Luke Fowler, exhibition opening

Luke Fowler, exhibition opening

Time – Friday 20:00
Venue – Bergen Kunsthall

Please note, this event takes place the week before the festival starts.

Luke Fowler is one of the most talked-about young British artists of recent years.  His films are documentaries which at the same time express an experimental attitude to the film medium, in a continuation of the avant-garde film tradition of the 1960s and 1970s. They often also portray historical cultural figures who operate on the extreme periphery of established society.  The subject is usually a type of outsider figure with radical ambitions to challenge existing society.  Pilgrimage from Scattered Points (2006), perhaps Fowler’s best known film portrait, deals with the British composer and activist Cornelius Cardew (1936-1981), following  the development of the composer’s ground-breaking Scratch Orchestra project through its break down to final collapse.  The orchestra, which consisted of both professional musici ans and amateurs, challenged established conventions and distanced itself from the use of traditional notation and performance arenas.  It was a social experiment that ended in a rupture, splitting its membership into two factions.  Fowler's film sheds light on the group's struggle, during which Cardew himself became a Maoist.   For him, music was a tool for studying man’s ability to cooperate, as well as a means of investigating society's capacity to tolerate the unacceptable.  Fowler’s portrait films themselves have a political motivation and show, through a close reading of historical figures, how alternative ways of thinking are possible.

Luke Fowler (b. 1978) lives and works in Glasgow.  He has had solo exhibitions at, among other venues, the Serpentine Gallery (London), Kunsthalle Zürich, Extra City (Antwerp) and The Modern Institute (Glasgow). He has participated in a long succession of group exhibitions and film festivals all over the world.

On Thursday March 11 at 1800 John Tilbury, pianist and author of the biography Cornelius Cardew: A Life Unfinished (2008) will give a talk on Cornelius Cardew at Bergen Kunsthall. 

On Friday March 12 at 1800 he will perform Cardew's music with bassist Michael Duch at the Bergen Pianoforretning.

 

The exhibition has been produced by Bergen Kunsthall in collaboration with Borealis.

SPRINGBOARD BOREALIS 1: Percussionists

SPRINGBOARD BOREALIS 1: Percussionists

Time – Sunday 18:00
Venue – Griegakademiet Prøvesalen

"Spirits, Chance and the Unknown"

Henry Cowell, 'Ostinato Pianissimo'
David Skinner, '2 Cycles' (premiere)
John Thrower, 'Aurora Borealis' 
John Cage/Lou Harrison, 'Double Music'

Performed by Griegakademiet Percussion Ensemble.

Conducted by Trond Madsen.

SPRINGBOARD BOREALIS 2: Composers

SPRINGBOARD BOREALIS 2: Composers

Time – Sunday 20:00
Venue – Altona wine bar, Augustin Hotel

Once again, the composition department of the Grieg Academy stages a «Springboard Borealis» - an "opening before the opening". As in 2009, the city's distinctive rooms and buildings are inspiration for both composition and performance. This year, the Altona wine bar at Hotel Augustin is the chosen venue, these old and humble surroundings - with members of the audience seated around small tables - creating a warm and intimate concert setting.

Music by teachers and students at Griegakademiet: Morten Eide Pedersen, Rebecka Sofia Ahvenniemi, Emil Børø, Tor Erik Hellesen, Siri Langøigjelten, Anders Røshol, David Skinner, Kari Sundet, Solveig Sørheim, and Jan Tufteland.

Borealis theme tune

Borealis theme tune

Time – Tuesday

This year we have four theme tunes made by Daniel, student at Laksevåg upper secondary school. These will be played at various sites throughout the city, throughout the week.

 

 

Kino Borealis

Kino Borealis

Time – Friday 13:00
Venue – Landmark

Films selected from international submissions. See daily programs for details.

All kino Borealis events in collaboration with Bergen Filmklubb.

Gerhard Eckel, 'Catabolizer' installation opening

Gerhard Eckel, 'Catabolizer' installation opening

Time – Tuesday 15:30
Venue – Rom 8

Gerhard Eckels 'Catabolizer' installation will be open for the public throughout the week at Rom 8 in Vaskerelven.

Opening hours:

Tuesday 9th after the event at 15:30 until 19:00

Wednesday 10th to Saturday 13th 12:00 to 19:00

 

Biblioludium: Mette Karlsvik

Biblioludium: Mette Karlsvik

Time – Tuesday 17:00
Venue – Bergen Offentlige Bibliotek

Reading by Mette Karlsvik. Discussion afterwards. NB! in Norwegian.

Gerhard Stäbler, 'HELIOS NORDWÄRTS'

Gerhard Stäbler, 'HELIOS NORDWÄRTS'

Time – Tuesday 18:00
Venue – Admiral Hotel / Bryggen

Premiere. Piece for three helicopters, fire engines, Forsvarets musikkorps Vestlandet (FMKV) and Åsane Unge Strykere.

Welcome speech by councilor Monica Mæland.

In collaboration with Fonna Fly, Bergen Brannvesen and all participating musicians.

John Cage, Sonata V

John Cage, Sonata V

Time – Tuesday 19:00
Venue – Bergen Pianoforretning

John Cage, Sonata V from the 'Sonatas and Interludes'

Else Olsen Storesund, 'Piece for piano, chapel forks and marbles'

Program launch by festival leader Alwynne Pritchard.

Piano exhibition opened by Nils Henrik Jansen.

Bergen piano shop exhibition

Bergen piano shop exhibition

Time – Tuesday 19:30
Venue – Bergen Pianoforretning

The exhibition will be open troughout the festival at the following times: 

Wed./Fri. 09:30 - 16:30; Thur. 09:30 - 19:00; Sat. 10:00 - 15:00

Bergen Pianoforreting has a long tradition as upright and grand piano specialists. Over the years they have taken care of a great many instruments, each with its own story to tell about the history of the piano in Norway.  Most of the instruments, some up to 150 years old, are fully playable and will provide a charming and interesting insight into how much (or little?) the instruments, the music and the people have changed. 

In collaboration with the Bergen Pianoforretning.

Kalmarhuset Apartment Concerts

Kalmarhuset Apartment Concerts

Time – Tuesday 20:00
Venue – Kalmarhuset leiligheter

Intimate concerts hosted by residents of Kalmarhuset in their apartements.

Avgarde #1: Benedict Mason, 'Mask': Ricardo Odriozola and friends.

Stian Westerhus, improvisation

Sigurd Fischer Olsen, new piece

Siegfried Kutterer, 'Speck Drum' with Szilard Buti.

In collaboration with residents of Kalmarhuset.

Radioalis

Radioalis

Time – Tuesday 21:00

 

Four Borealis radio shows are sent every day (Tue.-Fri.) throughout the week from 21:00-22:20. FM frequency 96,4 and 107,8. 

Eirik, Mats Ruben, Ivar & Øystein, four sound production students from Laksevåg upper secondary school, talk about Borealis in particular and contemporary music in general. 

Lovely humour mixed with live DJ improvising on an analogue 4-track portastudio and synth.

All programs will be available at http://www.myspace.com/radioalis after the festival.

Phill Niblock and Thomas Ankersmit

Phill Niblock and Thomas Ankersmit

Time – Tuesday 22:00
Venue – Landmark

Concert.

'Catabolizer' performance #1: David Helbich, 'Social Piece'

'Catabolizer' performance #1: David Helbich, 'Social Piece'

Time – Wednesday 15:30
Venue – Rom 8

David Helbich, 'Social Piece' (premiere)

How much would you pay a composer for a single day's work?

David Helbich wrote 'Social Piece' on the days funded by the 'Pay A Day' project donors.  This concert performance will express the social relations behinds works of (new) music.

Borealis festival sought individuals and institutions interested in participating financially in the debate around cultural subsidies.  They decided how much Helbich's time was worth and on which days he would undertake the work.  By paying for a single day they had the opportunity to contribute to the project as a whole.  David reported on each day of work on his blog.

For more info: http://pay-a-day.blogspot.com

In collaboration with BiblioludiUNG

Biblioludium: Kjersti Rorgemoen

Biblioludium: Kjersti Rorgemoen

Time – Wednesday 17:00
Venue – Bergen Offentlige Bibliotek

Reading by Kjersti Rorgemoen. Discussion afterwards. NB! In Norwegian only.

Factory Night Salhus

Factory Night Salhus

Time – Wednesday 18:30
Venue – Salhus Tricotagefabrik

Evening show at at old factory in Salhus, just outside Bergen.

Featuring Gerhard Stäbler, Kunsu Shim, Siegfried Kutterer, Szilard Buti, Ricardo Odriozola & friends, Åsane Unge Strykere, Knut Vaage, Rolf Borch, Tore Kloster, GNEIS and Salhus Choir.

How to get there:

Take the 80 or 90 bus from the city center (stops: Bergen Busstasjon - Festplassen - Torget - Bryggen) to Åsane terminal. From Åsane terminal the 260 bus runs to Salhus once every hour (always 40 minutes past). The bus uses ten minutes to Salhus. Thus, we recommend the 17:40 bus from Åsane. When returning to Bergen, the bus run ten past. For more information call route info at 177. 

Bus novice? Easy (and slower) option: 

Bus 280: Leave from Bergen Busstasjon 16:40 - arrive at Salhus 17:34

Bus 280: Leave from Bergen Busstasjon 17:10 - arrive at Salhus 18:04

Also: Bus marked 90S go all the way.

Jennifer Walshe, 'THIS IS WHY PEOPLE O.D. ON PILLS'

Jennifer Walshe, 'THIS IS WHY PEOPLE O.D. ON PILLS'

Time – Wednesday
Venue – See below

Documentary, by Tor Kristian Liseth, about Rolf Borch's quest to master the skateboard in order to perform 'THIS IS WHY PEOPLE O.D. ON PILLS'.

The documentary is screened on three occasions during the festival. Each is followed by a performance of the piece itself. 

#1

Time - Wednesday 11:30

Venue - Rådhuset

Performed by Øyvind Skarbø.

#2

Time – Wednesday 20:00

Venue – Salhus Tricotagefabrik

Performed by Rolf Borch.

#3

Time – Saturday 21:00

Venue – Landmark

Performed by Øyvind Skarbø.

