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Hild Sofie Tafjord (left) (photo: Carl Abrahamsson/NYT)

For the third year in a row, the Amsterdam Dance Event has invited the Bimhuis to participate in its citywide festival in last week of October. Originally grown out a desire to create a meeting point for the international dance music scene, the festival has become a power player in the professional dance industry.

The Bimhuis, club nor dance music promoter, took the challenge of creating a programme befitting the context. Last year it did so by inviting post-jungle producers as Ollie Bown,Badun and Vektormusik, and abstract machine music makers Alog, Pierre Bastien and Machinefabriek. This year it will take the same route: on one side there will be beat-driven musicians from various domains (abstract hip hop, improv and bossa nova); on the other side there will be solo artists creating subtle works with cello, French horn, environmental sounds and saxophone. All make use of various electronic devices.


Hildur Gudnadóttir

Although the programme has not been fully realised yet, the first names that have been announced are Hild Sofie Tafjord (NO), BJ Nilsen (SWE), Hildur Gudnadóttir (ICE), Humcrush (NO), and Sidsel Endresen (NO). There will also be second installment of Beat Dimensions, after the successful first edition with Flying Lotus and Hudson Mohawke. Other names will be announced when confirmed.

The Amsterdam Dance Event will take place 23-25 October.

So at last I got a taste of North Sea Jazz. Always thought it was beyond my budget to go. But now that I´ve finally attended the Sunday, I can see myself trying to go every year, and not for just one day like this year, but at least for two. It feels as if I´m like the last (Dutch citizen) to have found out about this great festival.. It sure helped that I didn´t have to pay the ticket myself, but I think I would´ve attended this edition anyhow. Basically it was because of the addition of Erika Stucky to the program that I really wanted to be there. I´d seen her earlier this year in Lantaren/De Venster in Rotterdam with ´Bubbles and Bangs´ (Lucas Niggli on drums/percussion and Jon Sass on tuba) and totally loved it! This time she would be here with ´Suicidal yodels´ with Sebastian Fuchsberger on trombone/vocals and (Jon Sass). It was scheduled as the last show in the Volga room. Hopefully it would be the icing on the cake 

I had left my camera in my bag in the wardrobe because I really thought at this event there would be a clear No (DSLR) camera allowed rule. But soon I realized this wasn´t the case at all: a lot of people were walking around uninhibited/freely with camera´s dangling around their necks. That was a big bummer because the first 3 shows I wanted to attend, were scheduled rather tightly. I´d figure it would be senseless to hurry back to the wardrobe in between shows.

Anyway, the first show was at the Volga: Sidsel Endresen + Jan Bang. I was hoping for something similar to (the warmth of) some songs of ´Out here, in there´. Nothing like that though. It was a pure improvisational set with Bang sampling the sounds Endresen produced. She truly was, as the announcer said, ´looking for the boundaries of the/her vocal chords´. I can imagine why some people left after the second (piece). But the good, really good part was about to start. He began to use the sampled bits like maybe a Kieran Hebden would have. At some moments it was just impossible to tell which sounds were produced by Endresen and which were coming from the sampler. Because she had shown she could produce those scattered bits all by herself. The one odd thing about it was the rather stiff manner in which Bang moved behind his sampler, pressing the buttons and what not. But it was an amazing, eye (ear) opening experience.

Next up for me was Gnarls Barkley at the Maas. Couldn´t pass that one up although I really would have recognized only´ that one song´. It was more of a (uptempo) handclapping Outkast Hey, ya´ll thing (Gone Daddy gone/Smiley faces/Going on/Surprise/Blind Mary) than a (slow) headnodding (hip hop?) thing. The songs I like more, are ´Just a thought/Who´s gonna save my soul/ Neighbors/A little better´. But it was fun down there!

Afterwards, back to the Volga again, hoping I could get in for Greetje Bijma and Jasper van t Hof. Had to view it from the back, but happy to see the last 15 minutes of their performance± her ´Jasper and mouse´ play was hilarious. She´s weird  Back in ´92 (...) I saw Jasper van t Hof in Leeuwarden with his quartet (Eric van der Westen on double bass, Dick de Graaf on saxophone and Dries Bijlsma on drums). That was probably my first jazz concert ever. He can play whatever he wants on his piano. (Funny, I still can remember him asking from out of his little Honda, how to get to the Brouwershoeck when I was walking nearby that place, still considering if I wanted to go or not.)

Out of curiosity I also went to the Mars Volta. Man, they played really loud! Sometimes just earshattering. I liked the parts where the guitarist was ´duelling´ with the drummer. At least these parts I could comprehend, I think.. The only other musician that could compete with the guitar and drum violence , was the saxophone player but only when the guitarist would let him, because he clearly was at the steering wheel of this monster. And yes, you could have shoot a ton of film trying to capture the movements of the singer. He had all the postures and tricks down. I vaguely recognized him singing something of the Tremulant EP . Not sure which (song). I like ATDI´s Relationship of command, but overall, this is beyond me..

