Jazz Articles about Supersilent

Supersilent: 12

by John Eyles
October 17, 2014

There is a widely-used saying about London's famous red buses, “You wait ages for one, and then three turn up at once..." Back in the autumn of 2010, it seemed as if it could equally well apply to Supersilent releases. After the quartet's first four albums were all released in 1997-8 (1-3 as a triple, then 4 on its own), by 2009 only four more (plus the DVD 7) had been released since the turn of the millennium, usually with ...

Supersilent & John Paul Jones: London, England, November 18, 2012

by John Eyles
December 7, 2012

Supersilent & John Paul JonesVillage UndergroundLondon Jazz FestivalLondon, England November 18, 2012 By its tenth and final night, the 21st London Jazz Festival, had featured such illustrious names as saxophonists Peter Brötzmann, Jan Garbarek and Sonny Rollins, pianist Herbie Hancock, and guitarists Bill Frisell and John McLaughlin. But, as festivals always seem to, it had saved the best for last... and made it difficult to choose which gig to attend. Across town, guitarist ...

Supersilent: 10

by John Kelman
October 7, 2010

At a time when Supersilent has kicked into high gear with three releases in the space of a few short months--two CDs (10 and the forthcoming 12) and one vinyl-only release (11), all on the equally intrepid Rune Grammofon label--it seems incredulous that this Norwegian improvising trio can continue creating music in defiance of easy (or difficult) categorization and, despite its complete and utter spontaneity, unfailing individualism. Still sounding like nobody but Supersilent, each successive album remains clearly delineated amidst ...

Supersilent: 9

by John Kelman
November 17, 2009

What do you do when you lose one of your founding members? Well, if you're Norwegian avante-improvising group Supersilent, you continue on, almost as if nothing has happened. Not that the loss of drummer Jarle Vespestad wasn't felt; it's just that, for Supersilent's remaining members--Arve Henriksen, Ståle Storløkken and Helge Sten (aka Deathprod)--the needs of the many far outweigh the needs of the few. The group's first performance as a trio was at Molde 2009 and, with Henriksen spending as ...

Supersilent: 8

by John Kelman
November 20, 2007

While many musicians eschew liner notes, preferring to let the music speak for itself, Norwegian noise improv group Supersilent has always taken that philosophy a step further. The names of the band members aren't listed; album titles are only in increasing numerical increments; and the collective spontaneous compositions are simply titled with the album and track (e.g. 1.1, 1.2). The covers of its previous Rune Grammofon releases--1-3 (1997), 4 (1998), 5 (2001), 6 (2003) and the DVD 7 (2005)--have been ...

Supersilent: 6

by Mark Corroto
April 2, 2003

The latest release by the Norwegian band Supersilent could be the Bitches Brew of our modern times. Like Miles Davis’s infamous recording, little information about the band or its music making is revealed from the CD packaging. In fact their first three releases, 1-3, 4, followed by the cleverly titled 5, only list producer Helge Sten (aka Deathprod) on the CD jacket. The track titles, like Jackson Pollock paintings, are merely numbered to increase the mystery.

A bit ...

Supersilent: 6

by AAJ Staff
April 2, 2003

The collisions between the purely acoustic sphere of traditional jazz (okay, throw in a few amplified instruments) and the amorphous universe of electronica have yielded a virtual zoo of hybrid offspring. One major flaw that marks most of these products is that they end up produced to death. That's the price you pay for having too many gadgets in the studio and not enough imagination to create something special through performance itself. Imagination and spontaneity are a rare combination indeed.