Stian Skagen: The Inward Rising CD

Available January 2009. Distributed by Musikkoperatorene.

Stian Skagen The Inward Rising
Prisma Records 704
Releasedate 08.01.2010
Distributed by Musikkoperatørene
Ean code: 7041881237041

Stian Skagen (b.1980) aka [concept.virus] is one of the leading Scandinavian sound artists and has toured and recorded with acts such as Årabrot, Ryfylke and Nernes/Skagen, his work has been exhibited and performed several places around the world. The music presented on this release was made for the sound installation The Inward Rising by Skagen and fellow artist Monica Winther. The installation was presented at the Henie Onstad Art Centre from the 20th of November until 14th of December 2008.

The Inward Rising is according to Skagen the result from a one-year research in paint pigments reflective and absorbing light qualities. LED light was programmed to change the colors reflecting from the painting. Various patterns and color combinations build up a large painting that in constant change as the lights are changing. The object was the source for a sound and video composition.

See a video of the complete installation at www.youtube.com/kunstsenteret

The music on this record is standing in a minimalistic electro-accoustic tradition, inspired by composers such as Morton Subotnick, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis. The sound is digital and abstract, but contains clearly recognizable objects and structures which interacts with one another and makes up an organic whole.

The critic Bjørn Hatterud wrote in a review on the piece in kunstkritikk.no that Skagen and Winther …“has created some of the most powerful I've experienced in an art museum ever… The sound is murky and dark. I hear trees falling, the roar of waterfalls, creepy creatures, or the roaring emptiness of space...”

Prisma Records is proud to present this powerful, dynamic and extreme, yet delicately intricate composition for the first time.

Ingar Zach & Andreas Meland: Music For Tinguely CD

Available November 2009. Distributed by Musikkoperatorene.

Ingar Zach (b.1971) is one of Norway`s leading percussionists and founder of the record label SOFA. He has recorded for the ECM and Rune Grammofon labels together with his bands Dans Les Arbres and Huntsville and has released several solo and duo records.

Andreas Meland is a Norwegian sound artist and musician. He has recorded with the projects Røyskatt, Norwegian Noize orchestra, düplo and Forell pluss several solo projects. He is also the founder of the experimental music festival Safe as Milk and the Melektronikk record label.

Music for Tinguely consists of two pieces commissioned for the Jean Tinguely exhibition - The Future As We Know It - presented at the Henie Onstad Art Centre in 2009. Zach`s piece Tinguely Solo was created for the opening ceremony of the exhibiton on April 16th 2009 by using a Gran Cassa, percussion, sruti box and drone commander mixed together with sounds from the Meta sculpture by Jean Tinguely. Andreas Meland`s piece The future as we remember it was performed at the centre on April 19th as part of a concert day together with the bands In the Country and Golden Serenades. All the source material for Meland`s piece was recorded on site in the Jean Tinguely exhibition.

Kåre Kolberg: Nova CD

Available November 2009. Distributed by Musikkoperatorene.

Kåre Kolberg (b.1936) is one of Norway`s foremost contemporary composers and is regarded as one of the pioneers of early electronic music and cross-artistic art in the Scandinavia. He has composed music for film, theatre and chamber orchestras to jazz acts such as Svein Finnerud Trio and Jan Garbarek.

The electronic tape composition presented on this CD was composed for the multi-media work NOVA created together with the artist Anders Kjær, presented at the Henie Onstad Art Centre from the 2nd to the 22th August 1972. NOVA was one of Norway`s first sound installations. It included a specially designed light show and music played from tape - blended together with a huge 13 x 19 meter installation consisting of glass, rubber tires and piles of paper that the audience could walk through. The composition made for this piece was found on a tape in the centre`s archives and Prisma Records is proud to release an hitherto unknown gem in Norwegian early electronic music history.

Keith Fullerton Whitman/Mimaroglu Music Sales wrote:

one of the finds-of-the-year in regards to unheard early electronic music ...

in 1972 composer kåre kolberg composed this 25-minute piece as an “accompaniment” to anders kjær’s titular “sound-environment” (detailed below) installed at the henie onstad art center in oslo ; the master-tape was summarily buried in the center’s archives, until lasse marhaug (in charge of rejuvenating the center’s in-house record label prisma) turned it up, some 37 years later ...

comprised of chopped-up trumpet, lid-slam grand piano, vocal phonèmes (ala amirkhanian’s “lexical music”) arranged into a heavily-filtered, explosion-heavy array, this piece ranks up there with dark concrète masterpieces from the likes of andré almuro, bent lorentzen, and the like ... highly recommended !!!

Prisma Records!

Prisma Records is a new record label dedicated to releasing music performed and recorded at the Henie Onstad Art Centre located at Høvikodden, Norway. The label focuses on new recordings from the centre`s concert and performance program, entitled Høvikodden Live. It will also release older recordings from the centre's extensive music archive, consisting of 600 concerts from 1968 until 1990. The label is run by the centre`s two music-coordinators Lars Mørch Finborud and Lasse Marhaug - with kind permission by the centre.

On the November 16th Prisma Records will release 3 albums as digipak CDs and digital versions on Itunes and Spotify. The two first CDs in this batch presents the soundtracks made for two multi-media installations presented at the art centre, with 36 years in between the two works (!!). One is the pioneering electronic tape composition NOVA by Kåre Kolberg from 1972 and the other one is the noise composition The Inward Rising by Stian Skagen made in 2008. The third release presents two commissioned music pieces made for the Jean Tinguely exhibition shown at the art centre in 2009, composed by percussionist Ingar Zach and electronic composer Andreas Meland.