Excerpt from Walshe's 'THIS IS WHY PEOPLE O.D. ON PILLS': "Choose a pitch on your instrument. Skate your imagined path on this pitch. (You may choose to skate the path in slow-motion.) Every micro-detail of the pitch (tuning, timbre, dynamic, envelope, consistency, colour, texture, weight, feel, pressure, clarity, strength) should correspond absolutely to the experience of skating the the path in your head. Carve through air in long, sweeping paths with the sound you produce. Reveal and inhabit new spaces, smooth new lines."

MADRAS CURRY (Melchiorre/Kutterer/Buti)

MADRAS CURRY (Melchiorre/Kutterer/Buti)

Time – Wednesday
Venue – DNB Lars Hillesgate 30

MADRAS CURRY are performing twice during the festival.

#1

Kutterer, 'The Hole In The Soup'

Time – Wednesday 19:00

Venue – Salhus Tricotagefabrik

#2

Kutterer, Interludes 1-5; 'Straight Inside'

Time – Thursday 11:30
Venue – DNB Lars Hillesgate 30

Performed by Domenico Melchiorre, Siegfried Kutterer and Szilard Buti.

All events featuring MADRAS CURRY in collaboration with Pro Helvetia.

Avgarde/Benedict Mason

Avgarde/Benedict Mason

Time – Tuesday 20:00
Venue – See below

Pieces from 'outside sight unseen and opened'. Performed at 20:00 each day during the festival by Ricardo Odriozola and friends.

Avgarde #1: Benedict Mason, 'Mask'

Time – Tuesday 20:00
Venue – Salhus Tricotagefabrik

Avgarde #2: Benedict Mason, 'All Over'

Time – Wednesday 20:00
Venue – USF Verftet

Avgarde #3: Benedict Mason, 'Add'

Time – Thursday 20:00
Venue – Kunstmuseum, Stenersen

Avgarde #4: Benedict Mason, 'Move'

Time – Friday 20:00
Venue – Logen

Avgarde #5: Benedict Mason, 'Tape 1'

Time – Saturday 20:00
Venue – Landmark

 

 

Biblioludium: Erlend O. Nødtvedt

Biblioludium: Erlend O. Nødtvedt

Time – Thursday 17:00
Venue – Bergen Offentlige Bibliotek

Reading by Erlend Nøtvedt. Discussion afterwards. NB! In Norwegian only.

Plattform: John Tilbury

Plattform: John Tilbury

Time – Thursday 18:00
Venue – Bergen Kunsthall

Borealis and Plattform presents John Tilbury: Talk on Cornelius Cardew. 

Plattform is Bergen Kunsthall's own lecture series at Landmark. During the 1960s, Tibury was closely associated with the composer Cornelius Cardew, whose music he has interpreted and recorded, and was also a member of the Scratch Orchestra. His biography of Cardew, Cornelius Cardew - A life unfinished was published in 2008.

John Tilbury will perform the music of Cornelius Cardew with Michael Duch at 1800 on Friday March 13 at Bergen Pianoforretning.

Gerhard Stäbler and Kunsu Shim, 'Collaborations' 1, 2 & 3

Gerhard Stäbler and Kunsu Shim, 'Collaborations' 1, 2 & 3

Time – Thursday 19:30
Venue – Kunstmuseum, Stenersen

Kunsu Shim: 'COLLABORATIONS 1'

One minute extract of music from composers all over the world. Simultaneously with Gerhard Stäbler: 'HART AUF HART'.

Time – Thursday 19:30

Venue – Kunstmuseum, Stenersen.

Assembled by Kunsu Shim and performed by members of Apartment House. 

Kunsu Shim: 'COLLABORATIONS 2'

Simultaneous performances by Bergen based artists coordinated by Kunsu Shim. Simultaneously with Gerhard Stäbler: 'PERFORMANCES FÜR LIEBHABER' (Footprints, Handstreiche, AugenTanz, Mundstücke, Earplugs).

'Collaborations 3'

Score created by members of the audience, performed by Apartment House.

 

Kerry Yong, 'Cover Me Casio' #1 & #2

Kerry Yong, 'Cover Me Casio' #1 & #2

Time – Thursday 20:30
Venue – Kunstmuseum, Stenersen

Kerry Yong, 'Cover Me Casio' #1

Karlheinz Stockhausen, 'Klavierstück XVI'
Aldo Clementi, 'Madrigale'
Knut Vaage, 'Electra'

Kerry Yong, 'Cover Me Casio' #2

Time – Thursday 21:30
Venue - Landmark

Giacinto Scelsi, 'Aitsi'
Peter Ablinger, 'Voices and Piano'
Messiaen, 'Dance of Fury' from Quartet for the End of Time
The Specials, 'Friday Night, Saturday Morning'

In collaboration with Bergen Kunstmuseum.

Casiokids and Kerry Yong, 'Cover We Casio Kids'

Casiokids and Kerry Yong, 'Cover We Casio Kids'

Time – Thursday 22:30
Venue – Landmark

New project!

Omar Johnsen (Casiokids) interviews Kerry Yong: 

Q How did you come to use Casio keyboards in contemporary music settings?

A  It came slightly by accident and is still quite a new project: I was booked to play in a new series called Kämmer Klang in East London that experiments with performing ‘serious’ new music in different settings – like bars.  The venue had a piano there on the day the organiser visited it.  But then the piano disappeared – the venue hadn’t made it clear that it wasn’t always there. Rather than withdraw, I thought of a crazy substitute. Although these works were originally for piano with electronics, Aitsi by Scelsi also existed as a string quartet and I always wondered if it could work on electric guitars. And Stockhausen’s Klavierstuck XVI allows for the inclusion of electronic synthesizers and samplers. At the same time, a friend had lent me his Casio keyboard (an MT-210), which we were using to make lo-fi retro-sounding music at church. So the experiment of retro-adapting works for an 80s Casiotone began: the project COVER ME CASIO was born.

 

Q What do think about Walter/Wendy Carlos (with the use of Moog synthesizers on "Switched on Bach") or other people performing or recording music from the classical world with so called non-traditional instruments?
A I have a generally positive view of adapting music for new forces. I LOVE the Wendy Carlos’s Switched on Bach: they bring out aspects of the music that are killed by a certain seriousness and preciousness in classical performance.  And the thing is, great performances of Bach will still continue – it’s very robust music and the diversity is refreshing and illuminating.  As for performing or adapting music that isn’t your mother-tongue – I see great value in it: sometimes it will work, sometimes it won’t.  But it’s worth giving it a go.  And even if the result has a somewhat limited shelf-life, you still learn and experience something new from both musics.  And it’s a kind of dare too – the risk is actually quite fun!

 

Q What are are the reactions like to your casio-oriented performances?
A  It certainly depends who you ask. So far, I’ve been fortunate enough to receive only positive reactions, a few baffled but curious ones, but mostly very enthusiastic. However, I did receive one negative reaction to the performance of one work: that it was ‘totally wrong’.  I try to take this in the best possible light…

 

Q I know you are familiar with the Bergen-based composer Knut Vaage.  What fascinates you about his work?
A Knut Vaage has an excellent imagination for colour and drama.  The Electra pieces (which I will newly adapt for the Festival) have a wonderful palette of colour, noise and space, and a great sense for pacing and action.

 

Q Which Casio sound (preset) is your favourite?

A But there are twenty delightful ones to choose from – not including the beats and accompaniments!  I’ll try to name my top four: vibraphone, ‘funny’, synth guitar and jazz organ. But I want to include more!

Idiot Switch

Idiot Switch

Time – Thursday 23:30
Venue – Landmark

Concert.

Six Pianos, Steve Reich/Gilius Van Bergeijk

Six Pianos, Steve Reich/Gilius Van Bergeijk

Time – Friday 11:30
Venue – Bergen Pianoforretning

Steve Reich, 'Six Pianos'

Gilius Van Bergeijk, 'Six Piano Installaties'

Performed by Post & Mulder, Annabel Guaita, Chihiro Ito, Mai Goto and Fidan Aghayeva.

In collaboration with Ny Musikk.

 

Gerhard Eckel, 'Catabolizer' performance #2: Anders Førisdal

Gerhard Eckel, 'Catabolizer' performance #2: Anders Førisdal

Time – Friday 15:30
Venue – Rom 8

Clemens Gardenstätter/Lisa Spalt, '4 Szenen nach Francisco de Goya'

Laurence Crane, 'Some Rock Music for Alan Thomas'

Performed by Anders Førisdal and Laurence Crane.

Biblioludium: Øyvind Rimbereid

Biblioludium: Øyvind Rimbereid

Time – Friday 17:00
Venue – Bergen Offentlige Bibliotek

Reading by Øyvind Rimbereid. Discussion afterwards. NB! In Norwegian only.

Else Olsen Storesund: Kids' workshop and performance

Else Olsen Storesund: Kids' workshop and performance

Time – Friday 17:45
Venue – Bergen Pianoforretning

What happens if you put forks, erasers and bolts inside a piano? How will that affect the sound?

Piano expert Else Olsen Storesund introduces the inner lives - and secrets! - of the piano. For children only.

Parents are invited to attend a short concert by John Tilbury and Michael Duch, which will take place next door during the workshop.

Short post-workshop performance for both kids and parents at 19:15.

John Tilbury and Michael Duch

John Tilbury and Michael Duch

Time – Friday 18:00
Venue – Bergen Pianoforretning

Tickets: Tilbury/Duch

John Tilbury and Michael Duch perform the music of Cornelius Cardew. 

John Tilbury (b. 1936) is a British pianist. He is considered one of the foremost interpreters of Morton Feldman's music, and since 1980 has been a member of the free improvisation group AMM. During the 1960s, Tilbury was closely associated with the composer Cornelius Cardew, whose music he has interpreted and recorded. His biography of Cardew, "Cornelius Cardew - A life unfinished" was published 2008 by Copula, an imprint of Matchless Recordings and Publishing.

Michael Duch (b. 1978) is a Norwegian bassplayer. He is currently a Research Fellow at the University of Trondheim (NTNU) where he is doing research on improvisation in experimental music with Cornelius Cardew as the main focal point. Duch has been involved in a wide variety of experimental musics the last decade from Free Jazz to Open Form-scores and Indeterminacy. He is a member of the Norwegian improvquartet Lemur and his soloalbum "Edges" will be released on the Bergen-based record label +3db later this year.

Cornelius Cardew (1936 - 1981) was a musician of genius for whom Life and Art were as one. He was a radical, both artistically and politically, becoming a tireless activist and uncompromising Marxist-Leninist. Passion and imagination governed all he did: his boldness and humanity continue to intrigue and inspire. (from the Matchless website) This concert will be presenting Cardew and his experimental compositions from the 1960's many of which are rarely performed.

