A compilation of highlights were playing in the Lillehammer Experimental office during the Pandemic. Showing a representation of the broad range of sounds we like to put on.
Thanks to all of the artists, labels, independent record stores, and concert organisers in the underground music scene working hard to keep up the stream of fascinating sound works out there. Hope to see you at another event, either in person or online.
--------- FULL TRACK LISTING WITH TIME CODES, LINKS AND SHOW NOTES
0:00 - 01:56 James Welburn - Duality (Unreleased)
1:57 - 03:05 Introduction by James Welburn, Founder and Curator of Lillehammer Experimental
---------
03:06 - 06:22 Henriette Eilertsen - The Sabbatical (Poems for Flute LP, Motvind Records 2021, MOT14LP)
Henriette Eilertsen (b. 1993) was the first in Norway to get a bachelor's degree in jazz flute, at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Eilertsen now makes her debut with the album Poems for Flute, where she stakes out a path on her own and shows what she wants the jazz flute to be...
https://henrietteeilertsen.bandcamp.com/releases
---------
06:22 - 14:33 Petter Fe - Black Milk (Excerpt) (Pentagramophone LP, Papa Foxtrot Echo 2020, PFE 666)
Petter Flaten Eilertsen (b. 1973) is heavily involved in the experimental music scene of Oslo, where he lives and works. His music is based on drones, noise and improvisation. Eilertsen has performed music on about fifty releases, but Pentagramophone is his first "proper" solo album.
https://petterfe.bandcamp.com/album/pentagramophone
---------
14:34 - 19:15 Heave Blood & Die - Kawanishi Aeroplane (Post People LP, Fysisk Format 2021)
Tromsø's Heave Blood & Die say about their second album:
"Post People started as a concept we talked about together as a group, the more we discussed the topic, the more it turned out to it could possibly be so many different things: A fictional universe deprived of an established society, a post-apocalyptic universe of sorts, which the concept Post People very much is.
It would be humankind as a whole transcending modern society, leaving capitalism behind, laying waste to non justified authority, achieving the climate neutral goal, equality for all and ending the war on drugs. Post People is very much an activist piece of art, a critical view on how things are, and always has been, put into rhythm and sounds sequenced in an order that makes melodies that some find pleasant."
JW: Discovered via an online concert from SALT in Oslo, streamed by Audiotree:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_49V5ImoWqQ&t=2s
https://heavebloodanddie.bandcamp.com/album/post-people
---------
19:16 - 22:37 Moon Relay «VI» and «VII» (_...-``-..._ LP, Sheep Chase Records, 2020)
Oslo, Norway. Experimental rock maestros Moon Relay’s opus _...-``-..._! Early post-punk and no-wave mixed together with noiserock, kraut, jazz, fractured funk and sometimes elements from hip hop in the spirit of Afrika Bambaataa. Avantgarde, hypnotic and yet groovy on the verge of dancy. Trance-like rhythms evolving into mysterious drones, and then funky bass lines with noisy guitars and synths floating on top. A unique and all-consuming experience.
https://moonrelay.bandcamp.com/album/-
---------
23:37 - 28:22 Spill Gold - Ecotone Part 1 (Highway Hypnosis LP, Knekelhuis 2020)
Amsterdam, Netherlands. On Highway Hypnosis, their first album on vinyl, Spill Gold masterfully juxtaposes darkness and light, playfulness and control, enhancing the transcendental character of the material at hand. Based on strong pop structures, the songwriting here traverses a world of Krautrock and cosmic influences at once catchy and alienating, opening the possibility for catharsis.
JW: Discovered via an online concert by Roadburn Redux 2021:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-GI7U7trjk
https://spillgold.bandcamp.com/album/spill-gold-highway-hypnosis
---------
28:24 - 33:30 Kinn - Coda / The Beginning & The End Inside The Beginning Again (Anamnesis Landscape LP, First Light Records 2021)
Anamnesis explores the supposed notion that habit is informed by a previous existence. It is believed by many that this knowledge is stored in the Landscape, lending a bizarre and peculiar sense of divinity and sacred to what would be seen as mundane physical objects in the eyes of most of modern society.
