In 2007, singer Mattis Myrland travelled to India - New Delhi, to live and study with a master of Indian Classical Singing - Madhumita Ray. The discipline and daily vocal training inspired Mattis to create a host of stories and gave him a rucksack full of new sounds to accompany them.

Back in Norway, Mattis reworked the sketches he had scribbled and recorded during his eight months stay. He gathered together some of his favourite performers on the Norwegian music scene, and named the band after one of South Asia’s oldest roads that has linked the Eastern and Western regions of the Indian subcontinent for centuries.

Mattis & The Grand Trunk Road played at several festivals in the last few years with Mattis meticulously rewriting and recording his compositions along the way, trying out various phrases live and finishing them in his studio in downtown Oslo.

Now, the album ‘Imperial Splendor’ is finally ready. A collection of songs linking Mattis’ Western singer/songwriter background with the influence of the East. The blend is a soundscape, hard to frame into any specific genre. Its direct, yet poetic story-telling leads the way and the music varies from the spare and ethereal, to the dense and edgy. ‘These stories have their own pace and attitudes and I didn’t want the standard popsong-formula to limit how they unfold. It’s a state of mind that needs constant exercise, letting the words show you the way and letting the music follow the flow of the words’, Mattis explains.

Bow To Each Other is a new Norwegian-Canadian indie pop duo.

Their debut album “The Urge Drum” is produced by none other than Susanne Sundfør and the first taste from the album, the single Darkness, was immediately playlisted on Norwegian state-owned radio station NRK P3. The album has now gotten fantastic reviews in Norway, so be sure to check it out.

Bow To Each Other consists of Gunhild Ramsay Kristoffersen from Karmøy, Norway, and Megan Kovacs from Toronto, Canada, both based in Oslo. Megan is a songwriter, keyboardist and vocalist, while Gunhild is an arranger, programmer, keyboardist and vocalist. The band was formed when the two moved to Norway in 2010 after having lived in Liverpool for several years, where they both studied at LIPA.

“The Urge Drums” consists of 10 tracks, all written by the band themselves. Bow To Each Other’s music explores soundscapes inspired by electronic, hip-hop, sacramental choral singing and 90s pop music. The lyrics are inspired by major upheavals in life, like moving to a new country with all the changes it entails, foreign language and new impulses. Times when you start doubting something you’ve always considered to be true.

The lyrics’ themes are mostly based around religion and sexuality. Megan and Gunhild are a married couple, they have both grown up in religious families, and experienced blessings and curses of coming out as gay.

“The Urge Drums” is Susanne Sundfør’s debut as a producer. Lars Horntveth (Jaga Jazzist) plays various wind instruments, and Gard Nilssen (Bushmans Revenge) plays the drums. Jørgen Træen did the mixing of the album. It is recorded in Susanne Sundfør’s own studio, Lady Lazarus, in addition to Lars Horntveth’s studio, Pooka Studio.

Tracklisting:

Side A

I don’t hear all the noise
Bigger and stronger
Feathery smoke
Oh England, you’re a bull
Darling

Side B

Norway
Darkness
That chair
Into your love
The lull

Double album in extra thick gatefold sleeve. Includes full mp3 download.

alog my card is 7
the low frequency in stereo aux club
ultralyd salinity and brine
espen eriksen trio ambitions
in the country slow down
bushman´s revenge barbara
hilde marie kjersem that day in the shower
stian westerhus discipline of undiscipline
maja ratkje breathe
jenny hval golden locks
puma 3 a.m. moth
deathprod mysterium magnum
supersilent c-7.1

To celebrate 150 releases we have put together a selection of tracks showing where we are now, some label mainstays, personal favourites, hidden treasures and to round it off; a beautiful exclusive from Arve Henriksen. No expenses have been spared to make this a sublime and highly desirable collection: 4 x 10 inch records - a format loved by collectors - different coloured vinyl for each record, a big two sided poster and a long, unedited and frank interview with label founder Rune Kristoffersen and house designer Kim Hiorthøy by UK music writer Rob Young. And all beautifully designed by Kim and individually numbered by hand in a strictly one-off edition of only 500 copies. The title is borrowed from William Butler Yeats´ meditation on art and immortality and follows in the tradition of previous compilations where we have borrowed from song lyrics and poems; Love Comes Shining Over The Mountains (Jimi Hendrix), Until Human Voices Wake Us And We Drown (T.S. Eliot) and Twenty Centuries Of Stony Sleep (W.B. Yeats).

Tracks
Hedvig Mollestad Trio – Sing, Goddess
Bushman´s Revenge – As We Used To Sing (Live)
Scorch Trio – Kjøle Høle
Motorpsycho – Year Zero (A Damage Report)
FIRE! – Your Silhouette On Each (Without Noticing)
Elephant9 – Hardcore Orientale
Phaedra – Honeydewed Autumn
Jenny Hval – Blood Flight
The Last Hurrah!! – The Lonely Whistle Call
Hilde Marie Kjersem – That Day In The Shower
Tove Nilsen – Jordan
Sidsel Endresen & Stian Westerhus - Drawing An Arc
Maja Ratkje - Intro
Alog – Baklandet
Espen Eriksen Trio – In The Woods
Nils Økland – Blond Blå
Arve Henriksen – Silver Box

Released 06.12.13

CONVERSATION WITH…
BALLAD
7UP
UNLOVED
VARIATION
MANGGHA

Maciej Obara – alto saxophone
Dominik Wania – piano
Ole Morten Vagan – double bass
Gard Nilsen – drums

Obara International is, without question, the most distinct ensemble in the improvised music scene in Poland nowadays. It was enough for Maciek & his team to play together for only 16 months to reach the level of empathic communication and develop their own peculiar style and sound.

The concert they played in April at the Manggha Museum in Krakow was a part of the 19th International “Masters and Youngsters” Jazz Festival, and a part of the concert tour the band made in spring.

Due to the adventurous journey from Łódź to Krakow, the musicians arrived at the venue only an hour before the concert. It is highly likely that this inconvenience provided a greater stimulation for the band, and the audience, filling the hall to capacity, actually witnessed – says Obara – one of the best performances given by the ensemble.

(Jarosław Polit)

LITANIA
ETIUDY BALETOWE – INTRODUKCJA
WALTER P-38
KATTORNA
KOMEDA’S MEDLEY
PEOPLE MEET AND SWEET MUSIC FILLS THE HEART
ASTIGMATIC
SVANTETIC

Maciej Obara – alt saxophone
Dominik Wania- piano
Gard Nilssen – drums
Ole Morten Vågan – double bass

Maciej Obara is undeniably one of the brightest and most acclaimed musicians of the young Polish jazz scene. He has his own amazing quartet now: a half-Norwegian and half-Polish band is made of Ole Morten Vågan on bass, Gard Nilssen on drums (the musicians met with each other while participating in the “Take Five: Europe” project), Obara on sax, and Dominik Wania on piano.

This music has five heroes; Krzysztof Komeda serves as an inspiration for the musical construction the architects of which are the four band members. I must admit it is hard to decide whom to admire more: the Norwegians for their intuitive mutual understanding and agile rhythmic narration, Obara for leading the band with in a clearly set direction, or Dominik Wania whose imagination as an accompanist and erudition as a soloist seem to perfectly complement the sound image of this group. It is needless, however, to focus on each of them separately in the search of some outstanding attributes. The strength of this band seems to lie in balanced proportions; together they gain the unique power to revive even as grounded a monument as Krzysztof Komeda. The more I listen to this recording the more I am convinced that the four musicians are the successors whom both Komeda and Polish (though not only) jazz need. (Maciej Karłowski)