Logos Foundation exhibition

Logos Foundation exhibition

Time – Friday 19:30
Venue – Logen

Borealis is celebrating the Logos foundation and its robots with a DJ/VJ performance.  Cds, books and other documentation from the foundation will also be available to view or buy. 

Logos Foundation is Flander's unique organisation for the promotion of new music and audio-related art. For over 40 years, Logos has organised concerts with experimental music, maintained an audio archive and documentation centre, and conducted technological research.

Logos' largest - and certainly most impressive - project at the moment is the robot orchestra. Already containing 42 instruments, is by far the largest robot orchestra in the world. The aim of these machines is to produce purely acoustic music, without electronic sounds, but under the complete - and very accurate - control of computers. Using advanced radar and sonar technology, the robots are able not only to reproduce music, but also to react to movement or other kinds of input.  

Logen Cabaret

Logen Cabaret

Time – Friday 20:00
Venue – Logen

Javier Alvarez, 'Temazcal'

Siegfried Kutterer, 'Straight Inside'

Clemens Gardenstätter/Lisa Spalt, 'Tal para qual' og 'Por que fue sensible' (from 4 Szenen nach Francisco de Goya)

Kunsu Shim, 'Last Night' (premiere)

21:00

Vinko Globokar, 'Corporel'

Harry Partch, 'Barstow'

Siegfried Kutterer, 'Interlude 4'

Helmut Oehring/Iris ter Schiphorst, 'Rumgammeln und Warten'

22:00

Robyn Schulkowsky and friends, sub-contra-bass marimba improvisation

Fausto Romitelli, 'Trash TV Trance'

Siegfried Kutterer, 'Indigo'

Performed by Anders Førisdal, MADRAS CURRY (Melchiorre/Kutterer/Buti), Apartment House with Natalia Pschenitschnikova, Christina Schönfeld and Torsten Otterberg, Robyn Schulkowsky, BIT20 Percussion and Knut Christian Jansson.

In collaboration with BIT20 Ensemble. 

Magda Mayas and Tony Buck

Magda Mayas and Tony Buck

Time – Friday 23:00
Venue – Logen

Concert.

"Pianist Mayas plays chunky, bell-like clusters that seem to observe a slowly evolving musical logic, neither obviously melodic nor conventionally harmonic. Drummer Buck for the most part works a parallel path, working busily but delicately round his kit. The opening minutes of “mercury machine” are full of light, skittering figures on the metal parts and big, damped clusters on the piano, some of them hand-damped inside the sound box, I suspect. It opens out thereafter, but there’s no attempt here to emulate the iconic piano and drum duos of the past – Coltrane and Ali, Taylor and Roach. Mayas and Buck create their own intimate languages and in the process deliver something very special and exactly the right length."

- Brian Morton, review in The Wire.

Trondheim Jazzorkester & Kim Myhr

Trondheim Jazzorkester & Kim Myhr

Time – Friday 24:00
Venue – Logen

Concert.

In 2008 the guitarist and composer Kim Myhr won the jazz scholarship at Molde Jazz Festival, receiving at the same time a commision to create a work for the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra.  The music, with its strong focus on soundscapes, textures, and collective musical solutions, surprised many at its premiere in Molde Cathedral.  Erling Wicklund from NRK P2 called the work "poignant (...) totaly subversive".  The newspaper Vårt Land settled for a "carnival of sounds".


The band numbers thirteen in total, eleven from Norway and two from Australia, all top-class improvisers and musicians.

Kim Myhr, Sidsel Endresen, Christian Wallumrød, Kari Rønnekleiv, Clare Cooper (AU), Michael Duch, Jim Denley (AU), Eivind Lønning, Espen Reinertsen, Klaus Holm, Martin Taxt, Tor Haugerud, Ingar Zach.

In collaboration with Bergen Jazzforum.

Laksevåg school media station launch

Laksevåg school media station launch

Time – Saturday 12:00
Venue – Bergen Offentlige Bibliotek

Opening of Laksevåg upper secondary school media station. 

BiblioludiUNG

BiblioludiUNG

Time – Saturday 13:00
Venue – Bergen Offentlige Bibliotek

Presentation of Bergen Kommune and Borealis festival's youth literature program.  NB! This presentation is in Norwegian.

Knut Vaage, 'Høgsongen' - World Premiere

Knut Vaage, 'Høgsongen' - World Premiere

Time – Saturday 15:00

Performed by Collegiûm Mûsicûms choir and an orchestre with Hilde Haraldsen Sveen and Simon Kirkbride.

Conducted by Trond Korsgård.

Commissioned with funds from Det Norske Komponistfond.

Gerhard Stäbler and Kunsu Shim: CO-OP #1 - World Premiere

Gerhard Stäbler and Kunsu Shim: CO-OP #1 - World Premiere

Time – Saturday 15:00

Tickets

Gerhard Stäbler and Kunsu Shim: CO-OP #1, a compostion with the parts "vollkommen, eins" by Gerhard Stäbler and "UNIFON" by Kunsu Shim.

Performed by members of Forsvarets musikkorps Vestlandet, Collegiûm Mûsicûms choir and olfactorius technicians.

Collegiûm Mûsicûm was founded in 1978 by professor Jan Christensen. His intention was to establish an organisation in which amateur and professional musicians could play together for mutual inspiration and pleasure.  

Commissioned with funds from Norsk Kulturråd.

DYGONG

DYGONG

Time – Saturday 22:00
Venue – Landmark

Concert.

DYGONG was founded 2004 by the four composers Christian Winther Christensen, Regin Petersen, Nicolai Worsaae Rasmussen and Simon Løffler. They have all studied composition at The Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen.

Captain Miki and J Van Zit, 'give us a hug'

Captain Miki and J Van Zit, 'give us a hug'

Time – Saturday 22:00
Venue – Landmark

Panos Ghikas og Johannes von Weizsäcker from the Chap.

A surround sound free improv propera, featuring the latest in cutting edge corporate audio, half an amplified string quartet and some hugging.  Bob's your uncle.

The Chap

The Chap

Time – Saturday 23:00
Venue – Landmark

The Chap are an experimental pop band from London. Their music is a mix of rock and pop with small quantities of almost every other genre thrown in for good measure. They are known for their energetic live shows which often end with exploding violins and cellos.

"These London patricians sound like they re-learned forty years of modern studio technology-- from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band onward-- by the time they burned up eighty quid of studio time, but still managed to retain the essence of wit without even breaking a sweat. This helps fulfill the Chap's preferred emotional response: These are people who don't really care all that much about the sincere history of popular music, but they still wouldn't mind too much destroying and rebuilding popular music from the ground up."

— Mike Orme, Pitchfork.

DJ Fredrik Saroea

DJ Fredrik Saroea

Time – Saturday 24:00
Venue – Landmark

DJ set from Fredrik Saroea, notorious rock persona and founding member of Datarock.

Apartment House

Apartment House

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Apartment House was created by cellist Anton Lukoszevieze in 1995. Since then its original and innovative programming has gained Apartment House the reputation as one of the most exciting contemporary music groups in Europe.

The ensemble enjoys a close relationship with Irish composer Jennifer Walshe.

Apartment House’s website, featuring sounds, visuals and a performance diary, is at www.apartmenthouse.co.uk

Benedict Mason

Benedict Mason

Every day at 2000 Avgarde will stage a performance of one piece from Benedict Mason's book outside sight unseen and opened. Of the book, Mason says: This book can...serve as the basis for precisely and fully notated pieces in all requisite parameters - musical - spatial - acoustical - performance - and so on, remembering always that the focus should be in the intrinsic specified parameters of distance, synchronisation and movement. These are fundamental to any practical or theoretical approach to the presentation of the effects depicted within. The priority in this book...is towards acoustical (ie natural, unamplified) sound - with or without the aid of technology: we have to celebrate the unparalleled sophistication of the human ear in the age of the ubiquitous loudspeaker.
Casiokids

Casiokids

Casiokids play joyous, bouncey electro pop.

Old analogue, trashy keyboards and pop melodies make up the Norwegian electro-troupe that is Casiokids. With tunes often sung in their native language and influenced by afro-beat, techno and out-and-out pop, the band draws similarities and takes inspiration from Paul Simon's "Graceland", Ivor Cutler, New Order, King Tubby, Bob Hund, Cornelius and Fela Kuti.

"(...)The band basically started a party on stage that emanated into the crowd like beams from the sun - warming all of us who presumably swam there. They swapped instruments, pogo jumped around stage and changed cow bell duties every few minutes. Pineapple shakers, multicolored drum sticks and grinning faces convinced the crowd as they played some absolutely brilliant pop songs."
BBC review of concert at Oxegen Ireland July 12 2009 (8/10)

Collegiûm Mûsicûm

Collegiûm Mûsicûm

Collegiûm Mûsicûm was founded in 1978 by professor Jan Christensen. His intention was to establish an organisation in which amateur and professional musicians could play together for mutual inspiration and pleasure. 

Cornelius Cardew

Cornelius Cardew

Cornelius Cardew (7 May 1936–13 December 1981) was an English avant-garde composer, and founder (with Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons) of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. He later rejected the avant-garde in favour of a politically motivated "people's liberation music".

 

While teaching an experimental music class at London's Morley College in 1968, Cardew, along with Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons formed the Scratch Orchestra a large experimental ensemble, initially for the purposes of interpreting Cardew's The Great Learning. The Scratch Orchestra gave performances throughout Britain and elsewhere until its demise in 1972. It was during this period that the question of art from whom was hotly debated within the context of the Orchestra, which Cardew came to see as elitist despite its numerous attempts to make socially accessible music.

 

Following the demise of the Orchestra, Cardew became more directly involved in left-wing politics and abandoned avant-garde music altogether, adopting a populist though post-romantic tonal style. He spent 1973 in West Berlin on an artist's grant from the City, where he was active in a campaign for a children's clinic. During the 1970s, he produced many songs, often drawing from traditional English folk music put at the service of lengthy Marxist-Maoist exhortations; representative examples are Smash the Social Contract and There Is Only One Lie, There Is Only One Truth. In 1974, he published a book entitled Stockhausen Serves Imperialism, which denounced, in Maoist self-critical style, his own involvement with Stockhausen and the Western avant-garde tradition.

