Jan Bang

"...The Witness is a haunted, meditative moment, stranded between celebration and mournfulness."

For full review, please visit Electronic Sound magazine 

The news that this week's Punkt festival in Birmingham has been postponed is no surprise. Live music of any sort in a public setting is going to be unavailable to most people for some time to come, but the loss of this two-day event will be keenly felt. As I discovered at its Norwegian home in Kristiansand last year, Punkt is a very special event, conceived by Jan Bang and Erik Honoré as a vehicle for the exploration of the possibilities of live remixing.

Among those due to perform in Birmingham were the trumpeter/singer Arve Henriksen, the guitarist Eivind Aarset, the singer Maja S. K. Ratkje, the saxophonist Trish Clowes and the drummer Mark Sanders. Also on the schedule was a live remix of The Height of the Reeds, the piece specially commissioned to accompany walks across the Humber Bridge during Hull's year as Europe's city of culture in 2017.

I can think of only one direct way of making up for the loss of the festival, and that's by listening to new albums by some of the Punkt's principal figures. Snow Catches on Her Eyelashes finds Aarset and Bang creating a series of beguiling soundscapes that feature contributions from the singer Sidsel Endresen, the trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer, the pianist Hilde Norbakken, the percussionist Anders Engen and the bassist Audun Erlien, with Honoré making an appearance on synthesiser. Bang and Aarset specialise in making electronic music that never forfeits its humanity to science. "Before the Wedding", featuring Norbakken, has a lyrical simplicity that is as lovely as anything you'll hear this year.

Arve Henriksen's The Timeless Nowhere is a box containing four vinyl LPs, each in its own sleeve, each recorded under different circumstances. Towards Language was recorded live at Kick Scene in Kristiansand during Punkt in 2017 with the basic quartet complete by Bang, Aarset and Honoré. Acousmograph is a series of overdubbed solo explorations for trumpet, vocal, keyboards and field recordings. The rapt tone poems of Captured Under Mountainsides make it a close cousin to Henriksen's classic Places of Worship. And Cryosphere involves Bang in exquisite remixes of pieces from earlier projects.

There are many different strategies here. Henriksen's music can morph from stateliness to pathos, from reflection to disquiet, sometimes layering contradictory states. But it feels all of a piece: a tapestry of beautiful moments woven together by a unique controlling sensibility of superlative aesthetic instincts.

Meanwhile, the chaos around us at the moment prompts all sorts of thoughts. One is that musicians are going to suffer badly from this enforced hiatus, and a way of continuing to support them is to buy their physical records. Another is this: what happens to music that was never played?

* Snow Catches on Her Eyelashes is on Jazzland Records. The Timeless Nowhere is on Rune Grammofon. The photograph -- taken in Kristiansand's cathedral, the Domkirken, last year -- shows (from left) Jan Bang, Arve Henriksen, Eivind Aarset and Erik Honoré.

- Richard Williams, The Blue Moment
 

"Well worth a listen...where Two days in June is the standout" - Charles Waring

"Jan Bang wrote me something that sounded interesting, in regards to small bass lines in old music from the 50‘s, as part of an e-mail interview, concerning his forthcoming album with Eivind Aarset,  „Snow Catches On Her Eyelashes“ (Jazzland). I really didn‘t know exactly what he meant (just had some ideas) and asked for examples – among them, then, a song by Marlene Dieterich, „Lazy Afternoon“. Listen to the track, and you’ll get it, in spare moments. The interview will be posted here on the day of the album‘s release. After playing one track from it, in my last radio night, the responses were hugely positive, from Harald Rehmann to Martina Weber,  and other friends and strangers. Stunning, for an album that owns all features of experimental music in its truest sense, a strange hybrid of musique concrète, free improv, ambient –  one of these records for the infamous imaginary movies in our heads, which, I have to admit, I never have seen when listening to even the most „in-between“-music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlDjfSI3_No

Michael: Now I listened to that two note thing of the bass in Marlene‘s song you mentioned.Yep, isn‘t it great such a sound from the bottom, minimal impulse, discreet company, but what an impact, if you focus on it. I think I wouldn’t possibly focus on these fragments when listening to the song. Mhm.  One could write a little book on it, a universal pattern, a link between decades, cultures, styles, nearly archetypal.

