Torkjell Hovland is a music critic and journalist based in Oslo writing for Jazznytt, Ballade.no, Folkemusikk and NRK Radio. He wrote his master thesis in Musicology on silence and the Wandelweiser collective, and works with silence in his own music.
Ivar Myrset Asheim is a Norwegian jazz drummer based in Oslo. He’s active in the jazz, pop and improvising scene in Norway as sideman, bandleader and composer. He plays in bands like Billy Meier, Airdust, Pangpang, Trond Kallevåg Hansen trio, Matona’s Afdahl Group, Konradsen, Luke Elliot and LILJA. Ivar has contributed on several album releases and has a Bachelor degree in performing jazz from the Norwegian Academy of Music.
Violinist Sara Övinge, born in Sweden, had her first appearance as soloist with Norrköping Symphony Orchestra at the age of 9. Aged 16, she attended the Royal College of Music in Stockholm with further studies in Oslo as well as London. Sara has appeared as soloist in various European countries and received numerous grants, awards and prizes. In 2009, she won Concert Norway's INTRO Classical competition and in Sweden’s biggest music competition - the Swedish Soloist Prize she won the Listeners prize. This all led to engagements with three of the major Norwegian symphony orchestras as well as Swedish top rate symphony orchestras. Sara was appointed Associate Concertmaster at the Norwegian National Opera Ballet in 2014, a position she left to fulfill her passion for an eclectic range of performance and music making. Sara is a steady musician in the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Oslo Sinfonietta and Cikada. Sara's album "Patientia" with music by Kjetil Bjerkestrand and Philip Glass is out now!
Nina Mortvedt is a musician/composer and music improviser. She started Band Of Gold in
2013, in collaboration with Nikolai Hængsle, and has so far released two highly acclaimed
albums. The debut in 2015 called “Band Of Gold” earned the duo the Phonofile Nordic Music
Prize, as the first Norwegian artist ever in addition to being nominated for the Norwegian
Grammy Awards. Band Of Gold´s second album “Where´s The Magic” was released this
March and was just as well, if not better, received by the critics all over Europe and in the
US. In addition to Band Of Gold, Mortvedt has done many improvisational concerts/shows
with the group Smaa Graa. Their most recent show called “Chemistry”, is a collaboration
with the artist and choreographer Kim Hiorthøy. This show premiered at The Ultima Oslo
Contemporary Music Festival in 2015 and has toured since then. Mortvedt continues to
write music for- and tour with Band Of Gold and Band Of Gold will also be joining the superb
Susanne Sundfør on stage during many festivals this summer.
Sanskriti Shrestha (1990) is a Nepalese tabla player based in Oslo. Shrestha has been active in some iconic projects in Scandinavia, touring across Europe, Asia, and Australia with ensembles spanning a large diversity of musical genres. She brings her Nepalese/Indian musical background in the merge with jazz, electronics and other styles of contemporary music. She has been working to promote the tabla to be recognized as a versatile instrument with rich possibilities. Coming from a family of music professionals, she has been sustaining the tradition she grew up with and has developed an innovative style of solo performance and collaboration. Since adolescence, she has continued to expand her vocabulary in Tablas and promote it into vogue as a special and important musical instrument in the scene of music today.
“Shrestha's style of playing is modern - and unconventional, but with solid anchoring in classical technique.” - Johan Hauknes, Salt Peanuts.
Sanskriti learned Tabla from her teacher Homnath Upadhyaya in Kathmandu where she completed her masters in Tabla from Allahabad Sangeet Samiti Ktm. Later in 2010 she moved to Oslo for her further studies and graduated from The Norwegian Academy of Music.
Nils Henrik Asheim (b.1960) enjoys a combined career as composer and
performer. He took his education at the Norwegian Academy of Music and
Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. Asheim has written several chamber
music pieces, works for symphony orchestra, organ and choirs, as well as
projects in public space, for theater and opera. He has been awarded a number
of prizes for his work.
