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 »

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Twenty Centuries Of Stony Sleep
RCD2100
Rune Grammofon 2010
13 Tracks. 75mins24secs

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

Twelve years on from Supersilent’s monumental triple CD debut release, Rune Grammofon have reached a new milestone with this, their hundredth release. Twenty Centuries Of Stony Sleep collects thirteen tracks, twelve of which exclusive to this album, from quite a wide cross-section of the label’s roster, ranging from long-serving acts (Alog, Scorch Trio, Supersilent, Ultralyd, In The Country, Deathprod or Maja Ratjke) to more recent joiners (Espen Eriksen Trio, Puma, Bushman’s Revenge or new signing Jenny Hval).

There are few record labels who have developed such a strong and consistent aesthetic as Rune Grammofon, not only visually, there is not one release which hasn’t had the Kim Hiorthøy treatment, but also through its catalogue, which, in the case of Rune Grammofon stretches from abstract jazz, traditional Scandinavian folk to ambient electronic music and from ethereal pop to avant-garde classical to heavy metal, always with a strong exploratory angle at its core. Continue Reading »

SUPERSILENT
10
RCD2102
Rune Grammofon 2010
12 Tracks. 41mins46secs

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

For the last couple of years, Supersilent have been operating as a trio following the departure of drummer Jale Vespestad, but, far from hindering their progress, this seems to have opened an entirely new field of experimentation for Arve Henriksen, Ståle Storløkken and Helge Sten. Following the beautifully introspective 9, released just over a year ago in Scandinavia, 10 denotes another foray into deeply atmospheric grounds, but unlike its predecessor, for which the trio used only sounds sourced from Hammond organs, this latest offering is surprisingly acoustic and delicate. Storløkken on piano for the first time in Supersilent, and Henriksen on trumpet dominate this album, with Sten weaving discreet electronic textures in the backdrop. Most of the tracks were recorded early last year shortly after Vespestad announced he was leaving the formation, with additional recordings sourced from the fructuous 2005 sessions for 8, the remainder of which are due to be released on vinyl as 11 imminently.

This move toward predominantly acoustic instrumentation shows Supersilent under radically different lights to anything they have served up until now. Continue Reading »

PHONOPHANI
Kreken
RCD2101
Rune Grammofon 2010
12 Tracks. 55mins55secs

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

Phonophani, the project of multi-instrumentist and digital artist Espen Sommer Eide, is back with a fourth serving of expressionist electro-acoustic experimentations, and this time, Sommer Eide has turned his attention to Norwegian folklore, using traditional instruments as sound sources and building them into the fabric of his record.

Sommer Eide is, amongst other things, one half of the excellent Alog, a project he founded with Dag-Are Haugan in 1997 and with who he has released five albums, four of which published on Rune Grammofon, and a number of EPs. Running in parallel, Phonophani has had for main objective to bring together acoustic and electronic instrumentation and explore the strange world that is brought to life as they meet. This has led to three radically different records, from the hypnotic orchestral textures of his self-titled debut, originally released in 1998 on Geir Jenssen’s Biophon imprint and re-released on Rune Grammofon four years ago, to the much more fragmented abstraction of Genetic Engineering (2001) and the often abrasive and angular Oak Or Rock (2004). Continue Reading »

STIAN WESTERHUS
Pitch Black Star Spangled
RCD2099
Rune Grammofon 2010
09 Tracks. 46mins56secs

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

Pitch Black Star Spangled is a darker, lonelier experience than its bastard sibling, Puma’s Half Nelson Courtship and it’s all the more impressive for it. Where Half Nelson Courtship‘s group context locates the music in a slightly more familiar dynamic, Westerhus solo tiptoes out on a long, narrow outcrop and leans over the edge, peering intently into the abyss.

The album begins with Don’t Tell Me This Is Home, a hushed prologue whose titular alienation hints at what’s to come. Thy Gospel ups the ante. It’s clearly addressed to Lucifer rather than the bearded, cloud-girt one. (Westerhus does, after all, hark from Norway, the home of Black Metal). Continue Reading »

PUMA
Half Nelson Courtship
RCD2098
Rune Grammofon 2010
09 Tracks. 42mins29secs

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

Half Nelson Courtship is a strange beast, an uneasy creature that seems happiest cleaving to the shadows. Some of the time it’s half there, half not – like a trick of the light spied only by looking obliquely away from the subject. Puma is Øystein Moen (synthesizers and electronics), Stian Westerhus (guitar and electronics) and Gard Nilssen (drums). Half Nelson Courtship is their third album and first for Rune Grammofon.

