IN THE COUNTRY
Sounds & Sights
RCD2113/RLP3113
Rune Grammofon 2011
08 Tracks. 65mins05secs / 07 Tracks. 70mins19secs

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

With three albums published within five years, Norwegian jazz trio In The Country have positioned themselves on the more melodic side of the Rune Grammofon roster. Formed of pianist vocalist Morten Qvenild, who is regularly found operating alongside Susanna Wallumrød as her orchestra or as a member of Shining, bass player Roger Arntzen, also one half of Ballrogg and a member of Damp, and drummer and percussionist Pål Hausken, In The Country started while the three musicians were studying at the Norwegian Academy of Music, in Oslo, back in 2003. A year later, they had signed with Rune Grammofon and released their debut album, This Was The Pace Of My Heartbeat.

Originally intended as a live DVD, Sounds & Sights soon became a much more ambitious project. Continue Reading »

AUTECHRE & THE HAFLER TRIO
ah3e0 & a3oe (ae3o3)
DS94/SS2
Die Stadt/Simply Superior 2011
02 Tracks. 240mins00secs

Amazon UK: DVD Boomkat: DVD

The collaboration between Autechre’s Sean Booth and Rob Brown and The Hafler Trio’s Andrew McKenzie started back in 2003 with an enigmatic first release, æ3o & h3æ, published on Phonometrography, which was followed two years later by a much more extensive ambient experiment, æo3 & 3hæ (Die Stadt). Since, nothing else had filtered out from the trio’s laboratory until this third release, limited to 1000 copies worldwide was announced at the end of August.

Released as a double DVD (5.1 Audio Version), ah3eo & a3oe (æ3o3) features three tracks, the first one clocking at an impressive two hours, the second and third stretching over forty-seven and fifty eight minutes respectively, all available both in Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 formats. 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 »

EFTERKLANG & THE DANISH NATIONAL CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Performing Parades
BAY69
The Leaf Label 2009
11 Tracks. 56mins31secs

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

When they released their second album, Parades, back in October 2007, Danish formation Efterklang probably had very little idea that they would literally live on it for two years. Right from the onset, Efterklang have truly come to life performing live, and this was undoubtedly key in their moving from the largely electronic textures of their early releases toward much more acoustic and instrument-based. Their 2007 mini album Under Giant Trees, recorded while the band were on tour, established the blueprint for Parades, released a few months later. A much more ambitious effort than its predecessor, Tripper, published in 2004, the album was recorded with a number of additional contributors, including Peter Broderick and Our Broken Garden’s Anna Brønsted, together with a variety of formations and choirs. Continue Reading »

310
Lifeline
310 (Self-released) 2009
43 Tracks. 177mins29secs

310 appeared on The Leaf Label ten years ago, originally with an EP, NOD, quickly followed by an album, The Dirty Rope, yet, while they hadn’t benefited of a proper release network until then, this was actually the band’s third album, after the self-released Aug 56 (1997) and Snorkelhouse (1998), which were later collated on Downtown & Brooklyn Only. The project of Seattle-based Joseph Dierker and New Yorker Tim Donovan, 310 rapidly gained praises for their haunting blend of electronica, tainted with found sounds and occasional guitars and laid over hip-hop-infused beats, and continued to do so with their following releases, After All (2001) and Recessional (2003). After a four year gap, 310 returned with Sixes & Sevens, published on Conduit Records, in 2007. Split over two DVDs, Lifeline documents twelve years in the career of the band. The first disc collects a handful of live performances recorded in New York and London between 2000 and 2001, plus additional tour footage, while the second offers a retrospective mix of their work through twenty three tracks. Continue Reading »

ALVA NOTO + RYUICHI SAKAMOTO WITH ENSEMBLE MODERN
utp_
RN96
Raster-Noton 2009
10 Tracks. 71mins57secs / DVD 112mins07

CD+DVD: Amazon.co.uk | Boomkat | Download:  iTunes | Boomkat

utp_ is the fourth collaboration between legendary Japanese innovator Ryuichi Sakamoto and German sound artist Carsten Nicolai, as Alva Noto, following Vrioon in 2002 and Insen and Revep in 2005. In 2007, the pair were commissioned an audio-visual performance with eminent German contemporary orchestra Ensemble Modern, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the city of Mannheim, situated in the state of Baden-Württemberg, in the South West of Germany. Released as a CD, presenting the various compositions, and DVD, documenting both the live performance, complete with synchronised visuals projected at the back of the orchestra, and utp_ Tryout, a behind the scene documentary showing every aspect of the preparation for the performance, from composition to the creation of the visual components, utp_ is quite a big piece of work, totally in contrast with the minimal aesthetic of the work itself. Continue Reading »