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viewing 1 To 14 of 14 items
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3DB 019CD
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Hild Sofie Tafjord has re-written the sonic possibilities of the French horn and established herself as one of Norway's most arresting musicians. Pushing the limits of her instrument for years, whether acoustically or electronically, she has made her mark as composer, performer and improviser. Her signature is present in her group-playing in Spunk, Lemur, and Zeitkratzer, but here she takes front row in this solo work. Breathing -- her long-awaited second solo album -- is devoted to the acoustic situation, exploring different relationships between performer, instrument and space. Based on live material from the large rooms at Bergen Kunsthall, Tafjord and producer Bjørnar Habbestad exploited most known recording techniques in order to create a sonic signature as wide as possible. The result is delicate, intimate, vast and exhausting, covering the grounds from the innermost sounds of Tafjord's instrument to the last decibel of reflections captured by distant microphones. Tafjord is active as a solo performer and in groups like Spunk, Lemur, Agrare, Zeitkratzer Ensemble, Trinacria, and Phantom Orchard Orchestra, amongst others. She has a broad range as an artist and has made music for dance, film, theater, installations, and sculptures. She has also given performances, workshops, and site-specific concerts. She has played and collaborated with numerous musicians and artists in Europe, America, Canada, and Asia, including Fred Frith, Ikue Mori, Zeena Parkins, Evan Parker, Matmos, and Wolf Eyes, amongst others.
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3DB 017CD
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Bass Drum! is Morten J. Olsen's solo debut. Having made a strong impact on the Berlin scene for improvised music since his arrival in 2006, his trademark is impeccable instrumental control and an exceptional affinity for sonic exploration. After touring most of the globe with MoHa! and Ultralyd, his present instrument of choice is a rotating bass drum, prepared and extended with small percussion instruments. From what seems to be limited means, he creates a complete sound world, redefining the idea of what percussion music is about. Bass Drum! is the fourth volume in +3DB's series "Music for One." Morten J. Olsen (b. 1981, Stavanger) is a musician, composer and artist. He studied in Amsterdam, but has been living and working in Berlin and Stavanger since 2006. Olsen mainly plays percussion, usually within selected forms of experimental music. He works with a sound palette that includes orchestral, electronic, improvised music and rock. He has performed throughout Europe, North America, Oceania and Asia with MoHa!, Ultralyd, The Pitch, and his latest collaboration NMO, with Rubén Patiño. Olsen is also a member of Splitter Orchester, a 25-piece improvising collective based in Berlin. He has released more than 40 records on approximately 10 different labels and recently adopted a new hobby as a techno DJ. Morten J. Olsen: 32" Gran cassa and percussion.
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3DB 018CD
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OK, Wow was recorded over two days in a wooden church outside Bergen. With the sounds of kindergarten children and the very special and insistent Bergen rain forcing itself onto Stine's vocal performance, an intensity was created. The image of the lone singer, meeting, responding to and filling a space, made the entire session a vivid analogy of +3DB's work with improvisers. Touching the very essence of what improvisation is about, the six tracks map out different ways to grasp what and who a voice really is. Motland's musical ancestors are many and important, but her sonic precision, clarity of intent and human fragility makes this album stand out. Stine Janvin Motland is a performer and composer from Stavanger, Norway. Working with extended vocal techniques, she explores and pushes the frontiers of the natural acoustics of the voice. In addition to projects with composers such as Maja Ratkje, Øyvind Torvund, Therese Birkelund Ulvo, Ruben Sverre Gjertsen, and Mats Gustafsson, she improvises regularly with musicians such as C Spencer Yeh, Chris Corsano, and Lasse Marhaug, and she is a member of the vocal ensemble Song Circus. Stine also collaborates with visual artists Cecilie Bjørgås Jordheim, Melissa Dubbin, and Aaron Davidsson, choreographer Ula Sickle, and theater director Hildur Kristinnsdottir. As a creator, her main focus is her solo work, in addition to her performance/theater group Brigitte & Paula Band.
