KILLL DVD + CD:
Finally, the KILLL live DVD + CD is out! The DVD is compiled from shows recorded between 2005 and 2009 in various locations all over Europe and Norway. Released by the Norwegian label Fysisk Format. I have mixed the album, edited the footage with Thomas Østbye and designed the sleeve, including the two posters.
Extensive interview about the release and KILLL in general, with exclusive images and video footage, right here.
NEXT LIFE - ARTIFICIAL DIVINITY:
As with the two previous Next Life releases I have made the cover. This time also on double-sleeve LP! On this release Next Life are more brutal and epic than ever, adding live drummer Anders Hangård (brother of Espen from KILLL) and a wider range of instrumentation. Released by Fysisk Format.
DAUSTEG:
Recently I discovered that Tommy Høvik documented parts of the Dausteg DJ set at Jakobskirken two years ago, starting the camera right after the performances with (the then unknown) James Blake and Mount Kimbie, Mick Barr and Tri-Function Million. We had just connected a Tenori-On to the MIDI input of the church organ and thus the set begun. Here is the unedited footage straight from the camera.
CHROMATIC - THE CROSSROADS OF COLOR AND MUSIC:
Alarm Press in Chicago has just released a close to 400 page book on artists and musicians who are using or exploring color in unorthodox ways, audiovisual projects, synaesthesia and such. I did an interview about my work, concentrating on the ION collages and the KILLL scenography. Read about the book and/or order it here.
They posted the interview as a separate feature on their page, read it here.
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS:
The Norwegian art magazine Billedkunst asked me to contribute four art recommendations to their ongoing column. I choose books with the work and/or words of M.K. Ciurlionis, Carl Fredrik Hill, Charles Burchfield, Philip Guston and Morton Feldman (in Norwegian):
SOUND FOREST:
Offered a new collage from the Entity Series as the poster for the Latvian Sound Forest Festival, Skanu Mezs in local tongue.
NEWS / MARCH / 2011
SIGIL:
Back in 2003 Roger Egseth made the film Sigil on a shoestring budget as an art student. I made the soundtrack and helped out with some of the practical things. Now Roger has finally made the film available online.
NEWS / FEBRUARY / 2011
JUV RELEASE:
Finally walking out of the shadow of our past, Marius von der Fehr and I are releasing our debut album - some 14 years after it was recorded. The record that caved under unrealistic ambition and personal conflict was left in fragments in 1998, until I picked up the work again two years ago. While trying to honor the spirit of our teenager selves I completed the album - after asking Marius to join me after 12 years of no contact.
I did an extensive interview with Erik Knive Skodvin of Miasmah about the music, methodology and history of Juv, read it here. The interview is included with the LP.
Saturday, February 26th we are having a Juv release party at N.K. in Berlin. We´ll spin the album front to back from 21.00 o´clock, Svarte Greiner will play live and I will join Erik Skodvin in Djing the rest of the night.
Monique Recknagel from Sonic Pieces has done a limited CD edition of 100 copies in her usual pristine manner - moss green cloth with a red silkscreened Juv logo.
JUV VIDEO: FORVARSEL / FORSVINNINGENS GANG:
Just as the Juv cover photograph was made by a friend at the same time as we were making our music in the late 90s, so was this video.
Forsvinningens Gang was made by Iselin Lønn in 1997-1998, using 8mm film and analogue editing. It is originally a silent film.
Iselin was a fellow student and friend of ours when we were at the Royal Art Academy in Oslo, where a lot of the Juv music was recorded. Iselin was one of the few people who heard and encouraged our music and on request we made her our only tape.
I remember being struck by the film when I first saw it – after a lot of experimentation around school she had left for a cottage in the summer, and it all seemed to fall into place. It shows her trying to capture the movement of the wind via smoke, setting fire to water and moving the interior of the cottage into the woods. It also reminded me of the Juv summer night sessions on the porch of another cottage, directing the speakers towards the fjord and woods, playing solely for the boats and animals.
So, to celebrate the release of the album that almost disappeared, it makes sense to finally marry the images and sound of that time.
