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viewing 1 To 22 of 22 items
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2CD
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VAF 014CD
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Norwegian trombonist Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø has shared stages with a wide range of influential improvisers. One of his returning projects has been the trio with Swedish drummer Raymond Strid and Swiss double bassist Nina de Heney. Oslo Wien was recorded during their 2014 European tour, and the double album presents a trio balancing on the very verge between individualism and group mentality. The trio was first put together for Henrik's exam concert at the Academy of Music in Gothenburg, May 2011. One of the strongest attributes of the trio is their common understanding of the use of tension and release. The music moves forward constantly, but is never forced. They can sojourn in a sort of zero-state for a long time in which the music only varies with small nuances, before they suddenly break out in small and big musical explosions when one of the musicians provides a hint toward this. Just as they can follow each other with a wink, they sometimes also choose to withstand an impulse or let an energy flow remain unredeemed to create a different tension. Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø: trombone; Raymond Strid: drums; Nina de Heney: double bass.
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VAF 013CD
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Platform is a band playing acoustic, free improvised music. It's a meeting between three young musicians from Oslo's scene for improvised music and a French improvising veteran. Platform started out as a trio of Jonas Cambien, Jan Martin Gismervik, and Katrine Schiøtt in 2011, and started to collaborate with Xavier Charles in 2012. After some years of performing in Scandinavia, New York, Spain, and Portugal, they present their debut album. Anthropocene explores slowly changing textures, elastic sonic sculptures, and meditative drones. Small ideas get all the time and space they need to develop and be fully played out. Using prepared piano, minimalistic percussion, and extended techniques on clarinet and cello, Platform creates abstract and cinematic sheets of sound. The album sounds sometimes dark and noisy, sometimes light and dreamy, with the occasional hint of a groove or melody. All the music is fully improvised and the band's style was developed exclusively through live performances. Jonas Cambien: piano; Jan Martin Gismervik: drums; Katrine Schiøtt: cello; Xavier Charles: clarinet.
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VAF 010LP
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The music on Will It Float? can best be described as classic British improvisation with an electro-acoustic twist. These are the major elements that run through the recording, creating a soundscape that is both challenging and engaging. The improvisations are freely made, without preparation, and are characterized by an extreme joy in playing and a desire to take chances while maintaining a firm focus on the group's identity. After playing in a successful duo with John Russell for a couple of years, Ståle Liavik Solberg decided to put together a quartet consisting of more musicians from the British improvisation scene. For him it was an easy choice to combine Russell with Steve Beresford and John Edwards, and Liavik Solberg arranged for the quartet to play at St. Mary's Old Church in Stoke Newington, London. Once the idea had taken root for the concert it became obvious they were embarking on something special and the decision was taken to call in renowned recording engineer Dave Hunt to record the music. John Russell, Steve Beresford, and John Edwards have been a part of the free improvisation scene in England and Europe for several decades, and have played together in many different circumstances during this time. Ståle Liavik Solberg is an active free improviser in Norway and is, among other things, a director of the extensive concert series Blow Out! in Oslo. Fred Lonberg-Holm got the task of mixing and mastering the album and Kjetil Tangen made the great cover art. John Russell: guitar; Steve Beresford: objects and electronics; John Edwards: double bass; Ståle Liavik Solberg: drums and percussion.
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VAF 012CD
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After two weeks in Japan, Lana Trio arrived back in Norway with new impressions of the country far away from the comfortable north. During their time there they used this input in their concerts, contributing to the already scorching, energetic Lana Trio sound. Several of the concerts were recorded, but the gig at Jazzspot Candy was the ultimate Live in Japan album. Stylistically, the music of Lana Trio is closely related to so-called free improvisation and free jazz. However, labeling the music as one style is not enough, as it also contains traces of what they hear and have heard; both popular and unpopular music. Live in Japan was recorded at Jazzspot Candy in Chiba outside of Tokyo, a small venue brimming with jazz history, and contains both sets from that night in the order they were played. Lana Trio is: Kjetil Jerve (piano); Henrik Munkeby Norstebo (trombone); Andreas Wildhagen (drums).
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VAF 011CD
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The guitarists Stian Larsen and Jorn Erik Ahlsen started kÖök in 2010 and played several concerts in Norway and abroad before they released their first album in 2012. In 2013 they released record number two Live in Leipzig together with bassist John Huges, who gave new inspiration to Imber, Wiltshire. The music is 100% improvised and to be considered harmonic. It hints at Marc Ducret, Steve Reich, minimalism and prepared guitars with both feet planted in art music and electronica. kÖök decided to do a recording with sound engineer Thomas Oxem after listening to the release Toll by Camille Norment. The depth and warmth of the sound was perfect for kÖök and something other studios couldn't offer. Imber, Wiltshire was recorded live in the studio over the course of three days. Guro Skumsnes Moe (MoE) and Dag Erik Knedal Andersen contributed on two tracks each, and reflect the different collaborations kÖök has had over the last four years. "What we are trying to do is create music on the border between art, music, improvisation and electronica. Where some electronica can be thought of as functionalistic, kÖök's music would be considered as more challenging." --Stian Larsen; Cover design by Lasse Marhaug.
