Jazkamer

MMM2 review

2011-11-18T14:48:00.001-08:00

http://www.musiquemachine.com/reviews/reviews_template.php?id=3483

Cover by Hair Stylistics

2011-11-16T13:09:00.001-08:00

Bergen Støyfest: Jazkamer Edition line-up

2011-10-22T00:39:00.000-07:00

LANDMARK, BERGEN KUNSTHALL

OCT 27:

Jazkamer
Hair Stylistics
Anla Courtis

OCT 28:

Jazkamer [Metal]
Reiko A
Robert Piotrowicz/ Lasse Marhaug
Black Packers

OCT 29:

Jazkamer [The Big Picture]
Astro
Anders Hana
Ambolthue

Bergen Støyfest: Jazkamer Edition

2011-10-14T03:46:00.000-07:00

Guitar aftermath 2003

2011-09-08T04:48:00.000-07:00

Kjetil Hanssen's Jazkamer collection

2011-09-08T04:35:00.001-07:00

Singapore 2006

2011-09-08T04:26:00.000-07:00

Singapore 2007

2011-09-08T04:23:00.000-07:00

Jazkamer festival

2011-08-30T09:10:00.001-07:00

October 14 2009, MIR, Oslo

2011-08-25T03:14:00.000-07:00

Jazkamer Wednesday, October 14, 2009 Oslo from Karsuli on Vimeo.

The Kids Are All Right

2011-08-07T12:51:00.001-07:00

Tedragen online teashop open

2011-04-01T09:39:00.000-07:00

Get your tea here: http://www.tedragen.no/

Chestnut Thornback Tar on VINYL

2011-03-28T04:06:00.000-07:00

Type Records have released Jazkamer's 2010 May album "Chestnut Thornback Tar" on glorious vinyl. The LP comes with a bonus CD, which is a super-mega-mix of the entire 2010 series.

Go here to get the LP.
Go here to listen to the whole thing.

One year

2011-01-26T03:14:00.001-08:00

Jazkamer: Hair Stylistics CD review

2011-01-12T06:39:00.000-08:00

Jazkamer - Cover By Hair Stylistics [Pica Disc]

I have been hearing this band's name for quite a while now. I never took the time to check them out, but I was intrigued when I read about their monthly CD series on a message board somewhere. Apparently, they put out a CD every month for a year on Pica Disk and this is the July edition. I didn't know what their other material sounded like before my first few listens, but I did hear that they always made very different-sounding records and have had a wide variety of styles. It seems that I am reviewing the blown out, grind/punk, improv noisecore style that they so feverishly dabble in.

At first, I wasn't sure what these guys were going for. Because "noise rock" or "noisecore" isn't really my thing, I find it annoying when a drummer, guitarist and vocalist set up and just fidget, slam, blast, scream and feedback with absolutely no direction, purpose, rhyme or reason. I know a lot of noise fanatics will disagree with me and say that sort of thing is what makes noise what it is, and what makes it great. This just sounded so amateur to me. At first, anyway.

By the time I managed to reach the end of this recording, I found myself wanting to play it again out of fascination and interest rather than enjoyment. After several more repeats, I became extremely appreciative of the completely nihilistic, raw, barely-rehearsed "full band" aesthetic. And by barely-rehearsed, I mean that it seems that there was some forethought in some of these tracks where some discussion of loose structure might have taken place.

It is almost as if these guys just set up a mic in a small room, got really drunk and just started whaling, screaming, bending strings and pounding drums for hours, then not-so-carefully cut up the recordings into 129 pieces, distorted it and then had some terrible marker drawings made for the artwork. To some people, that's all entirely silly. And it is. But it's fucking punk. I wish I could have seen this live. I would have rather have seen this live than listened to it on a CD.

After listening to this CD a few more times, I briefly scanned through other Jazkamer releases in this monthly series. The artwork and sounds are all so diverse. I started to appreciate this release even more because I found that they are a talented and diverse group covering a lot of territory. Hearing some of their other material gave me a better perspective on the nature of this release specifically. All in a noisy and "non-musical" way, they've done metal, blues, jazz, collaborated with Government Alpha and John Weise, etc. I know I am here to review this album and not to give a Jazkamer biography, but I just feel that being well-rounded on Jazkamer history can make one understand and appreciate any given Jazkamer album a lot more considering their relentless evolution in sound.

The aggression and nihilism is more than apparent on this disc. If this were a show, I could see myself staying clear of the stage for fear of having alcohol slung onto me or being stabbed in the eye by a piece of broken cymbal flying from the drum set. I picture a lot of falling over or falling into each other. This performance is hostile, provocative, threatening and totally meaningless. And it's meaninglessness is what gives it such a profound meaning.