JW: Classified on his own Bandcamp page as "miserable electronics" Kinn from London, UK tells me via Instagram messenger that all of the sounds on his Anamnesis Landscape LP have been originated or processed by acoustic means.
https://kinndread.bandcamp.com/releases
---------
33:34 - 36:46 dragongirl - beefs, bad blood and burning vendettas (Tripomatic Fantasies EP, Sheep Chase Records 2021)
Aarhus, Denmark - Through her music dragongirl crosses the borders between club music, contemporary electronic music and performance art. «Tripomatic Fantasies» shows us further explorations on the sound she made a solid foundation for on «Once More, With Feeling» from 2019.
https://dragong1rl.bandcamp.com/album/tripomatic-fantasies
---------
36:47 - 41:25 James Welburn Feat. Hilde Marie Holsen - Parallel (Sleeper in the Void LP, Miasmah Recordings 2021)
Lillehammer & Oslo Norway
On Sleeper in the Void LP, Welburn expands the domain of his sound, unveiling surprises until the very end of the album’s 36 minute playtime.
JW: Regarding the track Parallel Freq UK's Michael Rodham Heaps fittingly described it as: "a hawthorn-rubbed aperture that burrows into your head, shimmers like a heat-licked hallucination"
https://jameswelburnmiasmah.bandcamp.com/album/sleeper-in-the-void
---------
41:25 - 43:51 Hiraki - Common Fear (Stumbling Through the Walls LP, Nefarious Industries 2021)
Aarhus, Denmark - As a part of Denmark’s flourishing underground scene for dark and heavy music, the HIRAKI trio deploys an aggressive style of progressive synthpunk from the edge of the abyss. The band presents this sonic assault to accompany the inevitable fact that our world is sick, and we all take part in maintaining the fucked up systemic structures.
JW: This was an in store recommendation from Tiger Records, Oslo.
https://hirakiband.bandcamp.com/album/stumbling-through-the-walls
---------
43:52 - 50:36 Svarte Greiner - Devolving Trust (Devolving Trust LP, Miasmah Recordings, miacd055 2022)
Erik K Skodvin's alter persona “Svarte Greiner” re-appears with another chapter in his “zen music for disturbed souls” series, channeling both spiritual distress and meditation in a live recording from the bunkers of a bombed out brewery.
The first piece, entitled “Devolving Trust” is recorded live in the bunkers of Schneider Brewery in Berlin, 2018. Erik explains : “I was invited to use the vast old cellars located underneath the site for a performance / installation. Wet and hollow with a dark past and long reverb, it was a perfect location to channel a cello and electro-acoustic improvisation in the spirit of my two long-form, meditative albums Black Tie & Moss Garden. As a 30 minute piece, it was left looping in the room for hours after it ended as an echo of the performance, allowing people to walk around and soak up the sounds and empty hallways alone.
https://soundcloud.com/miasmah/svarte-greiner-devolve-excerptsarte-greiner/devolving-trust
---------
50:37 - 55:00 Ingrid Schmoliner - Stampa (карлицы сюита / Dwarf Suite LP, Corvo Records 2017)
The Austrian musician, composer and pedagogue Ingrid Schmoliner distinctively expands the tonal language of current avant-garde music with her striking piano preparations and the multilayered combinations of her compositional patterns.
•
This album of Ingrid Schmoliner is a suite of powerful prepared piano music, inspired by the saga of the Percht, a female pagan goddess, which appears in midwinter and whose origins reach back to the Stone Age, still present in the very remote mountain areas of the Austrian alps.
This composition speaks a unique sonic language, distinctively and complex, a multilayered piece of art without any electronic treatments or overdubs.
JW: Discovered via Streamingkonzert auf echoraeume.klingt.org: https://www.echoraum.at/positionen_01.htm
https://corvorecords.bandcamp.com/album/-
---------
55:00 - 60:25 Foss - Floating woods (Unveiled Into A New Hiding, Cassette album, Case Records 2021)
Sindre (Foss) Skancke has been releasing music for decades, but this is the first release under his birth name. At the same time it is perhaps also the most restrained record he ever did. While earlier records under other aliases have been leaning heavy on more metal oriented guitar-works or pedal noise, this album is built on crumbling synths and drum machines, samples from old forgotten lp’s, theremin and sparse vocals. The melodic work previously drenched in distortion is getting more uncrushed space, and while there is still enough noise in the span of an album, it keeps holding back until unleashed at the proper moments.
