nyMusikk Stavanger presents: BJÆRGSTEDFESTIVALEN 2024

BJÆRGSTEDFESTIVALEN is a one-day festival for experimental music where living legends share the stage with Stavanger's young contemporary music scene. After the success in 2023, nyMusikk once again occupies Loftet på Tou to offer the latest news from composers and performers associated with the Faculty of Performing Music in Bjergsted.

A wide range of expressions and genre experiments is covered by this year's program, which ranges from a free-tonal interpretation of Kielland to a minimalist synth trio via 60's chance music anno 2024.

The evening is topped off by an improvised set with two of Europe's most significant avant-garde artists; John Butcher and Xavier Charles.

Butcher and Charles are both known for their trio with trumpeter Axel Dörner in the project The Contest of Pleasures. This evening they perform as a woodwind duo where legendary UK saxophone improv meets French, virtuosic minimalism.
JOHN BUTCHER (saxophone) / XAVIER CHARLES (clarinet)
MOX
Torbjørn Säll, Jonas Sundal and Erlend Strand Rolfsen (synthesizers)
MATTEUS JOHANNESON ERIKSSON (Viola and vocals)
MARI KJØSNES SINGSTAD (piano) &
JOAKIM JAKOBSSON (drums)
Welcome!
TOU Attic
Doors 19:30
Concert start 20:00

More about the artists John Butcher (saxophone) / Xavier Charles (clarinet) John Butcher is one of the UK's leading improvisational musicians. The London-based artist is recognized and appreciated worldwide for his original compositions, his passion for experimentation and his well-honed improvisational skills.

Xavier Charles is a French clarinetist and an authority on European improvisational music. His work ranges from noise with The Ex, to electroacoustic conceptualism via sound poetry and minimalism, including in his collaboration with Christian Wallumrød, Ingar Zach and Ivar Grydeland in Dans les Arbres.

MOX (synthesizer trio)
MOX is an experimental synth trio consisting of Torbjørn Säll, Jonas Sundal and Erlend Strand Rolfsen. With a minimalist approach, the trio explores droning passages, subtle melodic developments and frenetic breaks in the flowing surroundings.

Matteus Johannesson Eriksson (bass-baritone and viola)
Matteus grew up on the Swedish west coast with two parents who had both been at sea at different periods of their lives. That was perhaps precisely why he was moved when he read Alexander Kielland's novel Garman og Worse (1880). The fact that Kielland puts his finger so sharply on what it means to be a coastal person - to live with "eyes turned towards the sea" - captivated him, and he decided to turn the book into music. The result has been the self-composed work "Coast Cantate" for bass baritone and viola, performed by himself. The tonal language of the music is free-tonal, and is based on both folk and art musical expressions.

Mari Kjøsnes Singstad (piano) & Joakim Jakobsson (drums)
In this duo, Norwegian Mari and Swedish Joakim explore principles of chance within a freely improvised musical landscape.
With a nod to 60s modernism, the musicians pull instructions out of a hat and allow themselves to be spontaneously led in unexpected directions.