Because this is not a style of noise that I resonate with on a deeply personal level (because I more so enjoy noise of the electronic nature), it is hard for me to say that this record is perfect. I appreciate it more than I enjoy it. I do, however, expect any improv noisecore fans to worship this album. Even some fans of more "contained" noise punk like Cult Ritual and Slavescene as well as fans of bands like The Hospitals will probably enjoy this thoroughly as a broadening of their already established horizons

Bangkok report

2010-12-09T03:39:00.000-08:00

http://www.scandasia.com/viewNews.php?coun_code=th&news_id=7932

Norway’s Kings of Noise Bombed Bangkok
09 December 2010 | news Andrew J. West | photos Andrew J. West

With the thunderous noise of Thor’s chariot rumbling through the falling sky, the kings of Norwegian noise Lasse Marhaug and John Hegre – collectively known as Jazkamer – have announced their riotous arrival in Bangkok as part of a mini-tour of Southeast Asia that also includes Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
Performing their ‘SO::ON – Machines’ show at avant-garde Nospace Gallery located in the entertainment hub of Royal City Avenue (RCA), the duo played in Bangkok for one night only on December 3, deafening local noiseophiles with their in your ear mix of experimentalism and manic pandemonium.
Nospace Gallery, which is surrounded by clubs playing the greatest hits and latest commercial releases for the offspring of Thailand’s hi-so’s or hi-so wannbes, seemed an improbable but somehow appropriate place to drop their anarchic bombshell in Bangkok.
The performance began timidly enough. Lasse Marhaug, with his head hung low, began fiddling with his desk of little boxes. John Hegre, standing with his guitar, began cutting the strings with a knifelike piece of metal. Had the performance begun, or was this a sound check?
The noise, already booming, intensified further. Most of the audience began to cover their ears with hands that remained affixed like those of the Wise Monkey who hears no evil. But there was to be no such salvation as the inexorable resonations began passing through the body in tumultuous waves.
After half an hour – or was it longer? Time, overwhelmed by sound, lost all meaning – of increasing animated twitches and writhes, John Hegre began bashing his guitar on the ground. What was happening?
He began smashing it harder and harder until he broke its neck then, in spasmodic bouts of a crazed delirium, he gradually pulverised it, each of its death throes amplified by microphones implanted inside the wooden instrument. The performance only ended when the last of the microphones had been destroyed.
The crowd went wild.
“We had a foot massage before performing. I wish we could get that in Norway before we performed,” said Lasse, smiling coolly after the show.
“We’re only in Bangkok for two days, so we’ve been making the most of it, eating and visiting Chinatown to buy Chinese tea,” comments John, streaming with sweat.
“We’re Chinese Tea connoisseurs, it’s a passion, like other people love wine,” adds Lasse, still smiling. “Our favourite is oolong.”
In 2010 Jazkamer released a CD album every month, a phenomenal effort by any measure, nearly doubling the number of its releases to 25 albums (available from www.discogs.com/artist/Jazkamer).
“The idea is to keep things exciting all the way, so in keeping with our eclectic tradition of making very different sounding records, each monthly album will cover the wide (non-) musical range Jazkamer has become known for since we started in 1998,” said Lasse.
“We are currently touring our ‘Failed State of Mind’ album, which was released on Pica Disk in October. The material we play in these gigs is from that album, although we improvise a lot around the themes,” he said.
“We’re visiting Thailand to perform at Nospace, which is run by our friend Koichi Shimizu. Before that was one night in KL and a week in Singapore playing at the Norwegian Seaman’s Church, and one show at Lasalle College of the Arts. The students like our boxes of weird stuff as they wonder what we are doing. It’s good they can see it for themselves because we don’t know what we are doing either. It’s kinda confusing.”

Tea Kings

2010-12-07T06:39:00.001-08:00

Jazkamer live in Bangkok

2010-11-26T20:41:00.000-08:00

Jazkamer live in Kuala Lumpur

2010-11-26T20:39:00.000-08:00

thefineartofdestroyingeverything.com

2010-08-18T09:31:00.000-07:00

“Lament For Klaus Kinski” – Jazkamer

I had written this long introduction about the particular heaviness of Jazkamer’s music and its seriousness vis a vis bands like SunnO))), but it seemed like bullshit in retrospect. Listening to Jazkamer is akin to pouring concrete mix around the folds of your brain and letting it dry—there is a deep, expanding density to their music that also might hurt. Audible harshness transformed into physical discomfort and riff epiphany. Jaz starts from kind of a Black Sabbath premise, strips out the vocals and drums and cranks the guitar to the front of the mix. I’m not sure what type of amplification they use, but I would definitely use it if I wanted to harm myself or someone else. Norway must have a deep, mystic vein that musicians tap to channel these dark impulses. Joseph Conrad had it totally wrong in the Congo, he should have been in Oslo. The horror—for real and shit.

The song below, “Lament for Klaus Kinski,” is essentially a single guitar riff beaten to death during the course of two minutes and eleven seconds. The notes from “Klaus” freeze time when they contact the atmosphere in your personal space—cannibalizing your consciousness with the illusion that there is nothing else in the world except for your being and the being of an incredibly loud fucking electrified phrase emanating from a speaker. To say that Jazkamer transfixes by force would be an understatement. “Klaus” appears on Chestnut Thornback Tar, the May installment of the band’s year-long experiment of monthly releases. The Jaz of Chestnut is an expanded line-up, adding N.A. Dronen and Jean-Philippe Gross to the Marhaug – Hegre terror duo. The lone grind of “Klaus” is a simple idea done well. Although that sounds like something Anthony Bourdain would say, it’s true whether we’re talking dripping calf’s marrow or crippling overdrive. At one point we hear several chains are being raked along various pots and pans. This is apt, as it would seem that Jaz actually dine on metal chains before destroying shit music-wise. But fuck the food metaphors, let’s EAT.

