So how does one follow up an album as critically acclaimed as Rocks & Straws, the first solo collection from Norwegian songstress Anneli Drecker in a decade? By essentially crafting Rocks & Straws Part II, though it’s important to clarify that the move wasn’t cynically designed to capitalize on the 2015 album’s decidedly positive critical reception but because the project naturally lent itself to further exploration. Both albums, you see, draw for inspiration from lyrics by cult poet Arvid Hanssen (translated into English by Roy-Frode Løvland) and use his writings as the fertile soil from which Drecker’s evocative songs grow. If anything, the connection between the two albums is so strong, the eventual appearance of a third volume would hardly surprise.
Tag Archive: Rune Grammofon
A veteran of the mysterious avant garde Norwegian improvisational outfit Supersilent, Arve Henriksen is a trumpeter who rarely sounds as if he’s playing the trumpet. Instead, his instrument is muted and put through various FX units to create otherworldly sounds. On “Patient Zero”, he plays without a mouthpiece to sound like a bamboo flute; on “Vivification”, his ghostly improvisations sound like they’re being played on an ocarina; on Groundswell, he sounds like he’s slowly releasing air from an inflated balloon while someone plays Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew slowed down to 16rpm.
The sonic atmosphere he creates with sample-manipulators Jan Bang and Erik Honoré can be faintly terrifying – the three of them should be given a horror movie soundtrack immediately…
Krokofant typify a new and invigorating movement currently sweeping across the Nordic region: hard boiled improvisation and strong instrumental personalities bolted onto rock beats and driving rhythms. Equally powerful on record and on stage, Krokofant pull no punches, sounding off like some unholy three-way marriage of early ’70s jazz rock (Mahavishnu Orchestra, Terje Rypdal), the sprawling progressive odysseys of King Crimson and Van Der Graaf Generator, and the fierce heat of John Zorn or Peter Brötzmann’s harsh free jazz ensembles.
If their 2014 debut album was a fresh breath of youthful energy, the follow-up showed a trio more confident of their abilities after extended live work. Their third album in just three years follows in this tradition, with Mathisen’s fat syntheziser…
Jazz, Fritt Etter Hukommelsen is the studio companion to the simultaneously released concert offering Bushman’s Fire. The title translates into English as “Jazz from Memory,” and that’s what this date is. Bushman’s Revenge began in 2004 as an exploratory jazz group and over time evolved into the beloved Oslo jazz-rock monster as likely to reflect Black Sabbath and King Crimson as John Coltrane. Here Bushman’s Revenge issue their debut “proper” all-jazz studio outing as a rapprochement with their first love.
They open with an excellent and inventive reading of McCoy Tyner’s “Contemplation” steeped in blues and modalism. Guitarist Even Helte Hermansen’s playing is drenched in lyricism, Gard Nilssen’s drumming dances around him with…
Over the last few years, the Hedvig Mollestad Trio have become one of the more exciting units on Norway’s music scene. Led by electric guitarist Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen, their previous studio offerings have broken into genre-blurring statements of heavy metal and hard rock riffery that touched on the noisier realms of jazz improvisation.
Black Stabat Mater is the group’s fourth studio offering. It is being simultaneously released with the live-double album Evil in Oslo. Clocking in at only 33 minutes, these five tracks offer something different than previous outings. This set is a bit less concerned with the riff-oriented pyrotechnics of hard rock and metal, and lean more into jazz-rock and even avant-jazz. First track “Approaching” commences with Mollestad’s fat, spacious guitar…
Fire! Orchestra are of course the mutated super-version of the mighty Fire! trio, adding up to 21 members on this record. As brilliant as their previous album Enter is, with Ritual they have outdone themselves and produced a beast of beauty and power, extremely well executed, beautifully recorded and produced from only two days in the studio. Free improvisations, keyboard frenzy, spontaneous horns, abstract electronics, guitar mayhem and not to forget; those glorious twin voices of Mariam Wallentin and Sofia Jernberg.
Fire! originated as the trio of Swedish improv masters Mats Gustafsson (sax), Johan Berthling (bass) and Andreas Werliin (drums). None of them are what you could call jazz purists; they all play…
When Rune Grammofon released Krokofant‘s dynamite self-titled debut in 2014, the power trio had already become a sensation on Norway’s live scene. Their sound, equal parts avant-rock, free jazz, jazz-rock, and metal, was right in line with other bands in the “Nordic Wave” (Hedwig Mollestad Trio, Elephant9, Bushman’s Revenge, Moster!, Space Monkey, etc.) but its sonic and musical character were unique. Guitarist Tom Hasslan, drummer Axel Skalstad, and saxophonist Jørgen Mathisen are all excellent improvisers. But dynamic as they are, these individuals understand the delicate balance involved in playing as a trio.