Besides playing the classical repertoire on the organ, Asheim has developed a
personal style of improvising. This has led to several recordings both as solo
performer and in collaboration with musicians like Anne-Lise Berntsen, Ruth
Wilhelmine Meyer, Lasse Marhaug, Paal Nilssen-Love and Frode Gjerstad among
others. In his position as organist of Stavanger concert hall, he regularly
organizes Organ Nights where the instrument appears in eclectical combinations
with performers from various genres and art forms.
Since 1991 Asheim has lived in Stavanger where he is active as a composer,
musician and organizer. He was the principal initiator of the founding of Tou
Scene, an alternative centre for contemporary arts in an abandoned factory
building, and responsible for its development over a period of 10 years. Asheim
has been the resident organist of the new concert hall in Stavanger since its
opening in 2012. Here he has displayed an innovative way of creating activities
around the organ, and managed to get a large audience for the instrument.
Photo: Petter Fiskum Myhr
Adrian Fiskum Myhr is a bassplayer (double bass and electric bass) from Trondheim, currently living in Oslo. He plays in bands like Oker, Bansal Band, Dr. Kay & his Interstellar Tone Scientists, Javid Afsari Rad Ensemble, Torg, DaMaNa, Simiskina, ComboNations & Myhr/Doneda. He also does concerts with his solo project. As a musician he is interested in exploring the sound possibilities of his instruments and he is constantly working on making his sound vocabulary larger. Adrian plays different genres and feel comfortable playing everything from free-improvised music to jazz, world music and pop. He has a Master degree from the Norwegian Academy of Music.
Snertingdal Records is a small independent record label started by Stian Finstad Svehagen in 2012. The label has released artists and bands in different genres, though they are all rooted in guitarbased popmusic (and make really really good tunes). Mr. Svehagen used to be a manager at the Big Dipper record store and is now a librarian. It's a busy spring for Snertingdal Records having released three singles by the band Avind, which also has an album coming out on May 25th (also on Snertingdal Records). There are also brand new sounds from Family Values and a new signing of Dingus in the next couple of weeks.
The voice of young, Danish jazz singer Nana Rashid has a timeless quality, reminiscent of such greats as Nina Simone and Radka Toneff. The strong, raw and melancholic debut EP «Sorrow In Sunlight» (2016) is proof that it’s still possible to uncover great, unknown talents in jazz music in our day and age.
Snorkel Records is the synthesis of two great friends; musician and producer Olefonken, and artist and fellow snorkeler, Broder Ibrahim. The label is dedicated to late night oceanic mythologies, antidotes to nihilism and the craft of making great music for snorkeling.
Karl Nyberg – saxophone
Gregor Riddell – ‘cello
Bernt Isak Wærstad – guitar/electronics
KGB is a new improvising trio made up of Oslo-based musicians prominent in the Norwegian scene. With influences spanning jazz, rock, world, electronic and experimental music, KGB creates an inimitable sound world fitting both live and on record.
Bendik B. Foss is a violist living in Oslo, Norway. After nine years in the Oslo
Philharmonic Orchestra, he became a full-time freelancer in 2011 and has since had an
active career with an emphasis on contemporary music and chamber music. Bendik is a
member of the Cikada Ensemble, Oslo Sinfonietta and Ensemble Ernst, and has also tried
to understand semiotic theory at the University of Oslo. He is married to the
Norwegian/Indian violinist and composer Harpreet Bansal, and together they have two
kids aged 8 and 4.
DJ 99 - Guttorm Andreasen had his first DJ gig at his school youth club in the winter of 1980. He has been at it ever since. Guttorm has DJed at most clubs and festivals in Norway. He has also travelled the world extensively, DJ’ing from London to Sofia to Barcelona to Bishkek.
Guttorm Andreasen is one of the most experienced journalists in Norway, having worked as a host, presenter and reporter in broadcast radio, tv and print since 1985. He produced and presented literally thousands of music shows during more than 20 years with the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, the NRK.
A well-known and respected music journalist, Guttorm Andreasen is also a popular moderator, public speaker, musician and promoter.