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VAF 006LP
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LP version. Even though they were born and raised in the same town in the countryside of Norway, The Jist didn't start until the duo met in Oslo in 2011. Using their common perception of the distressed urban life of Oslo, they started the project of exploring and making big soundscapes in a small constellation. With a guitar, vocals, and several electronic devices, they used their alternative approach to their instruments and started to create dynamic, freely-improvised, noisy electroacoustic music. After two years of playing, they found the unique sound of The Jist that was worth documenting. This is the gist of The Jist, and just a small part of the hours of material they recorded in two days, mixed and mastered by John Hegre. The record is a borderline personality disorder that indulges in a series of sudden brutal eruptions of sound.
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VAF 009CD
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Even though they were born and raised in the same town in the countryside of Norway, The Jist didn't start until the duo met in Oslo in 2011. Using their common perception of the distressed urban life of Oslo, they started the project of exploring and making big soundscapes in a small constellation. With a guitar, vocals, and several electronic devices, they used their alternative approach to their instruments and started to create dynamic, freely-improvised, noisy electroacoustic music. After two years of playing, they found the unique sound of The Jist that was worth documenting. This is the gist of The Jist, and just a small part of the hours of material they recorded in two days, mixed and mastered by John Hegre. The record is a borderline personality disorder that indulges in a series of sudden brutal eruptions of sound.
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VAF 005CD
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Ich Bin N!Ntendo's debut release with Mats Gustafsson came out in 2012. It received great reviews from several magazines and blogs, which inspired the group to continue their work. Ich Bin N!Ntendo is a trio with drums, bass and guitar that plays purely improvised music. Founded in 2010, the three members continue to push their own and the listeners' boundaries with their music. Since they started, their aim has been to investigate different layers of musical expression, such as noise, punk and grindcore, and apply them in formless structures and improvised compositions. With a fearless interpretation of the noise/rock/no-wave genre, the gang in Ich Bin N!Ntendo is eager and ready to release their second purely improvised album. Look is about dirty old computers, screens flashing, and music so compact it becomes visual. It is about context and the connection between random elements. It is also a mockery of conceptual art and banal music. Ironically, it might end up becoming just that.
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VAF 005LP
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VAF 004LP
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LP version. Skrap (or "scratch" as one would say in proper English) started years ago, when Anja Lauvdal and Heida Johannesdottir Mobeck involuntarily got locked in a small room together, trapped in between to bass amps which where facing each other. With a tuba on electronic steroids and keyboard á la Korg MS10, the girls started experimenting with things they never tried out before. The sound-waves hit each other hard, and made interactions between the sound-sources and the musicians, making the beginning of Skrap. This is music inspired by bands like Sunn O))) and Streifenjunko, and the members are also known from projects such as Muskus, Skadedyr, Broen, Your Headlights Are On, etc. K.O. is the fifth release from the Oslo-based label for new and challenging music, Va Fongool.
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VAF 007CD
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The members of As Deafness Increases first got together in the Czech Republic in the summer of 2010 as a part of the Önczkekvist Improvising Orchestra. Educated in both classical and improvised music in the Music Academies in Oslo, Gothenburg and Berlin, As Deafness Increases plays music in the gray area between composition and improvisation, with clear structural frameworks realized through flexible instrumental roles and improvised solutions regarding content and timbre. Slow, haunting soundscapes alternate with rapid movements and semi-melodic passages, pushing forward while holding back at the same time. One of the most interesting names within Norwegian contemporary music in 2013. Inga Margrete Aas (double bass), Rudolf Terland Bjørnerem (electro-acoustic guitar), Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø (trombone).
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VAF 007LP
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VAF 008CD
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Va Fongool have the great pleasure of bringing you the debut album by Lana Trio, an acoustic trio formed in 2007, which plays highly-intuitive free improvised music, sometimes with hints to both European and American free-jazz traditions, but more often searching for new, unheard sounds. After six years of collaboration, they have finally found a common understanding for sound, which gives them that little edge they need to get ready for releasing their music. The three musicians are known from other constellations like Skadedyr, Einer, Aksiom, Mopti, Knyst, and others. Members include: Kjetil Jerve (piano), Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø (trombone), and Andreas Wildhagen (drums).