JW: I discovered Sindre at Oslo Støyfest where I was doing live sound. I was mesmerised by his sound then and ended up mastering this album.
https://caserecordsofficial.bandcamp.com/album/unveiled-into-a-new-hiding
---------
60:25 - Thov G. Wetterhus - Bjølleslåtten (Stålslått LP, Motvind Records 2021)
The Norwegian mouth harp tradition as today, hosting a number of great instrumentalists, is one of the most immediately transcending musics we have in this country....The mouth harp touches our bodies and let us dream away in an overtone world where gravity acts in pulsating waves. Thov Gudbrand Wetterhus has a special ability to shape the tunes he plays, and make them his own. The way he does it is very advanced. Many of the tunes he plays are fiddle tunes and he is able to form them close to what a fiddle player would get out of her instrument. The term "iron fiddle" about the mouth harp therefore fits particularly well in this case....The mouth harp has a powerful sound and the connotations with occultism and shamanism are obvious. The medieval feast element is clearly present in this release. At the same time this is razorsharp club music. Music that should be played loud. Dancers, listeners, DJs and drivers, this one is for you!
https://thovgwetterhus.bandcamp.com/
---------
63:43 - 70:47(End) Naaljos Ljom - Homslien (Naajlos Ljom LP, Motvind Records 2021)
Sometimes a band appears that has twisted and turned so much on a musical material that it sounds brand new. Though, no one can invent something completely new, it is usually clear that it comes from one place, but just as clear that it is on its way to another. In the middle of this point in the transformation, on this mountain transition between dusty wax roll recordings and a strobe-lit nightclub PA, we stand when we hear the debut album of the duo Naaljos Ljom. They are known from noisy bands like MoHa! and Ultralyd with which they have toured over large parts of Europe, as well as parts of the USA, Asia and Australia. Now they have dived into the tonality and rhythm in traditional Norwegian folk music and dressed it up in an electronic dance music costume
https://naaljosljom.bandcamp.com/
JW: Motvind Records recently relocated to Lillehammer from Oslo, strengthening the ranks here by adding another colour that focusses on interesting experimental folk, jazz and traditional music. From their site: "Motvind Records aims to release trancendental music in diverse forms – experimental and traditional, improvisations and compositions." http://motvindrecords.com/
Thanks to all of the artists, labels, independent record stores, and concert organisers in the underground music scene working hard to keep up the stream of fascinating sound works out there. Hope to see you at another event, either in person or online.
--------- FULL TRACK LISTING WITH TIME CODES, LINKS AND SHOW NOTES
0:00 - 01:56 James Welburn - Duality (Unreleased)
1:57 - 03:05 Introduction by James Welburn, Founder and Curator of Lillehammer Experimental
---------
03:06 - 06:22 Henriette Eilertsen - The Sabbatical (Poems for Flute LP, Motvind Records 2021, MOT14LP)
Henriette Eilertsen (b. 1993) was the first in Norway to get a bachelor's degree in jazz flute, at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Eilertsen now makes her debut with the album Poems for Flute, where she stakes out a path on her own and shows what she wants the jazz flute to be...
https://henrietteeilertsen.bandcamp.com/releases
---------
06:22 - 14:33 Petter Fe - Black Milk (Excerpt) (Pentagramophone LP, Papa Foxtrot Echo 2020, PFE 666)
Petter Flaten Eilertsen (b. 1973) is heavily involved in the experimental music scene of Oslo, where he lives and works. His music is based on drones, noise and improvisation. Eilertsen has performed music on about fifty releases, but Pentagramophone is his first "proper" solo album.
https://petterfe.bandcamp.com/album/pentagramophone
---------
14:34 - 19:15 Heave Blood & Die - Kawanishi Aeroplane (Post People LP, Fysisk Format 2021)
Tromsø's Heave Blood & Die say about their second album:
"Post People started as a concept we talked about together as a group, the more we discussed the topic, the more it turned out to it could possibly be so many different things: A fictional universe deprived of an established society, a post-apocalyptic universe of sorts, which the concept Post People very much is.
It would be humankind as a whole transcending modern society, leaving capitalism behind, laying waste to non justified authority, achieving the climate neutral goal, equality for all and ending the war on drugs. Post People is very much an activist piece of art, a critical view on how things are, and always has been, put into rhythm and sounds sequenced in an order that makes melodies that some find pleasant."
