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Jan Bang

The musical spheres Jan Bang works in revolve around such luminaries as Jon Hassell, David Sylvian, Brian Eno, Sidsel Endresen, Nils Petter Molvær and Arve Henriksen. From his work as successful pop producer in the 1990s, his creative thrust and pioneering work in developing the concept of live remix - improvising with electronics alongside more conventional instruments and performers - has led to him being constantly in-demand as a producer and performer today.

In 2005 he launched, together with Erik Honoré, the internationally renowned Punkt Festival, where Bang's live sampling - his own musical instrument - works within the framework of overlapping concerts: one being the original; the other, the remix. The Punkt brand has already traveled abroad to the UK, Germany and has plans to visit the United States.

Bang's recent recorded work includes the acclaimed CDs Cartography and Jon Hassell's Last Night the Moon Came, both on ECM. Recent live performances and tours have included with Jon Hassell to Sidney Opera House as part of Eno's own festival and last year playing Carnegie Hall in NYC and Royce Hall, LA. In November 2008, as curator of "Scene Norway" during the opening of King's Place in London, BBC's Fiona Talkington invited Punkt for a three-day festival as part of the London Jazz Festival.

Bang was born in Denver and grew up in Kristiansand, nurtured by the legacy of his father's vast record collection, his mother's piano playing and the sounds of swallows in the family garden. The early meeting between Bang, Erik Honoré, and a range of music technology, awoke a desire to start a band and a thirst to develop something unique. The Tromsø electronic scene - and some musical collisions with other soon-to-be famous musicians such as Bugge Wesseltoft and Nils Petter Molvær - set Bang on the road to his status as one of the most innovative and creative musicians working in Norway today.

Jan Bang's solo album, ...and poppies from Kandahar, was released in 2010 on David Sylvian's samadhisound label, and Bang will be touring the material later in the year, together with guitarist longtime collaborator, Eivind Aarset.

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Album Review

Hu Vibrational: Timeless

Read "Timeless" reviewed by Geno Thackara


An Adam Rudolph recording is less a collection of musical pieces than of sound paintings. The elements he works with are musical ones--any instrument known to mankind might be used, and often even used to play notes--but traditions of form and melody tend to be tossed out the window from the start. The tones are treated as daubs of paint on a palette, splashed here and there whenever they will add something to whichever imaginary landscape he is evoking at ...

12
Liner Notes

Arve Henriksen: Solidification

Read "Arve Henriksen: Solidification" reviewed by John Kelman


Constellations and the Something of Discovery Music as a chosen profession may suggest occupying the minds of its makers far beyond the 9-to-5 hours of your average job, but for some it goes further still. Transcending mere preoccupation, trumpeter Arve Henriksen seems to eat, drink, sleep and dream music, 24/7, 365 days a year. “I was sitting in my car recently, driving from Oslo to Gothenburg," Henriksen relates, “and I just started to sing and sing and sing. And I ...

My Favourite Things

Jan Bang e il Questionario di Proust

Read "Jan Bang e il Questionario di Proust" reviewed by Paolo Peviani


Il tratto principale della mia musica Mi interessa lavorare su cose molto concrete come il ritmo, la tessitura, la melodia, l'armonia. Come dice una mia buona amica, la cantante norvegese Sidsel Endresen: se hai tempo, allora tutto il resto alla fine si risolverà. La qualità che desidero nei musicisti che suonano con me Mi piace suonare con musicisti che hanno orecchie attente, che si ascoltano davvero tra loro e nel cui modo di ...

6
Album Review

Eivind Aarset & Jan Bang: Snow Catches on her Eyelashes

Read "Snow Catches on her Eyelashes" reviewed by John Eyles


Although they had been collaborating since the early 90s, the first recording on which the Norwegian guitarist Eivind Aarset and American-born, Norway-resident Jan Bang appeared together was Bang's Pop Killer (Virgin, 1998). In the years since, Aarset and Bang have collaborated on many more albums, but this is the first to credit them as a duo. Particular high spots in their collaborations have included Bang's album on David Sylvian's label ...and Poppies from Kandahar (Samishadsound, 2010), Aarset's Dream Logic (ECM, ...