Lasse Marhaug answers some of my questions.

Did you make this song while you were pushing an enormous ship over a mountain? If not, where did you make it?

It was recorded indoors in the city of Bergen, Norway. But it felt like dragging a ship over a mountain. We slaved over that song for several weeks, trying hard to make it work, but failing over and over again. It drained us and we almost collapsed in the process, but finally after long nights of blood, sweat and tears we managed to pull through and the magic of good music revealed itself. For Jazkamer that track was something of a personal victory. We cried tears of joy.

The repetition on “Lament” and other songs on Chestnut is almost devotional—is there a sacred element to Jazkamer’s music?

Nothing is sacred in our music. Quite the opposite. If we repeat ourselves it’s because we keep forgetting where we’ve been.

Why did you decide to release an album each month?

Because releasing an album every week is too much work.

Does each month have a particular tonal quality? What was the inspiration behind the May installment?

Each monthly album has its own sonic colour palette. The May album was inspired by long cold nights of Norwegian winter. We wanted to make an album of warm music that would feel like spring.

Why does Kinski deserve a lament?

Klaus Kinski died for our sins. A lament seems to be in order.

Kråkebollen og sjøhesten

2010-08-18T01:04:00.001-07:00

Jazkamer: Matthew 28:17 [August 2010 Series]

2010-08-02T14:54:00.000-07:00

Los Bastardos Norwegian DVD in stores

2010-08-02T14:52:00.001-07:00

Brainwashed review of "Chestnut Thornback Tar"

2010-08-01T10:16:00.000-07:00

As most know, Jazkamer has set out to release an album a month for the duration of 2010, which, as of this writing, has successfully made it to its midpoint. This album, which is actually May’s installment, doesn’t have any specific unifying theme, such as the acoustic approach of Self-Portrait or the metal stylings of We Want Epic Drama. Instead, it is a "regular" Jazkamer record that stands with any in their discography, mixing harsh noise, drone, and rock in the way that only Lasse Marhaug and John Hegre can.

Assisted by Jazkamer associates Nils Are Drønen and Jean-Philippe Gross, there isn't any specific concept going on, but that is irrelevant. The album begins and ends with two massive tracks, with a slew of short little sketches in between. Opener "Sentimental Journey" sounds like anything but, with its slow, menacing synth pulse that occasionally surges in volume, pushing it into harsher territory, but never getting there. It's a slow build that never gets too harsh but evolves from dronescapes to metal into noise.

"Lament for Klaus Kinski" leads in with what sounds like a looped grinding bass guitar, which becomes the skeleton that the track builds upon. Throwing together junk metal percussion and various processed and filtered sounds, it definitely has a feel similar to Marhaug's solo noise works, but the slightly sparser mix and rhythmic backbone keep it in pure Jazkamer territory. "Life as a Secret Agent is Over" also goes for the harsh stuff, putting painful high end noises and buzzing oscillators atop erratic rhythms, the whole track structurally going for a more cut-and-paste collage style. Between that and the analog textures, it totally feels like the mid '90s noise scene, which is a very good thing.

"Burp Boogie, Burp Boogie" is as absurd as it sounds: less than a minute of looped vocalisms with stringed instrument noodling that makes for a bit of levity at the album's midpoint. Follower "In The Days of the Burning Guitar" throws together percussion blasts and white noise waves in a way that resembles a drumkit being pushed down a steep hillside, with a still-functioning analog synth not far behind. The occasional rhythmic drive of "It is the Nobel Prize I want, It's worth $400,000" isn't far removed from the European school of power electronics, but with the unnecessary provocative imagery and vocals stripped away.

Leading up to the album's close, "We Need a Painting, Not a Frame" utilizes more of the erratic, crashing percussion with squelchy static and feedback to create an exhausting pastiche of pummeling sound. The lengthy closer, "Yellow Mountain Fur Peak," goes a dramatically different direction than the other long piece went when it comes to composition. While the opener was all about tense, cautious restraint, this is pure maximalism at its finest: a hollow ambience enshrouds sharp, clipping static and distant cymbals as painfully high frequency oscillators and heavily effected percussion thuds away. The outbursts of static with the stop and start drum freakouts gives the 13-plus minute duration a prog-rock vibe somehow, with the complexity and inherent drama in the track.

While the "new album a month" concept isn't new (Merzbow and Aube did it, but as prolific as they are in general, it's a different story), Jazkamer is using the method to not only try out new things, but also to continue to refine their own sound that clashes noise and drone sounds with a heavy metal sensibility. Luckily, it's not a gimmick, just a good way to spread their work out more.

