merzbow “live at henie onstad centre” compact disc

• live at henie onstad centre (41:38)

prisma press release...

merzbow: live at henie onstad art centre cd masami akita’s merzbow project is the biggest name in noise music. few other artist enjoys the kind of respect within their fields as merzbow does within the noise scene. if talking about noise music there is simply no way getting around merzbow. since 1979 akita has worked relentlessly producing hundreds of records. he also has a long list of collaboraters: richard pinhas, sunn 0))), autechre, pan sonic, jim o’rourke, boris, gore beyond necropsy, smegma and many others. merzbow performed at the henie onstad art centre on october 11th 2009. this performance was for the exhibition ”kurt schwitters in norway”. since akita has sited kurt schwitters as one of his main influences for his music, and took his name from schwitters’ merzbau sculpture, it was a natural choice to have merzbow perform at the centre on the opening weekend of the exhibition. the complete 40 minute performance is presented on the ”live at henie onstad art centre” cd. musically this is classic merzbow; hypnotic loops, layers of white noise and massive sweeps of sonic overload. akita performed using two computers, synthesizer, custom-made metal objects and a host of effect pedals. the cd is mixed and mastered by lasse marhaug and the inner sleeve features a unique photo of masami akita inside schwitters’ merzbau. merzbow in merzbau. limited edition of 500 copies.

tanja orning “hommage à anna-eva bergman” compact disc

• hommage à anna-eva bergman (7:50)

prisma press release...

tanja orning: hommage à anna-eva bergman cd prisma records 709 releasedate 04.10.2010 in 2002 the performer and cello player, tanja orning, was asked by the director of the henie onstad art centre, karin hellandsjø, to play at the opening of an anna-eva bergman exhibition. tanja orning decided to compose a completely new piece inspired and dedicated to bergman’s art. the piece was entitled hommage à anna-eva bergman. in february 2009, the large retrospective exhibition surrealism, line and form – anna-eva bergman’s formative years 1949-52, opened at the henie onstad art centre. once again tanja performed and a couple of months later she was invited by the art centre to record the piece for the in-house label prisma records. on april the 13th tanja orning and sound technician thomas hukkelberg came together in the centre’s studiohall, to record the piece. tanja orning is a performer, improviser and composer. after studies in oslo, london, and indiana university, she held the position as a co-principal cellist in the stavanger symphony orchestra for 5 years until she left for oslo in order to realise a number of projects. she is currently playing with groups such as christian wallumrød ensemble, asamisimasa, dr.ox and polygon as well as her solo-project cellotronics which resulted in a cd in 2005. orning is currently undertaking research in contemporary performance practice at the norwegian academy of music. prisma records is proud to present this entrancing and lyrical composition on a single track cd release, pressed in a limited edition of only 300 copies.

ingar zach / andreas meland “music for tinguely” compact disc

• ingar zach - tinguely solo (17:57)
  
  
• andreas meland - the future as we remember it (18:21)

prisma press release...

ingar zach & andreas meland: music for tinguely cd available november 2009. ingar zach (b.1971) is one of norway`s leading percussionists and founder of the record label sofa. he has recorded for the ecm and rune grammofon labels together with his bands dans les arbres and huntsville and has released several solo and duo records. andreas meland is a norwegian sound artist and musician. he has recorded with the projects røyskatt, norwegian noize orchestra, düplo and forell plus several solo projects. he is also the founder of the experimental music festival safe as milk and the melektronikk record label. music for tinguely consists of two pieces commissioned for the jean tinguely exhibition - the future as we know it - presented at the henie onstad art centre in 2009. zach`s piece tinguely solo was created for the opening ceremony of the exhibiton on april 16th, 2009 by using a gran cassa, percussion, sruti box and drone commander mixed together with sounds from the meta sculpture by jean tinguely. andreas meland`s piece the future as we remember it was performed at the centre on april 19th as part of a concert day together with the bands in the country and golden serenades. all the source material for meland`s piece was recorded on site in the jean tinguely exhibition.

kåre kolberg “nova” compact disc

• nova (25:26)

prisma press release...

