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Supersilent was formed by the alliance of an existing
improvisation group called Veslefrekk (having ten years of playing history
behind them) with producer/sound manipulator Helge Sten (aka Deathprod).
They played together for the first time, without any prior rehearsal,
at the Bergen Jazz Festival in 1997 and immediately made headlines. Supersilent
was quick to build a reputation as one of Scandinavia’s most viscerally
exciting concert acts. There is a dangerous unpredictability about their
music, a sense that anything can happen. All parameters are open. From
moment to moment, they can touch on elements of hardcore noise, imply
industrial soundscapes, recall Miles at the Fillmore or Stockhausen in
Donaueschingen, or play the most delicate and filigree ambient soundscapes.
There is a savage beauty in this music, with lyricism and disruptive
fierceness counterbalancing each other. In brief, Supersilent stretches
definitions of jazz to near breaking point, yet at the same time its
members’ improvisational skills are finely honed, all players knowing
how to listen, how to react and interact. And if jazz can still be considered
the "sound of surprise’ then Supersilent fulfils the description.
Helge Sten (audio virus), Ståle Storløkken (keyboards),
Arve Henriksen (trumpet), and Jarle Vespestad (drums) still don’t
rehearse or even discuss their music. They meet only to play concerts
or to record.
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In this group, Sten is credited with playing "audio virus." He
explains, “My instrumentation is made up of home-made electronics:
old tape machines, ring modulators, filters, theremins, samplers and
so on, and my usage of these devices is very unpredictable." Supersilent
records in Deathprod’s Audio Virus studio, packed with analog and
digital hardware amassed originally for his electronica/ambient solo
projects; the improvisers are not shy about experimenting with this technology
but, as free music players, they insist on real-time applications only.
Even in the studio, all the music is played live. Overdubs have no place
in the band’s modus operandi.
Three of Supersilent already have strong ECM associations.
Keyboardist Ståle Storløkken is a full-fledged member of
Terje Rypdal´s Skywards band. He studied at the Trøndelag
Conservatory and has participated in projects with Louis Sclavis, Jon
Balke, Lars Danielsson, Jon Christensen, Audun Kleive, Nils Petter Molvær,
Anders Jormin and Tore Brunborg, and has composed commissioned music
for the Kongsberg and Vossajazz festivals.
Arve Henriksen is a graduate of the Trondheim conservatory and has been
a freelance musician since 1989. He has played with many musicians familiar
to ECM listeners, including Jon Balke (of whose Magnetic North Orchestra
he is also an alumnus), Anders Jormin, Edward Vesala, Jon Christensen,
Audun Kleive, Nils Petter Molvær, Misha Alperein, Arkady Shilkoper,
Marc Ducret, Bjørn Kjellemyr and the Cikada String Quartet, as
well as Sten Sandell, Frode Gjerstad, Peter Friis Nilsen, DJ Bjørn
Torske and many other Scandinavians committed to free improvisation.
He was also heard recently on No Birch with the trio of pianist Christian
Wallumrød.
Drummer Jarle Vespestad has played in diverse rock, jazz and improvised
contexts. He worked with Henry Kaiser and David Lindley during their
ethnomusicological trawl through the far North, has recorded several
albums with the experimental jazz-folk-rock band Farmer’s Market,
and played with the jazz collective Embla Nordic Project. Jarle Vespestad
has also played with Nils Petter Molvær, Jon Balke and Tore Brunborg,
amongst others.
In 2003, Supersilent was featured appear on Mute/The Wire’s 20th
anniversary triple CD box “Adventures” as the only nordic
act besides Iceland’s Björk.
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Jaga Jazzist has become something of a musical phenomen
in Norway since they started 9 years ago. Not only is this 10 piece instrumental
band regarded as one of the most exciting and innovative in Norway, the
members are all involved in other musical projects and have in one way
or another contributed to almost every significant recording to come
out of that part of the world in the last five years. It has been this
strong involvement with different projects, and different musical styles
and sounds, which is the key to the unique sound of Jaga Jazzist. With
no boundaries and an arsenal that includes trumpets, trombone, electric
guitar, bass, tuba, two bass clarinets, Fender Rhodes, vibraphone and
a rack of electronics, Jaga Jazzist create timeless music. Melodic, hypnotizing,
delicate and subtle.
Jaga Jazzist started out in Tonsberg (a small town outside Oslo) in 1994
at which time Lars Horntveth (the main songwriter in Jaga) was only 14
years old! In 2001 they released their debut album "A Livingroom
Hush" on Warner in Scandinavia to massive critical acclaim and great
sales (the album sold over 15,000 copies in Norway alone). The band then
signed a deal for the rest of the world through Oslo`s Smalltown Supersound.
Throughout 2002 the band shocked fans and critics alike with their blistering
live shows and the buzz resulted in sold out dates all over Europe.
Many comparisons have been made about Jaga Jazzist and their music; from
Talk Talk, Soft Machine, Eric Satie, John Coltrane and Don Cherry to
acts like Aphex Twin, Stereolab, Squarepusher, Isotope 217 and Tortoise.
One thing is for sure; Jaga Jazzist`s sound draws influences from the
whole. The band themselves cite Jon Balke, Tortoise, Motorpsycho, Cornelius,
Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, Miles Davis, Radiohead and Björk
as important influences.