Creaig Dunton, Brainwashed.com

Tape book

2010-08-01T10:14:00.000-07:00

Jazkamer: July is Over [July 2010 Series]

2010-07-03T07:09:00.000-07:00

Jazkamer: We Want Epic Drama [June 2010 Series]

2010-05-27T04:44:00.000-07:00

Jazkamer: Chestnut Thornback Tar CD [May 2010 Series]

2010-05-15T03:28:00.001-07:00

Jazkamer: Self Portrait [April 2010 Series]

2010-03-25T13:09:00.000-07:00

Jazkamer / Sissy Spacek 7"

2010-03-11T10:49:00.000-08:00

Jazkamer: John Hegre, Lasse Marhaug, Iver Sandøy
Sissy Spacek: Charlie Mumma, Corydon Ronnau, John Wiese

37 tracks of noisecore. Lucier Records, Australia

Bento Box online

2010-03-05T01:23:00.000-08:00

http://thestaticfanatic.blogspot.com/2009/12/jazkamer-bentobox-live-in-japan-2005.html

Jazkamer live @ Blå, Oslo March 3 2010

2010-03-03T23:46:00.000-08:00

http://www.nomusicmedia.com/2010/03/05/a-quick-peek-at-jazkamer/

Photos: Åse Bredeli Røyset and Eivind Røbekk Hagerup

Jazkamer: The Monroe Doctrine [March 2010 Series]

2010-03-03T04:47:00.000-08:00

Intervju Dagsavisen

2010-01-28T01:08:00.000-08:00

Tegn abonnement nå: I 2010 skal støyrock-bandet Jazkamer gi ut en CD i måneden. Dermed blir de det bandet i norsk rock som har gitt ut flest plater.

BERNT ERIK PEDERSEN 15. desember 2009, oppdatert 14. desember 2009 18:56

– Dette er enten redningen for platebransjen, eller siste spiker i kista, sier Lasse Marhaug. Den norske støyartisten er kjent både som soloartist og som del av en rekke grupper og konstellasjoner, og opptrer verden over. Med Jazkamer har han i år spilt i både Mexico, Polen og Frankrike. Jazkamer har også bidratt til filmmusikken på den kinoaktuelle meksikanske «Los Bastardos».

Siden 1998 har Marhaug og Lasse Hegre utgjort kjernen i gruppa Jazkamer, som har gitt ut en rekke cd-er med skiftende besetning i ulike sjangre. Blant annet «Metal Music Machine» (2004), her i avisen beskrevet som «noe av det tyngste som noen gang er festet til en platerille». Nå starter de et storslått plateprosjekt der de gir ut en CD hver måned gjennom 2010, der fans kan tegne abonnement på hele serien.

– Hvis cd-en er et døende format, skal vi iallfall gi den et verdig avskjed. Det blir 12 ordentlige CD-utgivelser, alle blir nyinnspilte studioalbum, det er ikke snakk om å bare gi ut en haug med gamle liveopptak, lover Marhaug.

20 plater til sammen
Fra før har bandet som sagt en lang og brokete diskografi bak seg, med livealbum, remikser, EP-er og annet, med åtte titler man kan regne som «ordinære» studioalbum. Når Jazkamer fullfører de 12 albumene i 2010, er de dermed oppe i 20 studioalbum – langt mer enn noen andre norske rockband. Hvis vi ikke tar med Ole Ivars og Gluntan i denne sammenhengen. Nærmest kommer Motorpsycho, som gir ut sitt 14. studioalbum over nyttår.

– Det ante vi ikke! Hvis vi nå blir det bandet i Norge som har gitt ut flest album, er det enda en god motivasjon for å fullføre prosjektet, sier Lasse Marhaug.

Plateserien vil touche innom flere sjangrene som Jazkamer har vært innom: Fra elektronisk støy til rock og ekstrem metal. På januaralbumet, «Solitary Nail», har Hegre og Marhaug med seg den franske artisten Jean Philippe Gross.

– Jazkamer er blitt et slags kollektiv av forskjellige artister. Serien vil inneholde både duo, trio og kvartettplater, og vi skal spille inn med metalstorbandet som lagde «Metal Music Machine» igjen, for første gang siden 2006, sier Marhaug.

CD-ene utgis på selskapet Pica og hver utgivelse vil ha cover illustrert av anerkjente kunstnere og designere som Savage Pencil, Justin Bartlett og Yatoshi Yoshida.

Tester publikum
Bandets forrige album «Art Breaker» kom i 2008, klokket inn på 17 minutter og inneholdt 58 låter.

– De siste årene har vi mest vært et live-band, og ikke lagd så mange plater. Men det passer oss bra å være i mye aktivitet. Vi lager bedre musikk ved å lage 12 album på ett år enn å lage bare ett album, mener Marhaug.

Utgivelsesrekka er mer enn bare et stunt, men sier også noe om tilstanden i platebransjen ved inngangen til et nytt tiår, mener Marhaug.

– Når det går to-tre år mellom hver gang en artist gir ut nytt album, er det ikke nødvendigvis artisten som styrer dette. Det er distributører og butikker som synes det er lettere å selge plater når de kommer annethvert år enn hele tida. Men mange artister har en kreativ åre som gjør at de lager masse musikk, mer enn det en plate i året kan romme. På 60- og 70-tallet ga store artister gjerne ut to-tre plater på ett år – for eksempel Rolling Stones, Beatles og Miles Davis, ramser Marhaug opp.

