All Ears Festival Friday

A feast of improvised music with groundbreaking performers, Norwegian and international.
Festsal

Photo: Evan Jenkins

Doors open 18:00
Event start 19:00

For three days in January we throw open MUNCH to the All Ears festival of improvised music. Tonight’s concert features four acts.

Jim White & Marisa Anderson 
VAKA 
Naoko Sakata 
TEIP Trio & Lene Grenager 

From the USA, Jim White and Marisa Anderson are a duo with experience across the fields of alternative rock, folk, blues and improvisation. White’s creative drumming has been heard with Dirty Three, Xylouris White, Cat Power, PJ Harvey and Bill Callahan. Anderson has released many albums as a solo performer.  
VAKA is an exciting new pan-European band bringing together four strong personalities. Their music is hypnotic and cathartic, with chaotic rhythms and vocals. 

Elvin Brandhi – vocals, field recordings, tapes, vinyls, instruments 
Daniel Blumberg – vocals, guitar 
Joel Grip – bass 
Antonin Gerbal – drums, percussion 
 
Naoko Sakata is recognized for her fearless and intuitive improvisation style on piano. ‘When I sit down in front of the piano,’ she says, ‘I disappear as a person. My body transmits the music I hear in my head. There are no obstacles to my creation, and I follow no rules for how the music should be expressed.’ In Sweden she has received multiple awards for her music, including the Swedish National Radio Jazz Prize and Alice Babs Jazz Award.

TEIP TRIO from Trondheim play organically with texture and melody, drifting in and out of different spaces. The unconventional lineup of two heavily processed electric guitars and a clarinet contributes to tension and distinctiveness in their sound, exploring different musical spaces between dissonance and harmony. Tonight’s improvisation is a collaboration with Lene Grenager – composer and cellist with SPUNK and LEMUR. 

Jens-Jonas Francis Roberts – clarinet 
Arne Bredesen – guitar 
Nicolas Leirtrø – baritone guitar 

For the past 20 years All Ears has presented the most cutting edge avant garde music from the international improv scene. For both performers and listeners, improvised music is the art of experiencing sound in the moment. 

All Ears Festival 2023 takes place at MUNCH 13-15 January.