The band:
Mathias Eick - trumpet, upright bass, keyboards + vibraphone
Harald Frøland - guitars + effects
Even Ormestad - bass + keyboards
Andreas Mjøs - vibraphone, drums, percussion + electronics
Line Horntveth - tuba, melodica + percussion
Martin Horntveth - drums + drum-machines
Lars Horntveth - tenor sax, bass-clarinet + electric guitar
Andreas Schei - Keyboards
Ketil Einarsen - flute, bass-clarinet, percussion + keyboards
Lars Wabø - trombone
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In addition to the contemporary Jazz bands the festival
presents three DJs from the Norwegian underground music scene: DJ Bjorn
Torske, DJ Strangefruit and DJ Kent Horne. Over the last 10-15 years,
our three vinyl junkies have made an important impact on funky, danceable
jazzlife
in Norway, cutting edges and building bridges between different genres
through their live sets and productions. The DJs represent institutions
that have grown memorable furies [??] to contemporary music lovers through
labels like Tellè Records and Jazzland Records, and clubs like
Blaa Jazz Club, Skansen and Jazid Club.
Further, all three DJs represent a musical attitude typical for the new
wave of Norwegian contemporary dance music: an urge to analyze principles
from music history independent of the different genres to be spent in
a futuristic, narrative way of telling stories. Clear influences come
from
the early Nineties Detroit- and Chicago house/techno-scene, the New York
disco scene of late '70s and '80s and experimental jazz from the era
starting with John Coltrane and Miles Davies and further interpreted
in Norway by
artists like Nils Petter Molvaer and Bugge Wesseltoft's New Conception
of Jazz. This direction has resulted in a way of what could be called
obscure disco from artists like Royksopp and Ralph Meyers & The Jack
Herren Band, and experimental big band projects like Jaga Jazzist.
DJ Bjorn Torske comes from Tromso, a city up north in Norway which have
developed electronica artists like Röyksopp, Biosphere, Rune Lindbaek,
Bel Canto, Mental Overdrive and Frost . He now lives in Bergen, Norways
second largest city, at the west coast representing the underground label
Tellé Records with several released classics during the last few
years.
DJ Kent Horne represents the club Blå in Oslo - Norways most important
music scene for avant-garde jazz, electronic underground music and hip
hop. Be sure Mr. Horne brings along lots of dubby deep, funky basslines,
so-called obscure Norwegian nu wave disco and dirty jazz-stories with
his prog-rock attitude. Think of hot boiling Viking blood on ice cold
Detroit
concrete.
DJ Strangefruit (aka Paul Nyhus) has been awarded as the best DJ of Norway
with his very own kind of eclectic music style in the boarder line between
club, jazz and elctro music. With his calculated mixes he can make old
rock tracks sound like the hottest new arrival and future techno beats
sound like an old disco classic. Strangefruit, has been touring with
jazz saxophonist Nils Petter Molvaer for the last couple of years and
represents
norwegian label Jazzland Recordings as "The Mungolian Jet Set" with
his debut album release right before Christmas 2004.
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Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje, composer and performer (born
Dec. 29th 1973 in Trondheim, Norway), finished composition studies at the
Norwegian State Academy of Music in Oslo in 2000. Her music has been heard
all over Europe as well as in Japan, Canada, USA and eastern Russia. Her
composed work has been performed by Oslo Sinfonietta, Arve Tellefsen, Cikada
and Vertavo string quartets, Quatuor Renoir, Ticom, crashEnsemble, Torben
Snekkestad, SPUNK, Frode Haltli and POING among others.
Among prizes she has won the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris
for composers below 30 years of age. She has received the Norwegian Edvard
prize (work of the year), second prize at the Russolo Foundation, and
in 2001 she was the first composer ever to receive the Arne Nordheim
prize.
Her solo album "Voice," made in collaboration with Jazzkammer,
got a Distinction Award Prix Ars Electronica in 2003.
Ratkje is active as a singer/voice user and electronics player as well
as studio engineer, mainly in connection with the contemporary improvisation
ensemble SPUNK and the noise duo Fe-mail. Other main collaborators are
Jazzkammer, POING, Lotta Melin and Jaap Blonk. Ratkje has performed her
own music for Ibsen's play "Ghosts," and her voice has been
heard in Icelandic film music as well as in contributions to numerous
other projects.
In 2003 Ratkje played a leading part in her own opera, which is based
on the texts from the Nag Hammadi Library.
Her scores are found at the Norwegian Music Information Centre and her
records are released on rune grammofon, ECM, Kontrans, Albedo, Aurora,
Important Records etc.
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Born in 1968, Arve Henriksen studied at the Trondheim Conservatory of Music from 1987-1991, and has worked as a freelance musician since 1989. He has worked with many musicians familiar to ECM listeners including Jon Balke (with whose Magnetic North Orchestra he has played extensively), Anders Jormin, Edward Vesala, Jon Christensen, Marilyn Mazur, Marilyn Crispell, Nils Petter Molvaer, Misha Alperin, Arkady Shilkloper, Marc Ducret, Ketil Bjørnstad, Tore Brunborg, the Cikada String Quartet and more. He has played in a very broad span of contexts, ranging from work with koto player Satsuki Odamura to the rock band Motorpsycho via numerous free improvising groups with Ernst Reisiger, Sten Sandell, Iver Kleive, Peter Friis-Nilsen et cetera.
The Northwest Passage Festival ©2004