David Helbich

David Helbich

Borealis festival sought individuals and institutions interested in participating financially in the debate around cultural subsidies. They decided how much Helbich's time was worth and on which days he would undertake the work. By paying for a single day they had the opportunity to contribute to the project as a whole. David reported on each day of work on his blog at http://pay-a-day.blogspot.com

The finished work will be performed at Lydgalleriet on Wednesday the 10th of March at 1530.

Statistics: David Helbich

The ANGLE of my
STANDARD PRACTICE is due to the enormous
HEIGHT of my
NESTED IRRATIONALS resulting into an almost inaudible
FREQUENCY of pleasure, since I am more tight with
SUSTENANCE than with
TIME.

DYGONG

DYGONG

 

Rapid, spontaneous interviews between members of DYGONG.

Interview at Jazzkælderen between Christian and Nicolai.

[Christian] What's it like being in a group when you, as a composer, are used to working on your own?
[Nicolai] Exciting, frustrating, uncomfortable, great to see how collaborations work out though, as you're not really accustomed to it.

[Christian] Tell me, how did we arrive at the name DYGONG?
[Nicolai] I looked it up in a foreign dictionary. We were tired of the grand aesthetic names that most new ensembles go carrying around.

[Nicolai] What is your dream with DYGNOG?
[Christian] My dream is to conquer Russia.

[Nicolai]  By joining DYGONG, do you expect to score some women?

[Christian] But of course I do. Stupid question.


Interview by phone between Christian and Simon

[Christian] What can DYGONG do that other ensembles can not?
[Simon] Do you mind if I take a piss while I answer this question? (Goes away for 5 seconds). Well, we can create innovative concerts. Furthermore, we can create an integrated package.

[Christian] Is there any money in playing with DYGONG?
[Simon] No.

[Christian] Our next concert is not in Literaturhaus (our regular, local scene). What's it like to get out and attract a new audience?
[Simon] I believe it will be good. We were well received in Oslo last year, although we were not entirely satisfied ourselves. Generally, I think Norwegian audiences are very open.

[Christian] What is your relationship to Norway?
[Simon] It's warm. My father is currently working in this place called Storslett, where I experienced the nature as magnetic and refreshing. In a vanishingly short time I even knew a Norwegian girl (... ..... ... .......).

Fictitious telephone interview between Simon and Regin:

[Regin] This is what you'll never understand. Life must be lived as the wind blows proudly through the sails. It seems to me your hair is like a herd of goats waving across a hill on Fyn somewhere.

[Simon] Would you describe yourself as a melodic composer?
[Regin] Basically, I think that all composers write melodies. They just don't know it themselves. But I don't really think your question can be satisfactorily answered until you define what a melody actually is. And everything you say I can disprove with my huge vid and incredible intellect, bought from a crazy sailor, back in the days when I was an adolescent.

Erlend O. Nødtvedt

Erlend O. Nødtvedt

Erlend O. Nødtvedts (b.1984) reading of his text in response to Sigbjørn Apelands organ tower was by many accounts one of last years Biblioludium highlights. His first book, the epic poem Harudes, in which Western Norway goes under, in a slide of rocks and rain, was released in 2008. NB! This reading is in Norwegian.
Gerhard Eckel

Gerhard Eckel

Eckel (* 1962) is a composer and sound artist who takes both an artistic and scientific interest in matters of sound and music. His work includes more traditional forms such as compositions and improvisations as well as more interdisciplinary approaches including sound and media installations using virtual and augmented environment technologies. In his research work he creates and explores new means of artistic expression such as Immersive Audio-Augmented Environments or what he calls an Embodied Generative Music. His next project (together with composer Ramón González-Arroyo) will deal with the Choreography of Sound.

"Music is an essential nourishment for humans," he says. "Creating music is a form of cooking. Listening to music is a form of ingestion. Cooking and eating, as well as composing, performing and listening are conscious and deliberate acts. Cooking and composing create expectation; eating, performing and listening satisfy hunger. What happens to the music after we have taken it in? Digestion is an involuntary and unconscious bodily process. Catabolizer sonifies the music digestion process. It consumes entire pieces of music, chews them, swallows and digest them, i.e. breaks them down into components which are then absorbed."

Eckel's work is supported by the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEM, http://iem.at) of the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz.

Gerhard Stäbler

Gerhard Stäbler

Gerhard Stäbler and Kunsu Shim in conversation:

GS: Winter in Bergen: darkness, rain, a crack of sunshine (only) – best time of the year for music?

KS: Music seems to reflect something, in which it can be reflected – light, darkness, rain etc., but for me, music itself is far from those things. So, there is no best time for music. But a specific state of environment, for example, a dark, rainy and windy day gives a certain sense of sonic circumstance, that could be listened to as music itself.

GS: I agree, and I see music needs surroundings that let you „hear“, for example a silent room, a quiet hall, a night that is full of stars – no wind, no rain, and a comfortable temperature. This I would take as the usual presuppositions for being able to get a deep musical reception. I also see a chance for music in an environment, that is „loud“, as I'd like to try with my composition „HELIOS NORDWÄRTS“, that implants music into the harbour of Bergen with its traffic, its market, and its daily weather conditions. I'd like to accentuate everyday life with musical sounds that makes the ears – hopefully – open again, and let us realise that we are constantly bombarded by everlasting and omnipresent ambient music.

KS: I am curious to know how you are going to put together all the differences? What we are doing as composers, is (re)organizing the senses. Sounds in the environments are always functional. For me it is essential that sounds should be (re)born as a sensual body free from their daily-life-functions. I also did several open-air projects. One of them was called „here - open air“ as a performance with bicycles, fire, an artificial moon and musicians. The other one was called „places with airhorn“, an open-air performance for two weeks, in which I was playing just a single long sustained sound on a ship horn – but very gently – at a certain time of day. Perhaps you are trying to mark „the environment“, such as the fish market in Bergen, which turns a place into a „happening“; I am trying to be a part of the environment, I want to be involved in something taking place. For me music is still something open. The sense of sounds could be completely newly organized, if we could find the possibilities...

GS: ...and what music means to us. Most of your music – for example especially those for performance halls – leads the listener to a kind of inner sound world, you concentrate on listening to sounds that exist in the present - lets us hear their existence. And much of my music combines experiences of all our senses – listening, seeing, smelling, feeling... I am very much interested in engaging musicians in making music at a specific site – as Bergen's harbour or the former textile factory in Salhus – working with the existing sounds of those sites, and confronting them with added sounds composed of rotating helicopters, horns from fire engines, the rattling of weaving machines etc., in combination with instrumental musical structures created by brass players, and young people with traditional string instruments etc.

KS: I am also very interested in the various sources of klangkörper - sound bodies. The noise of helicopters in the sky is of course not comparable to one single tone on a piano. These are two very different worlds. But what appeals to me is that there are two (or more) worlds in one universe. Don't you, too? A crack of sunshine in winter in Bergen expresses itself as much as the striking brightness during the summer in Busan, where I was born. There are always specific beauties in any kind of environment.

Idiot Switch

Idiot Switch

Åsane Unge Strykere interview Brendan Dougherty from Idiot Switch

Q. Can you describe the sort of music you are making?

A. loud, fast, energetic, fun, angry, honest

Q. Do you think your works would have success in a kindergarten?

A. yes. but only after snack-time.

Q. What about in a nursing home?

A. depends on who is in the nursing home!

Q. Have you ever tried to play a whole piece laying on the floor or standing on your head?

A. on the floor yes. i recently played an improvisation for 12 hours, which was very tiring. a lot of time was spent on the floor. gravity changes when one is playing in horizontal - up instead of sideways.

Q. Do you understand people who want all music to be beautiful.

A. no, because i think music is an art which should reflect how one sees the world and i don't think anyone sees only beauty in the world.

Jennifer Walshe

Jennifer Walshe

New York-based composer and performer Jennifer Walshe was born in Dublin and studied composition at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and Northwestern University, Chicago, graduating with a doctoral degree in composition in 2002. A winner of the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt, Germany, in 2000, she was a fellow of the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart between 2003 and 2004, and from 2004-05 she lived in Berlin as a guest of the DAAD Berliner Künstlerprogramm.

 

Excerpt from Walshe's THIS IS WHY PEOPLE O.D. ON PILLS: "Choose a pitch on your instrument. Skate your imagined path on this pitch. (You may choose to skate the path in slow-motion.) Every micro-detail of the pitch (tuning, timbre, dynamic, envelope, consistency, colour, texture, weight, feel, pressure, clarity, strength) should correspond absolutely to the experience of skating the the path in your head. Carve through air in long, sweeping paths with the sound you produce. Reveal and inhabit new spaces, smooth new lines."

John Tilbury

John Tilbury

John Tilbury (b. 1936) is a British pianist. He is considered one of the foremost interpreters of Morton Feldman's music, and since 1980 has been a member of the free improvisation group AMM.  During the 1960s, Tibury was closely associated with the composer Cornelius Cardew, whose music he has interpreted and recorded, and was also a member of the Scratch Orchestra. His biography of Cardew, Cornelius Cardew - A life unfinished was published in 2008.

Kerry Yong

Kerry Yong

Statistics: Kerry Yong

Angle: obtuse (since even my friends sometimes don't know what i'm talking about), but perhaps acute, if you've seen my build.
Standard practice: this used to be playing the piano. now nothing seems standard anymore.
Height: 6 foot, IC5 male.
Nested irrationals: can make you dizzy at first. some of the time they are worthwhile when you can understand why the composer had to use them. irrationals are simply irritating and irrelevant in other contexts - they encourage cheating and fraud.
Frequency: i can be a bit omnivorous - i like most of them in moderation and excess. oh, i like prime numbers.
Sustenance: i'm genetically chinese. we eat most things and are pretty obsessed with food. i generally prefer savoury to sweet and big meals to snacks but i probably break the rule. music is also sustenance. and the sacrement of bread and wine.
Time: being a 'last-minute-person' i could always do with more. time always seems to pass too quickly.
Bonus: i got one once when i worked in the office of a film music composer.

Omar Johnsen (Casiokids) interviews Kerry Yong

Q How did you come to use Casio keyboards in contemporary music settings?

