“Musica Liquida is about musicking and attuning to a unique acoustic space with my instruments. It is like a ceremony, a rhizomatic experience and probably the activity I enjoy most in my artistic practice. Making this album has made me acknowledge the co-creational vitality of an acoustic space together with my instruments and their sounding properties. I have been searching and I will continue to search for ways to ‘unlearn’ my instrument, to simply be a musician with a palette that expands beyond a fixed instrumental practice, and to make the music I hear in my head.” (Ingar Zach)

@ Sofamusic

“Second Room is Taxt’s second album in a series of works investigating possible relations between music and architecture. In this work written for alto saxophone, two microtonal tubas, double bass, church organ, hand bells and modular synthesizers he is inspired by the Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto, and his ideas on different concepts of living. In a lecture at the Harvard University in 2011, Fujimoto sets up a comparison between the nest and the cave, as two fundamentally different ways of living concepts. Whereas the nest represents safety, conformity and predictability, a space designed for people, the cave on the other side represents the unknown, a naturally shaped space, not designed for the purpose of living. It can be uncomfortable to enter the dark cave but spending time inside one can gradually start to adapt to the space. By rethinking our concept of space and the relation between space and human body we will eventually discover different functionalities within the cave and innovate new functions in the already designed space.” (SOFA)

@ SOFA

@ SOFA

“Source Crossfire is a searing, brooding collection that documents the recorded output of Sofa, one of Montreal’s most shadowy, notorious, captivating underground art-rock ensembles of the mid-90s, and the first band to be released on Constellation. Anchored by the raw metronomics and pummeling syncopation of Keith Marchand (drums) and Scott Clarkson (bass), Sofa was one of the city’s tightest and most kinetic bands, always seeking uncharted pathways in the cracks between established punk/rock sub-domains.The bi-amped Gibson SG Firebrand of guitarist Ian Ilavsky relied on 2 rudimentary pedals (distortion; overdrive), combining with the singspeak of vocalist/lyricist Brad Todd to paint a twitchy, frenetic sonic foreground of controlled chaos. The band was equally known for its unapologetic and sometimes heterodox slow-tempo alter ego, mining ascetic slowcore territory – but also more lush, nostalgic, empty-ballroom balladry with Marchand playing behind the beat in torchsong swingtime and Clarkson weaving deft melodious lead lines on bass, as Todd switched gears from rapid-fire glossolalia to baritone croon.” (Constellation Records)

@ Constellation

Das Album “Floating Layer Cake” enthält zwei seitenfüllende Stücke, das erste ist das Ergebnis einer Interpretation seines Materials durch ein vielstimmiges Ensemble. “The Lost Ones” war ursprünglich für Perkussion und Stimme gedacht, im Zuge einer Kollaboration ergab es sich dann, dass noch ein Gitarrist und ein Streichquartett hinzukamen. Gerade letzteres prägt das Klangbild des an vielen Stellen verwaschenen und tremolierenden Stücks, knüpft an den Stil alter Stummfilmsoundtracks an und bildet ein organisch anmutendes, immer bewegliches Fundament. Gelegentliches Bimmeln, Rasseln und andere Fragmente fügen sich ein und unterstreichen den dynamischen Charakter der Komposition.

“Let the Snare Speak” dagegen wurde anfangs für ein dreiköpfiges Ensemble konzipiert und liegt stattdessen als Soloarbeit vor: Anstrengende Sinusdrones leiten das Stück ein und und schwellen mit der Zeit zu einem geradezu angsteinflößenden Noisevibrato an, das dem Pochen und Bimmelm der Perkussion einen fast betäubenden Mantel umlegt.

Perkussion ist hier nicht mit Rhythmus gleichzusetzen und dockt – in beiden Tracks – oft in fließenden Übergängen an die übrigen Komponenten an. Gerade in dieser Hinsicht ist “Floating Layer Cake”, dessen Titel offenkundig an die nie ganz greifbare Schichtung von unterschiedlichem Klangmaterial erinnert und vielleicht auch erinnern will, ein anschauliches Beispiel und Lehrstück für die oft unbeachteten Möglichkeiten, die perkussiv ausgerichtete Musik in sich birgt. (A.Kaudaht)

Label: SOFA

“An Autumn Night at the Crooked Forest is a sort of tribute to the oldest and most traditional place for afterthoughts, meditation and reflection: the fireplace. Be it a bonfire (as it was for the first, say, five million years), or an indoor fireplace, or, even a woodstove could do the works as the place for people to gather, to tell stories, to share thoughts, or, to just be. This art of just being around the fireplace is perhaps what this album is trying to be about: Four improvised pieces, dedicated to different types of firewood, or how it burns and glooms. Consequently the music on this album is not really moving anywhere in particular, it just is, trying to emphasize the point in everyday life where you are not trying to move on, where one can allow oneself to just halt and let your thoughts move freely. This record is recorded in the middle of Krokskogen (west of Oslo), in an old cabin, and by a fireplace that was, in different ways, burning all the time. So, all the way, you can hear it crackle, gently.” (Sofa)

Porträt Hinda Fahre

“In 2015, Lemur started a collaboration with German pianist Reinhold Friedl. Friedl is the leader of the international ensemble zeitkratzer, working at the intersection of improvisation and composition. In this respect, Friedl’s experience and working method have much in common with the ideas and working methods Lemur uses. Not least through an interchange between work with large and small ensembles. In collaboration with Reinhold Friedl, Lemur focus on the use of extended playing techniques, form experiments and utilization of both the entire quintet (Lemur / Friedl) and the individual musicians put together in solo, duo, trio and quartet format. Alloy contains the result of this collaboration.

The title reflects on the meeting between two strong expressions, and between five musicians who together create a musical alloy of different input and ideas. In this way, we see the studio as a factory where different elements can blend together and create something new.” (Sofa)

Lemur-Porträt May-Irene Aasen

“First Room is a tribute to the Japanese tearoom and the tatami mat. The floor plan as shown on the cover has been used as a foundation for the musical score, performed by Inga Margrethe Aas on viola da gamba and double bass, and Martin Taxt on microtonal tuba and sine waves. The album is an intricate mix between a studio recording and a live performance, both recorded in the same room over two days. The live musicians are often shadowing the recorded material, and with subtle changes in pitch and timbre the combined sound of live and recorded sound create an ambiguous and at times fragile sound. The performance included live video from visual artist Kjell Bjørgeengen. Video stills from the concert is printed in the attached booklet.” (Sofa)

Porträt Lasse Marhaug