Trøbbel Bjørn Torske

Norway meets Iceland in wildly inventive ambient-gothic improvisations recorded in an abandoned Reykjavik warehouse Jo Berger Myhre and Ólafur Björn Ólafsson have created a strikingly original sound-world that, while it may have its antecedents, doesn’t really remind you of anyone else.

At the time César Franck was born in Liège, Belgium, on 10 December 1822, Beethoven had not yet composed his 9th symphony, or his last string quartets. When Franck died at the age of 67 in 1890, Claude Debussy had already made his mark with works including the Cinq poèmes de Charles Baudelaire; it is perhaps not surprising, therefore, that a composer whose life spanned such extremities, had trouble finding his own voice.

Airbag co-founder, songwriter and lead guitarist, Bjørn Riis is ready with a new studio album titled “Everything to Everyone”. It features six striking tracks, all dealing with human emotions and the fear of losing one self in the constant effort to meet every, often perceived, expectation.

Smalltown Supersound, the Norwegian label run by Oslo-based Joakim Haugland, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. To mark the occasion, the label is releasing The Movement Of The Free Spirit, an epic new mix album of the Smalltown Supersound catalogue by Prins Thomas, out November 30th. As Thomas’s follow up to Paradise Goulash, The Movement Of The Free Spirit is a 3-disc mix comprised of 80 tracks and 3 hours and 40 minutes of music featuring artists including Sonic Youth, DJ Harvey, Studio, Yoshimi (Boredoms), Kim Gordon, Oneohtrix Point Never, Todd Rundgren, Stereolab, High Llamas, Neneh Cherry, Ricardo Villalobos, Four Tet, Bjørn Torske, Dungen, The Orb, Kelly Lee Owens, Lindstrøm, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Biosphere, Peter Brötzmann, and many more (full track list is below). The mix will be released as a CD box set, digitally (mix and unmixed) and disc 1 will be available as a double LP.

The fifth volume in the Future Sound of Jazz series is a double-disc set including a range of techno, jazzy and experimental tracks from Nonplace Urban Field, Bjorn Torske, Chaser, Max Brennan, Fauna Flash and Force & Paul, among others.

Ambitions is Prins Thomas’ 6th album and his second solo album for Smalltown Supersound (plus two duo albums with Bjørn Torske and Bugge Wesseltoft). Ambitions (out April 5th) picks up from were he left off with Principe Del Norte. Still ambitious, but the tracks are shorter, more melodic and more concise. Prins Thomas also offers up his first vocal track, lead single "Feel A Love." Or to be precise, it's based around a sample of the track "Feel A Love" by one of the biggest pop-stars in Norway in the 70s and 80s, the late Alex (Naumik).

Icelandic bass-baritone Andri Björn Róbertsson, and pianist Ástríður Alda Sigurðardóttir, perform Robert Schumann’s Liederkreis op. 24 and Liederkreis op. 39, along with seven songs by the Icelandic composer Árni Thorsteinson. The two Liederkreise were composed during Schumann´s Year of Song in 1840. More than sixty years later Thorsteinson began publishing his songs, and they were instantly regarded as national treasures by the Icelandic nation. The programme invites the listener on a mysterious journey through nature, love, death and the unknown.

Bjørn Riis released his first solo album, Lullabies in a Car Crash on Karisma Records in late 2014. The album is a personal statement comprising six songs in the tradition of classic and progressive rock. Lullabies in a Car Crash was met by rave reviews and was ranked among the best prog releases of the year. Bjørn is one of the founding members, the lead guitarist and main songwriter of the highly successful Norwegian band Airbag. Their three releases, ‘Identity’ (2009), ‘All Rights Removed’ (2011) and ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ (2013), all on Karisma Records, have all received great reviews worldwide and all become favourites among fans all over the globe.