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3DB 014CD
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Blow Job is an album stripped of glamour, fancy artistry or advanced studio techniques. This is one man, one saxophone and the musical intentions of a modern musician. Kjetil Møster's musical career is one of many contradictions. After studying accordion as a kid, his stage debut was as a thrash/hardcore bass player on the scenes of Bergen, Norway in 1990. His saxophone-playing made him discover John Coltrane a few years later, a revelation that brought him to jazz studies at the conservatory in Trondheim, focusing on modal and free jazz, and later free-improvised music. After having redefined tenor-playing on the Norwegian scene, mainly in bands like Ultralyd, Zanussi Five and The Core, Møster was awarded the "World's Jazz Talent of the Year 2006" by international jazz organizations IAJE and IJFO. However, Møster was seen escaping the jazz scene in the following years, spending more and more time with electro-rock band Datarock and the occasional detour with small underground units and the N Ensemble. Møster chose to focus on Datarock full-time in 2007. Blow Job is his big step back into the world of improvised music. Kjetil Møster has performed extensively in Europe, Asia, the U.S. and South America. He has been a key person in establishing the All Ears festival in Oslo as one of the most important events for improvised music. He has participated in a large number of ad hoc projects with such musicians as Jon Christensen, Paal Nilssen-Love, Hild Sofie Tafjord, Michael Duch, Maja Ratkje, Andrew D'Angelo, Jim Black and so on. Blow Job is the second album in +3DB's series Music For One, featuring different shades of solo improvised music.
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3DB 005CD
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Originally released in 2009. After working hard to revitalize the art of instrument bashing, Norway's Golden Serenades has turned towards newer hunting grounds: the organ. The queen of instruments -- or more specifically, the instrument as it sounds in the hands of organ master Sigbjørn Apeland -- is the starting point for GS's sonic experiments on Hammond Pops. The result is a drone piece of highest quality. Slowly developing, massive sound breaking in and out of the source material from the organ. Always moving towards the next peak, always pushing for a new color in a sea of noise, this album ensures an intense sonic experience, delivered by some of the best ears in Norway. Members include Jørgen Træen (electronics), John Hegre (electronics) and Sigbjørn Apeland (organ).
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3DB 007CD
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Originally released in 2009. The music of Ruben Gjertsen is a flow of sounds; bits, pieces, fragments put together so beautifully that it seems to be created in one consecutive stream of thought, a relentless mental effort from first to last sound. Exploring his scores we find proof of the opposite. They provide layer upon layer of information, connections and anecdotes. Behind this almost over-communicative surface, the composer comes across as an eclectic character. Strict structural control and computer-aided composition seems to co-exist happily with improvisatory materials bordering on the burlesque. The result is a chamber music that sounds full, almost orchestral in one moment only to dissolve into translucence in the next. Throughout Gjertsen's music there is one common focal point: the will to redefine the concept of a good sound. As the composer doesn't subscribe to a fixed compositional school, his music is neither spectral, serial nor neo-complex. It is simply colored by an ambition and an ability to shape the sound of acoustic instruments down to the last sample. Musicians include: Friedrich Gauwerky (cello), Jeanne-Marie Conquer (violin), Alain Billard (bass clarinet), Jean-Christophe Vervoitte (horn), Dan Styffe (double bass), Catherine Bullock (viola), Birgitte Volan (harp), Torbjørn Ottersen (percussion), Terje Viken (conductor) and Ensemble Ernst Thomas Rimul (conductor).
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3CD BOX
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3DB 004CD
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Originally released in 2008. To put Norwegian performance art troupe/artist collective Baktruppen into a box could appear to be a contradiction in terms. They have always moved outside the comfort zone of habit, staging their events in tunnels, galleries, libraries and sports arenas -- just as well as the more traditional avant-garde theater houses throughout the entire world. Finally, they are ready for institutionalization -- on a record label. The result is yet another story -- the story behind their history over the last 22 years: 3 CDs with talkative, scientific, noisy, sentimental, ridiculously funny and plain and simply stupid recordings from a crew of artists that have energized every stage they have ever performed on. Three CDs recorded throughout Europe 1986-2008. Includes a full-color 32 page booklet with rare photos. Mastered by Tanja Khanthasotorn. Members: Øyvind Berg, Ingvild Holm, Per Henrik Svalastog, Bo Krister Wallström and Worm Winther.