kåre kolberg: nova cd available november 2009. kåre kolberg (b.1936) is one of norway`s foremost contemporary composers and is regarded as one of the pioneers of early electronic music and cross-artistic art in scandinavia. he has composed music for film, theatre and chamber orchestras to jazz acts such as svein finnerud trio and jan garbarek. the electronic tape composition presented on this cd was composed for the multi-media work nova created together with the artist anders kjær, presented at the henie onstad art centre from the 2nd to the 22th august 1972. nova was one of norway`s first sound installations. it included a specially designed light show and music played from tape - blended together with a huge 13 x 19 meter installation consisting of glass, rubber tires and piles of paper that the audience could walk through. the composition made for this piece was found on a tape in the centre`s archives and prisma records is proud to release an hitherto unknown gem in norwegian early electronic music history.

stian skagen “the inward rising” compact disc

• the inward rising (17:30)

prisma press release...

stian skagen: the inward rising cd available january 2010. stian skagen (b.1980) aka (concept.virus) is one of scandinavia's most interesting sound artists. he has toured and recorded with names like årabrot, ryfylke and nernes / skagen and contributed to several exhibitions with his work. the inward rising by skagen and monica winther was presented at henie onstad art center from november 20th to december 14th 2008. stian says: the inward rising was composed to introduce as an acousmatic and phenomenological sonic sphere within the installation with the same name, where the observers relation to the sculpture and painting was stimulated and brought forward by a complex, detailed and seductive soundscape. this work follows up a series of projects where skagen works to create a greater consciousness around the human perception and understanding of space and time and the senses potential in the immediate environment. from bjørn hatterud's review of the installation for kunstkritikk: stian skagen and monica winther has created some of the most powerful i've experienced in an art museum ever. at the head of the room is a tableau with something that looks like a roughly carved huge stone in front of a fantastic painting, abstract, partly op-art, partly emo-conceptual, in neon and neatly composed stripes. the painting and the stone is exposed to changing light in different colors, which makes different parts of the painting light up, and disappear, so that different patterns supersede each other. and at the same time – what one hears all the way from one enters the door to the center - bathed the room in loud sound. the sound is murky and dark. i hear trees falling, the roar of waterfalls, creepy creatures, or the roaring emptiness of space. skagen, perhaps best known from the duo ryfylke, has also previously profiled himself as a creator of extreme soundscapes, bathed in black soil, pierced with ants and worms, rumbling and morbid. the sounds, along with the stone and the 60’s psychedelic forms on the canvas, gives me associations to 2001 a space odyssey, with the spacecraft that glides slowly through space, the experimental lightshow towards the end, and the stone falling from the sky. i do not know if this is intentional, but on top of it all, the work, as the film, the theme is time: according to a large drawing that hangs on the wall, the stone was used as the score for the soundscape.

lasse marhaug “ear era” compact disc

• ear era (1) (2:16)
  
• ear era (2) (1:05)
  
• ear era (3) (4:47)
  
• ear era (4) (2:03)
  
• ear era (5) (4:23)
  
• ear era (6) (1:24)
  
• ear era (7) (1:47)
  
• ear era (8) (2:32)
  
• ear era (9) (3:43)
  
• ear era (10) (2:05)
  
• ear era (11) (3:59)

prisma press release...

lasse marhaug: ear era cd - prisma records, norway - 2008 limited editon of 500 numbered copies. prisma records is the record label of the henie onstad art centre. on lasse marhaug's "ear era" in 2008 the henie onstad art centre invited musician and composer lasse marhaug to explore its audio archive. from the opening in 1968, henie onstad was intended as a cross-artistic arena, and soon became the leading arena in norway for experimental art in all genres. the archive contains over 800 tapes of recordings done in the centre's concert hall and in the norwegian studio for electronic music, which was located at the centre between 1975-1978. the music ranges from recordings by karlheinz stockhausen, jan garbarek, laurie anderson, mauricio kagel, webster lewis, terry riley, svein finnerud trio, heinz holliger, bjørn fongaard, steve reich, karin krog, soft machine, julie driscoll, jokke and arne nordheim. the idea was not for marhaug to make a 'remix' of this unique archive of music history, but to use the recordings as raw material for a new piece of music. therefor musical trainspotters trying to identify the original artists will have a hard time as marhaug has surgically sliced and diced the recordings to (mostly) unidentifiable fragments before constructing his own piece. the result of marhaug's explorations/exploitations is titled ear era. this is the cd version (500 numbered copies). the piece was also presented in three different concert-versions at the henie onstad art centre in the course of 2008.