– Når publikum digger et band, syns de det er fett å få to-tre nye plater i året. Men 12 på ett år er å teste publikum, innrømmer Marhaug.

– Det blir interessant å se hvor mange som henger seg på.

Abonnement på hele serien koster 150 dollar, eller i underkant av en tusenlapp. De 12 platene blir også sendt ut individuelt til gjenværende platebutikker.

Intervju Natt og Dag

2010-01-28T01:05:00.001-08:00

Støymannsgalskap

Hvordan gir man cd-platen en verdig død? Ved å gi ut tolv støyplater på tolv måneder, mener Jazkamer.
TEKST EIRIK KYDLAND

Akkurat den dagen vi skal prate med støykomponist og Jazkamer-talsmann Lasse Marhaug, går sjefen for Norges største plateselskap ut og spår at ”Cd-en er død innen fem år”. Gjesp, tenker du kanskje. Har vi ikke blitt ganske vant til å lese slike uttalelser etter hvert? Særlig blant musikkjournalister har det blitt en vanlig kommentarøvelse å skrive noen kløktige ord om plastdiskens fremtid, ispedd litt nostalgi og en god dæsj fremtidsangst. Likevel er det ganske oppsiktsvekkende når uttalelsen kommer fra en av de mektigste mennene i norsk platebransje, og dessuten spesielt morsomt at den kommer akkurat idet vi ringer Lasse Marhaug for å snakke om de tolv (!) albumene han planlegger å gi ut med gruppa Jazkamer i løpet av året. Det kaster liksom et ekstra absurd skjær over Jazkamers i utgangspunktet ganske vanvittige nyttårsforsett for 2010. For skal vi tro det folk sier, er det vel ingen som kjøper cd-er lenger. Og i alle fall ikke tolv cd-er i løpet av et år? Hva har egentlig gått av Marhaug og makker John Hegre?

– Vi hadde rett og slett så mange ideer at dette var den eneste måten å få realisert alle sammen på. Det var ikke mulig å vente i tolv år med å få dette ut av kroppen. I tillegg var vi inspirert av at andre artister tidligere har gjort tilsvarende serier – for eksempel de nederlandske pønkerne i The Ex, den japanske støyartisten Hair Stylistics og Oslo-popbandet Astroburger. Disse artistene har gjort noe av sitt aller beste arbeid i løpet av slike vanvittig kreative raptuser, forklarer Lasse Marhaug.

Men jeg trodde ingen kjøpte cd-er lenger?

– At Universal-sjefen har brukt ti år på å finne ut at det går an å selge plater via nettet – at alt man faktisk trenger er en bredbåndskabel – er bare nok et bevis på at det beste er om artister gir ut platene sine selv. Så kan man bare kuttet ut hele mellomleddet med plateindustrien. Om man har gjort seg avhengig av gamle kanaler som ikke fungerer, så må man finne nye. Så enkelt er det. På vår side av gjerdet går det uansett bedre enn noen gang. Vi selger cd-er, kassetter og vinyl som aldri før. Og når opplaget er utsolgt, hjelper fansen oss med å distribuere musikken gratis via nettet. Det er ikke noe problem, for oss er det viktigste at folk faktisk hører på musikken vår. Men om cd-en virkelig kommer til å dø ut, så er i hvert fall Jazkamer med på å gi den en verdig død.

Når året er omme vil Jazkamer totalt sett være oppe i 20 albumutgivelser. Gratulerer! Er årets tolv plater en anledning til å være enda friere enn det dere vanligvis er, rent musikalsk?

– Vi har jo alltid vært temmelig fri, og vi er jo nettopp blitt kjent for at en Jazkamer-plate som oftest er forskjellig fra den forrige. Men det blir likevel mer konsentrert når det kommer et nytt album hver måned. Nå tikker det inn meldinger fra folk i USA, Australia, Asia og hele Europa, som vil tegne abonnement på albumserien. Og de som følger serien vil ha muligheten til å vurdere hver plate opp mot den forrige, som jo bare kom ut noen uker tidligere, og vi føler derfor et ganske sterkt ansvar overfor de som har abonnert. Da jeg satt og postet januarplata, tenkte jeg at om ikke abonnentene likte januarplata, så må vi i alle fall sørge for at de vil like februarplata. Vi vil jo ikke skuffe dem. Faen, hvordan skal dette Jazkamer-året bli, liksom? ”Nok en plate fra det fæle støybandet!?” Haha!

Men med tolv plater på ett år har dere jo muligheten til å skeie fullstendig ut med et dubsteb-eksperiment eller en rockeopera?

– Vi står fortsatt for vår gode smak. Jeg tror ikke en gang jeg vet hva dubstep er? Men i løpet av året kan vi love en plate med metallstorbandet fra Metal Music Machine, en grindcore-plate, en mer gitarbasert dronegreie og faktisk også en akustisk plate.

Åh, en akustisk plate? Bare med deg og John Hegre, da?