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3DB 003CD
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Originally released in 2008. Recording The Grain is a full-bodied and mature presentation of Office-R(6)'s highly personal take on improvisation. Their blend of tight ensemble playing and precise use of electronics bring out the best of both worlds. As the group fuses ideals from composition with the art of improvisation, they create a vivid session of electro-acoustic gymnastics ready to bring music to the next level of engagement. The improvisations of OR(6) are all based on an expanding catalog of structures that define different elements of each piece. Their live approach was brought into the STEIM studio and performed live, ensuring that this hyperactive collision of prepared and intuitive elements would not rule out the human touch and the quality of split-second decision-making. Members include: Koen Nutters (upright bass, structure), Robert Van Heumen (laptop, LISA), Jeff Carey (laptop, super collider), Sakir Oguz Buyukberber (bass clarinet), Dirk Bruinsma (soprano and baritone sax) and Morten J. Olsen (percussion).
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3DB 001CD
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Originally released in 2008. Lemur's album IIIIIII is a document from their debut tour: recorded in one session at Grieghallen Studio and presented in its original order. These seven tracks portray an ensemble on the edge of defining a new sound and their musical identity. Throughout the tracks, the four musicians unite as one sound-generating body, manipulating their instruments into making sounds one would believe to be electronic. The result is a music defying old or new aesthetics, instead searching for the ultimate sound experience using these exact instruments in the hands of these particular musicians. Although making a clear contrast to "the northern sound" of Norwegian jazz, IIIIIII brings beautiful soundscapes side by side with frantic phrasing and inspired solo playing. Members: Bjørnar Habbestad (flutes), Hild Solfie Tafjord (french horn), Lene Grenager (cello) and Michael Duch (double bass).
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3DB 002CD
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Originally released in 2008. Sudden death under a railway car seemingly ties this album together as the 9 titles make a journey between underground stations across the globe. Rehab's debut album is solidly based on the crafted playing from the two protagonists John Hegre (guitar and electronics) and Bjørnar Habestad (guitar and electronics). Flutes and guitars fuse into a mayhem of electronics, manipulations and studio wizardry. Tight and stringent in its form and surprisingly lyric at times, Man Under Train Situation is almost gentle, seconds before it unleashes its storm of noise. Definitely performed and improvised, but also transformed, composed and rebuilt, the album bridges gaps between the instrumentalism of improv and the joyous harshness of noise. Using all the tools in the trade, relentlessly pursuing the right sound, Rehab has put together a rare album containing subtleties inspired by electro-acoustic music as well as the delicate art of real-time musicianship.
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3DB 011CD
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Originally released in 2010. Norway's Lemur presents another journey in their quest for a new improvised chamber music: acoustic sound-oriented music from four highly original players. Aigéan is Lemur's follow-up to their acclaimed debut IIIIIIII, from 2008. Continuing their work to develop an improvised chamber music with an emphasis on sonic experimentation and ensemble character, the ensemble delivers a darker and more fragile album. More open to explore the particulars in each piece, the ensemble seems to strengthen their sound, delivering a truly insistent and strongly-crafted album. Lemur has found their position as one of Europe's truly original improvising ensembles. The four instrumentalists combine their work from classic composition, noise, chamber music and free jazz making a highly surprising and unique blend of contemporary sound and attitude. Since their first performances in 2006, the ensemble has done a series of tours in Scandinavia, Europe and Asia to great acclaim. Members include Bjørnar Habbestad (flutes), Hild Sofie Tafjord (horn), Lene Grenager (cello) and Michael Francis Duch (double bass).
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2CD/BOOK
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3DB 006CD
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Originally released in 2009. Six artists toured western Norway in April and May 2007, to experience and record its nature and rural culture. The itinerary included the small town of Sandane, the Jostedal glacier, Utvær -- Norway's westernmost island and the fjord city of Bergen. The works created out of the sonic input from this tour made up the components of Sleppet -- a sound art exhibition curated by Jørgen Larsson and presented by Grieg07, Lydgalleriet, Galleri 3.14 and Ultima. +3DB Records is proud to present a series of works based on the materials from Sleppet. "In my art I could not help but search for a way to express the wild music of the ocean's roar, but alas, in vain. I felt most deeply the impossibility of conveying that mighty chord in music. There was in that rushing and roaring something so infinite that it seemed presumptuous to dwell even for a moment on the idea of being able to reproduce it. Nonetheless, I found some comfort in that it is the artist's responsibility not to convey its material effect, but the reflection of the emotions it awakens; if this is done with genius then the impression can be equally divine despite the lack of the mass effect which is nature's own." --Edvard Grieg; Double CD and a 65-page catalog presenting works by Natasha Barrett, Marc Behrens, Bjarne Kvinnsland, Steve Roden, Chris Watson and Jana Winderen. Featuring color photographs, essays and interviews in Norwegian and English.