The Juv track is Forvarsel. The film is slightly edited to fit the track. The original film can be seen at www.iselinlonn.no
NEWS / FEBRUARY / 2010
SELMER COMMISSION:
When asked to do a commission for the Selmer firm this winter I decided to revisit a technique I explored when doing the cover for the Jaga Jazzist album The Stix back in 2002. The piece ended up as a set of four framed photographic panels entitled Cracked Light, Fading White.
The images are flatbed scanner exposures of white paper and neutral, transparent foil - folded, rolled and crumpled. The colors in the images are produced by the foil and scanner itself, as the white light of the scanner is dispersed when reflected back into the scanner by the foil, the colors separating into various color bands. Scanner feedback if you will. The white-to-black gradients occur between the white paper and the scanner light.
Selmer is collecting works by young, Norwegian artists such as Marthe Johnslien, Anders Smedbye, Jan Christensen, Josefine Lyche, Mikkel Wettre, Kyrre Bjørkås and Rune Andreassen - adding one new artist every year. Curated by Helga-Marie Nordby and Katia Banoun.
Individual panels:
NEWS / DECEMBER 3rd / 2010
NARDO COMMISSION:
This is a permanent installment at Nardo Children School and Kindergarden in Trondheim, Norway. It has two components:
The first consists of blown-up collages (Entity series, see separate post below) made from schoolbook illustrations, scanned, printed on foil and mounted on plexiglass.
The second component consists of eyes and patterns (vector graphics) printed on foil, vector cut and mounted on window areas in hallways and wardrobe areas.
Where as the collages examine how the debris of disparate elements come together and start to resemble characters, the window illustrations are of eyes alone, on a base of abstract patterns.
The collages, first as scanned, then as installed:
Window pieces, presentation at the school and pictures of the other commissions (by Nahoko Kudo and Gunnar Gundersen):
KILLL LIVE DVD:
I have completed the editing and mixing of the KILLL live dvd, in collaboration with Thomas Østbye. It is recorded between 2005 and 2009, in plentiful locations in Norway and Northern Europe. KILLL are now in dialogue with a potential label and hope to have it out by Spring/Summer of 2011.
Each track has each own editing and ligthing approach. Here´s one track where we are mostly using random hand held cameras and surveillance cameras placed on stage and on the musicians:
GROUP:
The Norwegian band Necessary, which includes my Dausteg partner Tony F. Wilson, has released a new record on Ohm Resistance, called Voldsløkka. They used a collage of mine on the cover, Group. The record is a collaboration with Justin Broadrick of Godflesh, Techno Animal and Jesu. A longtime friend and collaborator of the band´s drummer, Ted Parsons, Justin Broadrick has produced the album and reworked the band´s recordings. Ted Parsons, as Tony F. Wilson, moved to Norway for love, and has played with the Swans, Prong, Buckethead and Killing Joke, to name a few. Rapper Salvador Sanchez from Darkside of the Force has recently joined as well.
The same image was also featured in Pocko Times´ collage issue. Pocko is an independent press and creative agency based in London, founded by Nicola Schwartz.
INTERVIEWS:
Two interviews done recently, one for the Norwegian financial weekend magazine D2 (25 Mb pdf), and one for the Californian magazine Blisss (8 Mb pdf).
NEW POSTERS:
I have two new posters available. The first one is from the Entity series. It is a double-sided offset poster with heavyweight, semi-matte paper. It can be can be ordered from Tiger´s online store.
The other one is a limited run of silk screen posters made for the KILLL + Shining + Next Life show at Rockefeller in Oslo earlier this month. It is printed with fluorescent yellow over an existing KILLL poster, which is also available separately. Mail me if you want it.
DISTRIBUTION:
I am looking for someone to internationally distribute my posters , printed matter and records, ordered online via this site. It should be based in the US and/or central Europe in order to cut shipping costs, making it cheaper for the customer. Mail me if you feel there is a possibility for a long term collaboration.
DAUSTEG, HARSTAD :
Spykidelic and I were invited to perform in artist Børre Sæthre´s installation at the music festival in the small town of Harstad during the Festival of North Norway. We got 15 minutes on tape before the recorder broke down. Evig eies kun det tapte.
Description and download of the recording available at Percussionlab: Given the Sci-Fi nature of Sæthre’s work and Harstad’s location 250 kilometres North of the Arctic Circle, the resulting soundtrack is influenced largely by John Carpenter’s The Thing: The duo utilised parts of Ennio Morricone’s original score and other pre-existing sci-fi and horror soundtracks, as well as original compositions by Are Mokkelbost, which forms the main part of this opening segment.
