New release: various "I WANT THE BEATLES TO PLAY AT MY ART CENTER!" [DVD]

Video From the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter Archives 1968-2011

PRISMADVD001

Releasedate October 29, 2012

Artists: John Cage, Kjartan Slettemark, KILLL, Arne Nordheim, Stephen O`Malley, Mauricio Kagel, MoHa!, Christopher Nielsen/Masselys, Stian Skagen & Monica Winther.

This DVD presents seminal works of music, performance, dance, theater and installation art from the nearly 50-year history of Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (HOK). When HOK founder Sonja Henie exclaimed that she wanted the Beatles to play at her art center,  in essence she expressed its founding ambition to produce and stage a lively cross-artistic program that captured the contemporary spirit of the day in live form. This release is filled with previous unreleased material from HOKs history, and shows for the first time Kjartan Slettemark dressed up as a poodle in 1975, Mauricio Kagels commisioned piece EX-POSITION from 1978, and the brilliant recording of John Cage reading Muoyce in 1983.

 "And now we take the first step into the future." Former director Ole Henrik Moe added this bold statement when HOK opened its doors to the public in 1968.  The museum of the future at Høvikodden would position dynamic time-based art alongside its collection of modernist masterworks of paintings and sculpture  ,demonstrating how the various forms art elaborate and collaborate with each other. Instead of expanding its art collection, the majority of HOK’s budget would go to events and exhibitions, to the production of new time-based works, and not least, to document ephemeral art.  

I Want the Beatles to Play at My Art Center! presents a small selction from Henie Onstad Kunstsenters videoarchives. The DVD contains a newly restored version of Pål Bang-Hansens promotional feature A Forum of the Arts from 1969 where amongst others Arne Nordheim performs his commisioned work for HOK Solitaire. For the first time one can see how the Norwegian Studio for Electronic Music looked like in 1975 and view an excerpt from Terje Rypdals opera Orfeus vender seg og ser på Eurydike. In addition the DVD contains more recent productions with artists like MoHa!, KILLL, Stephen O`Malley and Christopher Nielsen/Masselys.

This release accompanies the exhibition I Want the Beatles to Play at My Art Center! – Tidsbasert kunst ved HOK 1968-2011 opening October 28th at HOK with performances by Deathprod and Nils Bech. In relation the book Mot det totale museum is published by Forlaget Press together with a 2LP on Prisma Records. The exhibition and releases are curated by Lars Mørch Finborud.

New release: various "I WANT THE BEATLES TO PLAY AT MY ART CENTER!" [2LP]

- Music From the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter Archives 1968-2011

PRISMALP004

Releasedate October 29, 2012

This 2LP presents seminal works of music from the nearly 50-year history of Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (HOK). When HOK founder Sonja Henie exclaimed that she wanted the Beatles to play at her art center,  in essence she expressed its founding ambition to produce and stage a lively cross-artistic program that captured the contemporary spirit of the day in live form. This release is filled with previous unreleased material recorded at HOK by artists such as Jim O`Rourke, Deathprod, Arne Nordheim, Soft Machine, John Cage and Jenny Hval.

 "And now we take the first step into the future." Former director Ole Henrik Moe added this bold statement when HOK opened its doors to the public in 1968.  The museum of the future at Høvikodden would position dynamic time-based art alongside its collection of modernist masterworks of paintings and sculpture, demonstrating how the various forms art elaborate and collaborate with each other. Instead of expanding its art collection, the majority of HOK’s budget would go to events and exhibitions, to the production of new time-based works, and not least, to document ephemeral art.  

