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About Jan Bang and ...and poppies from Kandahar The musical spheres Jan Bang works in revolve around such luminaries as Jon Hassell, David Sylvian, Brian Eno, Sidsel Endresen, Nils Petter Molvr and Arve Henriksen. From his work as successful pop producer in the 1990s, his creative thrust and pioneering work in developing the concept of live remix--improvising with electronics alongside more conventional instruments and performers--has led to him being constantly in-demand as a producer and performer today.
In 2005 he launched, together with Erik Honor, the internationally renowned Punkt Festival, where Bang's live sampling--his own musical instrument--works within the framework of overlapping concerts: one being the original; the other, the remix. The Punkt brand has already traveled abroad to the UK, Germany and has plans to visit the United States.
Bang's recent recorded work includes the acclaimed CDs Cartography and Jon Hassell's Last Night the Moon Came, both on ECM. Recent live performances and tours have included with Jon Hassell to Sidney Opera House as part of Eno's own festival and last year playing Carnegie Hall in NYC and Royce Hall, LA. In November 2008, as curator of “Scene Norway" during the opening of King's Place in London, BBC's Fiona Talkington invited Punkt for a three-day festival as part of the London Jazz Festival.
Bang was born in Denver and grew up in Kristiansand, nurtured by the legacy of his father's vast record collection, his mother's piano playing and the sounds of swallows in the family garden. The early meeting between Bang, Erik Honor, and a range of music technology, awoke a desire to start a band and a thirst to develop something unique. The Troms electronic scene--and some musical collisions with other soon-to-be famous musicians such as Bugge Wesseltoft and Nils Petter Molvr--set Bang on the road to his status as one of the most innovative and creative musicians working in Norway today.
Jan Bang's solo album, ...and poppies from Kandahar, was released in 2010 on David Sylvian's samadhisound label, and Bang will be touring the material later in the year, together with guitarist longtime collaborator, Eivind Aarset.
..."It's rare for an album to quietly shake the foundation of what music is...and can be...a 45-minute travelogue of sound, shape, color and emotion that touches on the human condition with rare depth and keen perception."
- John Kelman, AllAboutJazz.com
..."A refined, close to chill-out sound which has more of an urban feel than fellow Norwegian Jan Garbarek's more spacey and forlorn landscapes"
- Wall Street Journal