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3DB 012CD
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Not in stock, awaiting repress expected mid-2014... Performed by John Tilbury (piano), Michael Duch (double bass) and Rhodri Davies (harp). Cornelius Cardew's music of the '60s is arguably from his most creative and experimental period as a composer, beginning with "Autumn 60" and ending with the last paragraphs of "The Great Learning" in 1970. This decade can be divided into two parts, where the first half focuses on indeterminate music and the latter sees a growing emphasis on improvisation. "Treatise" functions as a bridge between these two periods as it contains elements of both. This recording is a document of this duality; a portrait of Cardew leaving the avant-garde he got to know from his work with Stockhausen and Cage, and entering the scene of improvised music as he would get to know it in AMM. Cardew's work with improvisation would culminate with the Scratch Orchestra -- as much a social experiment as a musical one. In the '70s, Cardew left radical music in favor of radical politics. "Autumn 60" is Cardew's first indeterminate score. It is often performed with larger ensembles, but also works well in a smaller format. It was premiered by a quartet consisting of the composer on guitar and John Cage on piano, amongst others. This version was arranged and conducted by John Tilbury. "4th System" is taken from February Pieces, composed between 1959 and 1961. Originally written for solo piano, "4th System" is the last, most open and flexible of these four pieces which were published together in 1961. "Material" is a work for an ensemble of harmony instruments. As in "Autumn 60," letters are used to identify each section (A to Q). These sections of phrases are to be played together and in succession before the performers depart to their own tempo and individual choice of sections to be played. "Solo With Accompaniment" has a complicated accompaniment supporting a relatively simple solo part consisting of a repetition of single notes and a quasi-improvisational middle section. It is one of Cardew's most complex compositions and while the form of the piece seems quite conventional and traditional, ironically it has more sets of rules and examples than any of his other compositions. "Treatise," in which the interpretation is left entirely up to the performer, is undoubtedly Cardew's most famous work, and probably also the most performed of his compositions. In "Treatise," there are no parts indicated by either numbers or letters; only the overall form of this massive 193 page graphic masterpiece is given. "Unintended Piano Music" sounds unlike anything else Cardew produced. It lies somewhere between the most melodic of his experimental music from the '60s and his politically revolutionary music of the '70s. While the rest of the compositions on this CD outline a particular period and style of the composer's music, "Unintended Piano Music" is a form of a musical fragment standing on its own.
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3DB 010CD
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Originally released in 2010. This is the first solo album from Trondheim-based double bass player extraordinaire Michael Francis Duch, exploring 1960s experimental works as vehicles for contemporary improvisation. Duch is a highly generous musician and improviser. This is equally audible as he moves in the outskirts of reductionism, flirts with noise, engages in the domain of contemporary composition or happily indulges in the joys of free jazz. Mixing a keen and exploratory sense of sound with firm and insistent formal thinking, he approaches his bass both as a source of personal expression and as a tool to discover new ways of music-making. Having performed internationally over the last 10 years and contributed to more than 20 recordings, Michael brings a wide range of influences to his current project: a quest to revisit, test and bring new life into the sparse scores of early experimental music. These works, although composed as tools to inform non-improvisers challenged to leave the conventions of traditional notation, are being set up as vehicles to rearticulate the ideas of a fully-fledged free improviser. Duch's album is the first in a new series from +3DB called "Music for ONE" -- showcasing artists working with different forms, strategies and approaches to improvising in a solo format. Includes compositions by: Christian Wolff, Earle Brown, Cornelius Cardew, Morton Feldman and Howard Skempton.
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