DAUSTEG, RIGA: Skanu Mezs invited us to play after a Supersilent concert in Riga, Latvia. When the band cancelled due to illness we changed venue and so were further equipped to make it a full night of dance ritual. The theme of the night was Animism vs. Artificial Intelligence - simply mixing animal sounds and electronic music while wearing handmade animal masks from Latvia.
Promo page here, full download of the set here (97 Mb) and pics below.
COLLAGE WORKSHOP, KABELVÅG :
Held my second collage workshop at Kabelvåg School for Art and Film. One week of experimentation and mapping/battling of preferences, finally ending in a show. See some of the work below.
We spent some of the time simply investigating pairs of images and the interrelations between them. Then we decided to pay tribute to Eline Mugaas´ and Elise Storsveen´s fanzine series Album, which is doing just that. We sent the finished product to them and here it is for you:
COLLAGE WORKSHOP, KRABBESHOLM:
Also had the good fortune to have another collage workshop at Krabbesholm School of Art . Design and Architecture. A short and intense week of cut and paste, discussions and collective DJing. Work below.
NEWS / NOVEMBER 20th / 2009
ENTITY AT MOMENTUM:
In August I showed a new series of work at Momentum, a Nordic Art Biennale. Entity is an extension of a commission I did for a Norwegian children school earlier this year (more about this in the next update), and consists of collages on watercolor backgrounds.
For the commission I made paper collages out of pedagogic illustrations from educational books for children. These images, originally hand drawn or painted, were cut up and reworked into fantasy creatures. After the commission I continued to work with the actual collages, reworking them and extending them with backgrounds executed in the same techniques as most of the original illustrations; watercolor and gouache.
Here are the pieces, some close ups and several Entity pieces that was not included in the show:
DAUSTEG:
My record spinning collaboration with Tony Wilson, Dausteg, was extended to a full concert evening and club night in August as we were invited by the Ultima Festival of Contemporary Music to host a night in the Dausteg spirit.
The given site was Jakobskirken, a church turned concert venue in central Oslo. Given the unique space and the festival that invited us, we picked artists and records around themes such as twentieth century avant garde, bedroom composers and religious music from across the genre spectrum. Kyrre Karlsen did the lighting of the whole space as well as stage and dancefloor.
Norwegian hip hop trio Tri-Function Million did their first concert ever, with all new material written especially for the event. American self taught guitar maverick Mick Barr unleashed a 33 minute piece for guitar and recorded bass combining elements of past as well as unreleased compositions. And British youngsters Mount Kimbie finished the concerts off with a subtle and tight set, their third so far.
Then the Dausteg club took over. Our recordings were unfortunately distorted so the usual download and listing of playlist will not happen this time. But Halvor Bodin and Ultima photographed the event skillfully, Erla Thorgrimsdottir recorded it when our own attempts failed and Jan Martin Eiklo filmed some with his phone. All so that you can experience it below:
Video from club below. It was introduced by an improvised prelude where I connected my Tenori sequencer to the electronic church organ while Tony is mixing Gyorgy Ligeti's "Requiem" and "Bombardment of Saturn" by Vex'd.
COLLAGE WORKSHOP:
In September I did an intensive one week collage workshop at Krabbesholm School of Art, Design and Architecture in Jylland, Denmark. Some of the great results from the dilligent students below:
KILLL:
In February KILLL played at the Henie Onstad Art Centre just outside Oslo. Henie Onstad was a key institution for cross-disciplinary activity between music and art in Norway in the 70s, and is now re-activating this approach with new series of concerts, exhibitions, publications and releases. We´re proud to have played in the old studio where Karlheinz Stockausen, Maurizio Kagel and John Cage made work while in Norway.
The event was filmed and recorded and some of this footage will be used on the forthcoming KILLL dvd. Henie Onstad will also release a limited edition vinyl with the complete concert. Below is some of this footage, edited by Carsten Aniksdal (not from the dvd, mind you):
POSTERS:
I have several new posters available. Two more ION posters, showing the back and front of the original collages, a KILLL poster and a doublesided Dausteg poster, the last one especially made for the Jakobskirken event mentioned a few posts above.
