Summing up my 2009, Great music I heard, Nice places I went and a few upcoming things.. Thanks for following! Year started off going to Switzerland and beautiful Lugano, (trying :) ) to be a mentor for young Swiss musicians. Was not really aware of the three different Swiss parts (German, French and Italian) suffering from a lack...

2009

... of communication. Thats why the name "Swiss Diagonale mentoring project". Anyway had a great stay working with talented and supernice people. Elina Duni - vocals, Zeno Gabaglio - Electric Cello, Urs Vögeli- Guitars Arno Troxler - Drums and Cyril Moulas - Bass. Elina just released a new cd last year. Check it out!

Following up quickly was a Scandinavian Vinterjazz Tour performing in Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm and Åland. 2009 would be the year my solo grandpiano and laptop project really took off. Did quite a few concerts and got some real good feedback on the concept. Thank you! Feel more confident every time I enter the stage solo. Also hooked up with the great young Finnish/Swedish Trio Elifantree (Vocals, Saxophone and Drums) in Åland. Great combination of amazing skills and originality. Hope to catch up  their debut album this year.

Leaving Åland, I went on to another Island. Lovely Reunion. A french Island outside Mozambique, close to Mauritius (strange right?:). Stories tell that french prisoners were left on the island to die, but as ships returned a few years later everyone was  alive and happy. Fresh water, coconuts, turtles, birds and no dangerous animals ... Supernice place and cool people, and an active volcano included! A energic cultural place La Sechoir building up dance, cinema, festivals and supporting the local music scene. I want to go back!! Please :)

Returning to Oslo (10 hour flight..changing from +34 to -15 Celsius...) we started recording both Knut Reiersrud (one of my absolute favourite guitar players - Deeply personal and mixing all kinds of sounds and styles into his own blues influenced universe. Just amazing!), and a "Mothers sing for their children" album featuring some of the finest norwegian vocalists there are. Silje Nergaard, Beate Lech, Kari Bremnes, Solveig Slettahjell, Live Maria Roggen and Torun Eriksen. Beautiful music, even without being a child anymore :) ("Childish" is a good description, though. Haha). Both albums ended up superb I think. Gitar and Gonatt.

We presented our first Jazzland Sessions at  Babylon, a lovely Cinema and Concert venue (included a dedicated record store, one of those important meeting places for music, unfortunately disappearing all over the world), in Berlin (one of my 3 favourite cities, alongside Beijing and Istanbul). Beady Belle introduced their great album Belvedere to an excited german audience. I had the pleasure of kicking off  a collaborative duo project with the great electronic laptop artist Henrik Schwarz. Like always it makes an old soul like me so happy to meet people like Henrik. So dedicated, skilled and tasteful. We have done some shows this year, including Montreux Jazzfestival and Ronny Scott´s 50 years aniversary (check a brand new videoclip here), and we're currently working on an album together. Laptop and Piano. The ultimate combination! :)

Easter arrived with the annual mountain skiing trip to the incomparable Hardangervidda. Few spots beat this marvellous area. The largest high plateau in Europe. This year I went with my close friend Nils Petter Molvær, a pleasure as always. Spent one night at Finse Hotel 1222. Do not hesitate, book now ... great food! Ski-sail course! Great, and a real mountain vibe! An experience for life. (I'm not paid any commission for saying this ... Haha :) )

Went to Istanbul for a weekend right after Easter. Such a pleasure every time! The wonderful city! The supernice people and the amazing vibe ... Istanbul is and will forever be the centre of the world, where east and west meets ... Saw Haga Sofia and the Topkapi Palace probably for the 5th or 6th time. Never get tired of it ... Imagining Istanbul people sipping tea and playing boardgames at cafés while us Norwegians still crawled around in caves ... hehe ... Visited the finest music store there is. Lale Plak and got recommendations from the owner Hakan as always. Met good friends and did a great gig with Yakuza, and his friends Bora Uzer (amazing young singer and multi instrumentalist), Alp on Bass and Richard on saxophone. Also saw some great new art. Istanbul taking over for Berlin in a few years as the most vibrant city for art and culture I'm sure! So much talent. So much energy! So much history and deep roots.

