Benedicte Maurseth – composer, hardanger fiddle
Mats Eilertsen – double bass, electric bass, and electronics
Morten Qvenild – keyboards and electronic processing
Håkon Stene – vibes, glock, 12-string guitar, percussion and electronics
Prague Quiet Music Collective with asamisimasa.
This recording was funded by Soundczech.cz as part of the Year of Czech Music.
The project was supported by Norway and EEA Grants, the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Prague City Hall and Prague 1 and produced in collaboration with nyMusikk komponistgruppe
Nils Økland Band – Gjenskinn
Nils Økland – Hardanger Fiddle, violin
Mats Eilertsen – Bass
Rolf Erik Nystrøm – Sax
Sigbjørn Apeland – Harmonium, Rhodes piano
Håkon Stene – Percussion, piano, electronics, production
This album presents a selection of compositions performed at the Prague Quiet Music Festival at the Fortna Monastery in Prague in 2023 and 2024.
Øyvind Torvund: A Walk into the Future
Music by Øyvind Torvund performed by the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Olari Elts (cond.), Øystein Moen (solo synth), Jørgen Træen (electronics), Håkon Stene (solo electronics and percussion )
Nominated for the Norwegian "Spellemann" award 2024 for contemporary music.
“Places of Sounds and Words” features works in which language and sounds from the world around us become part of the musical material of composer Henrik Hellstenius. The music on this release probes the nature of the relationship between sounds from the real world and musical sounds, and between language and musical sounds. What happens when the sounds of crowds, traffic, conversations, birds and animals are placed in a musical context with instruments and singing? How does the meaning of the sounds change, and how do they change the meaning of the music? Taken together can they create a new whole, new contexts and meanings? Likewise, with the spoken word, how do we understand language when it is a part of a musical composition in which language is composed into the work as sound and meaning?
The three pieces on this album are the result of a long-standing collaboration between singer Elisabeth Holmertz (“Places of Sounds and Words”) and the ensembles Cikada (“Places of Sounds and Words” and “Unfolded”) and asamisimasa (“Instrument of Speech”). They are also the result of an artistic interest Henrik Hellstenius has had to create a “theatre in music” by incorporating elements from the real world and language into the compositional process. Music is in principle everywhere, in the sounds of the world around us and in the language we speak. Thus it is natural today to create music with a larger palette than just the instrumental and vocal parts. With sounds from the world a musical tension is created using recordings of calls to police, neighbours quarrelling, shouts of joy, and the many sounds from the natural world.
Aurora Records is proud to present asamisimasa’s latest album with two pieces by composer Trond Reinholdtsen – Unsichtbare Musik (Invisible Music) and SPÄSTIL (Late Style). After nearly twenty years of collaboration, this is their first collaborative release. Reinholdtsen is among Norway’s most prominent composers of his generation and has a significant international position with a long list of commissions on his resume. asamisimasa has premiered seven works by Reinholdtsen at festivals such as Donaueschingen, Ultima, Huddersfield, and Darmstadt. Being a prolific voice within the experimental opera and music theatre scene, Reinholdtsen has previously only released two works on CD. With this release asamisimasa wishes to shed a light on his instrumental chamber music. This is the ensemble’s fifth portrait album, their second on Aurora Records.
Unsichtbare Musik was commissioned for a concert at the Berliner Philharmonie in 2009, and explores the relationship between language and music, between words and sonorous representation. The piece challenges both the act of listening, our perception of musical sounds, and the attempt to conceptualize musical impressions and experiences. Composed ten years later, SPÄTSTIL is based on the semantic analysis of Unsichtbare Musik and the ensemble’s performance history with this work. SPÄTSTIL marks a clear, yet ironic distance from the previous piece through a dystopian self-criticism.
The pieces have a unique sonorous sophistication and aims to inspire philosophical reflection as well as aesthetic pleasure. The aim is that the album can contribute to a reflection on music’s conditions today by focusing on the solitary and secluded listening one does at home.
Performing mallet percussion, drums and moog guitar on selected tracks.
The Guardian's 10 Best Folk Albums 2022.
