Fredrik Rasten has worked in different constellations of improvised and experimental music over the last six years and has been touring in Europe and Russia with the duo Pip and the quartet Oker. His work focuses on the acoustic guitar and in exploring acoustic phenomena based on tonal interactions.
Guest
Thomas Strønen
Thomas Strønen is a Norwegian jazz drummer and composer, known for more than 60 albums, and cooperation with internationally acclaimed musicians worldwide. Strønen is recording for the great German label ECMand also for Rune Grammofon. As a composer, Strønen has contributed to the release of over forty recordings as well as several commissioned works for festivals.
David Skinner
Oslo-based David Skinner has been a professional pianist and bandleader since 2001. David has toured extensively, visiting Japan (6 times), Finland, and various jazz festivals and dance events in Norway, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and Greece. David plays regularly at venues all over Oslo, from Oslo Concert Hall to small jazz bars and private engagements.
He also plays electric piano and synthesizers, and his solo electronic project is called Megacrex.
Vuo Records
Ingar Zach / SOFA Records
Ingar Zach is one of the leading musicians on the experimental scene from Norway. He is known for the wide range of sounds in his ever changing percussion setup. He uses his percussion in an extremely dynamic and personal way and with a meticulous precision in his gentle touch. Now living in Madrid, he concentrates on his solo work and his regular ensembles such as Dans les arbres, Huntsville, MURAL to name a few. He has been dedicated to experimental music and folk music for the last twenty years and he is now touring and recording with his regular ensembles in Europe, Canada, USA, South America and Asia. He founded the Norwegian label for improvised music, SOFA, together with guitar player, Ivar Grydeland in May 2000.
Vilde&Inga
Vilde&Inga is a young string duo playing acoustic free improvised music, featuring violin and double bass. By exploring nontraditional approaches to the instruments, the duo greatly expands their timbre palette. The wide horizons of colour allow the music to develop slowly and organically, yet with a keen underlying sense of compositional form.
Vilde Sandve Alnæs and Inga Margrete Aas are classically trained musicians from Norway. They started to play together in 2010 and have studied at The Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. In 2016 they received The Lindeman Prize for Young Musicians. Vilde&Inga tour both in Norway and internationally. They regularly play with percussionist Ingar Zach. Aas and Alnæs are also both involved in a new trio with Sidsel Endresen (voice) named Azkadenya. Festivals they have visited include Oslo Jazz Festival, Only Connect Festival of Sound, Kongsberg Jazz Festival, Vinterlyd festival, Ultima– Oslo Contemporary Music Festival and Sound Disobedience. Vilde&Inga’s first album, Makrofauna, was released on ECM March 2014. They will release their second album ‘Silfr’ on the Norwegian label SOFA May 2017.
Nu:Nord
Mira Benjamin is a Canadian violinist, researcher and new-music instigator.
Since 2011, Mira has co-directed NU:NORD – a project-based music and performance network which instigates artistic exchanges and encourages community building between music creators from Canada, Norway & the UK. To date NU:NORD has engaged 79 artists and commissioned 62 new works. Through this initiative, Mira hopes to offer a foundation from which Canadian artists can reach out to artistic communities overseas, and provide a conduit through which UK & Norwegian artists can access Canada’s rich art culture.
Emilie Heldal Lidsheim
Emilie Heldal Lidsheim is an active violinist, violist and singer song writer, based in Oslo. After finishing her master in performance at The Norwegian Academy of Music in 2013, she has had an active freelance carreer, playing in several ensembles and bands, and as a solo artist with her own music. Her music is inspired by Norwegian folk music, pop and different African music. In addition to her solo carreer she is a member of the orchestra Ensemble Allegria, and is currently freelancing in ensembles such as The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, The Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Rumi Ensemble, Matona Afdahl Group, Norwegian World Orchestra.
Kristine Tjøgersen
HITYAMAC
HITYAMAC is a Norwegian trio working with improvised music, video art and performance art. HITYAMAC consists of Henrik Koppen (performance, video art, light, sound art), Torkjell Hovland (double bass) and Torgeir Hovden Standal (acoustic guitar). For SVS they have made an abstract audio play which combines recordings of sound performances in different urban environments with improvised music.
Johan Lindvall
Johan Lindvall is a Swedish pianist and composer based in Oslo. After finishing his master studies at the Norwegian academy of music he's mainly focusing on minimalistic music, both acoustic and electronic, in composition and improvisation. He's active in projects such as Torg, Antler and Mette Henriette.
Kaja Fjellberg Pettersen
Kaja Fjellberg Pettersen is a Norwegian cellist living in Oslo. She is the artistic leader of the string ensemble Oslo Strings, a multidisciplinary string ensemble with numerous collaborations in all kinds of genres. The group, founded in 2013, has grown to be one of the most popular string groups to for recordings and live shows, and the ensemble works more like a band than a traditional chamber group. Open minded to all kinds of music, flexible in the way to learn music and writing their own arrangements, Oslo Strings has become quite unique in the Norwegian music scene.
Ian Anderson
Ian Anderson plays in many different ensembles, including Duo van Vliet (viola and accordion duo), Scottish Ballet (where he holds the position of Principal Viola), yllwshrk (alternative rock band, ‘yellow shark’, where he plays guitar and writes music), and IMOGEN (Berlin-based chamber music collective).
Recent highlights include Duo van Vliet’s performance of Georg Friedrich Haas’ double concerto for viola, accordion and chamber ensemble, “….”, with the Orkiestra Muzyki Nowej (New Music Orchestra), Katowice; a tour of Europe and Russia with Jonny Greenwood as part of the London Contemporary Orchestra Soloists; playing on Radiohead’s latest album A Moon Shaped Pool (also with the London Contemporary Orchestra); and IMOGEN’s debut tour of Germany with Gilles Apap, presenting a thread of music of all styles, including Ravel, Björk, Frank Zappa and Claude Vivier. At the 2017 PODIUM Festival, Esslingen, he presented his version of Björk’s 1997 masterpiece album, Homogenic, reimagined for string quintet and a variety of miscellaneous objects.
Heard Sound System
The Copenhagen based Heard Sound System, controlled by seasoned music head Jack Maynard aka JBT, will showcase - via vinyl, digital and live performances - the finest musical outsiders and forward thinking mainstreamers originating from and connected to the Nordic lands.
From experimental electronic styles, post rock and beat science jams in dub to sonic docu-poems, post classical and pop, Heard Sound System will join the dots between modern sounds and ancient knowledge systems, the only constant being the highest level of production and originality by the artists they broadcast to the world.
Karl Nyberg
Karl Nyberg is a young "up and coming" swedish saxophonist and composer currently living in Oslo. He is active in a lot of different projects such as "Megalodon Collective", Left Exit, Mr K, Bone Machine and many more.
Photo: Thor Egil Leirtrø