A  It came slightly by accident and is still quite a new project: I was booked to play in a new series called Kämmer Klang in East London that experiments with performing ‘serious’ new music in different settings – like bars.  The venue had a piano there on the day the organiser visited it.  But then the piano disappeared – the venue hadn’t made it clear that it wasn’t always there. Rather than withdraw, I thought of a crazy substitute. Although these works were originally for piano with electronics, Aitsi by Scelsi also existed as a string quartet and I always wondered if it could work on electric guitars. And Stockhausen’s Klavierstuck XVI allows for the inclusion of electronic synthesizers and samplers. At the same time, a friend had lent me his Casio keyboard (an MT-210), which we were using to make lo-fi retro-sounding music at church. So the experiment of retro-adapting works for an 80s Casiotone began: the project COVER ME CASIO was born.

Q What do think about Walter/Wendy Carlos (with the use of Moog synthesizers on "Switched on Bach") or other people performing or recording music from the classical world with so called non-traditional instruments?

A I have a generally positive view of adapting music for new forces. I LOVE the Wendy Carlos’s Switched on Bach: they bring out aspects of the music that are killed by a certain seriousness and preciousness in classical performance.  And the thing is, great performances of Bach will still continue – it’s very robust music and the diversity is refreshing and illuminating.  As for performing or adapting music that isn’t your mother-tongue – I see great value in it: sometimes it will work, sometimes it won’t.  But it’s worth giving it a go.  And even if the result has a somewhat limited shelf-life, you still learn and experience something new from both musics.  And it’s a kind of dare too – the risk is actually quite fun!

Q What are are the reactions like to your casio-oriented performances?

A  It certainly depends who you ask. So far, I’ve been fortunate enough to receive only positive reactions, a few baffled but curious ones, but mostly very enthusiastic. However, I did receive one negative reaction to the performance of one work: that it was ‘totally wrong’.  I try to take this in the best possible light…

Q I know you are familiar with the Bergen-based composer Knut Vaage.  What fascinates you about his work?

A Knut Vaage has an excellent imagination for colour and drama. The Electra pieces (which I will newly adapt for the Festival) have a wonderful palette of colour, noise and space, and a great sense for pacing and action.

Q Which Casio sound (preset) is your favourite?

A But there are twenty delightful ones to choose from – not including the beats and accompaniments!  I’ll try to name my top four: vibraphone, ‘funny’, synth guitar and jazz organ. But I want to include more!

Kim Myhr

Kim Myhr

 In 2008 the guitarist and composer Kim Myhr won the jazz scholarship at Molde Jazz Festival, receiving at the same time a commision to create a work for the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra.  The music, with its strong focus on soundscapes, textures, and collective musical solutions, surprised many at its premiere in Molde Cathedral.  Erling Wicklund from NRK P2 called the work "poignant (...) totaly subversive".  The newspaper Vårt Land settled for a "carnival of sounds".

The band numbers thirteen in total, eleven from Norway and two from Australia, all top-class improvisers and musicians.

Kjersti Rorgemoen

Kjersti Rorgemoen

Kjersti Rorgemoen (b. 1982), comes from Telemark, but lives in Bergen. As well as being a writer, she is one of the editors of the fanzine Ikke til hjemlån. She debuted as an author last year with Purkene snudde seg (The sows turned). The reviewer in Klassekampen wrote that she “describes [the protagonist] with a balanced and fi ne-tuned combination of humor and existential seriousness.” Bergens Tidende was also upbeat: “Rorgemoen is undoubtedly a talented writer who takes on the challenge of writing, rather than slipping seamlessly into the great literary pool.” NB! This reading is in Norwegian.

Knut Vaage

Knut Vaage

Guido Henneboehl (Idiot Switch) interviews Knut Vaage

Q.  imagine you were a plant.. which one would it be?

A.  I think it has to be a cactus (my name, Knut, means something like 'the wrangler').  As a cactus I could manage almost completely without water and nourishment.  It is not all friendly because of its cactus-spines, but suddenly it will blossom.

Q.  can you think of a colour that goes best with your music in general?

A.  Indigo, because it’s a fun word and I’m not sure if I know exactly how it looks

Q.  when you were a child.. what was your favorite toy?

A.  A beautiful mechanical toy ambulance, but I never got to try it, because my brother destroyed it once it was unwrapped... Or the water pistol, but I hid that so well that I could never find it again.  I think these early disappointments are why I became a composer.

Q.  are there notes or intervals you dislike personally?

A.  E sharp, B sharp, C flat and F flat, as well as all double sharps and double flats, are very tricky notes. But all intervals have some beauty and ugliness. I tend to use a lot of notes, and many, many intervals, so I guess I love them too much.

Q.  what's your favorite place in Bergen?

A.  The seaside outdoor restaurant by the cafe Kippers at USF Verftet is by far the most pleasant place to take a coffee the days it isn’t raining, and when it’s warm and pleasant enough to stay outdoors in our northern climate.

Kunsu Shim

Kunsu Shim

Gerhard Stäbler and Kunsu Shim in conversation:

GS: Winter in Bergen: darkness, rain, a crack of sunshine (only) – best time of the year for music?

KS: Music seems to reflect something, in which it can be reflected – light, darkness, rain etc., but for me, music itself is far from those things. So, there is no best time for music. But a specific state of environment, for example, a dark, rainy and windy day gives a certain sense of sonic circumstance, that could be listened to as music itself.

GS: I agree, and I see music needs surroundings that let you „hear“, for example a silent room, a quiet hall, a night that is full of stars – no wind, no rain, and a comfortable temperature. This I would take as the usual presuppositions for being able to get a deep musical reception. I also see a chance for music in an environment, that is „loud“, as I'd like to try with my composition „HELIOS NORDWÄRTS“, that implants music into the harbour of Bergen with its traffic, its market, and its daily weather conditions. I'd like to accentuate everyday life with musical sounds that makes the ears – hopefully – open again, and let us realise that we are constantly bombarded by everlasting and omnipresent ambient music.

KS: I am curious to know how you are going to put together all the differences? What we are doing as composers, is (re)organizing the senses. Sounds in the environments are always functional. For me it is essential that sounds should be (re)born as a sensual body free from their daily-life-functions. I also did several open-air projects. One of them was called „here - open air“ as a performance with bicycles, fire, an artificial moon and musicians. The other one was called „places with airhorn“, an open-air performance for two weeks, in which I was playing just a single long sustained sound on a ship horn – but very gently – at a certain time of day. Perhaps you are trying to mark „the environment“, such as the fish market in Bergen, which turns a place into a „happening“; I am trying to be a part of the environment, I want to be involved in something taking place. For me music is still something open. The sense of sounds could be completely newly organized, if we could find the possibilities...

GS: ...and what music means to us. Most of your music – for example especially those for performance halls – leads the listener to a kind of inner sound world, you concentrate on listening to sounds that exist in the present - lets us hear their existence. And much of my music combines experiences of all our senses – listening, seeing, smelling, feeling... I am very much interested in engaging musicians in making music at a specific site – as Bergen's harbour or the former textile factory in Salhus – working with the existing sounds of those sites, and confronting them with added sounds composed of rotating helicopters, horns from fire engines, the rattling of weaving machines etc., in combination with instrumental musical structures created by brass players, and young people with traditional string instruments etc.

KS: I am also very interested in the various sources of klangkörper - sound bodies. The noise of helicopters in the sky is of course not comparable to one single tone on a piano. These are two very different worlds. But what appeals to me is that there are two (or more) worlds in one universe. Don't you, too? A crack of sunshine in winter in Bergen expresses itself as much as the striking brightness during the summer in Busan, where I was born. There are always specific beauties in any kind of environment.

Laksevåg Videregående Skole

Laksevåg Videregående Skole

  • Radioalis Jingle #1
  • Radioalis Jingle #2
  • Radioalis Jingle #3
  • Radioalis Jingle #4
Laurence Crane

Laurence Crane

Laurence Crane (born 1961 in Oxford) is a composer of contemporary classical music. He studied at Nottingham University with Peter Nelson and Nigel Osborne.

He is closely associated with the ensemble Apartment House, for whom he has written Riis (1996) and John White in Berlin (2003). He has written a considerable amount of piano music. Pianists who have performed his work include Michael Finnissy, Thalia Myers and John Tilbury.

Logos Foundation

Logos Foundation

 

Logos Foundation is Flanders'  unique organisation for the promotion of new music and audio-related art. For over 40 years, Logos has organised concerts with experimental music, maintained an audio archive and documentation centre, and conducted technological research. Logos' largest - and certainly most impressive - project at the moment is the robot orchestra. Already containing 42 instruments, is by far the largest robot orchestra in the world. The aim of these machines is to produce purely acoustic music, without electronic sounds, but under the complete - and very accurate - control of computers. Using advanced radar and sonar technology, the robots are able not only to reproduce music, but also to react to movement or other kinds of input.  

 

Borealis is celebrating the Logos foundation and its robots with a DJ/VJ performance.  Cds, books and other documentation from the foundation will also be available to view or buy. 

Luke Fowler

Luke Fowler

Luke Fowler (b. 1978) lives and works in Glasgow. He has had solo exhibitions at, among other venues, the Serpentine Gallery (London), Kunsthalle Zürich, Extra City (Antwerp) and The Modern Institute (Glasgow). He has participated in a long succession of group exhibitions and film festivals all over the world.

Luke Fowler is one of the most talked-about young British artists of recent years. His films are documentaries which at the same time express an experimental attitude to the fi lm medium, in a continuation of the avant-garde fi lm tradition of the 1960s and 1970s. They often also portray historical cultural fi gures who operate on the extreme periphery of established society. The subject is usually a type of outsider fi gure with radical ambitions to challenge existing society. Pilgrimage from Scattered Points (2006), perhaps Fowler’s best known fi lm portrait, deals with the British composer and activist Cornelius Cardew (1936-1981), following the development of the composer’s ground-breaking Scratch Orchestra project through its break down to final collapse. The orchestra, which consisted of both professional musici ans and amateurs, challenged established conventions and distanced itself from the use of traditional notation and performance arenas. It was a social experiment that ended in a rupture, splitting its membership into two factions.

Fowler’s film sheds light on the group’s struggle, during which Cardew himself became a Maoist. For him, music was a tool for studying man’s ability to cooperate, as well as a means of investigating society’s capacity to tolerate the unacceptable. Fowler’s portrait films themselves have a political motivation and show, through a close reading of historical fi gures, how alternative ways of thinking are possible.

MADRAS CURRY

MADRAS CURRY

Melchiorre/Kutterer/Buti

Magda Mayas & Tony Buck

Magda Mayas & Tony Buck

Kerry Yong interviews Magda Mayas and Tony Buck

Q.  I'm aware that both of you play in other groups, but was there any particular event that made you think: 'Yes, experimental/free improvisation is for me!'?

