In stock
CD
Ingar ZACH & SPEAK PERCUSSION
“Before Nightfall One”
SOFA is proud to present this new collaboration with the labels own Ingar Zach together with the critically acclaimed contemporary ensemble Speak Percussion from Melbourne, Australia. Eugene Ughetti and Matthias Schack-Arnott in Speak Percussion invited Ingar Zach for the first concert in their series named Before Nightfall. The idea behind this concert series is to experience and document the result of one single day of collaboration, culminating in a concert in a carefully chosen space in Melbourne.
Before Nightfall One is an extraordinary example of what can happen during a days work with three open minded musicians finding a common ground to create unique music. In the perfect surroundings at the Substation in Melbourne, Zach, Ughetti and Schack-Arnott have crafted a highly intriguing soundworld which we at SOFA are happy to share with our listeners. Don’t miss out on this one!
11,00€
Out of stock
CD
Håvard VOLDEN
“Space Happy”
In the first episode of the new Twin Peaks series, a man - a security guard or janitor kind of guy - is staring intensely into a human sized glass compartment. There is nothing Inside it but the image of his own reflection, but the intensity of the scene and the man’s gaze is high, as if a monster could appear inside the compartment at any time. We get the feeling this box is a portal to another dimension.
Space Happy sounds like this kind of mysterious box or portal. Several pieces are built around field recordings or sounds of electricity, the type of sounds that exist in empty rooms or scenes in movies before anything happens. Elsewhere, sounds of different electrical instruments are assembled, stacked, cut and pasted, looped or layered with fast tape echoes, sounding otherworldly, yet familiar and lo-fi.
The record is reminiscent of an archival collage of the past fifty years of electronic music, run through a tape machine in space, but at the same time it is the very personal and very intimate work of a single composer and their own sounds. Sounds that never build into the shapes you would think, but keep evolving on their own entrancing path.
Perhaps this is why Space Happy sounds so contemporary, yet difficult to place in the landscape of contemporary music or composition. It sounds more like a work of film or visual art, in which the images are replaced by sounds, and any sense of narrative is replaced by intense, beautiful mystery.
Håvard Volden (b.1980, Trondheim) is a Norwegian experimental guitar player, based in Oslo since 2006. He is known for his collaboration with Jenny Hval since 2008, and his instrumental noiserockjazz band Moon Relay. He have also several other active projects, such as the Swedish/Norwegian electro-acoustic trio Muddersten (released on SOFA) and a duo with the Italian percussionist Carlo Costa. Space Happy is Håvard Volden’s second solo album, and we are extremely satisfied with releasing this music on SOFA.
Original price was: 11,00€.6,00€Current price is: 6,00€.
Out of stock
LP
STREIFENJUNKO
“Like Driving”
Streifenjunko has taken a shift towards electronic sounds. Their previous albums "No Longer Burning" (SOFA 2009) and "Sval Torv" (SOFA 2012) was remarkable in the magnificent sound achieved only with a saxophone and trumpet. With the seemingly endless possibilities of electronic instruments their strategy of finding simple tasks has been put to the test, and in the making of this album Streifenjunko was put back to the starting position to re-discover their focus and recognisable simplicity. The result is music with sharp edges and sudden changes, crude starting and stopping. The engine of the music is the interlocking of slow moving streams. Some of the electronics are self generating for Espen and Eivind to follow, and the different sounds and layers are multiplexed using starting and stopping signals. To play is simply to follow the signals, like driving.
Streifenjunko has been making music together since 2005, and during these years, the members Espen Reinertsen (saxophone) and Eivind Lønning (trumpet) have worked closely together to present truly unique and original compositions on more than 200 concerts all over the world.
It is presented with a beautiful artwork by video artist Kjell Bjørgeengen.
17,50€
In stock
CD
STREIFENJUNKO
“Like Driving”
Streifenjunko has taken a shift towards electronic sounds. Their previous albums "No Longer Burning" (SOFA 2009) and "Sval Torv" (SOFA 2012) was remarkable in the magnificent sound achieved only with a saxophone and trumpet. With the seemingly endless possibilities of electronic instruments their strategy of finding simple tasks has been put to the test, and in the making of this album Streifenjunko was put back to the starting position to re-discover their focus and recognisable simplicity. The result is music with sharp edges and sudden changes, crude starting and stopping. The engine of the music is the interlocking of slow moving streams. Some of the electronics are self generating for Espen and Eivind to follow, and the different sounds and layers are multiplexed using starting and stopping signals. To play is simply to follow the signals, like driving.
Streifenjunko has been making music together since 2005, and during these years, the members Espen Reinertsen (saxophone) and Eivind Lønning (trumpet) have worked closely together to present truly unique and original compositions on more than 200 concerts all over the world.
