Manafonistas

Wilco: Cruel Country (out)
The Smile:  A Light for Attracting Attention (out)
Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse: Toast (out)
Daniel Lanois: Piano (23. September)        
Lambchop: The Bible (30. September)    
Keith Jarrett:  Bordeaux (30. September)    
Brian Eno: Foreverandevernomore (14. Oktober)
Bill Callahan: YTI⅃AƎЯ (14. Oktober)

„Sometimes you forget the most basic things. The biggest things! And it just takes a little nudge to get your head back on track. I wanted sounds and words that made you feel and that lifted you up. But first there was a need to bond, to clear the air. Or to just acknowledge the air. So there is some of that on the record. I went for horns because horns are heralds, triumphs, second line funerals and just breath forced through a metal maze or amusement park slide. And I wanted voices, I wanted multiple voices, not just mine. There is too much of just mine right now. So there are 6 or 7 people singing on this record.

Listening to this record takes one hour. Ah hour sounds like a year to me these days. Taking an hour of someone’s life. I fault the internet. I fault ourselves for falling for the internet. An hour is actually lovely, nothing, a lifetime. You have to live that lifetime though in order to appreciate the hour. I’m not suggesting people must listen to this record all the way through in one sitting. It IS sequenced for that particular purpose, though, in case anyone wants to.“

 

– Bill Callahan 

Michael: Who wouldn‘t want to know how that has sounded, a performance with Sidsel Endresen and Jan Bang, painted probably „in real time“ by Henning, years and years back. To see the „Punkt family“ at work since 2006, is, honestly, one of the few family gatherings where you are not looking for the escape signs after quite a short while. They have kept their adventurous spirits high.

And what I do remember apart from all the musics of these searchers of the horizon, were the talks, small ones, extended ones, informed with love for music of now and music long gone. Jon Hassell  David Sylvian, Joni Mitchell in the 1970’s (my „pub talk“ with Sidsel about Joni’s three, four best albums), Brian Eno’s On Land (for Erik and Jan a irresistible masterpiece), the key experiences, the desert island discs … 

Now, my question for you, Henning: you will remember this special gig that made you go for such soft colouring. Just tell about your memories, and how it happened, opening up this slightly seducive „landscape“. That seems to be quite different to other „live music drawings“.

Henning: Diese Zeichnung ist entstanden bei einem Duo-Konzert Sidsel+Jan am 20.August 2017 beim Oslo Jazz Festival in Sentralen. Der Saal ist eine spezielle dunkle Höhle. Zeichnen ist da nicht ganz einfach. Dies ist eine  reine Buntstiftzeichnung, die strikt in Real Time* zum Konzert entstand. Es gibt noch drei andere Zeichnungen  zu selbigem Konzert. Es gibt auch ein Youtube-Fragment von diesem Konzert.

Music aims at ears. The ears are the basecamp for all things music can set in motion. Thoughts, sensations, emotions, dances, words, whatever. Henning Bolte‘s way is peculiar. Often when listening to a concert, with a collection of coloured penicils in place, and blank paper at hand, he starts with the first sounds – drawing lines, energetic repsonses, mood reflections, instant composing (visually). No post-production, except the artists‘s autographs.

So, after the duo Sidsel Endresen – David Toop had delivered their show (see Sidseliana (1)) – the live-remix team took center stage, and worked with snippets of sound, short motives, loops, of voice and sounds from duo before, extending its suggestions, making diversions, deepening the space, drifting, going somewhere else entirely, who knows? Henning listened, painted – it is a simple modus operandi, and often, in the end, so rewarding. I chose one with a calmer mood, there are lots of others, with deep colour fulfillments, elements of „action painting“, breathing spaces. Always good to stay at one drawing a bit longer.

It might not be so easy, to reflect on how the live remix of Bang, Honoré, Eilertsen, (who was the fourth one?), might have sounded like, but, looking at the picture, there are certain indications: a deep amount of quietness seems to be involved, an exploring of tiny things, a melodic touch to recurring textures. And Sidsel’s voice looming from hidden places!

– Michael Engelbrecht