A. 
(Magda Mayas) Maybe it’s easiest to tell you where I musically "come from". Pianistically, I started playing classical music as a kid, and then, being interested in improvising, moved on to jazz.  There are certain musicians and personalities that I was fascinated by and influenced me, directly or indirectly, like Prince, Cecil Taylor, Cage, John Tilbury, Sun Ra etc. etc. I didn’t consciously choose or think ‘this is the area or kind of music that I’m going to do, free improvised music’ – I guess no one does really.  But I know I’m not a composer, in the sense that I’m not very good in writing down my thoughts musically (so far…) and I like the spontaneity, flexibility, magic that can happen during a concert when you improvise: maybe playing "experimental" or " free music", or whatever you call it, came from my interest in creating sound/music in a structurally open context while interacting with others.
(Tony Buck) It's true that I involve myself in playing in many different groups, but also in many different styles or methods of music making.  But although I do play in plenty of free improvisation settings, I still maintain contact with playing rock, jazz and groove music for example.  So, while I could say 'Yes, experimental/free improvisation is for me!', I would not say I do it at the expense of other ways of playing music.  I think there are many things to be achieved and areas one gets into when one improvises freely with like-minded colleagues that are hard or impossible to reach in other contexts, but likewise, sometimes there are other things that one cannot get close to without forethought, planning and composition. Both things are important to me.

Q.  What other interests or other types of music do you like that you think might surprise people, given your work as performers?

A.
(Magda)  Do you mean what other music etc. am I interested in that doesn't naturally show in my work as a performer?  Very recently, I’ve been into Blues, but I believe you can hear it somewhere in my music.... and then I’m really into all kinds of music, some of it I don’t know very deeply, but as a reference: Funk, Reggae, some Metal, Fela Kuti, Mark Stewart, Fairouz, Marc Ribot, Nirvana, Akron/Family, the Shaggs, Ethiopian Music, Moondog...Cecil Taylor.
(Tony)  I think if people have a kind of overview of my work as a musician, or artist, they wouldn't be too surprised by much. I have played in bands that play very commercial pop music, or quite 'heavy' rock, as well as what is, I guess more obscure and improvised music, so I think throwing anything into the mix wouldn't surprise those who know me.  I am also very interested in visual arts.  For the past few years I have been focussing on making video work.  Often I make work to be screened in parallel with music performances and in the past I have made some installations and objects and 'sound' sculptures.

Q.  Magda, what do you value from your classical piano training? And was there anything you hated? Any particular composers/works you cherish?

A.  Regarding my classical education: I spent time developing touch on the keyboard, a sense for dynamics and also a physical approach to the instrument (awareness of which muscles to use, how to move etc). That is definitely something I appreciate today.  I don’t think I hate anything about classical education per se. Maybe one thing that sums it all up: competitions…  Often I found classical piano teachers far more conservative and "closed minded" when it came to other musical styles, or even a total lack of knowledge there. Developing one's own artistic voice was a bit harder in that sense.  I’m not very original when it comes to "classical" composers I love: Bach and Bartok are the first that come to my mind.

Q.  What are you presenting at the 2010 Borealis Festival? Can you tell me a little about your choices?

A. (Tony)  At the festival we will be presenting our work as a duo that has been an ongoing project for around 6 or 7 years. In a way, when one plays improvised music in a project that has some longevity, your work, in a subconscious way, takes on a natural path of development. So, in essence, what we will be presenting will be the state of the duo in 2010 as it stands as a work in progress.  Of course, there are things we have been exploring, like the timbral similarities and differences of both instruments and the motion of non-metric time, that I imagine will still be points of interest between us, but we will be doing quite some playing between now and then, so it is hard to say what we will be doing in the frame of this "work in progress" 5 months hence! I can imagine what we present will be improvised and concerned with these things, but then again, that could change between now and then.

Q.  Although I'm not a fanatic, I'm quite fond of Henson's The Muppets. I sadly may have similarities with Kermit the Frog, Dr Bunsen Honeydew and Statler & Waldorf (the two grumpy critics). Are there any character you think you are like, or characters you would love to jam with?

A. (Magda)  According to the Facebook “Which Muppet are you?” test, I’m Animal.  I don’t really agree. Anyway, I think the coolest Muppet by far is Janice.

Mette Karlsvik

Mette Karlsvik

Mette Karlsvik is one of Norway's most talented young writers, winning both prizes and critical acclaim. In 2008 she published her third book Pol. Last year she released the childrens book 1, 2, tre. This is the third time she has participated in Borealis' Biblioludium series. NB! This reading is in Norwegian.

Michael Duch

Michael Duch

Michael Duch (b. 1978) is a Norwegian bassplayer. He is currently a Research Fellow at the University of Trondheim (NTNU) where he is doing research on improvisation in experimental music with Cornelius Cardew as the main focal point. Duch has been involved in a wide variety of experimental musics the last decade from Free Jazz to Open Form-scores and Indeterminacy. He is a member of the Norwegian improvquartet Lemur and his soloalbum "Edges" will be released on the Bergen-based record label +3db later this year.

 

Cornelius Cardew (1936 - 1981) was a musician of genius for whom Life and Art were as one. He was a radical, both artistically and politically, becoming a tireless activist and uncompromising Marxist-Leninist. Passion and imagination governed all he did: his boldness and humanity continue to intrigue and inspire. (from the Matchless website) This concert will be presenting Cardew and his experimental compositions from the 1960's many of which are rarely performed.

Phill Niblock

Phill Niblock

Phill Niblock is an intermedia artist using music, film, photography, video and computers. In his music, the combination of apparently static surface textures and extremely active harmonic movement generates a highly original sound world that, while having things in common with early drone-based Minimalism, is utterly distinct in sound and technique. Niblock's work has influenced a generation of musicians, especially younger players from a variety of musical genres.
Post & Mulder

Post & Mulder

Statistics Post & Mulder

 

Angle: "For centuries composers wrote notes on paper. We call these notes music, although they only become music when a musician interprets them to do all sorts of athletic movements on an instrument. In most cases this results in sound. Usually we assume that this result is what the composer had in mind originally." - Gilius van Bergeijk.

Standard practice: much the same concept as above, but with a different outcome

Height: at least 2m 20, or problems with the weights occur

Nested irrationals: that Pauline = Nora and Nora = Pauline

Frequency: irregular  

Sustenance: diversity & diversion

Time:1966 - 1978

 

Panos Ghikas (The Chap) interviews Nora Mulder about Gilius Van Bergeijk's 6 Piano Installaties

 

Q.  In the first piece ("Be prepared!") the piano is covered with a large number of mattresses and duvets.  You seem to be following a score which doesn't sound as if it was written for prepared piano.  The resulting sound is mostly that of muffled staccato notes.  Do you think of the resulting sound while you perform this piece?  If yes, how much control do you have? If no, how easy is it to surrender control to the process?

A. The pianist is focused on the score and how it should sound. It's a "Liszt-like" piece.  As a listener, in the beginning it is really funny to see/hear.  But surprisingly enough, after a while you imagine you really hear the piece.  Which is not possible of course.  A very strange awareness.


Q.  Have there ever been any accidents during the performance of pieces like "High / Low" or "Weight"

A.  Not yet!


Q.  Which piece is the most fun to perform?  Which demands the highest level of concentration?

A.  All pieces require an enormous amount of concentration, to make them "work" and/or not to get injured or into trouble.  The fun is afterwards.


Q.  Can someone without any sense of humour still enjoy these pieces?
A.  Absolutely: these pieces are not "just" fun, they are also serious, tragic, hypnotising, irritating, sad; and each one of them is very different from the other.

Ricardo Odriozola & Friends

Ricardo Odriozola & Friends

loud ghettoblasters

identical tapes
of a well known piece of music

each performer
inserts their own 
individual silences
onto their tape

all tapes
start together
at the beginning

run like hell
all over the place
exterior space

Robyn Schulkowsky

Robyn Schulkowsky

Born and raised (in the shadow of Mount Rushmore) in South Dakota, percussionist Robyn Schulkowsky has been an innovator and collaborator throughout her life. Already during her studies in Iowa and Germany and later on her international solo tours, Robyn Schulkowsky has dedicated herself to revealing the wonders of percussion to people all over the world. Her continuous exploration of new sound dimensions has led to the development of many new and unusual instruments.

Robyn will be bringing nine of her monumental sub-contra-bass-marimba bars to Borealis, ranging in height from pretty big to huge.

Rolf Borch

Rolf Borch

Statistics: Rolf Borch

Angle: I love going angling! We had, untill recently, a place in Øygarden and fishing is one of my favorite hobbies. I don't have an impressive cod-record, but i once caught an akkar-octopus. My angling-buddy, my brother, doesn't believe me, but it's true
Standard practice: I take pride in being a "good musician", and my daily warm-up sessions are important for me to keep in shape. It's very boring, it doesn't help to get my face in the newspapers, but I can't exist as a clarinetist without it.
Height: My top note is: Notated in Bb: G sharp 4, wich means notated in C: F sharp 4.
Nested irrationals: I read this as "iboende irrasjonelle egenskaper" and choose among others to reveal my need of complete control in concert situations, which makes improvisation kind of a problem. Which again, is funny, since the piece I'm playing at Borealis this year is completely improvisatory.
Frequency: I can play very fast!
Sustenance:I can also play very long! And I hope to prove that for many years to come...
Time: I think that I have a lot of time; that is both quality- and quantity-time. I'm learning to skate at the age of 34. That probably means that my mid-life crisis will come when I'm 65... And I don't intend to retire until ....120?  I also feel that one of the coolest things by being a musician is our capability to bend and manipulate Time.

Sigurd Fischer Olsen

Sigurd Fischer Olsen

Born 1976. Lives in Bergen. Have studied composition with Morten Eide Pedersen at the Grieg Academy in Bergen and Mathias Spahlinger in Hochschule fur Musik in Freiburg. He has written music mainly for solo and chamber ensembles but his works also include larger orchestras, electro-acoustic music and installation. His music has been performed by ensembles as Bergen Filharmoniske Orkester, Ensemble Risognanze, Kristiansand Blåseensemble and Oslo Sinfonietta.

 

His music often explores simple ideas and tries to get as much as possible out of little material. Complexity, not by quantity of notes but by bringing different musical progressions or tendencies in connection with eachother. His music has been described as "intense and low-voiced at the same time". 