Opening track Bison Woven is tremendously febrile, Westerhus’ guitar tracing out a wavering threnody against Moen’s subdued murmur and Nilssen’s distant cymbal plash. Continue Reading »

ESPEN ERIKSEN TRIO
You Had Me At Goodbye
RCD2096
Rune Grammofon 2010
08 Tracks. 37mins30secs

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

This debut album from Espen Eriksen Trio is something of a rarity on Rune Grammofon; a record so smooth, gentle and beautifully melodic that it breaks with the label’s experimental tradition to open up towards very different grounds. Led by pianist Espen Eriksen, who, beside playing with some of the best Scandinavian jazz artists, including Mats Eilertsen and Thomas Strønen, has also over the years dabbled in pop music, the ensemble also comprises bassist Lars Tormod Jenset, who is also a member of swing trio Hot N Spicy and experimental jazz/folk ensemble Rodent, and drummer Andreas Bye, who regularly plays with the likes of Håkon Kornstad, Joshua Redman, Nils Petter Molvær or John Scofield, and was once a member of Bugge Wesseltoft’s New Conception Of Jazz. Continue Reading »

SUPERSILENT
9
RCD2092
Rune Grammofon 2009
04 Tracks. 50mins45secs

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

Necessity is the mother of all (re-)inventions. This must have been in the mind of the three remaining members of Supersilent following the departure of drummer Jarle Vespestad last year. Not that the band are strangers to regeneration. Indeed, each one of their six releases to date has, in one way or another, seen them going back to the drawing board, but, for the first time since Helge Sten joined the original trio of Arve Henriksen, Ståle Storløkken and Vesperstad in 1997, the fundamental dynamic of the band has changed. And Supersilent have changed with it. With Vesperstad‘s rhythmic powerhouse gone, Henriksen, Sten and Storløkken have created a totally atmospheric and moody record; not one that growls, threatens or jumps at the throat, but one that lurks in smoky corners and dark alleyways. Continue Reading »

CIRCULASIONE TOTALE ORCHESTRA
Bandwidth
RCD2089
Rune Grammofon 2009
12 Tracks. 171mins31secs

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

Led by Norwegian saxophonist Frode Gjerstad, Circulacione Totale Orchestra is an ever-changing formation, which he started in the mid-eighties as a forum for musicians to experiment with improvised music. Over the years, CTO has counted as many as thirteen musicians in one performance, although it is more usual to find around ten members at any one time. In this particular incarnation, CTO features two slightly different casts of internationally renowned musicians such as drummer extraordinaire Paal Nilssen-Love, noise authority Lasse Marhaug, Morten Johan Olsen (drums and electronics), who is regularly found fuelling the rhythmic section of MoHa! and Ultralyd, American cornet player Bobby Bradford, an early collaborator with Ornette Coleman, or Ingebrigt Haaker Flaten, of The Thing and Scorch Trio, and a long-term collaborator with Nilssen-Love, on acoustic bass, to name but a few.

Something of a mastodon release, Bandwidth, CTO’s fifth album, their first for Rune Grammofon, spills over three CDs and almost three hours. Continue Reading »

FIRE!
You Liked Me Five Minutes Ago
RCD2091
Rune Grammofon 2009
04 Tracks. 41mins51secs

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

Out of the seemingly inexhaustible treasure chest that is the Scandinavian experimental scene comes this latest Swedish supergroup, formed of saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, member of many a formation, of which the best known is perhaps The Thing, bassist Johan Berthling, co-founder of Häpna and member of Tape, Animes and Sten Sandell Trio, and Andreas Werliin, the drumming half of Wildbirds & Peacedrums amongst other things. Having landed on Rune Grammofon with their first missive, this three-headed entity, who operate under a banner which, thanks to a prominent element of punctuation, unmistakably suggests an element of urgency, have such widespread backgrounds that the sum of their collaborative effort was bound to surpass much of their individual outputs. Continue Reading »