INTERVIEWS:
Here´s a collection of interviews from the last year or so:
One KILLL interview for the German metal magazine Legacy (in English), one about Dausteg for the Ultima Festival newspaper (in Norwegian) and a general feature about my work in the Norwegian magazine Out Of Step (also in Norwegian) with images from my studio at the time in New York.
NEWS / NOVEMBER 4th / 2008
LOST AGE:
Just finished the cover for the upcoming Next Life album, Lost Age, released on the new label Fysisk Format. The cover displays a "phase two" of the images used on the previous record, Electric Violence. Hai Ngyen Dinh helped out on the art direction. Check out some of the wonderful music here.
DEATHSTEP / DAUSTEG (DUB AND BELOW): Spykidelic and I DJ´ed at the Oslo club the Villa in August, as part of a dub-themed night held during the Øya Festival. We sorted our records by bass, echo and low pitch vocals, and looked for neighboring musical spirits. The full 4 hours were taped and can be found here, playlist included.
Deathstep is improvised DJing, recorded straight from the mixer at the venue. It is about the two of us playing each other records and responding, layering tracks for contrast or compliment, thinking out loud. It is NOT about beatmixing, genre subscription or requests. Each night usually has a theme, which serves as a rough guide for what records we bring to the venue.
TENORI-ON:
Bought this very visual 16-step sequencer this summer, Yamaha´s Tenori-On, the LED buttons being both interface and display. Been sketching tracks on it, mostly before going to bed. I also used it a lot on the Deathstep set at Villa, listed above. Here´s some tunes I´ve made on this sonic crayon box (click note to listen/download):
TOR
SLO
PON
HMM
DEF
BOW
ARP
MAR
BLO
GRA
NY:
I´ve moved from Oslo to New York for a year to join the ISCP program. While here I´m working on commisions for two different children´s schools, new Single Unit music and various other stuff. Here´s a studio shot (3 images stitched together all crooked).
MAYHEM: Attila Csihar from Mayhem asked for some creative input for Mayhem´s last concert at the Øya festival in Oslo this summer. In the end he decided to give birth to an animal, among other things. Before that we experimented on the idea of it being a child of light, so to speak, combining a glass baby and a handheld laser. GIF-sample to the left.
NEWS / MAY 6th / 2008
A WEEK OF KINDNESS:
After about three years of working on these ION collages I´m happy and relieved to finally exhibit them. The project space 0047 was so kind as to invite Elise Storsveen and me to do this collage show together. Curated by Marianne Zamecznik and Elisabeth Byre.
Gallery view.
Individual collages.
STUDIO:
Aerial view of the studio in December. Images from life style magazines are cut out and organized by color and contrast, according to six categories or elements in the ION universe. The collages gradually build up and a specific lighting evolves for each collage, the available material deciding the approximate amount of each color and element. Photo by Pål Laukli.
ION POSTER:
The first poster of the ION collages is out. It is two-sided, showing the front and back of Omni #4. It measures 70 x 46,5 cm, and is done on 250 gram paper with UV finish on both sides. It can be ordered from me for the prize of 200 kr / 25 euro / 40 dollars plus shipping.
STANDARD:
I decided to leave gallery Standard(Oslo) at the beginning of the year. Don´t believe the hype.
COLLAGE WORKSHOP:
Way up north in Norway, among the beautiful Lofoten islands, you find the Kabelvåg art and film school. I was invited to teach there for two weeks. The last week we did a collage workshop which culminated with the show C/U/T C/U/T C/U/T. Take a look at some of the student creations here:
SOUND WORKSHOP:
For the third year I did a sound & composition workshop at Einar Granum Art School in Oslo. The students were to make a two minute composition with whatever means available to them. Click speakers to listen to their tracks.
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KILLL TOUR:
Europe got the RGB treatment in December when we did a 10 date tour, starting in Switzerland and finishing off at Blitz in Oslo.
Arte TV met up with us in Berlin and shot footage for a feature on experimental metal acts on the program Trax. Here is the finished feature (french version), including SunnO))) and Next Life.
Showing some new work in this group show in Stockholm, Sweden. Opening at 18.00.