Steve Reich

Steve Reich

Stephen Michael “Steve” Reich (born October 3, 1936) is an Jewish-American composer who pioneered the style of minimalist music. His innovations include using tape loops to create phasing patterns (examples are his early compositions, "It's Gonna Rain" and "Come Out"), and the use of simple, audible processes to explore musical concepts (for instance, "Pendulum Music" and "Four Organs"). These compositions, marked by their use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm and canons, have significantly influenced contemporary music, especially in the US. Reich's work took on a darker character in the 1980s with the introduction of historical themes as well as themes from his Jewish heritage, notably the Grammy Award-winning Different Trains.

Reich's style of composition influenced many other composers and musical groups. Reich has been described by The Guardian as one of "a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history", and the critic Kyle Gann has said Reich "may...be considered, by general acclamation, America's greatest living composer." On January 25, 2007, Reich was named the 2007 recipient of the Polar Music Prize, together with Sonny Rollins. On April 20, 2009, Reich was awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his Double Sextet.

The Chap

The Chap

The Chap are
 
Keith Duncan - bottles, drums, vocals
Panos Ghikas - bass, computer, drums, guitar, iPhone, violin, vocals
Claire Hope - keyboards, vocals
Berit Immig - keyboards, vocals
Johannes von Weizsäcker - baking tray, bass, cello, computer, guitar, vocals

The Chap, a pan-European modern pop group based in London and Berlin, began life at the beginning of the last decade. In their quest to create music which “sounds wrong”, they pre-empted the current flavour for lo-fi prog-pop music by several years and released two seminal bedroom-produced classics, “The Horse” and “Ham”, the latter in particular gathering considerable acclaim. The band decided to release a third masterpiece, “Mega Breakfast” which focussed on corporate motivational – style anthems about “proper music” and wanting to clone oneself. Weirdly, commercial success and world domination continued to evade them, so The Chap finally decided to “sell out” by recording this, “Well Done Europe”, their fourth album. Needless to say, it’s a masterpiece. It contains hit after hit, quite a few of which mention love and death and stuff like that.  It sounds like the coolest new wave pop album ever recorded by a group of teachers (almost nobody in The Chap is a teacher).
 
LIVE REVIEW ROSKILDE FESTIVAL 2009: " (...) too bad they were completely overshadowed by the biggest surprise of the festival in Britain’s The Chap, who put on one of the best sets of the weekend, if not THE BEST. On record, these guys are just bizarre and it doesn’t always work; however, live, with freeze frames, synchronized dancing, lyric placards, a piercing string section breakdown and hilarious banter, these guys are the balls. Merging electro with post-punk and what-the-fuck pop, it’s a melting pop of fun and absurdity self-described as “shit disco” and, elsewhere, as “Justin Timberlake vs The Chap.” It was great. Laneway, bring these guys out! Do it!" (www.thevine.com.au)

 

Knut Vaage interviews The Chap

Q.  What is the story behind the Chap? When did you start and why? Who’s in the group? 

A.  (Johannes) The Chap started when I asked Panos and Claire to help me perform songs of my solo project live. Having originally met Panos and Claire at the London College of Music, we had been discussing plans to form a band for some time. So the solo project immediately turned into that band, in which we write music together. After a few rather messy London shows, Keith joined as drummer and only person capable of logistic coordination. So, soon we were up and away in an old Royal Mail van, playing lots of dreadful so-called underground venues and learning how to perform like proper rock monsters in the process.  Later, Berit, with whom I used to play in a group called Karamasov,joined, as Claire went into temporary maternity leave. Since then, we have also performed as a five-piece with both ladies. That is my favourite line-up. It’s the one we are hoping to present at the Borealis festival.

 

You could summarize the Chap’s music’s and raison d’etre as chiefly being defined by our love-hate relationship with pop culture and pop music in particular. Given that pop culture is very much a projection screen and market place for modern western lifestyles, you could surmise that we are expressing our love-hate relationship with modern western lifestyles and the confusion which results from this relationship. So basically, we express the fact that we are confused.  But doesn’t everyone? I guess we just feel that in order to express these sentiments, you don’t need to sound like Radiohead or other groups who despite being very accomplished musicians with a broad palette at their disposal choose to deal in this weird type of hyper-sincere whinge-rock.

 

I actually think everything I have said about what The Chap is about, has only become fully apparent to us in retrospect. Initially, our goal was simply to create a type of pop music which sounded WRONG and slightly frightening and sometimes made us laugh. So we tried, and to this day keep trying to explore many different approaches to making WRONG music and performing it IN A WRONG WAY. At first, this was facilitated by the fact that we had the worst studio set-up ever (a couple of computer speakers and a £19 Woolworth microphone), combined with a rather ill-matched musical ambition. Later on, our technological set-up improved marginally and we started more recognizably juxtaposing different pop styles and messages as well as increasing the lyrical content. For lyrics, we have turned to many different sources of inspiration, including asthma inhalers and computer music magazines, but we seem to keep drifting back to the worlds of media marketing and corporate identity. Punchy slogans of motivation and pure positivity. Use that with some Chap-style pop and the result is likely to sound quite wrong.

 

Q.  What can you say about the fact that you are mixing different styles of music?  Is it all about creating an up-to-date and modern sound-landscape, or is it first and foremost about connecting a radical mixture of different traditions? 

A.  (Panos) We find almost every style of music fascinating, mainly because every genre's aesthetic character is usually defined by factors which have nothing to do with music. So, in an anthropological kind of way, it's fun to observe how one man's bad taste is another man's high art. The field of popular music is quite good for this kind of observation because the artists are the least self-conscious, compared to other genres. As a band though, we have a much more exclusive approach towards styles.  We have found that bad taste can be used in its most extreme forms as a way of offsetting the "trusted" forms of the pop canon.

 

Q.  In this mixed style of yours, what is the relationship between contrasting elements,  for e.g. non-narrative as against narrative? 

A.  (Panos) On the level of structure we tend to first follow the generic pop song template and then try and rearrange it on order to get the right balance between "fun" and "interesting". Recently we have become more open to the possibility of writing proper memorable melodies, although what we define as "proper" is probably not what most people do, especially the music industry. In terms of lyrics we either follow the non-sensical cut-up approach (as long as it sounds good) or we have a basic narrative concept.  An example of the latter can be found in our latest single release "Well Done You": A person is congratulated for having successfully completed a difficult and  demanding assignment, and then is welcomed to join a workforce on a permanent basis.

 

Q. How does your work as a composer affect your work in The Chap? How does it differ in terms of organizing structure, time and pitch (and other elements)? 

A.  (Panos) My work as a composer doesn't directly affect the Chap's creative process, which is shared mainly between Johannes and me. Our focus is on songwriting and making pop albums which we can tour as a band. We have found that making music which infuses musical elements derived from both über and sub culture can, more often then not, produce compromised results if viewed from either genre's perspectives. On the other hand we do share a few planning strategies with modern composition: We usually devise sets of limitations on the level of harmony, melody and production and we make aesthetic choices primarily by painstakingly excluding an infinity of possible outcomes. Come to think of it, we spend more time excluding than actually writing.

 

Q. What are your plans for the future? What can we expect from the Chap at Borealis?

A.  (Johannes) As we are answering these questions, we are traveling across Europe touring and simultaneously trying to finish our new album. So in spring, there will be the fourth Chap album! Plus more touring, festivals, world domination, subsequent moral bankruptcy, total alienation, suicide attempts, group therapy and a painstaking process of reconnecting with our musical roots. Ok, just some touring.  I often call the new album the mature fourth album. One of its chief influences seems to be Fleetwood Mac. It also has a Chap theme tune–style disco number on it which contains some rather inauthentic tribal percussion and this football choir singing things like “fiesta!”. Not sure how this will go down with the kids (or the Borealis audience, for that matter) but I’m rather excited about it. At Borealis, we will hopefully play as much material from the new record as possible. We are, first and foremost, a pop group, so I like the fact that we are performing at a festival which seems to be mainly dedicated to improv, noise and modern composition. Looking forward to it!

Theme Tune

Theme Tune

  • Theme Tune
Theme Tune

Theme Tune

Official theme tune for Borealis 2010. By Daniel.

Thomas Ankersmit

Thomas Ankersmit

Thomas Ankersmit's saxophone voice is an entrancing, violent mass of multiphonic, shapeshifting sound, oscillating endlessly through circular breathing, penetrating every corner of the room. Far removed from the syntax of jazz or improv, his is a spectacular recontextualisation of the instrument's possibilities, forcing it into uncharted sonic territory.

"Ankersmit tears into the room’s resonant acoustics with a hail of buzzsaw-inflected harmonics and ruthlessly chases down every fleeing frequency before rattling it within in an each of its life." - Joe Panzer, Stylus

Øyvind Rimbereid

Øyvind Rimbereid

Øyvind Rimbereid is an author and a poet. His ouevre - so far - is about to establish him as one of Norway's most important contemporary writers. His work «Solaris korrigert» has been included in the Norwegian literary canon, a list of Norways 25 most important works. Last year he was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize for his poetry collection «Herbarium» (2008), and won the Brage Prize in open class for 2008. The jury stated that: "... the collection demonstrates Rimbereid's unique ability to extend and customise traditional methods, while ceaselessly challenging and renewing his own poetic expression. Thus Rimbereid, in language as well as in form and content, has an unusually large register on which to play." NB! This reading is in Norwegian.
Øyvind Skarbø

Øyvind Skarbø

Rolf Borch intervjuer Øyvind Skarbø


Q Vi skal begge spille stykket THIS IS WHY PEOPLE O.D. ON PILLS av Jennifer Walshe på årets Borealisfestival. Stykket opererer i grenselandet mellom impro og mer instruert ny musikk, og gjenspeiler slik festivalens åpne forhold til flere innfallsvinkler enn kun notert partiturmusikk. Men først:  Har du selv noe forhold til den klassiske samtidsmusikken?

A Dette er eit felt eg er novise i, men eg er open for å la meg inspirere. Eg merkar at eg reagerer på to ting ofte, nemlig at det ofte er utydelig, eller at det er ein eller anna høgintellektuell tanke bak stykket. Dette er eit kjempeproblem for meg i forhold til mesteparten av all improvisert musikk også. Ting kan vere så abstrakt det berre vil, men så må det vere tydelig at det er dèt som er intensjonen. I mine ører blir det ofte en saus av store intervall og ukritisk bruk av sfortzando. Konseptuell musikk tiltaler meg svært sjelden, dersom ikkje den faktiske lyden gir meg noko.

