Avanthagen: Sissel Vera Pettersen & Terje Isungset / Mette Rasmussen / Lemur
For many festival guests, Avanthagen on Saturday afternoon is the highlight of the Kongsberg Jazz Festival!
Kongsberg Jazzfestival has for many years presented a concert session in Smeltehytta with the label Avanthagen. As the name suggests, it is not exactly mainstream that is served here, but the music is nevertheless very attractive to an ever-growing audience. This year's program consists of three sequences, and each of them should excite even the most blasé festival-goer.
With the quartet Lemur we move into a poetic world where chamber music, contemporary music and collective improvisation meet. The result is often quietly intense and extremely lyrical, where wide soundscapes are balanced against single voices. Lemur is a real institution in both Norwegian and international music life.
The Danish, Trondheim resident, saxophonist Mette Rasmussen want to play solo. Her intense and temperamental playing has attracted justifiable attention. She has brought a chattering Øya audience to gaping silence, and she has carved a firm hold on jazz listeners of the most diverse tastes.
Sissel Vera Pettersen og Terje Isungset came out a few months ago with the record "Oase", their first documented duo collaboration. Drummer Isungset is known for using his drumsticks on much more than a traditional drum kit, such as ice and stone and wood. Sissel Vera Pettersen uses both voice, saxophone, flute and electronics. Together, they create a completely personal and particularly association-rich universe, full of contrasts. Here we get both mountain stream-fresh lyricism and powerful rumblings. The album is called "Oase", and it is indeed an apt name. And we can state that the whole of Avanthagen is an oasis!
Sissel Vera Pettersen (saxophone, flute, voice, electronics), Terje Isungset (drums, percussion, harmonica, French horn)
Mette Rasmussen (alto saxophone)
Lemur: Bjørn Habbestad (flute), Hild Sofie Tafjord (horn), Lene Grenager (cello), Michael Duch (bass)