I Want the Beatles to Play at My Art Center! presents a small selection from HOKs vast sound archives. For the first time one can hear excerpts from  Kåre Kolberg and Paal-Helge Haugens commisioned work Rekviem for Janis Joplin from 1972, Håkon Kornstad improvising in 2012, Hal Clark playing the legendary Buchla-synthesizer in The Norwegian Studio for Electronic Music in 1975, and Soft Machine at its prime in 1971 with Robert Wyatt on drums. The LP also contains commisoned works by Jenny Hval, Deathprod, Lasse Marhaug and Jim O`Rourke, all produced by HOK over the last years. Other artists represented on the 2LP are Bjørn Fongaard, The Aller Værste!, Svein Finnerud Trio, Sigurd Berge and Spontaneous Music Ensemble. 

This release accompanies the exhibition I Want the Beatles to Play at My Art Center! – Tidsbasert kunst ved HOK 1968-2011 opening on October 28th at HOK with performances by Deathprod and Nils Bech. In relation to the exhibition the book Mot det totale museum is published by Forlaget Press, together with a DVD on Prisma Records. The exhibition and releases are curated by Lars Mørch Finborud.

Tracklist LP

Side A
1. Arne Nordheim – A Forum of the Arts (1969)
2. Sigurd Berge – Excerpts from Blikk (1970)
3. Bjørn Fongaard - The Space Concerto for Piano and Tape (1971)


Side B
4. Soft Machine – Teeth  (1971)

5. Spontaneous Music Ensemble – Norway (1971)
6. Paal-Helge Haugen & Kåre Kolberg – Excerpts from Requiem for Janis
Joplin (1972)
7. Svein Finnerud Trio – Olga (1974)
8. Hal Clark – The Monkey and Organ Grinder (1975)

Side C
9. The Aller Værste! - Dans til musikken (1980)
10. John Cage – Excerpts from Muoyce (1983)
11. Magne Hegdal – Music for Marcel Duchamp (1983)
12. Lasse Marhaug – Ear Era 7 (2008)
13. Jim O`Rourke - Aunt Esther (2010)


Side D
14. Deathprod - Studio (2010)
15. Håkon Kornstad – Improvisations for Karin (2011) 

16. Jenny Hval – You sign your name (2012)

New release: OREN AMBARCHI / JAMES RUSHFORD: Wreckage [LP]

Wreckage presents a collaborative work jointly composed by Oren Ambarchi and James Rushford (originally commissioned for the Ultima Contemporary Music Festival at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter and premiered by Ensemble Neon) for their own instruments (piano and electric guitar) and a small chamber ensemble, performed here by an ensemble of leading lights in Melbourne’s experimental and new music communities. Rushford’s piano gently ushers the listener though a series of tonally ambiguous environments, building up unified textures through irregular iterations of small melodic and harmonic units. While the integration of Ambarchi’s spectral processed guitar (which gradually climbs to the foreground as the piece progresses) with the acoustic instrumentation recalls the late works of Luigi Nono, and the way the timbral lushness of the chamber group is tempered by never resolved harmonic tension seems to draw on Feldman’s work of the early 1970s, Wreckage also gestures towards the melancholic, intuitive minimalism of Luciano Cilio and Giusto Pio and the wandering melodicism of Aldo Clementi. The lushness of the instrumental textures employed and hints of almost-direct melodicism ensure the piece is approachable and immersive; but the ever-shifting harmonic foundations and complex interplay between voices ensures that it remains somewhere beyond the listener’s grasp, in a paradoxical state of simultaneous movement and stasis.

Limited edition of 400 copies.

New release: VAR. ARTISTS: POPOFONI [2LP]

This 2LP is a reissue of the holy grail of Norwegian free-jazz and electronic music, Popofoni, released by Sonet in 1973. It features compositions by Arne Nordheim, Terje Rypdal, Kåre Kolberg, Gunnar Sønstevold and Alfred Janson played by an extended Jan Garbarek Quintet. 