LIST OF ARTISTS: Matti Kallioinen
Erik Tidemann
Vincent Skoglund
Lisa Jonasson
Kalle Runeson
Jim Thorell
Maja Flink
Prins Preben
Jonas Liveröd
Oscar Ramos
Johanna Heldebro
Stefan Danielsson
Oskar Nilsson
Maria Luostarinen
Ulf Rollof
Are Mokkelbost
Jacob Hurtig
Tommy Sveningsson
Alexandra Campbell
Ragnar Persson
Lo Vahlström
Karin Cyrén
Tuukka Kaila
Danilo Stankovic
Anne Dersen
Erik Berglin
Finally, after a seemingly endless process of cut and paste, the live DVD is finished! Digipak album with DVD, CD and two posters, released by Fysisk Format.
Alarm Press is releasing a close to 400 page book on artists and musicians who are using or exploring color in unorthodox ways. I did an interview about my work, concentrating on the ION collages and the KILLL scenography. An informative clip from the now completed fundraiser.
Aged acoustic doom / drone duo with Marius von der Fehr, recorded between 1996 and 1998. Never released due to a personal conflict between us at the time, I finally rescued this record from the void.
Jon Wesseltoft, member of Thorns and part of the Looop crew, is yet again hosting a drone session, this time as part of Grønland Kammermusikkfestival. I am joining 24 guitarists in performing a simple yet effective score, using the Grønland church as a reverb unit.
Kyrre Karlsen and I are doing a one day workshop during the B-Open Studios week. We will focus on reading/understanding light, lighting of the gallery space and light installations. Bring object and gear to experiment with!
Presentation on my work as well as the ISCP residency in New York for the members of North Norway Artist Association.
September 7th
NARDO PRESENTATION
Trondheim, Norway
Pedagogic presentation of my permanent installation for the kids and staff.
August 23rd
ROMMEN COMMISSION
Oslo, Norway
I will do a permanent installation in a new children school in Groruddalen in Oslo. The work will consist of various light boxes with vector graphics, programmed LED light sequences and sound, placed in a central commonarea of the school. The school will also have a cultural center and a sports hall for the surrounding community to use after school.
The opening ceremony will be held on the 23rd of August.
Jason McClean, Canada
Yamantaka Eye, Japan
Ron Rege jr., US
Kenny Scharf, US
Sally Cruikshank, US
Erro, Iceland
Joachim Cossais, Norway
Kalle Runeson, Sweden
Lisa Jonasson, Sweden
Marianne Hurum, Norway
Matti Kallioinen, Sweden
Misaki Kawai, US
Jocelyn Shipley, US
Leif Goldberg, US
Alika Herrscoff, US
Devin Flynn, US
Christian Cumings, US
Larry Carlson, US
Erik Parker, US
Melissa Brown , US
Mr. Kaws, US
Ian Flynn, US
Gary Panter, US
Stanley Mouse, US
Taylor McKimens, US
Eduardo Palozzi, England
Are Mokkelbost, Norway
Trenton Doyle Hancock, US
Jes Brinch, Denmark
Vu Thi Trang, Vietnam
Peter Phillips, England
Yuichi Yokoyama, Japan
Øyvind Fahlström, Sweden
Kjarten Slettemark, Sweden
Gallery Christian Torp, Oslo, Norway
Frognerveien 28, opening at 19.00
Group show with works on paper, all of which are for sale. I will show work from the Entity series.
Vanessa Baird
Christian Bould
Ole Martin Lund Bø
Ivan Galuzin
Bjarne Melgaard
Are Mokkelbost
Andreas Tellefsen
May 29th - June 22nd
USELESS PRODUCTIONS
Visningsrommet USF, Bergen
Three-split exhibition curated by Arne Skaug Olsen, with Vemund Thoe, Michael Boruch and Daniel Andersson. I will be showing collages from the ION series.
Supersilent are playing in the Latvian capitol and we have the honor of serving the crowd afterwards and long into the night. The theme this time is Animism vs. Artificial Intelligence, or Animal vs. Machine if you like. Half price for anyone in a costume. E-flyer here.
I will host a one week collage workshop and a conversation course at this art, design and architecture school in rural Denmark, followed by a stay in their upcoming residency program. My partner and colleague Marianne Hurum will do a painting course.