It is presented with a beautiful artwork by video artist Kjell Bjørgeengen.
11,00€
Out of stock
CD
MUDDERSTEN
“Karpatklokke”
Henrik Olsson, objects, friction, piezo. Martin Taxt, microtonal tuba, electronics. Håvard Volden, guitar, tape-loop.
Muddersten is a type of mudrock whose original constituents were clays. It looks like hardened mud and, depending upon the circumstances under which it was formed, it may show cracks or fissures, like a sun-baked clay deposit. Fertile clay and fat soil, compressed, dried out and turned into stone. Still delicate flowers will find their way through its cracks and fissures, prosper in its barren ground.
It´s all about hydraulic; the phenomena that liquid is almost impossible to compress. Plants soak up water by their roots and pump it into their expanding cells. The cells are built up mainly on cellulose which won't break under pressure, nor will the water they contain. Once the pressure from below is too strong the surface will break.
The names of the improvisations on this record are perhaps not all that important; skyggesildre, kjempeløk, stjerneskjerm, blodstorkenebb, strid kråkefot, høstfloks, sibiriris. In the end nothing is really all that well defined anyhow and the circumstances remains unclear. Clay, rock, water, flower, cellulose and photosynthesis. The hardened, the flowing, the persistent and the growing.
Nevertheless, the relentless striving and the drought stillness seems constantly present simultaneously in these sessions. Motion and friction, like wild flowers pushing their way through an unforgiving mudrock.
Water fighting dehydration.
Original price was: 12,00€.6,00€Current price is: 6,00€.
Out of stock
LP
Ingar ZACH
“Le stanze”
It’s been 6 years since Ingar Zachs critically acclaimed solo album; M.O.S. (SOFA 532). On his 5th album, Le Stanze, Ingar Zach continues to develop his unique, personal music, also this time with percussion and electronics.
The four compositions show an highly original artist who constantly finds new surprising possibilities in the world of percussion. The music is recorded in a small church in Urueña in Spain and in his studio in Madrid. The result is a brilliant refined album which again confirms Ingar Zach’s impressive solo career.
Original price was: 17,00€.10,00€Current price is: 10,00€.
Out of stock
CD
John TILBURY / Keith ROWE / Kjell BJØRGEENGEN
“Sissel”
John Tilbury and Keith Rowe have performed together within the legendary improvising ensemble AMM, as well as in numerous other contexts over the years. Duos for Doris (2003) was their first meeting as a duo, E.E. Tension and Circumstance (2010) was the second before the 4CD box on SOFA, enough still not to know, was released in 2015. enough still not to know also introduces the Norwegian video artist Kjell Bjørgeengen as a collaborator, in this case credited as the producer of the album. Bjørgeengen, being a long time collaborator with both Tilbury and Rowe, became an integral part of the group with Sissel.SOFA is proud to continue to present the work of Tilbury and Rowe's long time collaboration, but also equally proud to hear Kjell Bjørgeenges as a performer on this deeply moving album captured by Espen Reinertsen at the concert series Moving Sound in Stavanger 2016. The album is dedicated to the memory of Kjell's wife Sissel, who passed away some weeks before the performance.Keith Rowe writes the following about Sissel:When Kjell suggested a painting by Nicolas Poussin “The gathering of the ashes of Phocion by his widow” (1648) as a possible focal point for our performance in Stavanger, his suggestion immediately resonated. At the National Gallery London we have stood in front of this very painting, I got a sense on how we might share a reading of this painting largely based on TJ Clark’s book The Sight of Death.In “The gathering of the ashes of Phocion by his widow”, we find in the foreground the central figure of Phocion’s widow on her hands and knees surreptitiously gathering the ashes of the executed Phocion, who had become a victim of political manoeuvring, while her maid standing behind keeps watch. Phocion has been denied a proper burial, his body burned on open ground, by necessity his widow must collect his remains secretively.In the middle ground are the local people going about their daily tasks. Overseeing all of this are two large trees, bearing witness to the comings and goings of human life, they watch, observe, track, without words, they are mute, and it’s this muteness that interest me. It’s where my music has been heading for during the past decade, a mute scratching in the foreground, and the chatter and clatter of human life somewhere vaguely behind. During the performance in Stavanger a recording of JS Bach’s Chaconne BWV1004-5 (Tayiana Nikolayeva) is played, but you cannot hear it, it is silent, it is mute.I ask myself, why for such a distressing event as the death of a dear precious friend Sissel finds its expression in muteness, why muteness? I think it relates to another Poussin painting Landscape with a Calm (1650-51). In this painting we see, in the exact same spot as the widow, a curly haired shepherd gazing out over a lake. But there is something strange here, the sky is full of turbulent stormy clouds, but the reflection on the lake is completely calm. Maybe it’s here where the disruptive turbulent shocking distressing news of the death of a dear friend who we loved locates its muteness.Again the trees are watching.
