In the fifteen years since they formed Alog, Norwegian musicians Espen Sommer Eide and Dag-Are Haugan have released some extremely original and fascinating records, made from a vast array of acoustic and electronic instruments, most of which they build themselves, With their new album, their fifth, they have worked with a number of other musicians and involved them in the creative process. In its complete version, the album stretches over four LPs and 2 and a half hours. Here, Alog talk about their formative years, how the new album came together, working with collaborators and how playing live has to be approached very differently.

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ALOG
Unemployed
RCD2116
Rune Grammofon 2012
14 Tracks. 76mins30secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP | DLD US: CD | LP | DLD iTunes: DLD

Even put against the monumental variety of the Rune Grammofon catalogue, Norwegian duo Alog have always stood out from the crowd. Formed by Espen Sommer Eide and Dag-Are Haugan in the late nineties while they both lived in Tromsø, northern Norway, they have, over the course of four albums for Rune Grammofon plus a handful of limited releases elsewhere, carved a very particular niche for themselves. Combining acoustic and electric instrumentation, part of which is custom-built, with electronic processing, the pair continue to invent a totally unique and often fascinating sound world away from pretty much anything else.

In its full version, presented as a quadruple LP, of which only 300 copies have been pressed, Unemployed contains over two hours of new music, of which approximately half has been squeezed into the more widely available CD version. Continue Reading »

Thomas Strønen is undoubtedly one of the most talented drummers of his generation. A member of Food, Humcrush, Meadow, Monsters & Puppets and many more, his very diverse, yet highly recognisable style puts him is at the heart of these projects. With new albums from Monsters & Puppets, Humcrush and The Living Room, Thomas takes some time off his incredibly busy schedule to talk to themilkfactory about how he started playing drums, his long-standing collaboration with Iain Ballamy as Food, his relationship with Maria Kannegaard and how it led to Monsters & Puppets, and what his next solo project may be. Continue Reading »

HUMCRUSH with SIDSEL ENDRESEN
Ha!
RCD2114
Rune Grammofon 2011
09 Tracks. 41mins37secs

Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD Boomkat: CD

A singer with a totally unique and challenging vision who has developed improvisational techniques which invariably takes her way beyond language into territories where her voice becomes an extremely versatile and visceral instrument, Sidsel Endresen has worked extensively with Bugge Wesseltoft, recording three albums with him between 1998 and 2002, and has also collaborated with Nils Petter Molvær, Django Bates, Christian Wallumrød and Helge Sten, Jan Bang or Håkon Kornstad to name but a few. Here, she joins Humcrush, the duo formed of keyboard player Ståle Storløkken, who, although best known for his contribution to Veslefrekk and Supersilent, is also a driving force behind Elephant9 and Box, and drummer Thomas Strønen, who, beside his work alongside British saxophonist Iain Ballamy in Food, can be found performing as part of Meadow, the Maria Kannergaard Trio, the Mats Eilertsen Trio and recently Monsters And Puppets. Continue Reading »

SPUNK
Light
RDV2112
Rune Grammofon 2011
01 Track. 42mins29secs

Amazon UK: DVD Boomkat: DVD

For all intents and purposes, all-female Norwegian experimental noise improv ensemble Spunk are extremely difficult to pin down. Experimental, they are without a doubt, and noise is their primary field of expression, but reducing them to just this is most certainly missing the point entirely. All four members (Kristin Andersen – trumpet, Lene Grenager – cello, Maja Ratkje – voice and electronics, Hild Sofie Tajford – French horn and electronics) are highly regarded musicians and composers in their own rights, with respective careers to put to shame even the most fervent of serial collaborative individual on the Norwegian scene. They have performed together for over fifteen years, and recorded four albums, their most recent, Kantarell (2009), was released ten years after their debut.

This DVD captures the quartet in their most natural environment, improvising live in front of an audience. Continue Reading »

FIRE! with JIM O’ROURKE
Unreleased?
RCD2111
Rune Grammofon 2011
04 Tracks. 41mins24secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP | DLD US: CD | LP | DLD Boomkat: CD | LP

When three became four, at least the time of a couple of sessions. Swedish super power trio Fire!, which personnel comprises saxophonist extraordinaire Mats Gustafsson, bassist Johan Berthling and drummer Andreas Werliin, became a quartet when they were joined by Jim O’Rourke, who contributes electric guitar, synthesizer and harmonica here.

Released two years ago, Fire!’s first opus, You Liked Me Five Minutes Ago, was as incendiary as the trio’s chosen name led to think. Combining elements of avant-garde jazz and experimental psychedelic rock into a series of progressive improvisations, they somehow managed to transcend their respective work to create an extremely vibrant and invigorating soundtrack. With O’Rourke on board to broaden the scope of the band, they are even more fired up and eager to blast their own boundaries, however loose, into oblivion. Continue Reading »

JENNY HVAL
Viscera
RCD2108
Rune Grammofon 2011
10 Tracks. 54mins26secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP | DLD US: CD | LP | DLD Boomkat: CD | LP iTunes: DLD

The body, this holiest of temples, is the subject of Jenny Hval’s new album, but it is its most visceral functions and primal organs that are the focus of her attention. Blood, piss, spit, sweat, erections, clitoris, eye sockets, tongues, finger nails, pores and skin, senses are all exposed in the cold light of day, used and abused in every song. Yet, if nothing is too crude or taboo for the Norwegian songstress, Viscera is actually a poetic journey like no other, carried by Hval’s deeply moving voice, part Liz Fraser, part Björk, part Mari Boine, yet totally and utterly unique.