– Ehm, jeg vet faktisk ikke om John var med å spille på den plata en gang. Hehe. Jazkamer har blitt et stort monster nå. John og jeg er kjernen, men det er jo en rekke andre personer involvert. Jean-Philippe Gross mikset for eksempel januarplata vår.

Er alle platene ferdig innspilt, eller har dette også et slags innslag av reality? At vi kan følge Jazkamers humørkurve gjennom året: Forelska i mai, lat i juli, tungsindig i november?

– Du kan godt kalle dette for støyens svar på Big Brother, bortsett fra at det ikke er mulig å stemme oss ut. Jeg har ikke peiling på hvordan mai-plata blir. Det er ikke slik at vi har spilt inn tolv album som skal porsjoneres utover året, vi spiller de inn fortløpende og jobber kontinuerlig med utgivelsene. Det må ikke være kalkulert og planlagt, da blir det kjedelig.

Hvordan er det å jobbe på den måten?

– Det skjerper alle kreative løker. Ved å sette i gang dette prosjektet stimulerer vi kreativiteten ytterligere. Jazkamer har først og fremst vært et live-prosjekt de siste tre-fire årene, men nå hadde vi lyst til å lage album igjen, og da er det bra å få i gang produksjonen skikkelig. Det er klart vi kjenner et visst tidspress, men man kan jo ikke bare ligge på sofaen og vente på at inspirasjonen skal komme?

Det voldsomme volumet og stormannsgalskapen i dette prosjektet har noe til felles med Karl Ove Knausgårds massive Min Kamp-serie? Er dere inspirert av Knaus?

– På ingen måte, men vi har vel til felles med det prosjektet at vi våger å tenke stort. Vi er mektig lei den norske beskjedenheten. Alt skal liksom være smått og forsiktig. Alle romaner er på 120 sider, med liten skrift. Nei, man må tørre å tenke stort! Vi har lyst til å lage en bauta – en støybauta. At vi er fullstendig stormannsgale, er vi veldig klar over. Men vi synes det er bedre med for mye enn for lite. En annen ting vi er lei av, er den norske melankolien. Den sprer om seg som en pest – innenfor popmusikken, litteraturen og overalt.

Så det blir lite emo på de tolv platene?

– Det blir ingen følelser. Hehe. Jeg kan herved garantere et fullstendig følelsesfritt Jazkamer-år!

Jazkamers 12-platerserie gis ut på Marhaugs eget selskap Pica Disk. Gjennom hele 2010 er det mulig å tegne abonnement på albumserien, så lenge det er plater igjen. Platene selges også hver for seg. Du kan lese anmeldelse av årets to første Jazkamer-plater et annet sted i avisa.

Jazkamer: Musica Non Grata CD [February 2010 series]

2010-01-25T05:36:00.001-08:00

Jazkamer: Solitary Nail CD [January 2010 series]

2010-01-22T11:11:00.000-08:00

The January CD in the Jazkamer series is out now. Here's a taste:

Jazkamer 2010 monthly CD-series

2009-11-30T22:55:00.000-08:00

In 2010 Pica Disk ventures on its most ambitious project yet: to release one Jazkamer CD-album every month of the year.

The Jazkamer 2010-series will be 12 proper new albums. The idea is to keep things exciting all the way, so in keeping with Jazkamer’s eclectic tradition of making very different sounding records, each monthly album will cover the wide (non)musical range Jazkamer has become known for since they started in 1998. This includes:

• First studio recordings of the metal line-up since ”Metal Music Machine” album
• New ”Art Breaker”-style grindcore recordings
• New ”Panic”-style broken-blues material
• Collaborations with John Wiese, Putrefier, Government Alpha and others
• Material with regular four-piece line-up of Hegre, Marhaug, Gross and Drønen
• And much more. Expect some surprises along the way also.

The CD’s will be packaged in proper digipak covers, and each will feature artwork by a different visual artist, like Savage Pencil, Martín Escalante, Jose de Diego, Justin Bartlett, Yasutoshi Yoshida and others.

Subscription in Europe: 156 US $ (= 13$ per CD, including postage)
Subscription rest of the World: 180 US $ (= 15$ per CD, including postage)

Make payment to Paypal-account: mail@lassemarhaug.no

For this price you will receive one Jazkamer album in the mail every month. The price includes postage. The CD’s will also be available separately, but then at regular prices.

Jazkamer: http://jazkamer.blogspot.com/
Pica Disk: http://picadisk.com/

Monoliths & Dimensions & John & Nils

2009-10-15T09:18:00.000-07:00

Jazkamer 2010 Monthly Series

2009-10-14T06:58:00.000-07:00

In 2010 Jazkamer will release one CD every month on Pica Disk. A subscription service will be available. Complete info on this series with prices will be posted in a few days. Send an email to mail (at) lassemarhaug (dot) no if you wish to be emailed the information.

LOS BASTARDOS out on DVD

2009-08-15T08:46:00.001-07:00

LOS BASTARDOS in now out on DVD in the US. Available from Amazon or DVDPacific.

A multiple award winner and 2008 Cannes Film Festival selection, Amat Escalante's Los Bastardos "looks and sounds very impressive" (Variety), and makes an indelibly disturbing impact.