Når det er sagt så er det nokre komponistar eg likar veldig godt. Bjørnar Habbestad gav meg mykje musikk for nokre år sidan, og der har eg funne mange skattar. Morton Feldman sitt "For Philip Guston" har ei slags fascinerande framdrift, og gir til tross for den tilsynelatande lave energien veldig stor meining. Gerard Grisey, "Vortex Temporum", er fantastisk! Andre eg har høyrt på, og likt, er Salvatore Sciarrino og Alvin Lucier.

Q Som improviserende slagverker har du jobbet i og utenfor mange sjangre og mange uttrykk, og det virker som du klarer å unngå å plasseres i en bås. Kan du si noe om ditt musikalske prosjekt? 
A "Ærlighet" er eit sentralt begrep for meg. Det er noko eg leitar etter både i musikken og i det daglige liv. Eg vil nesten seie eg er allergisk mot ting eg oppfattar som kunstig - eg vil at det skal treffe meg! Ikkje noko oppsiktsvekkande i dèt for så vidt. Så når det gjeld musikk har eg alltid lytta etter det eg opplever som oppriktig. Dette finst i alle sjangrar. Eg har alltid hørt på veldig mykje ulik musikk og også spela i alle mulige sammenhengar, og all denne inspirasjonen vil eg kunne ta i bruk, på ein eller annan måte. Ingenting er forbudt!

Etter kvart ser eg vel at eg smalar det inn, mot settingar der eg kan forme materialet frå gong til gong ganske etter eige hovud. Eg mistrivast rett og slett dersom rammene er for strenge, og har såleis slutta å spele mykje musikk som jobbar etter dei premissa. Dette er eit resultat av å prøve å vere ærleg mot meg sjølv; kva er det eg egentlig vil drive med. Så grunntanken er altså å spele det eg kan stå inne for, uavhengig av sjanger.

 
Q Mye av dette kjenner jeg meg veldig igjen i, og vi skal jo altså hver for oss, løse den samme oppgaven på årets Borealis, noe som sikkert vil resultere i to helt ulike versjoner av det samme stykket. Litt av forskjellen skyldes kanskje at vi notelesende "klassiske samtidsmusikanter" ofte har litt angst for å lukke øynene og bare spille ut hva man enn skulle føle i øyeblikket, og jeg vet at prosessen jo er langt mer krevende enn som så. Hvordan genererer du ditt materiale?
A For meg handlar det ofte om å velge vekk ting. Gitaristen Marc Ducret sa ein gong at det er veldig vanskelig å bli betre å spele, men det er relativt lett å bli mindre dårlig - ein må berre slutte å gjere dei dårlige tinga. Dei siste åra har eg øvd lite i den forstand at eg sitt på eit øvingsrom og terpar. Eg er veldig rastlaus, så dette fungerer ikkje så bra for meg lenger. Desto meir har eg tenkt og lytta fokusert, og ikkje minst spela mykje konsertar. Prosessen går konstant. 


Når eg eg øver praktisk med instrumentet, jobbar eg med eigne konsept der eg må finne ut av ting sjølv. Dette er for meg ein fornuftig måte for å komme fram til noko personlig. For eksempel er eg veldig interessert i organisk rytmikk og frasering. Innmari mykje musikk er så prega av ei matematisk tilnærming til rytmikk, så her er det stort rom for å finne andre måtar å frasere på.

Eit anna velkjent konsept som inspirerer meg er å få nye lydar ut av det tradisjonelle trommesettet. Og eg snakkar ikkje då om å inkorporere alskens eksoitsk perkusjon eller utslagsvasken til mor di. Faktisk er det få ting som inspirerer meg så mykje som å sjå perkusjonistar med masse utstyr - det gir meg ein sterk uforklarlig trang til å ikkje gjere det samme. I det siste har eg pønska på korleis eg kan få trommesettet til å høyres ut som eit preparert piano.

 
Q Vi skal begge forsøksvis lære oss å stå på skateboard som et ledd i stykket til Jennifer Walshe. Er denne typen fysisk, konkret inspirasjon noe du tidligere har arbeidet med i musikken din?

A Nei, aldri. Det er jo stort sett lydlige eller emosjonelle kjelder til musikken eg spelar, så det blir verkeleg ei utfordring. Eg tenker mykje på korleis eg skal klare å overføre det fysiske aspektet til lyd, på ein fornuftig måte. Det skal jo ikkje bli for tydelig heller.. Eit hopp!! BADA-BOOM!

 
Q Jeg har tenkt litt på det, jeg òg. Og det er kanskje lettere å spille "å gå på trynet" (på en overtydelig måte) på trommer enn på en klarinett?! Har du noe forhold til skating overhodet?

A Eg skata litt når eg var 12-13 år. Eg var elendig. Vi holdt på ganske mykje, meg og ein venn, heilt til vi vart konfrontert med andre som hadde holdt mykje kortare tid enn oss, og som gjorde masse dødsvanskelige triks. Då la vi opp på dagen nærast. 


I fjor sommar kjeda eg meg ekstremt i ein periode, og fikk låne eit brett. Tanken var at eg kunne trenge ein hobby, og kanskje eg kunne prøve å ta opp igjen skating. Med friskt mot fann eg meg ein skjult plass bak TV2-bygget, klar for å starte det som skulle bli ein sommar fylt av tekniske triks og cruising gatelangs. Det tok 15 min før eg innsåg at det kom aldri til å skje. Sidan har brettet stått i boda.

  Friday
Tid Artist Type event Sted Billettpris
20:00 Luke Fowler Exhibition Bergen Kunsthall
  Sunday
Tid Artist Type event Sted Billettpris
18:00 Concert/performance Griegakademiet Prøvesalen
20:00 Concert/performance Altona wine bar, Augustin Hotel
  Tuesday
Tid Artist Type event Sted Billettpris
Theme Tune,Theme Tune
13:00 Film - Kino Borealis Landmark
15:30 Gerhard Eckel Exhibition Rom 8
17:00 Mette Karlsvik Bergen Offentlige Bibliotek
18:00 Gerhard Stäbler Admiral Hotel / Bryggen
19:00 Else Olsen Storesund Concert/performance Bergen Pianoforretning
19:30 Exhibition Bergen Pianoforretning
20:00 Sigurd Fischer Olsen,Ricardo Odriozola & Friends,Siegfried Kutterer Concert/performance Kalmarhuset leiligheter
20:00 Ricardo Odriozola & Friends See below,Logen,Landmark,USF Verftet,Salhus Tricotagefabrik
21:00
22:00 Thomas Ankersmit,Phill Niblock Concert/performance Landmark
  Wednesday
Tid Artist Type event Sted Billettpris
Øyvind Skarbø,Tor Kristian Liseth,Jennifer Walshe Concert/performance,Film - Kino Borealis See below,Salhus Tricotagefabrik,Rådhuset,Landmark
Siegfried Kutterer,Domenico Melchiorre,Szilard Buti DNB Lars Hillesgate 30,Salhus Tricotagefabrik
13:00 Film - Kino Borealis Landmark
15:30 David Helbich,Gerhard Eckel Rom 8
17:00 Kjersti Rorgemoen Bergen Offentlige Bibliotek
18:30 GNEIS,Rolf Borch,Knut Vaage,Ricardo Odriozola & Friends,Kunsu Shim,Gerhard Stäbler Salhus Tricotagefabrik
20:00 Ricardo Odriozola & Friends See below,Logen,Landmark,USF Verftet,Salhus Tricotagefabrik
21:00
  Thursday
Tid Artist Type event Sted Billettpris
Siegfried Kutterer,Domenico Melchiorre,Szilard Buti DNB Lars Hillesgate 30,Salhus Tricotagefabrik
13:00 Film - Kino Borealis Landmark
17:00 Erlend O. Nødtvedt Bergen Offentlige Bibliotek
18:00 John Tilbury Bergen Kunsthall,Landmark
19:30 Apartment House,Kunsu Shim,Gerhard Stäbler Kunstmuseum, Stenersen
20:00 Ricardo Odriozola & Friends See below,Logen,Landmark,USF Verftet,Salhus Tricotagefabrik
20:30 Knut Vaage,Casiokids,Kerry Yong Kunstmuseum, Stenersen
21:00
22:30 Casiokids,Kerry Yong Landmark
23:30 Idiot Switch Concert/performance Landmark
  Friday
Tid Artist Type event Sted Billettpris
11:30 Fidan Aghayeva,Mai Goto,Chihiro Ito,Annabel Guaita,Steve Reich,Gilius van Bergeijk,Post & Mulder Bergen Pianoforretning
13:00 Film - Kino Borealis Landmark
15:30 Anders Førisdal,Laurence Crane,Gerhard Eckel Rom 8 Free entrance
17:00 Øyvind Rimbereid Bergen Offentlige Bibliotek
17:45 Else Olsen Storesund Bergen Pianoforretning Free entrance
18:00 John Tilbury,Michael Duch Bergen Pianoforretning 80/60
19:30 Logos Foundation Exhibition Logen
20:00 BIT20 Percussion,Anders Førisdal,Apartment House,Szilard Buti,Domenico Melchiorre,Siegfried Kutterer,Kunsu Shim,Robyn Schulkowsky Concert/performance Logen
20:00 Ricardo Odriozola & Friends See below,Logen,Landmark,USF Verftet,Salhus Tricotagefabrik
21:00
23:00 Magda Mayas & Tony Buck Logen
24:00 Trondheim Jazzorkester,Kim Myhr Concert/performance Logen
  Saturday
Tid Artist Type event Sted Billettpris
Øyvind Skarbø,Tor Kristian Liseth,Jennifer Walshe Concert/performance,Film - Kino Borealis See below,Salhus Tricotagefabrik,Rådhuset,Landmark
12:00 Exhibition Bergen Offentlige Bibliotek
13:00 Bergen Offentlige Bibliotek Free entrance
15:00 Collegiûm Mûsicûm,Gerhard Stäbler,Kunsu Shim 180/150
15:00 Knut Vaage Concert/performance 180/150
20:00 Ricardo Odriozola & Friends See below,Logen,Landmark,USF Verftet,Salhus Tricotagefabrik
22:00 The Chap Landmark
22:00 DYGONG Concert/performance Landmark
23:00 The Chap Concert/performance Landmark
24:00 Landmark