On Krokofant 2, the ensemble’s jazz and compositional chops are displayed even more prominently than on their initial recording.
Here Be Monsters started life as a commission for the centennial jubilee of the Norwegian Technical Museum in November, 2014. The music was written for the expanded version of Motorpsycho that features everyone’s favourite keyboardist Ståle Storløkken (Elephant9, Supersilent, Terje Rypdal).
Performed just once, this music clearly had more life in it, and while Ståle’s commitments meant he had to pass on making an album out of it, Bent, Snah and Kenneth have turned it into a full-blown Motorpsycho project. There are five of their own compositions, from the tantalising piano intro (Sleepwalking – and its equally brief reprise Sleepwalking Again) to the expansive & stunningly scenic 17-minute adventure of the closing Big Black Dog, via the serene beauty of Lacuna/Sunrise and Running with Scissors, and…
Fire! is a Swedish trio comprising Mats Gustafsson (The Thing), Johan Berthling (Tape) and Andreas Werliin (Wildbirds & Peacedrums) that came together with the idea of a fresh approach to improvised music, with a number of influences from free jazz, psychedelic rock and noise.
Fire! is also their vehicle for rekindling their instrumental skills and playing outside their comfort zones, or collaborating with prestigious guests such as Jim O’Rourke (Unreleased?, 2011) and Oren Ambarchi (In the Mouth a Hand, 2012).
She Sleeps, She Sleeps is the trio’s fifth album and displays an intriguing cocktail of dark and brooding, hypnotic slowcore jazz. After having provided live music for the long running play…
It’s not often a “jazz” band take the big step from the club scene to a 1300 capacity rock venue like Oslo’s Rockefeller. But then again, Elephant9 is not your ordinary jazz band, often being named as Norway’s best live band – surely quite rare for an instrumental band – they are equally popular in jazz and rock circles.
On this, their fourth studio album, Elephant9 once again join forces with Reine Fiske – the quite excellent Swedish guitarist from Dungen and The Amazing – for an epic slice of mindblowing modern rock’n’jazz prog psychedelia. Silver Mountain is their finest album so far, where all the parts fall into place. The core trio is still Ståle Storløkken, Nikolai Hængsle Eilertsen and Torstein Lofthus; guest Reine Fiske brings another dimension to…
The steadfast appeal of the jazz piano trio format continues with this limpid jewel from Norway.
Following two previous releases (You Had Me at Goodbye; What Took You So Long) and led melodiously by pianist Espen Eriksen – with colleagues Lars Tormod Jenset (bass) and Andreas Bye (drums) – Never Ending January appears to find its lofty inspiration in misty, enforested, fjordal panoramas. And whilst that Scandinavian impression may be somewhat clichéd in musical terms, this trio’s approach is, indeed, particularly elemental and spacial.
Comparisons with other Scandinavian pianists such as Tord Gustavsen and Esbjörn Svensson are inevitable in Eriksen’s considered, wistful…
In the winter of 2012/13, Motorpsycho was approached by Trondheim’s biggest cultural festival, Olavsfestdagene (OFD). The festival’s director had seen Motorpsycho and Ståle Storløkken perform their 2012 album Death Defying Unicorn in its entirety at the National Opera House in Oslo that winter, and was wondering whether the band and Ståle would be interested in doing something on the same scale for OFD that summer too.
This being just weeks after the final Death Defying Unicorn performance, both the band and Ståle needed a little time before committing to another “big piece” and passed on the offer, but it was agreed to try to make it happen once the then disassembled Steinmeyer church organ was fully restored in 2014, or perhaps at a later time…
The first-ever Motorpsycho anthology, released in conjunction with a 2015 retrospective exhibition at Rockheim, Norway’s national museum of pop and rock music, in the band’s hometown of Trondheim. For the first anthology since the band’s formation in 1989, there are as many possible track selections as there are fans, and the band’s selection for Supersonic Scientists: A Young Person’s Guide to Motorpsycho>will likely incite much discussion.
Roughly containing one song from every studio album proper since 1993 as well as a couple of outsiders, this serves as an excellent introduction to newcomers and latecomers, but should also be of great interest to fans. Helge “Deathprod” Sten has remastered all the tracks from the original masters, and the non-chronological order makes…
“Melody Of A Muddled Mason” is the natural successor to “Neo Dada”, Jono´s masterstroke from 2009. Some of Jono´s finest writings can be found here, and he has refined his already considerable arranging skills to perfection, just listen to Bach’s Beach and the title track for evidence.