Since the late nineties, Vågan has been active on the Norwegian scene, both as a bass player, and bandleader. Coming into the public eye first as leader for the collective MOTIF, he is now known as one of the most prolific bassplayers of his generation. Coming out of the young jazz and improv communities of Trondheim and Oslo, he has gone on to perform with many central musicians of both the Scandinavian and the international jazz scene, generations across. Vågan is also a noted composer, and is the artistic director for the well renowned Trondheim Jazz Orchestra for 2017-2019, working with both his own music and that of guests artists like Pat Metheny and others.
Gregor Riddell / cello, electronics
Adam Teixeira / drums, percussion
London/Oslo-based duo BirdWorld is a musical partnership between Gregor Riddell and Adam Teixeira. With a simple acoustic instrumental set up alongside electronically manipulated field recordings and a variety of traditional percussion including numerous kalimbas, the duo weaves between ambient electronic, contemporary classical, world music and jazz improvisation creating soundscapes both natural and otherworldly.
Since meeting during their respective Banff Centre for the Arts Creative Residencies, the duo has gone on to perform across Europe with highlights including a Union Chapel concert filmed and recorded by NTS Radio, an electronic film score commissioned by London Contemporary Orchestra and collaborating with Sanskriti Shrestha, Streifenjunko, Harpreet Bansal, James Kitchman and Alex Stuart among others. Birdworld’s track ‘After Rain’ was included in the August ’18 edition of The Wire Tapper and in October performed at LSO St Luke’s ‘Open Ear’ series live recorded by BBC Radio 3.
Encompassing the 2019 Vernal Equinox, BirdWorld released their debut EP ‘TING TAR TID’. They will release their follow up album UNDA soon.
“ … captivating performance combining jazz, classical and electronica.” (Kings Place March 2017, Cusp Magazine)
Audun Ellingsen is a versatile bassplayer working within and beyond the boundaries of jazz. He spent his youth playing in local rock bands on the west coast of Norway before he discovered jazz at age 16 and picked up the double bass. After studies at Leeds College of Music he moved back to Norway and established himself on the Norwegian scene recording and performing with various acts such as Froy Aagre, Kenny Wheeler, Andy Sheppart and Nils Petter Molvaer. He has released two critically acclaimed albums featuring his own compositions with the band Audun Automat and alongside Wenche Losnegård formed the band 1816 that will release its debut album in 2018.
Following in the footsteps of Of Monsters and Men, Sigur Rós and Kaleo, 24 year old singer/producer Auður was awarded best Newcomer at the Icelandic Music awards in 2017. Since then he has released his debut EP, opened for Post Malone and become part of the respected RBMA alumni.
London-based pianist Kamilla Arku is a graduate of Yale University and the Royal Northern College of Music. Born in Switzerland to Liberian and Norwegian parents, Kamilla began to study the piano after moving to the U.S. at the age of 5.
In addition to performing, Kamilla is also a dedicated teacher with a vibrant private studio. She is also committed to volunteer efforts, and since 2008 has organised concerts and events in aid of Liberian children and education with her charity, Music for Liberia.
Erik Holm is a drummer, producer and dj based in Oslo. Previously collaborated with Bobby Hughes Combination, Bugge Wesseltoft, Beady Belle among others. He is also the eastside of the dj-team Jassbox Oslo, spinning jazz, soul, funk at Nasjonale Jazzscene, Victoria every last Sathurday of the month. He also travels with his own club, Dance to the drummers beat.
Starting off as a saxophone player and improvising musician, Espen's work and interest has diverged into music making and music production of different sorts, as heard on his solo albums Forgaflingspop and Nattsyntese. Using his own voice, lyrics and programming, these albums reflect his desire to bring musical elements together to form an unusual blend.
Playing saxophone is still one of his major occupations, and he can be heard contributing in renowned ensembles such as Streifenjunko, Christian Wallumrød Ensemble, Koboku Senju and Trondheim Jazz Orchestra. Awards include SpareBank 1 SMN JazZtipendiat, De Unges Lindemanpris, Spellemannsprisen (Norwegian Grammy) and Trondheim Jazzfestivals Talentpris.
