Fantastic double bill with two groups exploring the quieter end of the improvised music continuum - Streifenjunko are a tenor sax and trumpet duo, applying uncommon techniques to create a spacious music of purposefull focus and resonant beauty. Memorize the Sky upend conventional ideas of a bass, drums and reeds trio - as TimeOut NYC write: "The Trio's crystalline drones and patient, chamberlike interplay offer a subtle alternative to turbulent free jazz."

This event is part of a series presented by OTO Projects and Ny Musikk.

STREIFENJUNKO

Streifenjunko make vigorous music with the rare instrumentation of tenor saxophone and trumpet. Espen Reinertsen and Eivind Lønning apply uncommon instrumental techniques to project a spacious sound with nothing else around. They have worked closely together for a long time to present a truly unique repertoire, but have also on serveral occations collaborated with the musicians Keith Rowe, Tetuzi Akiyama, Toshi Nakamura, Jim Denley, Christian Wallumrød, Sidsel Endresen and video artist Kjell Bjørgeengen. During the last few years, Streifenjunko have played numerous concerts all over the world, including Japan, USA, South-Africa, Australia and most of Europe. Festival performances includes Fri Resonans and Konsberg Jazzfestival in Norway, On the Edge of Wrong Festival in South Africa, Moers Festival in Germany, Sonic Acts in Amsterdam, Cable Festival in Nantes, and the NOWnow Festival in Sydney. They also released their debut cd "No Longer Burning" in 2009 on the record label Sofa.

Eivind Lønning and Espen Reinertsen are working together in other constellations as well, most of all in the improvising quintet Koboku Senju with tubaist Martin Taxt, guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama and no-input-ist Toshimaru Nakamura, and more recently in the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble. In addition they have participated in numerous projects with the Trondeim Jazz Orchestra, playing various commisions by Norwegian and international composers.



www.streifenjunko.no

Photo by Andreas Ulvo



MEMORIZE THE SKY

"This is a band that sounds like they’ve been playing together for over a decade, their improvisations modestly and unfussily executed. What’s most enjoyable is not the distinctiveness of their music, but how natural and straightforward it feels." - Dusted Magazine

Memorize the Sky is a collaboration between reedist Matt Bauder, bassist Zach Wallace and percussionist Aaron Siegel. The three met and began playing music together in Ann Arbor, Michigan during the late 1990’s. Since then, they have performed together as Memorize the Sky, touring around the United States and Europe, crafting their own brand of acoustic improvised music. In addition to their first two full-length recordings, “Memorize the Sky” on 482 Music and “In Former Times” on Clean Feed Records, the band has self-released three 3” cd singles, appeared on various compilations, and are featured on “2 + 2 Compositions” a collaboration with Anthony Braxton, released in 2005 on the 482 Music label.

MTS is informed by the diverse musical experiences of its members, including performances and recordings with rock bands His Name is Alive, Neil Michael Hagerty, Tara Jane O’Neil, Saturday Looks Good to Me, and Low, and avant garde luminaries Anthony Braxton, Jim O’Rourke, Tony Conrad and Alvin Lucier. MTS has also collaborated with the best of the Chicago, New York, and Boston improvised music communities including Fred Lonberg-Holm, Greg Davis, Josh Abrams, Ken Vandermark, Jim Baker, Jeb Bishop, Rob Mazurek, Greg Kelly, Sean Meehan, Phil Minton Jason Roebke and Scott Rosenberg. As a long-lived, deeply collaborative endeavor, MTS holds a special place among Bauder, Wallace and Siegel’s many musical projects.

"Creeks" is Memorize the Sky's third full-length record and first studio effort since 2006's "Memorize the Sky" on 482 Music which was hailed as "an allusive, relentlessly surprising disc" (WIRE). "In Former Times" (Clean Feed, 2008) documents the band's performance at the Ulrichsberg Kaleidaphon in the summer of 2007 and was praised as "consistently rewarding, accumulating microscopic evolutions of sound" (signal to noise).

"Creeks" was recorded in Brooklyn, NY during the winter of 2008, and documents the trio continuing to explore their unique blend of textural improvisation and drone-based song forms. This time, the ensemble extends their instrumentation to include electronic manipulation of sounds as well as a farther range of the woodwind and percussion families. These experimentations led to a recording colored by dense percussion textures and ghostly flute ruminations; splintering bells and melodic echo chambers.

"Reedist Matt Bauder, bassist Zach Wallace and percussionist Aaron Siegel have honed a handsome improv aesthetic since their collaboration began a decade ago. The trio's crystalline drones and patient, chamberlike interplay offer a subtle alternative to turbulent free jazz." — Time Out-New York

www.memorizethesky.com






The collaboration between Ny Musikk and OTO Projects has been made possible through support from MIC, Music Information Centre Norway, an organisation promoting Norwegian music nationally and internationally.