Like the rest of the day-laboring migrant workers who gather together each morning on a southwestern American strip mall sidewalk, Jesus (Jesus Moises Rodriguez) and Fausto (Rubén Sosa) struggle to get ahead in El Norte. But when a callous gringo boss strands them in the middle of a community that exploits them one minute and insults them the next, the two young men cock their sawed off shotgun and calmly take a troubled housewife hostage in her own home. "Why are you doing this?," asks Karen (Nina Zavarin), a strung- out and paranoid divorcee with little left to lose. "Por la dinero," replies Jesus. Before Los Bastardos reaches its shockingly violent climax, Jesus, Fausto, and Karen will have mapped out a contemporary North American wasteland of affectless, benumbed amorality far surpassing mere greed.

Co-produced by Carlos Reygadas (Silent Light, Battle in Heaven), Los Bastardos plumbs the depths of human brutality with the same cool cinematic certitude as the work of Michael Haneke and Bruno Dumont.

Recording at Duper Studio

2009-07-17T04:00:00.001-07:00

New York 2006

2009-07-14T13:04:00.000-07:00

The final duo by Jazkamer (Lasse Marhaug and John Hegre) produced a set lacking in any focus or direction, an aimless, energy fuelled heap of wildly twisted dials and runaway power electronics. It was loud enough to clear half of the exhausted room to the lobby, but the volume was not the problem. I have no idea how much control Marhaug and Hegre had over the resulting music – they barely looked at their equipment as they wrenched it about – but it suffered from a complete lack of depth and substance, consisting of little more than a scrambled screeching mess of sound. As it came to an end my escape from the hall was rapid.

Jazkamer pics/video from Musica Genera

2009-07-11T04:44:00.000-07:00

Merzbow/Jazzkammer: Live At Molde International Jazz Festival

2009-06-18T23:27:00.000-07:00

Jazz classic for download:

http://staticcollaborative.blogspot.com/search/label/Jazkamer

What the press said back in 2001:

I can't imagine this being in heavy rotation in your CD player. There are a lot better discs of electronic noise improv out there, including by the artists' themselves. (Nate Smith, brainwashed.com)

Really irritatingly good. (Johnson Cummins, Montreal Mirror)

Platen fremstår mer som en bulldoser som sakte, men sikkert bygger seg opp mot et iskaldt klimaks. Men du bør legge tradisjonelle forestillinger om rytme og melodi bak deg før du våger deg ut på dette. (Øyvind Holen, Aftenposten)

En blanding av field recordings, frijazzbeats, piano, death metal gitar og elektronisk genererte støystrukturer presentert via laptops, gjør dette til en spesielt spennende lydopplevelse som bør inspirere til et dypere dykk i både Merzbows og Jazzkammers katalog.
(Carl Kristian Johansen, Groove.no)

The Art of Smashing Guitars

2009-06-12T07:08:00.000-07:00

By THOR CHRISTENSEN
The Dallas Morning News

The rules of romance say if you love something, set it free. But the rules of rock tell you to smash it to smithereens.

"Taking a guitar you love and wrecking it is incredibly exciting. It's the ultimate statement of anarchy," says Joe Perry of Aerosmith.

"You're trying to shatter the audience's mind, so why not start with the tangible: the guitar?" says ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons.

Guitar smashing is a time-honored sacrament in rock 'n' roll used by everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Kurt Cobain to today's bands like the Vines. It's easy to see why. For the smasher, it's pure catharsis. For the fan, it's the vicarious thrill of watching stuff get destroyed - a demolition derby with power chords.

But 40 years after Pete Townshend of the Who annihilated his first electric guitar, the ritual still polarizes the rock world.

"To me, it's show biz. I don't see much value to it, to be honest," says Eric Clapton.

"I once smashed a guitar onstage in pure rage because I got an electric shock that scared the living daylights out of me. But as soon as I did it, I regretted it. It was my favorite guitar, and even after I repaired it, it was never the same."

"I've never even tried it," says Carlos Santana. "I'll sacrifice other things, but not my guitar."

Like so many inventions, guitar demolition began as an accident. In 1964, during a show at London's Railway Station nightclub, Townshend began waving and jerking his electric Rickenbacker to try to make it stop whistling. He banged it on the club's low ceiling, impressing one fan so much he asked the guitarist to do it again in the second set.

When he did, the guitar snapped in half, stunning both the crowd and Townshend.

"I had no recourse but to look as though I meant to do it, so I smashed the guitar and jumped all over the bits ... it gave me a fantastic buzz," he said in the Who biography "Before I Get Old."

The London press got wind of the smash-up and dispatched photographers. Thrilled by the notoriety, Townshend began obliterating guitars regularly, telling reporters it was his statement of antimaterialism and comparing himself to German autodestruct artists who built sculptures designed to collapse.

"To me, it wasn't violence or random destruction," Townshend said. "It was art."

The idea spread, and in the 1966 drama "Blowup," director Michelangelo Antonioni captured Jeff Beck of the Yardbirds smashing his ax and hurling the pieces to the crowd, which fought over them like jackals.