Jan: It surely is effective, and worth an article if not a book on the subject matter.

Michael: A small book it would be, Jan,  on that  two tone music, sure, not as big as the ones on twelve tone music.

Jan: Haha."

Original article can be found here

Eivind Aarset / Jan Bang duo album gets good attention in the March issue of the British Jazzwise magazine.

Both Jan Bang and Eivind Aarset will be appearing as part of Punkt Birmingham which takes place 18-20 March 2020 at Royal BIRMINGHAM Conservatoire. Jan will be a very special guest with Birmingham based trio stillefelt (Percy Pursglove, Thomas Seminar Ford and Chris Mapp). Eivind will be remixing Trish Clowes and Louise McMonagle. Jan and Erik will also appear together in The Height Of The Reeds performance on the final night. Tickets and more information can be found here

Wednesday 18th March
Remixing The Festival Symposium (16:00)
Jan Bang, Erik Honoré, Tony Dudley-Evans, Sarah Farmer and Fiona Talkington discuss the future of festivals

Thursday 19th March
Trish Clowes and Louise McMonagle (21:30)
Remix by Erik Honoré, Arve Henriksen and Eivind Aarset

stillefelt with Jan Bang (20:00)
Remix by RBC and UOA students

Friday 20th March
The Height Of The Reeds (21:30)
Remix by Annie Mahtani and Chris Mapp

Thallein Ensemble plays Maja S.K.Ratkje (20:00)
Remix by Andrew Woodhead and Mark Sanders Punkt Birmingham concerts will be introduced by Fiona Talkington

Tickets// £15 one day // £25 both days // Symposium is free entry

Listeners familiar with the music of Eivind Aarset (guitars, bass, electronics) and Jan Bang (programming, samples, editing) will have a good idea of what to expect from this album. Although the two musicians have collaborated since the early ’90s, featuring with artists such as Nils Petter Molvaer, Bugge Wesseltoft, Sly & Robbie and Jan Hassell, this is, in fact, their first recording together as a duo. Based on a live concept that emerged in the wake of Aarset’s excellent 2012 ECM release Dream Logic, which was produced by Bang, the roots for the music performed here can clearly be heard.

Ambient music is like any other genre, in that there can be good, bad and indifferent moments in time, punctuated by a piece of pure genius that takes the imagination on a timeless, wonderful journey. “Snow catches on her eyelashes” is overflowing with such beauty. Aarset and Bang have long been masters in this field of music, but on this album, it all comes together seamlessly in a sublime and emotively engaging journey of atmospheric sound.

Our lesson in musical craftsmanship begins with Purplebright, a slowly looping distant memory that sets the tone for the whole album. Asphalt Lake and Outer Sphere are two tracks that take me back to the Metheny/Mays masterpiece As Falls Wichita So Falls Wichita Falls. The music I’m listening to here could easily be a natural successor to that classic piece. Before The Wedding is more like an ode to sorrow… maybe it is, who knows… it is, however, one of the most emotively beautiful pieces of music I could hope to hear. Heartbreaking yet deeply uplifting, Two Days In June is reminiscent of a classic Eno track, with its simple yet spellbinding melodies cascading gently against a summer breeze. Whilst Witness has more of a retro 80’s feel to it, Inner Sphere is more 90s with its industrial soundscape sounding like something from a David Lynch movie. The atmosphere on Serenade is again cinematic in scope, yet achingly beautiful, more like a memory that brings forth an unnerving emotional response. The intense nature of Monochrome leads the listener into the final track Night Spell, a piece that completes the album’s cycle of sound perfectly, taking us back the beginning.

The skill with which Aarset and Bang have lovingly created, crafted and performed this music blows my mind. It’s like dreaming in slow motion, like teardrops touching a loved one’s cheek, and indeed, like snow catching on her eyelashes. It is beautiful, timeless and incredibly touching. Deeply rewarding music.

Mike Gates UK Vibe