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Pan-Scan Ensemble: Air and Light and Time and Space
by John Eyles
For many years, Scandinavian jazz and improv have mixed and matched musicians with no great concern about their nationalities. While the music has maintained its high quality, most listeners have not been overly concerned with the players' countries of birth. Now, as its name suggests Pan-Scan Ensemble has adopted a pan-Scandinavian approach and brought together nine fine players from across the region. Far more exciting than the ensemble's roots is its line-up of three female saxophonists and three male trumpeters ...
read moreParty Knüllers meets Jim Baker: Four Images of Wank
by Eyal Hareuveni
The duo Party Knüllers--Chicagoan cellist and electronics player Fred Lonberg-Holm and Norwegian drummer Ståle Liavik Solberg--wanted to intensify its already dense mix of sounds and added Lonberg-Holm's frequent comrade, synth player Jim Baker. The trio did a short tour in the United States before recording recording Four Images of Wank in the studio. Apparently, according to the amused liner notes of Baker, presented as a letter from him to Lonberg-Holm and Solberg, Baker was not happy ...
read moreJohn Russell / Ståle Liavik Solberg: No Step
by Eyal Hareuveni
The duo of British guitarist John Russell, an important figure of the London free improvisation scene since the seventies, and Norwegian drummer Ståle Liavik Solberg, a central figure in Oslo's thriving improvised music scene in recent years is a working unit. The two not only perform together as a duo, but over the last two years have occasionally performed in quartet with fellow British electronics player Steve Beresford, and double bassist John Edwards. After countless performances, Russell and Solberg developed ...
read moreJohn Russell / Ståle Liavik Solberg: No Step
by Mark Corroto
Like a pair of jugglers, free improvising musicians John Russell and Ståle Liavik Solberg excel at keeping multiple objects in the air and in constant motion. No Step is a brief recording from May 2013, and although clocking in at just 33-minutes, the session leaves the impression these two connect with each other at multiple junctures. Separated by two generations, Russell's guitar and Solberg's percussion work share the same DNA. The guitarist was a key figure in the ...
read moreJohn Russell / Ståle Liavik Solberg: No Step
by John Eyles
London-based guitarist John Russell and percussionist Ståle Liavik Solberg from Oslo have worked together as a duo since June 2012 when they first appeared together in London and then toured Scandinavia. No Step was recorded in May 2013 at the Blow Out! concert series that Solberg curates in Oslo. It consists of one thirty-three minute piece which shares its title with the album. The relative brevity of the album is more than compensated for by its quality. Russell ...
read moreMotland / Lonberg-Holm / Solberg / Gjerstad: VCDC
by Eyal Hareuveni
This unconventional quartet is comprised of Frode Gjerstad, fellow Norwegians and citizens of the Norwegian reeds hero's hometown, Stavanger, vocalist Stine Janvin Motland and drummer Ståle Liavik Solberg (known also as the MotSol duo, for whom Gjerstad produced the debut, Strap on (FMR, 2006)). Frequent Gjerstad collaborator, Chicago-based cellist Fred Longberg-Holm, rounds out the quartet, his last collaboration with the reed player, Sugar Maple, together with Chicago drummer Michael Zerang, released by FMR in 2010. Even though ...
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