One of last year's highlights came in early May, visiting Beirut and Damascus. Such great places, such great people, so much good music, so much good food. Having read about the Byzantine era, center of the world 2000 years ago, you can feel these deep cultural roots beeing there. Despite current dispair and difficulties, this area will once again be the natural center for human understanding and high culture, I'm sure! Most importantly, I learned that people do live and want to live together in peace in all parts of the world, regardless of differences in culture and background! There is simply no "axis of evil" and music is one of the most important tools in communicating beyond language and other differences. Visit Damascus and the old city. 3500 year old and without doubt belonging to an area where the crib of our civilization once stood. Discovered such amazing, strong and talented music! Khaled Yassine - Lebanese percussionist, hope to perform together soon! Syrian Hewar , Kinan ,  Twais and Lena Chamamya. Egypt's 100copies and the coordinator of it all Incognito music . + much much more! Do hope to be able to offer this music at Gube 2010! Working on it..

Another nice experience was visiting and performing at Ljubljana JazzFestival late june. Really cosy city, reminding me somehow of Norway. Also such friendly people and peaceful vibe. In general I find people from the former eastern part of Europe seem more ambitious, forwardlooking, receptive and energetic than most of us lazy people from the west ... As we perhaps have passed our top of the crop living and seem to look more backwards, Asians, Africans and Eastern Europeans have their life ahead of them and are looking forward. All fine I think! Is there anything more boring than laziness ..?

Going directly to Casablanca following Ljublana was my other highlight visit last year. Again.. Such Talent, energy and ambitions waiting to be unfolded and discovered! One of Morocco's problems is that there are no music businesses there. Really! Hoping to be able to release some of all the amazing music being created there at the moment in a melting pot of traditions, modernity and culture. COOOL! Had the pleasure of inviting some of these talented artists to Oslo for the Oslo World Music Festival early November. Flow-man to great young rappers. With styyyle..! :).  Younes - Great young singer/songwriter mixing desertmusic and folk, and SOULTANA - Perhaps the most important arabic female rapper today. Supergirl!

SUMMER.... Almost fully time off work, except quick visits to Molde Jazzfestival and Montreux Jazzfestival, Watching the sea in Arendal, Norway.

Fall ... starting off with  recording the Japanese singer Akiko. Great experience, ending up as a duo collaboration. Going to Japan in January, doing 6 concerts together. Will hopefully add her album, Words, to Gube soon. Went for a quick tour down to Kristiansand and Punktfestival. One of the more unique festivalconcepts there is. Small, dedicated and with a LiveRemix idea. One concert followed by a live remix. Small yes, but artist list is definitely impressive. Brian Eno is among artists who have been part of this festival.

Yet another highlight of the year came with our hike in to Rondane. Another stunning area of Norways highland. Completely untouched. It makes you feel small, which is good sometimes, I think. Went with my friends Sven (Atomique Soul) and Tore Brunborg. Great great trip! Weather was beautiful and we even had a bath in a small mountain lake, +9 celsius I believe ...

Began October with a quick trip to Band-On-The-Wall. Totally restored legendary club in Manchester. Performed a doublegig with Cinematic Orchestra guitarist Stuart McAllum's new band ( a clip from the performance here). Great music. Will add it onto Gube later this week. Went on to Lyon to hook up with the Nuits Sonore festival. Did another double gig with one of my favourite electronic bands at the moment, Aufgang. 2 classical pianoplayers, Francesco Tristano and Rami Khalifé + live electronics. Sounding great! And out on the superb record label Infiné-music. Hoping to add that into Gube soon! Also performed a concert at the baroque music festival Festival d´Ambronnay together with Rone and bandoneonplayer William Sabatier. (liveclip found here..). Great! Hoping to do it again!