Hval made a name for herself as Rockettothesky, under which banner she released two albums, To Sing You Apple Trees (2006) and Medusa (2008). Viscera is quite a different offering. Continue Reading »

PHAEDRA
The Sea
RCD2107/RLP3107
Rune Grammofon 2011
08 Tracks. 38mins48secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP | DLD US: CD | LP | DLD Norman Records: CD | LP iTunes: DLD

Beside the challenging experimental work that they have been gathering for over ten years, Rune Grammofon have, on occasions, opened their doors to female songstresses, of which Susanna Wallumrød, with or without her Magical Orchestra, is undoubtedly the best known. Now joining Wallumrød and Hilde Marie Kjersem, who released her second album, A Killer For That Ache, on the label in 2008, is Phaedra, with a stunning debut album, The Sea, a collection of gentle aerial psychedelic folk-infused songs.

Phaedra is the solo project of Norwegian singer songwriter Ingvild Langgård. A former student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo, Langgård has worked with a number of media over the years, from films and photography to art installations and vocal work. Continue Reading »

JONO EL GRANDE
Phantom Stimulance
RCD2106
Rune Grammofon 2010
11 Tracks. 38mins51secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP | DLD US: CD | LP | DLD Norman Records: CD | LP iTunes: DLD

Rune Grammofon have made a habit of pushing boundaries in various directions throughout their releases, but it is difficult to know even where or what the boundaries are when it comes to iconoclast prankster Jono El Grande. He sits at odds with the rest of the label’s catalogue. Born Jon Andreas Håtun somewhere in Norway in 1973, this self-taught musician’s first foray into the recording industry came in 1999 with his first album, Utopian Dances, recorded in his bedroom with nothing more than a workstation synth, but things went up a few notches with his Rune Grammofon debut, Fevergreens, published in 2003. Part Christmas Pantomime music, part seventies soft porn soundtrack, part jazz/rock experiment gone wrong, the album, recorded with a nine piece orchestra, managed to be at once cheesy and über cool. Continue Reading »

ULTRALYD
Inertiadrome
RCD2105
Rune Grammofon 2010
05 Tracks. 40mins44secs

Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | LP | DLD Boomkat: CD | LP iTunes: DLD

Even to Rune Grammofon’s standards, Ultralyd are a pretty odd offering. Taking elements of contemporary experimental jazz, abstract composition, rock and heavy metal and fusing them together into something quite unique. Formed in 2004 when bass player Kjertil D Brandsdal joined the trio of saxophonist Frode Gjerstad, guitarist Anders Hana and drummer and percussionist Morten J Olsen, Ultralyd released their first self-titled album, published on UK imprint FMR Records, that same year, then a second, Chromosome Gun, a few months later on Load Records. Gjerstad left in 2006, and was replaced with Kjetil Møster, just in time to record their Rune Grammofon debut, Conditions For A Piece Of Music. Inertiadrome follows the very limited, vinyl-only album Renditions which Ultralyd published last year on RG’s sister imprint The Last Record Company. Continue Reading »

SCORCH TRIO
Melaza
RCD2104/RLP3104
Rune Grammofon 2010
08 Tracks. 41mins52secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP | DLD US: CD | LP | DLD Boomkat: CD | LP iTunes DLD

Scorch Trio are frequently described as a power trio, a term originating with The Jimi Hendrix Experience. The description is accurate inasmuch as its members convey a feeling of concentrated energy, but the music’s also alive with a huge amount of filigree detail, each musician contributing an intense filigree to the group hive mind, interspersed with signature passages of blasted ambience. The group explore music that suggests Hendrix living alone on the frozen Russian steppes listening in to shortwave transmissions from the spirits of Derek Bailey and Sonny Sharrock. All the track titles are Puerto-Rican slang expressions – Melaza itself means “pure sugar cane juice, something sweet, fantastic.” Continue Reading »

SUPERSILENT
11
RLP3103
Rune Grammofon 2010
06 Tracks. 37mins28secs

Amazon UK: LP US: LP Norman Records: LP

Recorded in 2005, when drummer Jarle Vespestad was still part of the band’s line up, and culled from the sessions that spawned 8, 11, the third Supersilent installment in twelve months, is quite a different affair from the formation’s more recent atmospheric explorations.

When the four members of Supersilent reconvened to work on a follow up to 6 and 7, over the course of five days in August 2005, they collected over five hours of recordings which were, for a time, considered for a second mastodon three-CD set. 8 was eventually reined in to a single CD, leaving a wealth of unreleased material, part of which is now surfacing on this vinyl-only release. Continue Reading »