JW: Discovered via an online concert from SALT in Oslo, streamed by Audiotree:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_49V5ImoWqQ&t=2s
https://heavebloodanddie.bandcamp.com/album/post-people
---------
19:16 - 22:37 Moon Relay «VI» and «VII» (_...-``-..._ LP, Sheep Chase Records, 2020)
Oslo, Norway. Experimental rock maestros Moon Relay’s opus _...-``-..._! Early post-punk and no-wave mixed together with noiserock, kraut, jazz, fractured funk and sometimes elements from hip hop in the spirit of Afrika Bambaataa. Avantgarde, hypnotic and yet groovy on the verge of dancy. Trance-like rhythms evolving into mysterious drones, and then funky bass lines with noisy guitars and synths floating on top. A unique and all-consuming experience.
https://moonrelay.bandcamp.com/album/-
---------
23:37 - 28:22 Spill Gold - Ecotone Part 1 (Highway Hypnosis LP, Knekelhuis 2020)
Amsterdam, Netherlands. On Highway Hypnosis, their first album on vinyl, Spill Gold masterfully juxtaposes darkness and light, playfulness and control, enhancing the transcendental character of the material at hand. Based on strong pop structures, the songwriting here traverses a world of Krautrock and cosmic influences at once catchy and alienating, opening the possibility for catharsis.
JW: Discovered via an online concert by Roadburn Redux 2021:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-GI7U7trjk
https://spillgold.bandcamp.com/album/spill-gold-highway-hypnosis
---------
28:24 - 33:30 Kinn - Coda / The Beginning & The End Inside The Beginning Again (Anamnesis Landscape LP, First Light Records 2021)
Anamnesis explores the supposed notion that habit is informed by a previous existence. It is believed by many that this knowledge is stored in the Landscape, lending a bizarre and peculiar sense of divinity and sacred to what would be seen as mundane physical objects in the eyes of most of modern society.
JW: Classified on his own Bandcamp page as "miserable electronics" Kinn from London, UK tells me via Instagram messenger that all of the sounds on his Anamnesis Landscape LP have been originated or processed by acoustic means.
https://kinndread.bandcamp.com/releases
---------
33:34 - 36:46 dragongirl - beefs, bad blood and burning vendettas (Tripomatic Fantasies EP, Sheep Chase Records 2021)
Aarhus, Denmark - Through her music dragongirl crosses the borders between club music, contemporary electronic music and performance art. «Tripomatic Fantasies» shows us further explorations on the sound she made a solid foundation for on «Once More, With Feeling» from 2019.
https://dragong1rl.bandcamp.com/album/tripomatic-fantasies
---------
36:47 - 41:25 James Welburn Feat. Hilde Marie Holsen - Parallel (Sleeper in the Void LP, Miasmah Recordings 2021)
Lillehammer & Oslo Norway
On Sleeper in the Void LP, Welburn expands the domain of his sound, unveiling surprises until the very end of the album’s 36 minute playtime.
JW: Regarding the track Parallel Freq UK's Michael Rodham Heaps fittingly described it as: "a hawthorn-rubbed aperture that burrows into your head, shimmers like a heat-licked hallucination"
https://jameswelburnmiasmah.bandcamp.com/album/sleeper-in-the-void
---------
41:25 - 43:51 Hiraki - Common Fear (Stumbling Through the Walls LP, Nefarious Industries 2021)
Aarhus, Denmark - As a part of Denmark’s flourishing underground scene for dark and heavy music, the HIRAKI trio deploys an aggressive style of progressive synthpunk from the edge of the abyss. The band presents this sonic assault to accompany the inevitable fact that our world is sick, and we all take part in maintaining the fucked up systemic structures.
JW: This was an in store recommendation from Tiger Records, Oslo.
https://hirakiband.bandcamp.com/album/stumbling-through-the-walls
---------
43:52 - 50:36 Svarte Greiner - Devolving Trust (Devolving Trust LP, Miasmah Recordings, miacd055 2022)
Erik K Skodvin's alter persona “Svarte Greiner” re-appears with another chapter in his “zen music for disturbed souls” series, channeling both spiritual distress and meditation in a live recording from the bunkers of a bombed out brewery.
The first piece, entitled “Devolving Trust” is recorded live in the bunkers of Schneider Brewery in Berlin, 2018. Erik explains : “I was invited to use the vast old cellars located underneath the site for a performance / installation. Wet and hollow with a dark past and long reverb, it was a perfect location to channel a cello and electro-acoustic improvisation in the spirit of my two long-form, meditative albums Black Tie & Moss Garden. As a 30 minute piece, it was left looping in the room for hours after it ended as an echo of the performance, allowing people to walk around and soak up the sounds and empty hallways alone.
https://soundcloud.com/miasmah/svarte-greiner-devolve-excerptsarte-greiner/devolving-trust
---------
50:37 - 55:00 Ingrid Schmoliner - Stampa (карлицы сюита / Dwarf Suite LP, Corvo Records 2017)
The Austrian musician, composer and pedagogue Ingrid Schmoliner distinctively expands the tonal language of current avant-garde music with her striking piano preparations and the multilayered combinations of her compositional patterns.