Before heading back to the Volga for a final time for Erika Stucky, I went to get my jacket and bag. Maybe there would be some sort of opportunity to shoot. I took a seat in the second row in the middle and they were still setting up things: a Lcd screen to display her videos. Jon Sass looked huge on that little podium ;). There were people on the first row with cameras, but I decided to not take any photos during the show. I had a good view but the setting (that plastic Lcd screen, the low office ceiling) didn´t look good. And they didn´t do anything with the light.. Next to me sat a girl from Australia who I had seen also attended Sidsel Endresen. I can´t imagine me going that distance to visit something like this all the way over there. She clearly enjoyed both of these shows. I wasn´t so much surprised anymore by the way Erika Stucky takes the stage, but I still enjoy this part. (When she´s still behind the curtains you can hear her huffing and puffing, clanging the tubes and suddenly throwing things (spoons) on the stage from behind the curtain) It takes all the tension in the audience that might be there, away. She also tells the people what they can expect. She said she wanted to be our ´cognac´;) (´Heidi and maybe some Britney Spear. And then bring on Heidi for a final time´. That may sound as a weird combination, but she and her musicians make everything work!) She and Sebastian Fuchsberger, the trombone player, work extremely well in their sweet heartwarming jodel parts/comedy routine. This evening Jon Sass didn´t have much opportunity to strut his stuff but in one sequence where he played tuba and beatboxed through his mouthpiece. It had to do with the limited time that was available. They played (the Knack´s) My Sharona (not as rocking as in Lantaren, but still good). And eventually they played Britney Spears ´Baby, hit me one more time´ too. For my taste that song lasted a little bit too long. She said there wasn´t enough time to explain the title ´Suicidal jodels´, but you can tell it´s not all purely for laughs, but also from the heart and melancholic. So glad I went for this again. She´s just an amazing artist/performer. With some excellent musicians around here. Really a pleasure to see them perform.

(Afterwards, just before getting in line to buy her cd, I tried to take a photo of her accordeon laying on a piano seat. I switched to Av mode but I didn´t see that the aperture was on 9.0... Long shuttertime: blurry picture... Kggg, dumb*ss..)

* Sidsel Endresen will be performing in the Bimhuis, Amsterdam in October and Erika Stucky will be there in January 2009.
Be there.

North Sea Jazz, Sunday (Volga: Sidsel Endresen+Jan Bang/Erika Stucky)

I had loafed for a while and didn't write my purchased cds. Since there was a summer sale at HMV, I bought quite a lot. :p

At HMV Shibuya, amazon.co.jp :

Editors / An End Has a Start (Kitchenware)

They play much better than in their 1st, and are less influenced by Joy Division or Interpol. They're establishing their own style.

Ulrich Schnauss / Quicksand Memory EP (Domino)

Shoegaze like My Bloody Valentine. Even too much!?

Jazzland Community / Jazzland Community (Jazzland)

Various artists from Jazzland play in this album:
- Bugge Wesseltoft
- Sidsel Endresen
- Eivind Aarset
- Hakon Kornstad
- Wetle Holte
- Marius Reksjo
My favorite tracks are: Fabrikk, Connectic. Cool album.

Steve Reich / Different Trains, Electric Counterpoint (Nonsuch)
- Different Trains performed by Kronos Quartet
- Electric Counterpoint performed by Pat Metheny
One of the best album of minimalism.

Dmitri Shostakovich / Symphonie No. 10 (Deutsche Grammophon)
performed by Herbert von Karajan, Berliner Philharmoniker

Dmitri Shostakovich / Chamber Symphonies (Deutsche Grammophon)
- Dmitri Shostakovich / Chamber Symphony op. 110a (orch.Barshai)
- Dmitri Shostakovich / Symphony for Strings op. 118a (orch.Barshai)
- Dmitri Shostakovich / Chamber Symphony op. 83a (orch.Barshai)
- Dmitri Shostakovich / Symphony for Strings and Woodwinds op. 73a (orch.Barshai)
Performed by Rudolf Barshai, The Chamber Orchestra of Europe
- Alfred Schnittke / Prelude in Memoriam Dmitri Shostakovich
- Dmitri Shostakovich / Symphony No. 15 op. 141bis (Arr. Viktor Derevianko)
Performed by Kremerata Musica

Johannes Brahms / Cello Sonatas (Deutsche Grammophon)
- Cello sonata No. 1 in E minor, op. 38
- Cello sonata No. 2 in F major, op. 99
Performed by Mstislav Rostropovich and Rudolf Serkin

Johannes Brahms / Symphony No. 1 (EMI)
Performed by Charles Munch, Orchestre de Paris

Ludwig van Beethoven / Cello Sonatas (Philips)
- Cello sonata No. 3 in A major, op. 69
- Cello sonata No. 4 in C major, op. 102-1
- Cello sonata No. 5 in D major, op. 102-2
Performed by Mstislav Rostropovich and Sviatoslav Richter

Franz Schubert / Piano Sonatas (Columbia)
- Piano Sonata, D958
- Piano Sonata, D959
- Piano Sonata, D960
Performed by Valery Afanassiev

Richard Wagner / Parsifal (DVD) (Universal)
Performed by James Levine, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
Best Parsifal.