Sidsel Endresen, Jan Bang, Erik Honoré: Punkt Live Remixes Vol.2

The person who ought to be reviewing this album is, of course, the longtime AAJ writer and editor John Kelman/Dave Binder. Dave attended Punkt festivals on behalf of AAJ from the mid 2000s to the late 2010s, when ill-health stopped him making the long-haul flights to Norway. He was fascinated by Punkt's live- remixes, reporting on them in detail on a daily basis during the festivals. Dave was probably the first North American-based jazz writer to latch on to the remix sessions, and indeed to Punkt in general. He was certainly the first to review the events in depth. He was present at all three of the festivals chronicled on Punkt Live Remixes Vol. 2, which also covers Punkt pop-ups elsewhere in Europe. Sadly, Dave suffered a fatal heart attack in August 2024. He is missed by all who knew him.

Punkt was launched in Kristiansand, Norway in 2005 by singer Sidsel Endresen and electronicists Jan Bang and Erik Honore. It continues to be staged each autumn. From the outset, live remixes have been a central part of the programme. The concept involves artists performing live remixes of a concert immediately after it has ended. The idea is to create a dynamic and collaborative exploration of the source material and allow audiences to witness its transformation from concert performance to its reimagined version.

Punkt programmes are so sharp that one can shave with them indefinitely and they never get blunt. Artists providing the source material for the tracks on Punkt Live Remixes Vol. 2, recorded between 2005 and 2012, include the late, great Jon Hassell, Three Trapped Tigers, Eivind Aarset, Helena Tulve, Maja S.K. Ratkje and Ensemble Super Moderne. It is a star-studded bill that would be considered ahead of its time even in 2024.

Endresen, Bang and Honoré each contribute to every remix, taking them so far out that the source material is rendered practically unrecognisable. But it is not necessary to have been at the original concert performances to thrill at their reinventions. Just imagine Jon Hassell with a headful of acid getting invasive with some digital remix/sampling kit in Malaysia or Ibiza, as was his wont, and enter the zone. It is magical realism to the max or, as the late, great Wayne Shorter might have put it, zero gravity to the 90th dimension.

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