Soon after "Blowup" premiered, a rising young guitar hero named Jimi Hendrix also started bashing his instrument onstage. An angry Townshend confronted him backstage at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and demanded he stop stealing his act.

But Jimi wisely refused to budge. Today, pictures of Hendrix setting his Strat on fire and breaking it to shards are some of the most famous images in rock history.

"When I saw Hendrix do that at Monterey, it was like a supreme sacrifice from out of the Bible," says Santana. "It was very spiritual and voodoo-like, and I think he was taking music all the way back to Africa ... I didn't get the same feeling from Peter Townshend. He was more like a brat throwing a television."

By the time both acts got to Woodstock in '69, hordes of young guitarists were already emulating them, including a Dallas teenager named Jimmie Vaughan.

"It was so cool because it was so wrong," says Vaughan, whose band, the Chessmen, opened for Jimi Hendrix at SMU in 1968. "We couldn't afford to break our own guitars, so we'd get a lousy one and break it onstage just to see if we could do it."

Other fledgling smashers made the mistake of using expensive guitars, which didn't splinter so easily.

"Have you ever tried smashing a baseball bat against a cement wall?" asks Aerosmith's Perry. "That's what it's like trying to smash a Stratocaster - it doesn't give. But you're so loaded with adrenaline, you just keep doing it, even though it hurts."

The novelty wore off in the early '70s, but the act blossomed again during the punk era.

Paul Simonon of the Clash is seen crushing a bass guitar on the cover of "London Calling" (1979). And in the '90s, alternative rockers such as Sonic Youth and Pearl Jam fractured their guitars for audiences too young to remember Hendrix.

Jazkamer cover Brainbombs

2009-06-12T07:01:00.000-07:00

Japanese cult-noise label Xerxes have started a compilation CD/mini-zine called Frequency of Decomposition. Volume one has a Jazkamer interview and on the CD a coversong of Brainbombs' "Ass Fucking Murder", recorded back in 2002. Like everyone else Jazkamer loves Brainbombs.

Jazkamer at Musica Genera

2009-06-12T00:01:00.000-07:00

Jazkamer will be performing at Musica Genera in Warszawa, Poland on june 28th. Lasse will also be doing a duo with John Wiese on june 27th. Full program for this excellent festival at http://www.musicagenera.net/

The Marhaug live in Hong Kong

2009-06-06T14:52:00.000-07:00

Lasse Marhaug Live in Videotage, Hong Kong from Edwin Lo on Vimeo.

2006 interview

2009-05-17T10:51:00.000-07:00

Though Lasse Marhaug has been pushing abrasive, midnight tones for over a decade, he’s keen to disassociate himself with the church burning arm of the Norwegian Black Metal scene that torched their way to prominence in the mid-90s.

“I can appreciate the energy of the music and its aim at deconstructing taboos, but essentially the scene was just a group of teenagers who started believing their own hype,” says the stocky musician. “Anybody who lets the media affect what they do like they did doesn’t deserve respect.”

Marhaug’s penchant for experimentation and refusal to conform can be linked to his remote upbringing in the glacial northern expanses of Norway, where his only connection with music was through his own unique work. “I put out fanzines and released tapes without ever meeting anybody related to the music I was involved with,” he admits. “I hadn’t even seen any of that type of music live. The first noise concert I experienced was one I performed myself.”

After years spent pummelling Scandinavia’s nightspots alone, Marhaug found a co-conspirator in fellow sonic saboteur John Hegre and in 1998 Jazkamer was born. “I performed a really intense gig and John was one of very few people not to flee the room,” laughs Marhaug recalling the chance meeting. “After corresponding for a while we decided to work together on a permanent basis.”

Since then the duo’s genre-hopping sonics have taken them around the world, collaborating on stage with a range of heavyweights including Sunn0))) and Merzbow, and releasing over 40 albums and EPs. Latest long player ‘Balls the size of Texas, Liver the size of Brazil’ is arguably their most innovative work to date, with subtle touches of distortion and ENO-like ambience yoked to dense washes of reverb and amplified feedback. It’s an album that triumphs in size and scope. This weekend sees the pair sharing a stage with Tinnitus inducing taskmaster Mark Durgan, with whom they’re releasing a split 7” single on Newcastle based noise label No-Fi. Always improvised, live Jazkamer are a clamorous force, with Marhaug and Hegre yelling into microphones whilst whacking their instruments off every hard surface in sight. “We never learnt how to play conventionally,” says Marhaug of their intense stage shows. “We just make music to the best of our limited abilities and try to get away with it.”

Download METAL MUSIC MACHINE

2009-05-17T06:20:00.000-07:00

Download Jazkamer's 2006 album METAL MUSIC MACHINE from this blog:

http://bravojuju.blogspot.com/2008/12/jazkamer-metal-music-machine-2006.html

Because free music is good music.

Mondo Mexico

2009-05-17T04:40:00.000-07:00

Merida action:

Guanajuato mayhem:

Mexico City flu:

First post

2009-05-17T04:33:00.000-07:00

For various reason the Jazzkammer.com site is down. Maybe it will be back later. Maybe not.