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Supersilent

Supersilent is, in a sense, the flagship band of Rune Grammofon, and seems to embody the label’s manifesto. Supersilent was formed by the alliance of an existing improvisation group called Veslefrekk with ten years of playing history behind them. They played together for the first time, without any prior rehearsal, at the Bergen Jazz Festival in 1997 and immediately made headlines. The musical success of the experiment convinced the participants that this had to be a permanent group, and they went into the studio to play many hours of non-stop improvisation from which their debut triple album, “Supersilent 1-3”, was ultimately drawn. “1-3” was released in Norway in January 1998. Supersilent (the name, by the way, derives from a logo on the side of a truck spotted in Oslo) was quick to build a reputation as one of Scandinavia’s most viscerally exciting concert acts. There is a dangerous unpredictability about their music, a sense that anything can happen. All parameters are open. From moment to moment, they can touch on elements of hardcore noise, imply industrial soundscapes, recall Miles at the Fillmore or Stockhausen in Donaueschingen, or play the most delicate and filigree ‘ambient’ sound-washes. There is a savage beauty in this music, with lyricism and disruptive fierceness counterbalancing each other. In brief, Supersilent stretches definitions of jazz to near breaking point, yet at the same time its members’ improvisational skills are finely honed, all four players and Sten/Deathprod must be considered a player, too, not just the wild card - know how to listen, how to react and interact. And if jazz can still be considered the ‘sound of surprise’ then Supersilent fulfils the description. Helge Sten, Ståle Storløkken, Arve Henriksen, and Jarle Vespestad still don’t rehearse or even discuss their music. They meet only to play concerts or to record. In this group, Sten is credited with playing ‘audio virus’. He explains, “My instrumentation is made up of home-made electronics: old tape machines, ring modulators, filters, theremins, samplers and so on, and my usage of these devices is very unpredictable”. Supersilent records in Deathprod’s Audio Virus studio, packed with analog and digital hardware amassed originally for his electronica/ambient solo projects; the improvisers are not shy about experimenting with this technology but, as free music players, they insist on real-time applications only. Even in the studio, all the music is played live. Overdubs have no place in the band’s modus operandi.

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10
Album Review

Supersilent: 12

Read "12" reviewed by John Eyles


There is a widely-used saying about London's famous red buses, “You wait ages for one, and then three turn up at once..." Back in the autumn of 2010, it seemed as if it could equally well apply to Supersilent releases. After the quartet's first four albums were all released in 1997-8 (1-3 as a triple, then 4 on its own), by 2009 only four more (plus the DVD 7) had been released since the turn of the millennium, usually with ...

4
Live Review

Supersilent & John Paul Jones: London, England, November 18, 2012

Read "Supersilent & John Paul Jones: London, England, November 18, 2012" reviewed by John Eyles


Supersilent & John Paul JonesVillage UndergroundLondon Jazz FestivalLondon, England November 18, 2012 By its tenth and final night, the 21st London Jazz Festival, had featured such illustrious names as saxophonists Peter Brötzmann, Jan Garbarek and Sonny Rollins, pianist Herbie Hancock, and guitarists Bill Frisell and John McLaughlin. But, as festivals always seem to, it had saved the best for last... and made it difficult to choose which gig to attend. Across town, guitarist ...

379
Album Review

Supersilent: 10

Read "10" reviewed by John Kelman


At a time when Supersilent has kicked into high gear with three releases in the space of a few short months--two CDs (10 and the forthcoming 12) and one vinyl-only release (11), all on the equally intrepid Rune Grammofon label--it seems incredulous that this Norwegian improvising trio can continue creating music in defiance of easy (or difficult) categorization and, despite its complete and utter spontaneity, unfailing individualism. Still sounding like nobody but Supersilent, each successive album remains clearly delineated amidst ...

334
Album Review

Supersilent: 9

Read "9" reviewed by John Kelman


What do you do when you lose one of your founding members? Well, if you're Norwegian avante-improvising group Supersilent, you continue on, almost as if nothing has happened. Not that the loss of drummer Jarle Vespestad wasn't felt; it's just that, for Supersilent's remaining members--Arve Henriksen, Ståle Storløkken and Helge Sten (aka Deathprod)--the needs of the many far outweigh the needs of the few. The group's first performance as a trio was at Molde 2009 and, with Henriksen spending as ...

481
Album Review

Supersilent: 8

Read "8" reviewed by John Kelman


While many musicians eschew liner notes, preferring to let the music speak for itself, Norwegian noise improv group Supersilent has always taken that philosophy a step further. The names of the band members aren't listed; album titles are only in increasing numerical increments; and the collective spontaneous compositions are simply titled with the album and track (e.g. 1.1, 1.2). The covers of its previous Rune Grammofon releases--1-3 (1997), 4 (1998), 5 (2001), 6 (2003) and the DVD 7 (2005)--have been ...

167
Album Review

Supersilent: 6

Read "6" reviewed by Mark Corroto


The latest release by the Norwegian band Supersilent could be the Bitches Brew of our modern times. Like Miles Davis’s infamous recording, little information about the band or its music making is revealed from the CD packaging. In fact their first three releases, 1-3, 4, followed by the cleverly titled 5, only list producer Helge Sten (aka Deathprod) on the CD jacket. The track titles, like Jackson Pollock paintings, are merely numbered to increase the mystery.

A bit ...

169
Album Review

Supersilent: 6

Read "6" reviewed by AAJ Staff


The collisions between the purely acoustic sphere of traditional jazz (okay, throw in a few amplified instruments) and the amorphous universe of electronica have yielded a virtual zoo of hybrid offspring. One major flaw that marks most of these products is that they end up produced to death. That's the price you pay for having too many gadgets in the studio and not enough imagination to create something special through performance itself. Imagination and spontaneity are a rare combination indeed.

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Finally we can present this longawaited treat of a concert film. The sold out concert took place in Oslo in August last year and was beautifully captured by Kim Hiorthøy and friends to 16 mm black and white film, and later edited by Hiorthøy. The sound was recorded by Athletic Sound and mixed by Helge Sten. Needless to say, it looks and sounds fantastic. The concert itself was rewarded a six out of six review at the time in Norway's major national paper Aftenposten. You get the complete concert, 109 minutes, 6 tracks, in the same order as on the night, there are no overdubs or repairs

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

12

Rune Grammofon
2014

buy

11

Rune Grammofon
2010

buy

10

Rune Grammofon
2010

buy

9

Rune Grammofon
2009

buy

8

Rune Grammofon
2007

buy

7

Unknown label
2005

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