Sidsel Endresen

Endresen's vocals sound unnervingly close to those of folk-rock singer Sandy Denny on this song cycle of sorts, originally commissioned by a Norwegian jazz festival. Themes of traveling and a vaguely mythic air (the songs were originally titled "Pagan Pilgrimage") predominate, but the chief pleasures are the haunting and resonant qualities of Endresen's voice. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide

Sidsel Endresen & Stian Westerhus - Didymoi Dreams (2012) {Rune Grammofon ‎RCD2131}
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© 2012 Rune Grammofon ‎| RCD2131
Jazz / Avant-Garde / Experimental

From its opening moments, with vocalist Sidsel Endresen stutter singing into the echoes of a room in front of a live audience accompanied only by the glistening effects of Stian Westerhus' effects-laden guitar, it is obvious this is no common duet recording. It is not even a typical vocal-and-instrument improvisational offering. Recorded at 2011's Nattjazz Festival in Bergen, the duo engages in an astonishing variety of forms and approaches in this hour-long high-wire act. Endresen has spent over 30 years performing and composing in a wide variety of genres from traditional, folk music, film scores, jazz, mutant pop, and dance music, as well as improvisation. Westerhus is one of the great young Western European hopes for Continental jazz.

“Ha!” is the fourth Humcrush album, this time with the most welcome addition of singer Sidsel Endresen. Having toured together for a couple of years, they finally recorded some shows last year. This album was beautifully recorded in concert at Willisau Jazzfestival and is a great example of the duo´s seamless interaction as well as Endresen´s ability to improvise, listen, react, adapt and surprise, fully showing that we are dealing with one of the world´s leading vocal improvisors, coming from years of experience from solo work and collaborations with musicians like Bugge Wesseltoft, Helge Sten, Christian Wallumrød, Rolf Wallin, Jan Bang, Håkon Kornstad and Stian Westerhus.

While the Norwegian jazz scene has been pursuing its own course for decades, the period of 1996-1997 represented a significant watershed, a milestone where an entirely new kind of music emerged, linked to jazz but distanced considerably—some might say completely, but they'd be mistaken—from its roots in the American tradition. Three seminal and groundbreaking albums were released within a year of each other: trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær's Khmer (ECM, 1997); noise improv group Supersilent's 1- 3 (Rune Grammofon, 1997); and, beating the others by a year, keyboardist Bugge Wesseltoft's aptly titled New Conception of Jazz (Jazzland, 1996). All three explored the integration of electronics, disparate cultural references, programming, turntables and—especially in the case of Supersilent, the most avant-garde of the three— noise, to create aural landscapes that were innovative, otherworldly and refreshingly new.

David Sylvian, Jan Bang, Erik Honore - Uncommon Deities (2012) {SamadhiSound ss022}
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© 2012 SamadhiSound | sound cd ss022
Rock / Jazz / Avant-Garde / Experimental

6 panel digipak with a matte laminate finish featuring artwork by Hannah Bertram and art direction by David Sylvian* At last fall's Punkt Festival-one of the world's premiere get-togethers of improvising and adventurous musicians, an audio installation by David Sylvian filled the space, and the opening night celebration brought poets and musicians into the mix: the acclaimed Norwegian poets Paal-Helge Haugen and Nils Christian Moe Repstad read alongside Evan Parker and Arve Henriksen, and their works were read in English by Sylvian, whose recorded voice was accompanied by John Tilbury, Philip Jeck, and Sidsel Endresen.

Jon Arild Eberson is a Norwegian jazz guitarist and composer, son of jazz guitarist Leif Eberson, father of keyboardist Marte Maaland Eberson, and known from bands such as Moose Loose, Radka Toneff Quintet , and Blow Out. Eberson had his debut recording as a guitarist on Ketil Bjørnstad's debut album Åpning (1972). In 1980 he formed the Jon Eberson Group, supported by vocalist and lyricist Sidsel Endresen. The group attracted attention with Jive Talking (1981), which was awarded the Spellemannprisen, and City Visions (1984), but disbanded in 1986. The following year he released the Eberson Pigs and Poetry with Endresen, and he has continued to be noticed in a variety of contexts like the Jazzpunkensemblet.

Paolo Vinaccia turned 64 on March 27. Paolo is not so well these days, and is having his second round of chemotherapy, combined with many different alternative treatment methods.

Jazzland is proud to present the brand new opus from two of the brightest luminaries on the Norwegian scene. "Snow Catches on her Eyelashes" emanates musical authority, a hyperconscious layering of textures and musicality, at once evocative of some otherworldly space, yet familiar at a deep human level that resonates with each sonic flourish.
While Aarset and Bang have worked together in many projects, particularly on Aarset's "Dream Logic" (ECM 2012), "Snow Catches on her Eyelashes" is a different kind of creation. Where "Dream Logic" was distinctly an "Eivind Aarset" album, albeit one where Aarset explored new territory with his guitar and playing, this new album is clearly the work of a duo.Immediately noticeable is the lack of obviously "guitar" sounds.

Robag Wruhme is a producer who likes to take his time over his LPs - Venq Tolep comes a full eight years after his previous album Thora Vukk (also out through Pampa). When you listen to this thing the care that Wruhme has put into his craft is most evident. The cornerstone of Venq Tolep is a pretty, minimal tech-house style similar to DJ Koze, and the tracks in this mode (‘Venq Tolep’, ‘Komalh’) contain carefully-crafted synth tones and crisp drum programming. Ambient music and contemporary classical composition are also in play on Venq Tolep, styles which only add to the record’s sweet vibe.