicon Audio is a community, with a flat structure where the artists have full control of their own music and artwork. We arrange concerts and happenings nearly all the the time, and every year we arrange the event By;Alarm, which is a mockery of all the grammy’s and awards that are to be won in the dirty, terrible, ridiculous and malicious business of music.

Lasse Marhaug celebrates Utech Records

From the Utech website:

"To mark Utech Records' five-year anniversary Lasse Marhaug recorded a piece of music titled Beauty Without Mercy. The mad, mad, mad Justin Bartlett illustrated a portrait of Marhaug and his internal twin for the cover. Endless thanks to both. To be listened to on proper speakers due to the prominent low frequencies.

Beauty Without Mercy is exclusive here and free with any order of UTECH releases."

Sound Art by Linn Halvorsrød

If you are in Trondheim you can for another week experience the sound art exhibition Soundtrack Zero 1 2 3 4ever, by Linn Halvorsrød in the Black Box at the Trøndelag Center for Contempory Art. It started on the 15th of January and is due to finish in the 31st. The sounds consists of 20 different loops of various lengths and with different lengths of silence between the repeat, so it all adds up to a composition in eternal change. The image shows the setup.

Jazkamer - Solitary Nail CD (review)

Label: Pica Disk
Catalog#: PICA014
Format: CD, Album
Country: Norway
Released: Jan 2010

This release is the first in the Jazkamer 2010 Monthly Series. A card following the CD states: “One new Jazkamer album on Pica Disk every month of 2010. One year of music and anti-music.”

Perfomed by the two founders and regular members Lasse Marhaug and John Hegre, plus Jean-Philippe Gross, who also edited and mixed this CD very interestingly.

Solitary Nail is one 30 minute track, although it feels like many tracks. It is a cut and paste of multifrequent parts combined with more one-dimensional sounds. Recordings range from guitar feedback explorations and movement of gadgets wired up with contact-microphone and very low (also volume) bass frequencies to massive full on distortion and harsh noise. At around 13:30 though, the track turns around to explore a more simple tone or feedback of very high pitch. This high pitch varies a lot, but still up there and goes on for the next ten minutes. For me this was the Solitary Nail as it went hard right inside my skull and stayed there for the full ten minutes this part of the track lasted. Be careful using earphones! After this the track moves back to exploring a more easy listening harsh wider-ranging freguencies and definetly multilayered sound.

When the monthly series was announced in November last year, Jazkamer promised to “…keep it exciting all the way, so in keeping with Jazkamer’s eclectic tradition of making very different sounding records, each monthly album will cover the wide (non)musical range Jazkamer has become known for…” With this release they have set the pace, so to speak, as it proves to be, within only 30 minutes, very diverse. It is both multilayered and one-dimensional, not to mention challenging at times.

So, for me Soiltary Nail was both nice and very disturbing at times. An experience. And I had to listen again. To experience it. Again.

all Ears 2010

The fantastic all Ears festival for improvised music in Oslo is due in mid January. The festival is organized by musicans Guro Moe, Kjetil Møster, Paal Nilssen-Love and Lasse Marhaug. The line up has brilliant names such as C. Spencer Yeh, Zach Hill, Frode Gjerstad, Stian Westerhus, Paul Lytton and many more.

Varde live in China

Norwegian improv folk group Varde has been on a trip to China, promoting lates release "Folk". Here is a video from the gig in Wuhan.




More Videos uploaded on youtube.

JAZKAMER 2010

In 2010, the fantastic Norwegian label Pica Disk will release one new Jazkamer CD every month. It will be 12 different albums, and each release will vary as much as Jazkamer has varied the sound and line-up over the years, such as:
• First studio recordings of the metal line-up since ”Metal Music Machine” album
• New ”Art Breaker”-style grindcore recordings
• New ”Panic”-style broken-blues material
• Collaborations with John Wiese, Putrefier, Government Alpha and others
• Material with regular four-piece line-up of Hegre, Marhaug, Gross and Drønen
• And more.

To make it easy obtaining them all, it is also possible to subscribe. More information at the Jazkamer site.

Famlende Forsøk Live

Here is a video of Famlende Forsøk recent concert @ Henie Onstad Art Center.

Gig in Oslo w/ Kjetil Hanssen

Finally I will join forces with fantastic talented noisenic Kjetil Hanssen for the first time! We will be in Oslo @ Sound of Mu next Tuesday the 10th of November @ 2100 hrs. This is a FREE gig, and we will do our best to make it worth all the money! For Norwegian speakers, more here

Nødutgangfestival 2009

From http://www.emergency.no

Festival free download album

As all the years before, Go To Gate Records is releasing a festival album with artists from the line-up to promote the festival. This years album is released as a free download here.

25.09.2009

All artists are final!

Finally everything is final. Legends as Geoff Leigh and Peter Brötzmann (Hairy Bones) are some of the new names presented today. We have also extended the program with some minor happenings on daytime as well, and there is also made room for a festival nachspiel. Check out the program for details. Here are all of this years artists:

PLX-15

Next Life

Lasse Jensen

Synkron Ulyd

Second Reality

Petter O Hanna

To Festivalsjefer

Karstein Djupdal

FipPellektormonic

Geoff Leigh (UK)

Mouches Volantes

Origami Emergencyka

Hosho (USA/Tyskland)

Geraldine Swayne (film)

Hairy Bones (Ger/Jap/It/Nor)

GX and the Haters (USA/Can)

Zanstones w/Zan Hoffman (USA)

Bodycocktail w/Zan Hoffman (USA)

Iancu Dumitrescu, Ana-Maria Avram (Rom) & Bodø Sinfonietta

Check out the program for more details!

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