Christian Wallumrød / Xavier Charles / Ivar Grydeland / Ingar Zach

"må ha" for alle musikkinteresserte.

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XAVIER CHARLES
The work of clarinetist Xavier Charles ranges from noise to electro-acoustic via sound poetry. He has played in numerous new music festivals in France and abroad. Charles collaborates with both Jacque Di Donato and Frédéric Le Junter. In his work with groups and collectives, he has also collaborated with Martin Tetreault, The Ex, Pierre Berthet, Etage 34, Axel Dorner, Jérôme Jeanmart, John Butcher, Jean Pallandre, Marc Pichelin, Chris Cutler, Martine Altenburger, Camel Zekri, Emmanuelle Pellegrini, Michel Doneda and Frédéric Blondys. The artist has composed for the theatre, most notably with the Théâtre François Lazaro. Charles studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, receiving a degree in musicology. Currently his musical research ranges from performance on the bass guitar to the installation of vibrating speakers at the edge of improvised music, noisy rock and electro acoustic sound. He is deeply involved in the music world as an organizer of the festival "Densités" in Verdun, France.

IVAR GRYDELAND has been working as a professional musicians and composer since 1999. His activity ranges from concerts, tours, CD releases with both regular ensembles, project ensembles and ad hoc musical activity. Grydeland has performed solo and with ensembles on festivals for jazz and contemporary music in Norway, France, Japan, Canada, USA, Greece, Argentina, Spain, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia a.o. Selected projects: The trio Huntsville with Ingar Zach and Tonny Kluften released the CD “for the middle class” on the label Rune Grammofon in October 2006, toured in Norway in March 07, playing at summer festivals in Norway 2007, tour in China, USA and EU in the fall 07. Grydeland has worked with the composer Eivind Buene. Buene composed the piece ”Asymmetrical Music” for Ivar Grydeland and Ingar Zach (12 musicians with Grydeland and Zach as improvising soloists). The piece was premiered at Ultima festival in Oslo i October 04, and will be released on CD in 2007. The piece was nominated for TONOs Edvard Price for contemporary music in 2005. Grydeland has also worked with the composer Øyvind Torvund . both with solo and ensemble music. Grydeland runs the CD label SOFA with Ingar Zach.

CHRISTIAN WALLUMRØD plays a wide range of acoustic and electronic keyboards. He has worked as a musician and composer since 1992, and he is considered one of the most prominent musicians of the younger Norwegian generation. He made his debut on ECM Records with the album “No Birch” (issued in 1996) to considerable critical acclaim. Since then he has made another 3 cds on the German label, all with his own ensembles and compositions. Members of his ensemble(s): Arve Henriksen, Per Oddvar Johansen, Nils Økland, Tanja Orning, Gjermund Larsen, Giovanna Pessi. The album ”Merriwinkle” (Jazzland Records) is his first recording with singer Sidsel Endresen. The collaboration with Endresen is based on improvisation, as is also his work with drummer Audun Kleive’s ”Generator X” (2 albums on Jazzland Records) and the trio Close Erase (4 albums on various Norwegian labels). Wallumrød has generally focused on small ensembles, both as a performer and a composer. Apart from his present acoustic ensemble (CWE) were he writes all the material, most of his work is based on improvisation and the fluid borders between improvised and written music. Since the beginning of the 90’s he has toured, played festivals and made broadcasting recordings in Norway and Scandinavia, Finland, Germany, UK, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Austria, Czeck Rep., Hungary, Estonia, Slovenia, Italy, China and Canada.

INGAR ZACH is known for the wide range of sounds in his instrument. He plays his percussion in a very dynamic, but still energetic way. He uses homemade percussion, gongs and devises like; propellers, bows, sruti-box and tabla machine as parts of his extended drumkit. He is dedicated to improvised/contemporary music and is regularly touring and recording with his fixed ensembles, but also in different ad-hoc projects in Europe, Canada and USA. Zach is currently working in fixed groups like; HUNTSVILLE (N) (w/Ivar Grydeland and Tonny Kluften), NO SPAGHETTI EDITION (N), FLORE DE CATACLYSMO (w/Giuseppe Ielasi (I) - guitar/electronics, Michel Doneda (F) –saxophones), MUTA (w/ Rhodri Davies(UK) - harp, Alessandra Rombolá (I) - flutes), JON BALKE and MAGNETIC NORTH ORCHESTRA, LOOPER (w/ Nikos Veliotis (G) - cello and Martin Küchen (S) - saxophones) and LABORATORY FIELD (w/David Stackenäs). In addition to working with fixed groups he is also involved in ad-hoc activities with other musicians and composers such as; Eivind Buene (N), Øyvind Torvund (N), Jim O¹Rourke (US), Barry Guy (UK), Evan Parker (UK), Axel Dörner (D), Kevin Drumm (US), Thomas Lehn (D), Jaap Blonk (H), Mats Gustafsson (S), Annette Krebs (D), Andrea Neumann (D), Phil Minton (UK), John Butcher (UK), Xavier Charles (F), Mazen Kerbaj (LIB), Agustí Fernández (ESP), John Tilbury (UK), Derek Bailey (UK), Philipp Wachsmann (UK), Charlotte Hug (CH) to name a few.