Tony Wilson and I have been invited by the Ultima Festival in Oslo to organize a Dausteg evening in the church and concert hall Jakobskirken. In addition to a late night Dausteg DJ session we are honored to have the following kindred spirits to play live for us all:
This is a permanent installation in a newly built children´s school and kindergarden. All the works are executed as foil on glass or plexiglass in wardrobes, hallways and common areas throughout the school.
August 29th - October 18th
MOMENTUM
Moss, Norway
Norwegian biennale in Moss, an hour outside of Oslo. I will be showing new collages and mixed media works that have come out of a commission for Nardo, a school and kindergarten in Trondheim (see post above).
List of artists: Akassen, Mats Adelman, Roger Andersson, Asmundur Asmundsson, Fia Backström, Maja Bajevic, Petra Bauer & Annette Krauss, Nina Beier & Marie Lund, Maja Borg, Liv Bugge, Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson, Jacob Dahlgren, Ida Ekblad, Marte Eknæs, Andreas Eriksson, Jan Freuchen, Carl-Michael von Hausswolff, Hannaleena Heiska, Saskia Holmkvist, Karl Holmqvist, Lars Laumann, Klara Liden, Darri Lorenzen, Josefine Lyche, Eline McGeorge, Are Mokkelbost, Jani Ruscica, Marthe Thorshaug, Helgi Thórsson, Salla Tykkä, Gaeoudjiparl
Group exhibition with a selection of American and Norwegian artists that have been supported by American Scandinavian Foundation. I will be showing various posters made for different occasions over the years, such as ION, KILLL, Single Unit and ARM.
Other artists include Ole Martin Lund Bø, Kjell Bjørgeengen and Lene Berg.
As part of ISCP´s continuous Salon series of artist talks it is my turn to present my work. I will talk about past and current projects in an unchronological manner, focusing on methodology and process. It starts at 6.00 PM.
ISCP is an artist and curator residency program in New York, currently with some 30 residents installed in the studios in Brooklyn. Exhibition, food and music on the opening night, from 7.00 PM.
Group exhibition with Norwegian artists curated by Christina Vassalo. I am exhibiting a sound piece from an upcoming series of work, as well as spinning records on the opening night at Monkeytown.
List of artists: Ole Martin Lund Bø, Halvor Bodin, Marianne Hurum, Ingvild Langgård, Are Mokkelbost, Rune Olsen, Alexander Rishaug, Elise Storsveen, Kjersti Vetterstad, Marius Watz & Monica Winther.
February 8th
WE´LL KNOW WHEN WE GET THERE
CNEAI, France
Lee Ranaldo and Leah Singer is having an exhibition showing printed work from the two summer workshops they have had at this museum. In addition they have invited some friends and colleagues to show some smaller pieces.
In alpabetical order: Davide Balula, Tacita Dean, Bill Dillworth, Claude Closky, Brigitte Fontaine, Merce Cunningham, Cameron Jamie, Michael Morley, David Shrigley, Michael Snow, Are Mokkelbost & Judy Stevens.
Group exhibition at the Astrup Fearnely Museum, Oslo
This exhibition focuses on a new generation of Norwegian artists and artist run galleries. The Rekord gallery have a show within the show and have invited me to exhibit with them, in addition to these souls:
Kjersti Andvig, Kristian Øverland Dahl, Trine Falch & Ingvild Holm, Marianne Hurum, Anette Stav Johannessen, Linn Anita Pedersen, Christina Peel, Kristian Skylstad & Vilde Skylstad, Ulf Styren, Jorunn Myklebust Syversen, Monica Winther and Tori Wrånes. Curators: Thora Dolven Balke, Ingvild Langgård and Eirin Støen.
After a six month break we join forces again after Kevin Drumm´s concert the same night. Read more about Deathstep and the Acid Grime night following the link below
Next Life, Charles Curtis, Jean Jacques Perrey, Arve Henriksen, Coldcut, Dat Politics, Felix Kubin, Phil Niblock, Kim Cascone, Mira Calix and many more
Other artists: Fredrik Raddum, Astrid Nondal, Christer Karlstad, Marianne Darien Solhaugstrand, Daniel Østvold, Andreas Tellefsen, Ane Graff, Marianne Wiig Storaas, Christian Messel, Liv Tandrevold Eriksen & Marius Amdam