7
Album Review

Jan Bang: Narrative from the Subtropics

Read "Narrative from the Subtropics" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski


Years ago, renowned film director Derek Jarman filmed a daring film called Blue where the viewers could only see a blue screen behind which the sounds from the scenes could be heard but not seen. This way, the viewers imagined the film based on the dialogues and the sound they heard, and placed their own images onto the blue screen. In a similar manner, renowned producer Jan Bang makes music with a strong cinematic flair that functions as a soundtrack ...

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Live Review

Punkt Festival 2013

Read "Punkt Festival 2013" reviewed by John Kelman


Punkt FestivalKick Kristiansand, Norway September 6-8, 2013 Punkt is back. Three simple words with greater significance. While the annual festival, which has made its name on the strength of two additional words--Live Remix--had an eighth edition in 2012 that, on paper, should have been nothing short of spectacular, it was ultimately not just disappointing but, for longtime attendees, something that actually engendered real anger. The reasons were two-fold: first, invited festival curator Brian Eno--a ...

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Extended Analysis

Jan Bang: Narrative From The Subtropics

Read "Jan Bang: Narrative From The Subtropics" reviewed by Henning Bolte


For Norwegian electronic musician Jan Bang, the studio is no longer a perfectly isolated space to assemble and produce fictitious beautiful sounds--a boundary he has long since transcended. He not only brought studio equipment and techniques to the performing stage but he also started using them as tools in live improvisation. Together with fellow musician and companion Erik Honoré he established the Punkt-praxis of immediate live remix of musical performances by another (group of) musician(s). His approach has increased the ...

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Contest

Enter the "Jan Bang - ...And Poppies from Kandahar" Giveaway

Enter the "Jan Bang - ...And Poppies from Kandahar" Giveaway

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz members are invited to enter the Samadhisound “Jan Bang--...and poppies from Kandahar“ giveaway contest starting today. We'll select FIVE winners at the conclusion of the contest on August 4th. Click here to enter the contest

(Following Jan Bang at AAJ automatically enters you in the contest.)

Good luck! Your Friends at Samadhisound

About Jan Bang and ...and poppies from Kandahar The musical spheres Jan Bang works in revolve around such luminaries as Jon Hassell, ...

256

Interview

Live Sampler Jan Bang Interviewed at AAJ...And More!

Live Sampler Jan Bang Interviewed at AAJ...And More!

Source: All About Jazz

When it comes to organically integrating modern technology into music, few countries are innovating to the degree of Norway, and at the epicenter of that country's forward-thinking approach to melding improvisation with jazz and Norwegian traditionalism--not to mention contemporary classicism, pop, ambient and more; truly any and all musical markers--is producer/remixer Jan Bang, who has just released his first album as a leader, ....and poppies from Kandahar (SamadhiSound, 2010).

Bang, from his home base in Kristiansand at the south tip ...

"...It's rare for an album to quietly shake the foundation of what music is...and can be…a 45-minute travelogue of sound, shape, color and emotion that touches on the human condition with rare depth and keen perception."
- John Kelman, AllAboutJazz.com

"...Another very special album from the Samadhi Sound stable"
- Boomkat.com

"...One of the more impressive albums I have heard in a long time. "It proves that there are always new roads to travel, that there is still a lot of new music to explore"
- Vancooten.com

"...A refined, close to chill-out sound which has more of an urban feel than fellow Norwegian Jan Garbarek's more spacey and forlorn landscapes"
- Wall Street Journal

"...Jan Bang interweaving live instrumentals, studio processing, field recordings and other effluvia into dreamy, off-kilter soundscapes-- dreamscapes might be a better term--that carry the whiff of the exotic"
- Blogspot.com

"...Det är de små beståndsdelarna som används till stor effekt för att få fram skönheten"
- Dagensskiva.com

"...Et de vakreste og ikke minst atmosfærefulle musikalske landskapene på svært lang tid"
- Tor Hammerø, Nettavisen

"...På subtilt vis bryter Bang med forventningene han bygger opp, og gir igjen for oppmerksom lytting"
- Dagsavisen

"...Suggestivt till max med en minimum av toner

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Timeless

Meta Records
2023

buy

Snow Catches on her...

Jazzland Recordings
2020

buy

Narrative From The...

Jazzland Recordings
2013

buy

Victoria

Megafon
2013

buy

Knut Hamsun's Victoria

Jazzland Recordings
2013

buy

Jan Bang: Narrative...

Jazzland Recordings
2013

buy

Serpentine

From: Timeless
By Jan Bang

Passport Control

From: ...and poppies from Kandahar
By Jan Bang

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