Benedicte Maurseth – Composition and Hardanger Fiddle;
Mats Eilertsen – Bass and Electronics;
Håkon Stene – Percussion and Electronics;
Guests:
Jørgen Træen – electronics
Rolf-Erik Nystrøm – saxophone
Stein Urheim – langeleik, harmonica, electronics, samples, percussion
Benedicte Maurseth – Hardanger fiddle, vocals; Berit Opheim – vocals; Rolf Lislevand – lute, electric guitar, electric bass; Håkon Stene – vibraphone, percussion, electronics, production.
Awarded NOPA's Music Prize 2017.
asamisimasa and Håkon Stene plays Popular Contexts Volume 7&8 and Avant Muzak by composer Matthew Shlomowitz. Placed 5th on the Wire Magazine's Top 10 2018 Modern Composition list. Released on All That Dust (London)
Awarded the Norwegian Grammy's (Spellemann) 2017 "open category" award
Michael Pisaro's 64-minute work Asleep, Street, Pipes, Tones for electric guitar, bass clarinet, and tape, performed by Kristine Tjøgersen and Håkon Stene.
Asleep, Street, Pipes, Tones is a fascinating, intense and lovingly produced example of what can be made if you come from a completely different direction to the music-making process. It is life-affirming and somehow subtly insinuating. It is a soundscape, if you like, that can perhaps make us all appreciate our basic existence just that little bit more keenly
http://freq.org.uk/reviews/hakon-stene-and-kristine-tjogersen-michael-p…
Simon Steen-Andersen "Rerendered" (2004) performed with asamisimasa at IMD, August 2010.
asamisimasa plays Laurence Crane's John White in Berlin, Events, Riis, Old Life Was Rubbish, and Sound of Horse
Performed by asamisimasa, ensemble mosaik a.o.
Premier recording of The Operation, a concerto for multi-string set-up and ensemble. With Bodø Sinfonietta & conductor Peter Szilvay.
Awarded the Norwegian Grammy (Spellemann) 2015 in the category contemporary music performance.
asamisimasa plays Neon Forest, Wolf Studies, Willibald Motor Landscape, and Plastic Waves by Øyvind Torvund.
Awarded the "Folkelarmsprisen" 2015 for best open category folk music recording. Nominated for the Spellemann folk music award
Oslo Sinfonietta and Håkon Stene perform Steen-Andersen's Black Box Music, a work nominated for the Norwegian Grammy (Spellemann) 2014, and awarded the Nordic Council Music Prize 2014
"Håkon Stene er formidabel på DVD'en, sådan havde man aldrig forestillet sig virtuositet..."
– Per Rask Madsen, Klassisk Magasin
Works by Bryars, Crane, Wallumrød, Stene
Awarded the Norwegian Grammy (Spellemann) 2014 in the category contemporary music.
8/10, Uncut Magazine
"A stunning collection", 4/5.
- DownBeat Magazine
"To me, this is a wonderfully pure distillation of what music can do".
- Richard Williams / The Blue Moment (UK)
"It is cinematic, divine and heartbreaking despite being so straight forward, as is the very quest of this music".
- Tristan Bath, thequietus.com
Works by Lars Petter Hagen, Alvin Lucier, Marko Ciciliani and Michael Pisaro.
"Stene takes sound as malleable material and works it into unexpected shapes, surprising forms and refreshingly imaginative music"
The Wire, Dec/2013
"Clever and unusual, ‘Etude Begone Badum’ is an innovative and intelligent work that explores unusual territory with some impressive effects".
"A feast for the ears, from beginning to end".
Music by Brian Ferneyhough and Sir Duperman
"Simply great when contemporary music is presented in such tough and unorthodox ways".
http://www.skug.at/article7523.htm
Awarded the Norwegian Grammy (Spellemann) 2012 for contemporary music performance.
The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra performs Lully: Le bourgeois gentilhomme / Strauss: Der Bürger als Edelmann
Performing works by Telemann, Purcell, Biber, as well as traditional Norwegian drum tunes
Awarded the Norwegian Grammy (Spellemann) 2016 for best contemporary music album
Works by Bjørn Fongaard, Brian Ferneyhough, Ole-Henrik Moe, Øyvind Torvund. Nominated for the 2015 Spellemann contemporary music award
