Фирма Rune Grammofon

Artist: Stian Westerhus & Pale Horses Label: Rune Grammofon

Artist: Stian Westerhus & Pale Horses Label: Rune Grammofon

Artist: Krokofant Label: Rune Grammofon

Artist: Krokofant Label: Rune Grammofon

Artist: Arve Henriksen Label: Rune Grammofon

Artist: Sailing to Byzantium Label: Rune Grammofon (Cargo Records)

Artist: Bushman's Revenge Label: Rune Grammofon

Artist: Bushman's Revenge Label: Rune Grammofon

Death Rattle" is the noise of two forces of nature in collision. Like a pair of clashing typhoons, Philadelphia based avant guitarist James Plotkin and Norwegian free jazz drummer Paal Nilssen-Love generate chaos, disturbance and a terrifying beauty in their first ever collaborative recording. Free jazz and metal-edged rock never chimed so exhilaratingly together before. James Plotkin's distinctively extreme, aggressive guitar sound has been a constant presence in underground music since the late 1980s, when he founded the metal/industrial band OLD. As a solo artist and as a member of outfits such as Scorn, Khanate, Phantomsmasher, Khlyst and most recently Jodis, he has plotted a nomadic trail through new metal, dark ambient, industrial, noise, grindcore and drone rock. Sought out by Michael Gira, John Zorn, Ikue Mori, Franz Treichler, Francisco López and many more, he has also remixed a wide range of artists from KK Null and Sunn O))) to Pelican, Earth, Nadja and Neu! Paal Nilssen-Love is one of the most intense drummers working on the planet right now. He grew up in Stavanger, west Norway, where his parents ran the city's thriving jazz club. In theory he's now based in Oslo, but there's a huge global demand for his percussive threshing machine. He's often travelling on a relentless round of musical projects and festival appearances - notably with Mats Gustafsson in The Thing, his Chicago trio with Ken Vandermark and Ab Baars, the Hairy Bones group with Peter Brötzmann and Toshinori Kondo, a trio with Massimo Pupillo and noise artist Lasse Marhaug, plus duos with Peter Brötzmann, Terrie Ex, John Butcher and others. His unstoppable flow is unleashed on the opening track "The Skin, The Colour" - an endless Niagara gush of splashy drumming and distortion. It erupts with full force also on "Cock Circus", where Plotkin bombards his laser-guided guitar missiles through some brain-boggling digital effects. James had previously mastered some of Paal's CD releases and they finally met in April 2012 when the drummer was passing through Philly. In December, after Paal had just finished a ten date US tour with a Norwegian jazz trio, they got together for the four hour session that resulted in "Death Rattle". He was worn out, but turning up the volume and raising a sweat felt like a relief and a release. The pair improvise moment by moment, but there's a tangible, overarching arc that these two veterans instinctively understand - a depth of vision that lifts them head and shoulders above their younger peers Style: Avantgarde

On a sultry July evening on an intimate stage at Kongsberg Jazz Festival, Norway, two elder statesmen of improvised music - one wearing a grey shirt, the other sporting a T-shirt with the legend Thunder Pussy' - stepped up to the platform. What followed resembled an in depth conversation between two old friends and sparring partners - one that ranged from the amicable to the argumentative, from hush to harmony. Now, Norway's adventurous Rune Grammofon label is releasing a forty minute recording of that event. What/If/They Both Could Fly is only the second time this titanic pair have appeared as a duo on record. Evan Parker was 68 when this concert was recorded and by now music just seems to beat within him. McPhee, at 73, is the elder here, but his zaps of energy on the tiny pocket trumpet, and his thoughtful, exploratory lines and throbbing soprano sax overtones are played as vigorously as a man half his age. Listen to the amazing zigzags of interlocking sound about six minutes into opening track hat'. Hear the microtonal mayhem swarming at the start of They Both Could Fly'. The duo never seek to dazzle with virtuosity, but their total mastery of their instruments allows them to dance around each other and match each other's moves point for point and blow for blow. The duo improvise moment by moment, but there's a tangible, overarching arc that these two veterans instinctively understand - a depth of vision that lifts them head and shoulders above their younger peers. Play this and you'll believe two men can fly Style: Jazz

Artist: Parker & Evan Joe Mcphee Label: Forcex

Artist: Plotkin & James Paal Nilssen-Love Label: Forcex

Worship can come in many forms, and can happen in many different kinds of place. Music can make its church anywhere. With "Places Of Worship", ARVE HENRIKSEN moves into the front rank of world class musicians. The Norwegian trumpet player has made his mark over many years, not only as the horn player with the consistently challenging and long lived group SUPERSILENT, but also as the purveyor of exquisite and distinctive solo work that stretches to four solo albums since 2001, which Rune Grammofon recently repackaged as a career-spanning box set, "Solidification". Deeply rooted in the sublime geology of his Norwegian homeland, HENRIKSEN's music has developed into something beautifully at one with natural habitats and reflecting the hybrid, cosmopolitan environments of the twenty-first century. On "Places Of Worship", he inhabits the space between these two worlds, in a series of tone poems and mood pieces located around religious buildings and ruins. These still, silent quarters and abandoned houses of the holy can be where we experience our deepest moments of reflection, silence and occasionally fear. Style: Jazz

