The CD release of Uncommon Deities isn’t a document of the installation, but a reinvention: the poems and Sylvian’s readings are placed in new settings by Jan Bang and Erik Honoré.
The cofounders of the Punkt festival and close collaborators on the original installation, Bang and Honoré draw on new performances by the deeply sympathetic trumpeter Arve Henriksen and the startling, elemental singer Sidsel Endresen. These improvisations join live material captured at last year’s Punkt events, in a production that’s spacious and atmospheric, somber and escapist, light-hearted and steeped in history – a recording as rich as the ancestry of the work that inspired it.
More info on the project from www.davidsylvian.net
Jan Bang
Musician, producer from Kristiansand, Norway. Main instruments: Live sampling, programming. Permanent member of Nils Petter Molvær’s band, Arve Henriksen trio, duo project with Sidsel Endresen. Has played with a range of improvisational artists including Jan Garbarek, Bugge Wesseltoft, Audun Kleive. Bang has won four Norwegian Grammys as producer. www.kalleklev.no/
Sidsel Endresen
Sidsel has fronted a number of her own groups and worked with a large number of Norwegian and international jazz musicians. She has worked within a wide range of musical genres, including contemporary music, multimedia performances, – soloed with choir and symphonic music, – collaborated with other Norwegian poets and worked extensively with the voice as solo instrument. www.kalleklev.no/artists/
Erik Honoré,
born 1966, is a musician, producer and author from Kristiansand, Norway. Much of this work has been in collaboration with long time musical partner Jan Bang. Erik has composed music for theatre, including the Norwegian National Theatre, and film. He has written three novels published by Gyldendal, Norway’s largest publishing house. Honoré is also co-artistic director of the Punkt Festival in Kristiansand, voted «Most innovative festival of the year» by the BBC Music Magazine. Previous artists at the festival include Brian Eno, John Paul Jones, Fennesz, Jon Hassell, and the elite of Norwegian electronic/modern jazz artists. More info.
ARR: Dokkhuset Scene