More touring ... Performed in Hammerfest and Kirkenes for the first time in 20 years..(getting old ... ouch :) ). Was cool! Incredible nature, raw, harsh and stunning all in one ... We drove from Kirkenes to Murmansk (Russia) Doing a festival there. Scary ride passing cities like Nikel and City no.22 . All totally deserted and polluted. How can people live and work under such conditions? Unbelievable ... Murmansk was surprisingly picturesque, though, built by the Tsar with green parks and some historical buildings. Russians are great people. Again ... so many talented and ambitious young people. Love that! Toured also in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. visited the great venues Cinema Paradiso in St. Pölten and Treibhaus , impressingly active concert venue! In stunning Insbruck. Was finally able to hook up with Swiss pianoplayer, bandleader and labelowner  Nik Bartsch. and his Ronin ensemble. As they perform live EVERY Monday in Zurich I joined on one of them. Supergreat experience. Nik is really putting Swiss jazz on the map at the moment with his cycle-oriented groovemusic. Check it out! Ronin Rhythm Records.

Did my first Solopiano Christmas tour in December. Have been and still am doubtful about it ... Not particulary fond of Christmas, too much moneyspending and hysterical happiness. Anyway I am proud of my Christmas album release on Act Music back in 1997. Probably the music I have done so far liked by most people. Which is fine! I like to make music that fits a purpose ... This music is all about a peaceful relaxation away from the christmas hysteria. yaya ... :)

 

Future:

Been working hard to fulfill my ideas with Gubemusic. We are getting closer in our attempt to become an important community for quality music and quality sound and ... a quality audience!! The dedicated listeners we meet traveling around means everything to us. Without you, music would feel meaningless. Simply because music is a meeting and a conversation between performer and listener. The energy created at concerts is a result of this communication. Both parts are equally important. Never forget that! Gubemusic is building the catalog as we speak and we will start offering even higher soundquality than today. We are already at full cd quality and starting to offer HDsound in February. 24bit 96 khz sound and probably also Surround sound. It sounds really really good!! Much better than even a great vinylpressing. And we want to go the opposite way to others offering millions of songs in a low format - We want great music in great sound quality.

Enough bragging :)

Off for a tour to Japan in January doing 4 shows with the before-mentioned Akiko. Looking forward to that! Going to London in February with Henrik Schwarz for workshop and concert (Red Bull Academy). A tour and a new recording with legend Mike Mainieri in March. A new soloalbum, a duo album with Henrik, A project with the great bassplayer Shri. All coming up this year. And hopefully and probably much more ... Just can't think of anymore at the moment.

Summing up

Reflecting upon my traveling around I see a couple of things clearly! Wherever I go - Syria, Libanon, Morocco, East Europe - I see so much energy and so many hard working people. This will explode into a new era of business and art, I'm sure!

Another and more important aspect for me is noticing how equal we all are. Despite cultural differences we all want the same basic things and all people I get to know during my travels live exactly the same lives doing and thinking the same things. World is really becoming globalized. I like that! To live in peace, safety for children and family, possibilities for a better life, and of course to love and be loved are the main aspects and dream for every human. Never let religious, color or cultural differences overshadow these elements. Powerful sources are unfortunately trying do divide us using these differences, giving them control and therefore power. We are above all equally worth human beings. Not catholics, protestants, muslims, hindus, white or black. There are differences, but these are about rich and poor, possibillities, living conditions and education. It is obvious to me that some benefit from keeping people down and under control. War, hate, discrimination - all help corrupted governments, filthy rich people, large multinational corporations and others to remain on top. How can we fight this?

Let's live by respect and love for eachother and our planet regardless of sex, religion, culture or color. Setting these elements as basic laws for human interactions there will be no wars, nor killings. Its naive and simple I know. But it is true!

We have to create an alternative movement based only on love and respect with all its implications. Where we can join in regardless of background. Where we will not be affected by those telling us what to do and not to do. We are many across the world! We are all the same! We are One!

 

 

Bugge, January 2010