12,00€
In stock
LP
John TILBURY / Keith ROWE / Kjell BJØRGEENGEN
“Sissel”
John Tilbury and Keith Rowe have performed together within the legendary improvising ensemble AMM, as well as in numerous other contexts over the years. Duos for Doris (2003) was their first meeting as a duo, E.E. Tension and Circumstance (2010) was the second before the 4CD box on SOFA, enough still not to know, was released in 2015. enough still not to know also introduces the Norwegian video artist Kjell Bjørgeengen as a collaborator, in this case credited as the producer of the album. Bjørgeengen, being a long time collaborator with both Tilbury and Rowe, became an integral part of the group with Sissel.SOFA is proud to continue to present the work of Tilbury and Rowe's long time collaboration, but also equally proud to hear Kjell Bjørgeenges as a performer on this deeply moving album captured by Espen Reinertsen at the concert series Moving Sound in Stavanger 2016. The album is dedicated to the memory of Kjell's wife Sissel, who passed away some weeks before the performance.Keith Rowe writes the following about Sissel:When Kjell suggested a painting by Nicolas Poussin “The gathering of the ashes of Phocion by his widow” (1648) as a possible focal point for our performance in Stavanger, his suggestion immediately resonated. At the National Gallery London we have stood in front of this very painting, I got a sense on how we might share a reading of this painting largely based on TJ Clark’s book The Sight of Death.In “The gathering of the ashes of Phocion by his widow”, we find in the foreground the central figure of Phocion’s widow on her hands and knees surreptitiously gathering the ashes of the executed Phocion, who had become a victim of political manoeuvring, while her maid standing behind keeps watch. Phocion has been denied a proper burial, his body burned on open ground, by necessity his widow must collect his remains secretively.In the middle ground are the local people going about their daily tasks. Overseeing all of this are two large trees, bearing witness to the comings and goings of human life, they watch, observe, track, without words, they are mute, and it’s this muteness that interest me. It’s where my music has been heading for during the past decade, a mute scratching in the foreground, and the chatter and clatter of human life somewhere vaguely behind. During the performance in Stavanger a recording of JS Bach’s Chaconne BWV1004-5 (Tayiana Nikolayeva) is played, but you cannot hear it, it is silent, it is mute.I ask myself, why for such a distressing event as the death of a dear precious friend Sissel finds its expression in muteness, why muteness? I think it relates to another Poussin painting Landscape with a Calm (1650-51). In this painting we see, in the exact same spot as the widow, a curly haired shepherd gazing out over a lake. But there is something strange here, the sky is full of turbulent stormy clouds, but the reflection on the lake is completely calm. Maybe it’s here where the disruptive turbulent shocking distressing news of the death of a dear friend who we loved locates its muteness.Again the trees are watching.
17,00€
In stock
LP
MICROTUB
“Bite of the Orange”
Robin Hayward, Microtonal F-tuba. Peder Simonsen, Microtonal C-tuba. Martin Taxt, microtonal C-tuba.
Bite of the Orange is Microtub’s third album on SOFA. On ‘Bite of the Orange’ the three tuba players dig deeper into the sphere of just intonation. Robin Hayward has composed two new pieces for the group focusing on the 11th and 13th harmonics, resulting in a strong microtonal character. The canadian music critic Stuart Broomer picked Microtub as one of the highlights of the FIMAV festival inVictoriaville last year, and wrote
(…)Together they explored compositions that created tremendous temporal space using long tones, then found in their rare instruments very specific, previously unheard pitch intervals, distances that took close listening into new territory(…)
Bite of the Orange was recorded during Microtub’s one week residency at the Palazzo Stabile Art Center in Piemonte, Italy in January 2016. Mixed by Peder Simonsen and mastered by Mike Grinser at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin.
17,00€
In stock
LP
Martin KÜCHEN
“Lieber Heiland, laß uns sterben”
Martin Küchen, saxophones, radio, iPod, electronic tambura.
“Poetry and reality.
The music goes in and out of, and away from, and into again. Reality and poetry. The music is uninterested in genre denominations and ideological markers. Music grows and is shaped by and out of realities, living and artistic. Sound is an audible reflection of you. Even you in silence. And you from sound, from the particular music that invaded your way of life; the ever-increasing global audible pressure chamber in which your spirit falls again and again in a Sisyfonian way ...
Titles, on the other hand, are single-living creatures. Sometimes pointing to other titles, other phenomena, but usually standing entirely solitary, like pillars of stone in a desert, like rocks in a forest area.
Over, under and around, the music is moving and moving unobtrusively.