Artist: Arve Henriksen Label: Forcex

After successful collaborations with prestigious guests like Jim O'Rourke and Oren Ambarchi and the widely acclaimed FIRE! ORCHESTRA release earlier this year our Swedish friends are back as a trio, lighting up a sonic blaze of rock based riffs and hypnotic jazz-psychedelia. As far from noodling instrumentals as it's possible to get, the tracks are spontaneously combusting rituals with a clear sense of purpose. Each of the three members is gifted with a formidable technique and arsenal of tricks and effects on their respective instruments, and the album also sees acclaimed saxophonist Mats Gustafsson boosting his already versatile skills, by swapping to Fender Rhodes and electronics on selected tracks. The oddly cut-up titles are lifted and inspired by Smog founder Bill Callahan's letters to Emma Bowlcut, recently published in a volume by Chicago label Drag City. The strategy gives an insight into the broadminded frame of reference of this eclectic trio. With all three members pulling in elements from free jazz, ambient improvisation and electronic music, their music has reached a new confidence and intensity. Style: Jazz

Artist: Maja Ratkje Label: Rune Grammofon

The Last Hurrah!! have seduced me - the bastards!" - The Wire. A song begins at the beginning, goes on to the end and then stops. A chant is about aligning yourself with the rhythms of the universe. The goal of THE LAST HURRAH!! is to create songs that slot into a cosmic pattern - no beginning, no end, just a steady flow of eternal ecstasy. The Last Hurrah!! is the project of Norwegian guitarist HP Gundersen plus a jamboree of international players and singers. His previous album, "Spiritual Non-Believers", was voted album of the year in VG, Norway's most popular newspaper; The Wire called it "maddeningly well executed". HP Gundersen grew up in the 1960s, tuning in to European radio stations and having his mind blown by the sparkling melodies of the decade's pop music, like The Byrds and The Beatles. Notably, these two groups were among the first to absorb Eastern influences, as Gundersen has done in THE LAST HURRAH!!. Chinese guzheng (zither) resonates with pastoral flutes, Hawaiian guitars and the plangent tones of the Scandianvian Hardanger fiddle. Listening to the repetitive pluckings of the opener, "The Rush", you can't help but think of Steve Reich's solo guitar trance-out "Electric Counterpoint"; elsewhere you'll hear echoes of Don Cherry's multicultural visions, the soaring harmonies of Rubber Soul-era Beatles, and the magical open tunings of folk-rockers like David Crosby and Stephen Stills. Country music meets raga meets psychedelic sugar rush. For Gundersen, the concept of universal music is a truth older than entertainment. Jamming on one chord is a highly democratic way of music making: anyone can take part. And they do: a dozen extra musicians are involved on various tracks, including jazz trained vocalist and long-time collaborator Heidi Goodbye, and the remarkable guzheng (zither) played by Yuyue Zheng. Paradoxically, being restricted to a one-chord drone opens the music up wider than ever. "You don't have to be an Arabian to play Arabian scales" Gundersen says. "It's Norwegian music." The beauty of this "fake" is that it turns out to be the real thing. Personnel HP Gundersen - guitars, synth, piano, Heidi Goodbye - vocals, Ivar Thormodsæter -drums, percussion, Yuyue Zheng - guzheng, Esau Pinto - bass, Alex Grieg - acoustic bass, Silje Solberg - flute, Hardanger fiddle, Daniel Birkeland - slide bass, Leslie guitar, Jon Irabagon - saxophone, Jorgen Sandvik - electric guitar, Viktoria Winge, Johanna Vatne - backing vocals Style: Avantgarde

Artist: the Last Hurrah!! Label: Rune Grammofon (Cargo Records)

Artist: Bushman'S Revenge Label: Rune Grammofon (Cargo Records)

Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen is a guitar heroine for our times. Her molten, overdriven guitar sound is forged in the same fiery furnace as Hendrix, Tony Iommi, Jimmy Page, then plunged into a steaming vat of free jazz in the Sonny Sharrock/Fred Frith mould. In tracks like "The Rex" and "Lake Acid", you'll hear the megalithic riffology of LED ZEPPELIN's "Kashmir" and "Rock'N'Roll", but with an agility and intensity peculiar to the dark Northern regions where she and her bandmates were raised. "All Of Them Witches" follows the previous 2011 Rune Grammofon release of HEDVIG MOLLESTAD TRIO, "Shoot!", and like labelmates ELEPHANT9 and GRAND GENERAL, represent a thrilling new progressive wave of Norwegian avant rock/free metal energy. This latest batch of electrifying instrumentals was recorded live in the island environment of Ocean Sound studio, a grass-roofed wooden barn on the edge of the Norwegian Sea fitted with state of the art equipment, where HEDVIG MOLLESTAD TRIO could swim in the freezing waters before breakfast and stretch their gaze out to the horizon in mid-take. It's no surprise that such widescreen surroundings should give rise to epic concepts, and the title of first track "Sing, Goddess" takes its name from the opening line of Homer's Iliad. Inspired by the wide open skies, "Shawshank" and "Ghrá Rúnda" are more reflective pieces, bathed in controlled feedback. Personnel: Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen - guitar, Ellen Brekken - bass, Ivar Loe Bjornstad - drums Style: Jazz