Starting at the beginning of 2010, Kitchen Orchestra began working with legendaryGerman free jazz pianist/composer/band leader Alexander von Schlippenbach. From The Globe Unity Orchestra in 1966, to his trio with Evan Parker and Paul Lovens, Schlippenbach can well be called one of the biggest free jazz band leaders in improvisational music. His music mixes free and contemporary classical elements often using slashing solos as the link between the two elements in his compositions. In the context of Kitchen Orchestra this translates into an explosion of color and sound.

They debuted under Maijazz 2010 in Stavanger, Norway to much enthusiasm. Author Stuart Nicholson wrote – “Alex von Schlippenbach’s reputation as a giant of the European impov scene is long since secure, yet his collaboration with the Norwegian Kitchen Orchestra, most of whom are young enough to be his grandchildren, seems set to take it to another level. Seldom has his music been realised with such energy, love and passion. He’s even been known to permit himself a slight smile of pleasure during performances with the band and it’s moments like that you just know he’s having the time of his life.” Kitchen Orchestra will be taking this project on the road throughout Norway and Europe in 2011.

The record will be released 2013.

Players:

Alex von Schlippenbach – Piano
Stine Janvin Motland – Voice
Didrik Ingvaldsen/ Gunhild Seim – Trumpet
Petter Frost Fadnes, Glenn Brun Henriksen, Arild Hoem – Saxophone
Dominique Brackeva, Gaute Vikdal – Trombone
Johan Egdetveit – Accordian
Dag Egil Njaa – Electronics, Trombone
Vidar Schanche – Guitar
Øyvind Dale- Rhodes
John Lilja – Double Bass
Dag Magnus Narvesen/Ståle Birkeland – Drums, Percussion

As an annual undertaking, Kitchen Orchestra present a weekend of “Kitchen insight” during an event called What’s Cooking in late October/early November. The main goal and philosophy behind this event is to present the musicians within the orchestra in a new and challenging way to reveal and discover qualities that are not explored or expected when Kitchen Orchestra performs as a large ensemble. Given the fact that the musicians involved in the orchestra are amongst the finest improvisers in the region, it makes sense to create a forum where the public can encounter their innermost qualities and musicianship. Staying true to their core philosophy one or two external musicians usually gets invited to collaborate where the goal is to push the musical boundaries of the orchestra even further, to discover new ground.

2008: Evan Parker (British free music icon)
2009: Franz Hautzinger (Austrian free improvisation trumpeter) and Per Zanussi (Norwegian jazz musician and composer)
2010: Øyvind Torvund (Norwegian composer of contemporary music)
2011: Solo concert theme with musicians from the orchestra
2012: TBA

This year’s What’s Cooking will be at Tou Scene, Stavanger October 27th, 28th.

This was originally performed in Stavanger, Norway under Maijazz Festival 05/12/2011 and was documented as a video blog by Andrew Dubber from Rhythm Changes.  http://kitchenorchestra.tumblr.com

”Pulse” is a multimedia production based on a commissioned musical composition by John Lilja and Dag Egil Njaa, in collaboration with Japanese visual artists Tetsuya Nagato and Hiraku Suzuki.  The work consists of artistic structures rooted in the concept of pulse: pulse in which sounds smallest building blocks, in rhythm, in movement, in personal interaction, in biology, in everything where improvisation between musicians and artists have room to mutually reciprocate the pieces’ development.

Tetsuya Nagato is an award-winning artist, artistic leader and graphic designer who does, among other things, digital photo collages as well as more traditional collage and illustration. Hiraku Suzuki is a prolific artist and graphic designer who works with art installations and live painting. Through drawing, painting and collage, they both improvise their own visual compositions in conversation with Kitchen Orchestra’s musical performance while being filmed and projected against the wall behind the orchestra.

15 – 19 May, 2012 Superdeluxe, Tokyo.

For the residence in Tokyo spanning over five nights, the program will expand to include a variety of ensemble sizes and musical approaches to the improvisational conversation between the ensemble and the visual artist. These smaller ensembles will be combined with local Japanese improv musicians.

Players:

John Lilja – electric bass/ composer
Dag Egil Njaa – electronic/ composer
Didrik Ingvaldsen – trumpet/ electronic
Gunhild Seim – trumpet/ electronic
Petter Frost Fadnes – saxsaphone/ electronic
Dominique Brackeva – trombone
Thomas Bang – electric bass
Nils Henrik Asheim – hammond b3
Ståle Birkeland – percussion/ electronic
Dag Magnus Narvesen – percussion
Tetsuya Nagato – multimedia art
Hiraku Suzuki – multimedia art

Christmas with Kitchen is a yearly tradition that bangs in the holiday season with the perfect blend of human holiday emotion of nostalgia, melancholia, and humour. Its like arriving home to the good ‘ol family holiday reunion with all of the odd, imperfect but loveable qualities that make christmas the magically memorable event that one anticipates. Recent collaborators have been Pål Jackman, Eva Bjerga Haugen, Rønnaug Bakke, and Tore Meberg. These concerts are always sold out, and an event always looked forward to by the orchestra.