Jono lists movements like Rock in Opposition and the Canterbury scene and artists and composers like Frank Zappa, Stravinsky, Magma, Henry Cow and Gentle Giant as sources of inspiration. With his releases and stage shows he has now established his own signature, with mature compositions, refined arrangements, improved guitar playing and the introduction of subtle vocals. “Melody Of A Muddled Mason” is the sound of a composer and producer at the peak of his powers.
Phaedra is Ingvild Langgård, singer, composer, and artist. Educated at The Academy of Fine Art in Oslo, Norway, she composes music for the stage and screen in addition to her art projects with sound, video, and installations. Phaedra’s debut album The Sea (2011) received fantastic international reviews in magazines as diverse as The Wire, Uncut, Shindig and Prog, drawing lines to Vashti Bunyan, Elizabeth Frazer and Nico.
Blackwinged Night is the follow-up, and the second album in a triology, a lyrical and musical cycle with its own mythological structure. From the ethereal folk universe of the debut, Blackwinged Night dives into a darker dream pop underworld, where acoustic elements of woodwinds, strings…
Norway’s Shining have a made a long musical journey since their 2001 debut, Where the Ragged People Go on BP Productions, and 2003’s Sweet Shanghai Devil on Jazzland. Those two acoustic modern jazz offerings bear scarcely a musical trace to the prog/noise/metal hybrid they created on 2010’s Blackjazz, and developed it to an even more extreme edge on 2013’s One One One.
This self-titled double-disc from Rune Grammofon pairs 2005’s In the Kingdom of Kitsch You Will Be a Monster and 2007’s Grindstone. These albums not only document the beginning of their transition but reveal them in excellent, restless, creative form. In contrast to its forebears, the 2005 album sounded like it came from…
If anybody deserves to be called a living legend in Norwegian free jazz it must surely be saxophone, flute and clarinet player Frode Gjerstad.
Detail is the group he founded in 1981 with close friend Eivin One Pedersen (1956-2012) and legendary free jazz drummer and Spontaneous Music Ensemble founder John Stevens (1940-1994).
First Detail is a recording from 1982 that predates the first Detail albums, hence the title. By this time Pedersen had left the group. For personal and emotional reasons Frode was sitting on the tapes until last summer before he felt ready to listen to them. Good thing he deemed them suitable for release because this is a truly great album, in our ears one of the best free jazz albums ever to come out of Norway. It’s almost unbelievable that…
Still the favourite with many Motorpsycho fans, the iconic Demon Box was also their breakthrough album and is a testament to their most drastic period of transition, from being a relatively, but not entirely, straight rock band largely met with indifference, to becoming a band where “shit definitely falls in place”, to quote Tommy Olsson’s liner notes. It’s also, notably, the only album in their vast catalog where Deathprod was a permanent member of the group.
Motorpsycho meld archaic undertones and narrative details with garage rock that spews out all the best riffs, bends strings ‘til they’re permanently in the U shape, and brings the heavy like Satan moving furniture. This thing keeps metamorphosing, unhappy with the last supremely loud…
In young Maesa Pullman The Last Hurrah!! master- mind HP Gundersen has found the perfect singer for this ever developing project that is so dear to his heart. After exploring the possibilites of the drone guitar on their debut Spiritual Non-Believers and the slightly more song-oriented follow-up The Beauty of Fake, HP is back with a third album that dives straight into the heart of classical song traditions and vintage production values, blending elements from country and Americana, classic British pop, psychedelia, blues and a pinch of soul. Rolling Stone senior editor David Fricke notes in his liner notes that “you may think have heard all of this before. But you haven’t heard it like this”.
HP Gundersen has been a central figure on…
Anneli Drecker‘s ethereal voice first became known through the music of her band with Geir Jenssen (aka Biosphere) and Nils Johansen, Bel Canto, in the ’80s. The trio signed to the legendary Belgian label Crammed Discs, alongside Tuxedomoon and Zap Mama, and captured the zeitgeist of European electronic music in the late ’80s. Drecker toured the world for more than ten years with Röyksopp, co-writing a number of songs with them.
In 2012, Drecker left Röyksopp to return to her own music, and Rocks & Straws is an ode to her native town and region. The songs are based on lyrics by the North Norwegian cult poet Arvid Hanssen, translated to English by artist and writer Roy-Frode Løvland. Hanssen’s poems are strongly influenced by the mysterious and powerful nature of this…