•
This album of Ingrid Schmoliner is a suite of powerful prepared piano music, inspired by the saga of the Percht, a female pagan goddess, which appears in midwinter and whose origins reach back to the Stone Age, still present in the very remote mountain areas of the Austrian alps.
This composition speaks a unique sonic language, distinctively and complex, a multilayered piece of art without any electronic treatments or overdubs.
JW: Discovered via Streamingkonzert auf echoraeume.klingt.org: https://www.echoraum.at/positionen_01.htm
https://corvorecords.bandcamp.com/album/-
---------
55:00 - 60:25 Foss - Floating woods (Unveiled Into A New Hiding, Cassette album, Case Records 2021)
Sindre (Foss) Skancke has been releasing music for decades, but this is the first release under his birth name. At the same time it is perhaps also the most restrained record he ever did. While earlier records under other aliases have been leaning heavy on more metal oriented guitar-works or pedal noise, this album is built on crumbling synths and drum machines, samples from old forgotten lp’s, theremin and sparse vocals. The melodic work previously drenched in distortion is getting more uncrushed space, and while there is still enough noise in the span of an album, it keeps holding back until unleashed at the proper moments.
JW: I discovered Sindre at Oslo Støyfest where I was doing live sound. I was mesmerised by his sound then and ended up mastering this album.
https://caserecordsofficial.bandcamp.com/album/unveiled-into-a-new-hiding
---------
60:25 - Thov G. Wetterhus - Bjølleslåtten (Stålslått LP, Motvind Records 2021)
The Norwegian mouth harp tradition as today, hosting a number of great instrumentalists, is one of the most immediately transcending musics we have in this country....The mouth harp touches our bodies and let us dream away in an overtone world where gravity acts in pulsating waves. Thov Gudbrand Wetterhus has a special ability to shape the tunes he plays, and make them his own. The way he does it is very advanced. Many of the tunes he plays are fiddle tunes and he is able to form them close to what a fiddle player would get out of her instrument. The term "iron fiddle" about the mouth harp therefore fits particularly well in this case....The mouth harp has a powerful sound and the connotations with occultism and shamanism are obvious. The medieval feast element is clearly present in this release. At the same time this is razorsharp club music. Music that should be played loud. Dancers, listeners, DJs and drivers, this one is for you!
https://thovgwetterhus.bandcamp.com/
---------
63:43 - 70:47(End) Naaljos Ljom - Homslien (Naajlos Ljom LP, Motvind Records 2021)
Sometimes a band appears that has twisted and turned so much on a musical material that it sounds brand new. Though, no one can invent something completely new, it is usually clear that it comes from one place, but just as clear that it is on its way to another. In the middle of this point in the transformation, on this mountain transition between dusty wax roll recordings and a strobe-lit nightclub PA, we stand when we hear the debut album of the duo Naaljos Ljom. They are known from noisy bands like MoHa! and Ultralyd with which they have toured over large parts of Europe, as well as parts of the USA, Asia and Australia. Now they have dived into the tonality and rhythm in traditional Norwegian folk music and dressed it up in an electronic dance music costume
https://naaljosljom.bandcamp.com/
JW: Motvind Records recently relocated to Lillehammer from Oslo, strengthening the ranks here by adding another colour that focusses on interesting experimental folk, jazz and traditional music. From their site: "Motvind Records aims to release trancendental music in diverse forms – experimental and traditional, improvisations and compositions." http://motvindrecords.com/
This mix is offered by Lillehammer Experimental. The music is reproduced with permission from TONO. Unauthorized transmission or copying is illegal.
Denne tjenesten tilbys av Lillehammer Experimental. Musikken er gjengitt med tillatelse fra TONO. Uautorisert fremføring eller kopiering er ulovlig. www.tono.no
Denne tjenesten tilbys av Lillehammer Experimental. Musikken er gjengitt med tillatelse fra TONO. Uautorisert fremføring eller kopiering er ulovlig. www.tono.no