1) Sidsel Endresen / Jan Bang / Erik Honore
Alpha-Room: 20 minutes of magic. Jan Bang sampling solo-clarinet and solo-violin-snippets from a performance of Daj Fjikura´s new chamber music. This tradition of New Classcial Musical leaves me stone-cold, but I love listening to tiny parts of it when Bang transforms them into his special universe. Listening to the sound waves of Erik Honore, a silent, but very awake mind, is a pleasure in itself, he´s the guy who seems to find a form for every clash of sources. Sidsel´s singing is a constant revelation. Radical in its departure from conventional jazz singing, for sure! But, after a while (if you are not part of a Diana Krall fan club), you´ll forget to put her voice into a „school of music“ and end up in the pure bliss of inventive sound. A voice of deep soul, full of surprises. And a very refined approach to rhythm.
2) Marilyn Mazur / Jan Bang / Per Jorgensen
Per Jorgensen doesn´t belong to the young guys anymore. But he´s still (don´t ask me why) a well-kept secret. A fantastic trumpet player, and a great singer. I remember his contributions to „Ice Music“of Terje Isungset, or „Psalms and Folk Songs“, a Cd of Markku Ounaskari and Samuli Mikkonen (on ECM). Now he was freely improvising with Jan Bang and Danish perussionist Marilyn Mazur. 45 minutes of sound searching, with a lot of things to discover on the way. Time flew. Jan Bang mirroring and transforming some percussive overtones, and it was like a natrural extension of the sound. Marilyn was having fun, acting intuitively. Sometimes she seemed to smile when listening to the serene and surreal singing of Per. A music of high dynamics, subtle events and playful passion. Manfred Eicher should listen to the tapes and invite them to Oslo´s Rainbow studio some time in the future.
3) Arve Henriksens „Special Edition Cartograhy Concert“
Without words. Just buy „Cartography“ (ECM Records; on CD or high quality vinyl!)
rehearsal passage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NWAHNG0EcU
Foto © Christoph Giese
4) Guy Sigsworth w/ Nils Petter Molvaer
Alpha-Room: Molvaer came with a helicopter. He had a gig the night before at the Munch Museum. No long time for preparations. But producer/musician Guy Sigsworth and his creative assistent were well prepared. It started with some classical sounds, like a grown up´s memory to listenng to some Bach music on a strange children´s birthday party. It takes a while till Nils Petter seems to find a key for the music. Guy has a lot of humour: suddenly we are confronted with a sample of a Justin Bieber song. Is anyone in the mood for Saturday Night Fever? Punkt avantgarde turning disco? Guy´s playing tricks, and he plays them well. After a while (and some rippy rappy pop moments), Guy´s creating spaces for the flow of soft trumpet lines. Nils Petter does not turn into wild gestures, does not compete with the loudness of the pop samples. Melancholia and sheer exuberance go hand in hand. Every once in a while Guy returns to playful rhythms, small melodies. At the end: laughter, good vibes, and a big applause. Punkt people have humour, too. (And, well, Nils Petter can go wild: listen to his forthcoming album; a German Metal Music Magazine recommends it highly:))
5) The Invention of the Beta-Room
For the first time, there is a special room, with the flair of an old French cinema. You´re sitting there, watching the live-remixes on screen that are taking place simultaneously. It has a documentary feeling, old nouvelle vague like (the school of Jacques Rivette). Here I saw, among other remixes, the final live-remix of the 7th Punkt Festival. Marilyn Mazur, this time working with a small drum kit, Nils Petter Molvaer playing Nils Petter Molvaer and, at the same time, suggesting some Miles Davis Bitches Brew-moments. Jan Bang, Erik Honore, Eivind Aarset, the usual suspects. An old vanishing word came to my mind that only makes sense in the Thomas Pynchon novel „Inherent Vice“ – and in the very, very relaxed moments of Punkt (when the music has the flair of an after hours party); the word is „groovy“. Blame this on the Beta Room; it has a 1968 vibe.