Showing posts with label Bergen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bergen. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Martin Beck: Last Night



This might be streching it a bit, but here are some kind of Robert Wyatt news from Bergen (Norway)!

The Bergen Kunsthall art gallery is showing Martin Beck´s "Last Night". The info and explanations below are stolen from Bergen Kunsthall´s site:

"In Last Night the historical material consists of a list of 118 songs, organized in the order they were played at the New York dance party The Loft on 2 June 1984. Since 1970 David Mancuso had been hosting weekly parties in his own home, first at 647 Broadway and later at 99 Prince Street. What eventually became known as The Loft has a unique position in the history of modern music and dance culture. With an intimate atmosphere typified by collective affinities and with the focus on music, The Loft had no commercial agenda — unlike the discotheques that, in time, filled New York with the high-glamour and celebrity factor."

"The 13-and-half-hour-long film version of Last Night (2016) consists of a series of lock shots of a record player where each song is played in its entirety. Each new song is presented from a new camera angle. A total of ten different camera angles are repeated in a pattern based on the Golden Ratio. A hypnotic focus on the slowly moving pickup across the rotating vinyl record emphasizes the physical reproduction of the music. In the exhibition, a specially adapted hi-fi system is used, assembled to correspond to the high-level sound quality one could experience at The Loft."

I have visited the exhibition a couple of times, hearing some random tunes, but last Saturday morning I was alone in the hall watching the beginning of the 13 hours continuous screening of the film, just to hear the third song to be played: Working Week: "Venceremos (We Will Win)", 12-inch single (Paladin Records 1984), with Tracey Thorn and Robert Wyatt singing.

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Pasteups






Some people have been working hard around Bergen last night, giving us loads of fine pasteups.

From the top you have the blue ones by RENO, then a collaboration between RENO, John XC and Teg, and finally a work by John XC.

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Monday, August 31, 2015

1982 Festival






What a great music weekend we just had at the 1982 Festival at Bergen Kjøtt, with four evenings dedicated to the music of 1982 and friends.

A short version of the happenings:

- BJ Cole playing pedal steel with the trio, and no doubt enjoying it. Very nice!
- Kristin Bolstad adding electronics, and both prerecorded and live samples to the folk improv. Worked fine!
- Lumen Drones (check their ECM album!) bringing some volume, rock and drones, ending up inviting the full 1982 trio to participate on a couple of wild numbers!
- Fredrik Rysjedal´s animation, telling the story of his grandfather, to 1982´s music. Touching!
- Trygve Seim and Stian Omenås making 1982 a quintet for the first time, and you may also spot a little guest behind the drums there, making it the 1982 sextet.
- Sigbjørn Apeland presented his new solo project working with instruments that are not working! Quite dusty too some of them. First time I have seen him with a guitar!
- Fredrik Ljungkvist and 1982 playing a quiet and beautiful Sunday concert.
- Elisabeth Færøy Lund exhibiting her photos of houses in a Swedish street.

All four (highly recommended!) 1982 albums have Elisabeth Færøy Lund´s photos on the cover.

As always click on photos for larger versions. If you still wonder about that person with "wings" in photo number two, let me tell you that it is just Sigbjørn Apeland and the only (and quite dead) houseplant in the venue.

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Street Art In The Woods




Here are some photos from a great stunt made by Bergen based street artists Barnslig, MuM, Dake and Bares on Mount Fløyen (one of seven mountains surrounding the city).

Trolls, monsters and animals painted on plastic among the trees, made an exciting exhibition (lasting only a couple of days).

Watch a video from the work right here.

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Greece



Street artist Argus has been out in Bergen the night before the Greek election.

Sunday, June 21, 2015

More Ice For The Polar Bears Please!



I went for a good walk today, to the top of mount Ulriken, the highest one of Bergen´s seven mountains (643 meters above sea level).

There, on the very top, is street artist AFK´s comment on the climate troubles we are all facing.
The piece is called "Diamond Ice".

If you are a new visitor and ended up here because of a search on polar bears or climate changes, Bergen is in Norway. And no, we don´t have polar bears here (you have to go to Svalbard to se one on Norwegian ground - or ice)!

Friday, June 5, 2015

LUFT at Nattjazz 2015



Holy mackerel what a concert the duo LUFT performed at the Nattjazz festival in Bergen last night! Wild duo playing and fine solos.

LUFT is Mats Gustafsson (sax) and Erwan Keravec (bagpipe), and a fitting name they have too, as "luft" means air in Mats Gustafsson´s own Swedish (and in Norwegian I must add).
These guys need some proper lungs to play what they do!

Wonder how they sound like? Click right here for one of four videos from their concert at Jazzhouse (Copenhagen) in February 2015.

Gustafsson said a studio album had recently been recorded by LUFT, but no deal had been done with a record company.

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Needle and thread



Going offline for a week or so, but before I go - here is how we repair our houses in Bergen.