The Popofoni-project was initiated after a heated debate on Haagen Ringnes’ TV-show Åpen Post in autumn 1969, which dealt with the subject popmusic. Standing on one side you found the defenders of pop, actress and singer Elisabeth Grannemann, comedian and record producer Rolv Wesenlund and artist and record label owner Arne Bendiksen – who defended his 1969 Eurovision winner Oj oj oj så glad jeg skal bli. In the other corner was the “cultural elite” represented by literature researcher Erling Nielsen and pianist and Beethoven-expert Amalie Christie. Both sides expressed grave concerns about that their opponent’s music impaired their listeners abilities. During the broadcast, Grannemann performed a parody of an avant garde-composition which included throwing dishes and yelling, with direct reference to composer Arne Nordheims music. Some weeks later Nordheim picked up the handkerchief and responded by composing a pop song with avant garde qualities, Solar Plexus, performed by an expanded Jan Garbarek Quartet. Because of the great media attention this quarrel attracted, the organization Ny Musikk (IRCM) and Henie Onstad Kunstsenter decided to ask the experimental composers Kåre Kolberg, Alfred Janson, Gunnar Sønstevold, Terje Rypdal and Arne Nordheim to write new compositions in the meeting point be- tween pop and avant garde – hence the name Popofoni. 

The result was performed at a concert at the art centre in april 1970 and later documented on a double LP release on Sonet in 1973. It was pressed in 500 copies, and is now one of Norway’s rarest records.

This reissue is produced by Lars Mørch Finborud and Lasse Marhaug for Prisma Records, 2012. The release comes in a limited edition of 500 copies,

New release: KÅRE KOLBERG: ELECTRONIC WORKS 1970-1973 [LP]

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-disciplinary art in Scandinavia. He has composed music for film, theatre and chamber orchestras to jazz acts such as Svein Finnerud Trio and Jan Garbarek. This LP contains three early electronic pieces by Kolberg and comes in a limited edition of 300 copies. 

NOVA  

The electronic tape composition Nova was made by Kåre Kolberg for the visual artist Anders Kjær’s multimedia-installation of the same title, exhibited at Henie Onstad Art Centre between 2–22 of august in 1972. The installation included a specially designed light-show and music playing from tapemachine in a loop – blended together with a huge 13x19 meter installation consisting of glass, rubber tires and piles of paper that the audience could walk through. Nova dealt directly with contemporary society’s destruction of nature and the glooming environmental threats of the 70s. It is regarded as one of Norway’s first examples of installation art. The sound was recorded in Polish Radio Experimental Studio in Warsaw, with the help of technician Bogdan Mazurek. The Polish Radio Experimental Studio was founded by Józef Patkowski in 1957. Kolberg was not the only Norwegian to use it; Arne Nordheim also went there to record his electronic music, including the famous Solitaire, which was presented at the opening of the Henie Onstad Art Centre in 1968.

Omgivelser  

Omgivelser (Enviroments) was a commissioned piece made for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) in 1970. It was composed as a soundtrack for a short film directed by Jan Horne. The idea was to melt abstract film impressions that showcased different sides of the environmental debate of the 1970s, together with experimental electronic music in order to create a singular expression. This piece was also recorded in Studio Eksperymentalne in Warsaw, together with sound engineer Bohdan Mazurek. Kolberg crafted the piece using the studio’s vast sound archives and two pre-recorded tapes. One tape consisted of different recordings Kolberg had made with jazz singer Karin Krog, and the other different field recordings by Kolberg, including Norwegian nursery rhymes sung by Kolberg’s oldest son. In the studio the material was treated with ring modulators and different filters. The result was broadcast in 1970. Since the standard TV-volume levels at the time were so low-fidelity, the dynamic range of Kolberg’s piece didn’t come out right. Kolberg therefore over the years re-presented the piece several times at various concerts.

KEISERENS NYE SLIPS  

The title translates to The Emperor’s New Tie. This piece was composed and recorded in 1973 at EMS (Electronic Music Studios) in Stockholm, using a PDP 15/40 computer. It was programmed in the EMS-1 computer language developed in the same studio. Keiserens nye slips was commissioned by Fylkingen, Stockholm.