On Leiber Heiland, Laß uns Sterben historical events intersect right into the contemporary sound making, slit through their titles sharp cuts in our listening present era and pry our eyes towards the seemingly inexplicable backyard of history; which nevertheless created the plateau of disintegration and opportunity that we now seem to live on. At the same time all the sounds on this recording - all the scrunching, the breathing, all the tones, all the composed-processed material - completely and fully give themselves to the listener, escaping all human epithet making and denominations, as the sound becomes manifest, becomes apparent.
This is my wish. To contemplate names and sounds, around music and the name of music.
A couple of measured hours during a wondrous and almost tropical evening in May 2016, Jakob Riis and myself were in the Crypt of the Lund Cathedral, while student orchestras rehearsed with open windows near the old monastery park, birds were screaming and hot spring -high people raved just outside the crypt’s small, low windows. The crypt is perhaps Sweden’s oldest room still existing.
And precisely in this mysteriously echoing room, we were still in a hair-rasing now, rinsed clean by the music as big and tiny sounds ran in rays along the stone floor from the year 1121 providing some relief.”- Martin Küchen, April 2017
17,00€
Out of stock
CD
Sidsel ENDRESEN
“One”
“Sidsel Endresen has been at the forefront of the Norwegian music-scene for more than two decades. Her work has spanned genres from fusion and jazz-rock in the -80’s - to free improvisation and “new music” in the -90’s and the new millennium. Through her two solo-records on ECM Records (”So I Write” and “Exile”), three duo-recordings with Bugge Wesseltoft, as well as other releases on the Jazzland label (“Merriwinkle”, “Undertow” a.o.) - she has received wide international recognition and critical acclaim. In international media she has been labelled «the Grand Dame of Nordic, poetic chamber-jazz and Europe’s most innovative jazz singer - yet she does not consider herself a jazz-singer per se. She is influenced by many sources, including the ethnic and contemporary vocal expressions. Sidsel Endresen has always moved in new directions - constantly renewing her music and her approach - and challenging the traditional role and function of the singer. She is today considered a major influence on a new generation of singers, both at home and abroad. She has worked extensively with the voice as solo-instrument - and has developed her own, distinctive improvisational style - and her own abstract, phonetic language based on her exploration of the pure sound-aspects of the human voice. Her solo-concerts are intimate, minimalistic - with complete focus on the voice - and with no use of electronic devises or effects. She occasionally accompanies herself on a few simple instruments (a small kalimba, and old mini tape-recorder, a glass.)The repertoire for her solo-concerts is a mixture of improvisations and her own, pre-organised material.”
14,00€
In stock
CD
Rutger ZUYDERVELT with Ilia BELORUKOV and René AQUARIUS
“The Red Soul”
Sofa is proud to present Rutger Zuydervelt’s new album The Red Soul, a soundtrack of a movie by Jessica Gorter with the same name, featuring saxophonist Ilia Belorukov and percussionist René Aquarius.
After making several films without music, director Jessica Gorter went for a different approach for her recent film ‘The Red Soul’. Rutger Zuydervelt (aka Machinefabriek) was brought in to make the soundtrack for the documentary. They quickly agreed that the score needed to be very subtle, and not cliché-driven or overdramatic. An old bakelite record with a speech from Stalin and a few old LPs with Soviet songs became the starting point for the music. Fragments of these were sampled, transformed and combined with the saxophone of Ilia Belorukov and percussion by René Aquarius (of Dead Neanderthals). The result is a series of textural and tonal collages that evokes a sense of decay as well as (false) nostalgia, perfectly fitting the theme of the film. On the soundtrack album, the various parts of the score are assembled to be heard as one seamless piece - as a story in itself.
12,00€
In stock
3 CD
MURAL
“Tempo”
Jim Denley, wind instruments. Kim Myhr, twelve-string guitar, zither. Ingar Zach, gran cassa, percussion.
“Tempo” is a 3CD box set recorded live during a 4-hour performance at the Rothko Chapel in 2013. Following up on the group’s Live at the Rothko Chapel from 2011, this release shows the group expanding into a much longer form. Mural consists of Australian windplayer Jim Denley, with Norwegians Kim Myhr (guitar) and Ingar Zach (percussion). They first performed in 2007 in Madrid, and have made concerts around the world since. The trio has released two critically acclaimed records.
After two successful concerts at the Rothko Chapel and a CD-release on the Chapel’s own publications, the trio visited the chapel in Houston, Texas for the third time in April 2013. Wishing to challenge traditional concert formats, they decided to play a four hour long performance in the chapel. The result was so satisfying to them that they decided to release the music as a 3CD-box set.
The music that was played in the chapel is an expansive and patient form of music, far beyond any traditional entertainment formats. In an abyss of time, Mural’s music was not only elevated to another level; one could say that in these long durations, it finally came to its own right.
Rothko’s paintings from the Rothko Chapel can be seen on the front cover of the release.
20,00€