At least according to street artist Vest.

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Bergen Street Art Spring 2015










Here are some of my last street art shots from Bergen.

From the top:
Eagle by anonymous.
MuM has been painting in the woods.
Insects by Dake.
Fuck da pol... by Skurk.
Troll pushing souvenirs by Skurk.
Motorcycle by Newton and older works by DotDotDot and Torso (Je suis).
Pasteup by Teg.
MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction) by Joy.

As always: Click on pictures for larger versions and feel free to visit my Flickr.

Monday, February 16, 2015

Anla Courtis and Bergen Impro Storband








Saturday evening I attended a concert at the Bergen Kjøtt venue, where Anla Courtis and the "Bergen Impro Big Band" did a "guitar special" inside an art exhibition.

I love to listen to music this way. Audiences walking around watching pieces of art, and still concentrating on the music.

This night the musicians where placed far from each other in the the big industrial rooms, taking turns playing solos, duos and trios (noise, ambient, rock). The last piece was called "Tutti Feed" on the setlist, and it sure was massive!

Sorry I don´t know the names of all the musicians here (some quite young guys too) but it´s John Hegre and Anla Courtis on the two first photos.

And since Saturday was Valentine´s Day, some even had equipment perfect for this romantic day (last photo).


Added 21 February:

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Borealis 2015



In one month (11 - 15 March) the Borealis Festival for experimental music is happening in Bergen again!

Here is the programme, and it seems like they are promising more artists to be announced.

The following info is stolen from the Borealis newsletter:

"We’ll be exploring gender power dynamics, hip-hop and experimental singing with Lithuanian composer Lina Lapelyte; making music with typewriters thanks to South Korea’s A. Typist; watching the world premiere of an opera about madness and electricity from British composer Emily Hall; and discovering extended instrumental textures alongside Danish composer Christian Winther Christensen.

There’ll be a raft of world premieres from Bergen based composers; a new commission for cello and electronics arriving from the landscape and buildings of the far North East of Norway in the hands of Lucy Railton and Russell Haswell; immersive 3D sound work from Thorolf Thuestad; and you can drop in to listen to part wild horses mane on both sides build their cassette library of Bergen field recordings for a whole month.

We also have an automatic instrument crafted from ice, porcelain and hydrophones by Tomoko Sauvage; the stratospheric vocal stylings of Newcastle's Richard Dawson; Norwegian premieres of works for sinfonietta by Larry Goves and Johannes Kreidler; an all night sleeping performance hosted by Peter Lenaerts; Sons of Kemet a band with two drummers and tuba for bassline; talks and films and more…!"

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Arto Lindsay and Paal Nilsen-Love in Bergen



Arto Lindsay and Paal Nilsen-Love at Bergen Jazzforum 23 January 2015.

Friday, January 23, 2015

Joy in Bergen



Street artist Joy has been out working in the cold Bergen weather lately.

Some more or less obvious messages here?

- "Be online!"
- Hard to get a place to stay these days.
- One turtle says to the other: "Run for your life mate!".

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Joy to the hotel





An old guy like me would not dream of asking young people to become vandals and crooks of course, but I must admit that I prefer street art to be outdoors (and on walls that have not been painted for a while).

Still a lot of the best ones now seem to enjoy doing commissioned works like huge murals and decorations in office buildings, training centers and hotels. Everybody needs some money to get by, so that´s not too hard to understand, is it?

I checked out Bergen street art artist Joy´s fine work at the Edvard Grieg Hotel in Bergen, not far from the airport.

The models are our local historical big shot Edvard Grieg, Bergen mayor Trude Drevland and Norway´s first female bishop, Rosemarie Køhn, Marilyn Monroe style and all!

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays To All Of You




I am not much of a believer, but when Jesus comes to town for Christmas what can you do?

He´s wearing his Easter crown of thorns, but still!

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Christmas To Be Announced



I´m not that wild about Christmas calendars, but I Check a few, even if they don´t have any chocolate surprises.

On Soundcloud you may find an alternative calendar with Norwegian artists, and today´s surprise was The Big Almost, with Alexander Simm (g) Jacob Öhrvall (b, keyb) and Bergen´s own drummer Øyvind Hegg-Lunde. Two Swedes and one Norwegian there, and they are in a quite noisy festive mood today.

Check out their album "Mouth"(2014) too!

Friday, December 5, 2014

Street Art Auction For Palestine



On the 6th of December the Bergen gallery Bart will organize a street art auction in support of "Aesthetic Prosthetic", a project aiming to raise money for the only prosthetic workshop in Gaza.

The auction is now open for bidding, and you may find pictures of the works over here, but please note there are more to come.

If your Norwegian is a bit rusty, roll a bit down for some English info with contact e-mails and all.

Art by Mode 2 and DotDotDot here in this post, and I have some more from the exhibition on Flickr.