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VAF 008LP
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2CD
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VAF 006CD
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W/M is a double-solo CD by the two great Norwegian musicians Christian Winther (guitar) and Christian Meaas Svendsen (double bass). Both spinning out of the creative environment around the Music Academy in Oslo, the two musicians have been noticed in the world of improvised music from several of their other projects over the last few years, like Ich Bin Nintendo, Mopti, Mokey Plot, KNYST!, Karokh, Duplex, Mummu, Aksiom, Unbird, and others, making them some of the busiest musicians in the scene. M/W is the debut as solo artists for both musicians. It is a result of years of experimenting and finding their own sound, and it really shows what they are capable of with their instruments. Mesmerizing, repetitive sounds meet new ways of thinking about traditional instruments, leaving the listener with a feeling of experiencing something truly unique and new.
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VAF 004CD
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Skrap (or "scratch" as one would say in proper English) started years ago, when Anja Lauvdal and Heida Johannesdottir Mobeck involuntarily got locked in a small room together, trapped in between to bass amps which where facing each other. With a tuba on electronic steroids and keyboard á la Korg MS10, the girls started experimenting with things they never tried out before. The sound-waves hit each other hard, and made interactions between the sound-sources and the musicians, making the beginning of Skrap. This is music inspired by bands like Sunn O))) and Streifenjunko, and the members are also known from projects such as Muskus, Skadedyr, Broen, Your Headlights Are On, etc. K.O. is the fifth release from the Oslo-based label for new and challenging music, Va Fongool.
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VAF 003CD
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Va Fongool is proud to present the duo PGA, consisting of Fredrik Luhr Dietrichson on the double bass (Wolfram Trio, Moskus, Skadedyr) and Jan Martin Gismervik on drums (Sagstuen, Karokh, Wolfram Trio). After many years of playing in each other's company, they're now ready with their debut album Corrections. PGA works with a clear framework and specific ideas, and delves deeply into basic elements, which form the basis for their improvisation. This adds an originality and uniqueness to the music that also have been further fulfilled by the guest musicians Torstein Lavik Larsen on trumpet and Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø on trombone. Corrections is both extremely silent and minimalistic, and really intense at the same time, and provides a unique listening experience where you get sucked into the sounds of the PGA world. To complete the overall impression the German artist, Danny Gretsch made the cover design. Recording and mixing by Greener Productions; mastering by Guiseppe Ielasi.
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VAF 003LP
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VAF 002CD
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Ich Bin N!ntendo, a young, fresh, "in-your-face" trio playing improvised noise-punk, are now out with their debut album on the Oslo-based label Va Fongool. On board they have two of the world's most critically-acclaimed noise-improvisers Mats Gustafsson and Lasse Marhaug. Ich Bin N!ntendo is a hard-hitting Oslo-based trio consisting of Christian Winther (electric guitar), Magnus Negaard (electric bass) and Joakim Heibø Johansen (drums). During the spring of 2012, they teamed up with Mats Gustafsson (winner of the Nordic Council Music Prize 2011) at a concert organized by the Concert Series "Lillesalen Konsertserie" at the Norwegian Students' Society in Oslo. The meeting was particularly fruitful and has resulted in a release that musically finds itself in the intersection between free jazz and grindcore and a focus on the free improvisation as well as a powerful rhythmic drive. The trio really pushes the boundaries of what the expression "sound" can handle, which is only heightened by the extreme lung capacity of the experienced Mats Gustafsson. Mixing and mastering was done by Norway's "noise-king," Lasse Marhaug, who was delivered the music with no strings attached, so he could do exactly what he wanted with the raw material. The result has been that all the already-powerful sound has been pushed to (and beyond) the absolute maximum, which makes the whole thing even more massive.
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VAF 002LP
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VAF 001CD
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This is the debut album from Wolfram Trio, who seek inspiration in acoustic free jazz, citing heroes such as Eric Dolphy, Albert Ayler, Peter Brötzmann and Evan Parker. Wolfram have played together in different constellations for several years, and have existed as they are now since 2008. They have evolved along the environment around the new young Norwegian jazz scene, based around the great schools in Oslo and Trondheim, and they're getting more and more acknowledgement for their new ways of thinking and creative methods of playing music. The album was recorded in Stavanger, Norway in September 2011 and was produced, mixed, and mastered by the great Frode Gjerstad. Wolfram has since the beginning aimed towards new and innovative sounds, finding their proper place within the Norwegian free jazz scene. Wolfram is Halvor Meling (saxophone), Fredrik Luhr Dietrichson (acoustic bass) and Jan Martin Gismervik (drums).
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VAF 001LP
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