Starting in 2010 Kitchen Orchestra started collaborating with label CCAP in releasing vinyl christmas singles with Stavanger artists, starting the tradition with Pål Jackman and his song “Jul (i sin helhet) på Jæren” (Christmas (In All Its Glory) In Jæren). In 2011 Kitchen invited Kaizers Orchestra frontman Janove Ottesen, featuring his song “Pumper Julen Rett Inn” (Pumping Christmas Right In) referring to the featured pump organ. Both singles were sold out within a week of its release.

Below is the link to the 2011 christmas single still available for sale as downloads.
http://kitchenorchestra.bandcamp.com/

For many years Stavanger, Norway has produced some of Norway’s most profiled improvisational musicians. 22 of these professional players, ranging from local jazz musicians to the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, have come together under the name Kitchen Orchestra as a musical collective exploring the improvisational relationship between the individual and the ensemble in the context of modern and jazz music.

It is a rotating body of musicians with no one leader, but the corporate collective force of creativity combined with an invited external composer/bandleader to direct them into unrestrained and unpredicted musical territories. This results in a wide range of musical ventures and collaborations which can be explored on this website. Past collaborators include Alexander von Schlippenbach, Øyvind Torvund, Inbal Pinto, Evan Parker, Keith Tippet, Trevor Wishart, Reidar Larsen, Svein Tang Wa, Steve Beresford, Dave Kane, and Lotte Anker.

Kitchen Orchestra is diverse, flexible and always on the look out for interesting collaborations. If you are interested in collaborating with Kitchen Orchestra and/ or interested in hosting a workshop, or booking one of the following projects please click here:

booking/ workshops/ collaborations please click here:
Producer: Ashley Stubbert email:  astubbert@gmail.com

To stay up to date with our recent news please join our mailing list here:

2012 Concert Calendar:

May 15-19 PULSE at Super Deluxe, Tokyo, Japan

September 14, Concert House Opening, Stavanger, Norway

October 27-28, What’s Cooking Festival, Tou Scene, Stavanger, Norway

December 15, Christmas Concert, Tou Scene, Stavanger, Norway

Kitchen is Sponsored by: Stavanger Kommune, Norsk Kulturråd, FFUK, Utenriksdepartemetet, Fond For Lyd Og Bilde, EU-Japan Fest

Stay Tuned!! May 11th Kitchen will be announcing a big project for 2012!

A meeting between the Baroque grooves and contemporary improvisation

In this project, Stavanger Baroque and Kitchen Orchestra join forces to reveal new potential in three-hundred year old music – and simply have a lot of fun.

Six skilled Baroque specialists of varied international background are seated on the left side of stage – on the right side, six improvising musicians from Stavanger, with rock, jazz and classical background, from the adventurous musical collective Kitchen Orchestra. In the middle, a percussion player bridging the two styles.

The instrumentation is set up to correspond by pairs – and the innovative and very personal vocal style of Stine Janvin Motland is the strange mirror image of the beautiful soprano of Elin Aase.

What are they playing with? Italian stuff: ciacconas, passacaglias, follias and other music based on repeated, rhytmical bass patterns. Inspired by how they did it in the Baroque time, when you could add what was available of musicians and improvise with ease and nonchalance.

Philosophically, the bass pattern were a symbol of the infinite universe. Actually in this project we could say they represent timelessness, because the bass patterns siply groove and swing – and they easily lend to improvisation that cross the borders of time.

It is important for composer Nils Henrik Asheim, who also conducts the project, to be honest towards the musical traditions. So the starting point is to let the Baroque musicians to what they do best, and the contemporary musicians play a counterpart to their music instead of messing with it.

But inevitably, things happen as the two cultures clash. Raw, burlesque scenes, open fights, queer reminescenses of tango, dixieland or marches may occur without warning. And lots of melancholic beauty with an edge, where classical harmony is extended with intriguing modern soundscapes – as if Baroque paintings were rendered with the means of modern video techniques.

—

Info
Premiered under Stavanger International Chamber Music festival august 2011.
Duration: 2x 35 minutes, adaptable.

Players:
Stavanger Barokk: Elin Aase – Soprano, Doron Sherwin – Zinke, Gjertrud Økland – Violin, Hans Knut Sveen – Cembalo, Ulrik Gaston Larsen – Theorbe, Rodney Prada – Viola da Gamba.
Percussion: Marius Munthe-Kaas

Kitchen Orchestra:
Stine Motland – Voice, Petter Fadnes – Saxophone, Vidar Schanche – Electric Guitar, Didrik Ingvaldsen – Trumpet, Johan Egdetveit – Accordian, John Lilja – Double Bass
Leader: Nils Henrik Asheim

As a measure to bring different musical flavours to the orchestra, and to develop and secure individual and collective growth, Kitchen Orchestra arranges internal workshops almost every month of the year. Using internal leaders to benefit from the musical diversity found in the orchestra, each workshop has a special theme which is presented to the participants by the leader in question. This ensures that the music played in each workshop has an individual approach from both the composer and the musicians.

This practice, combined with the vast pedagogical experience and ability of each musician, enables Kitchen Orchestra to offer workshops to schools, marching bands, big bands, and orchestras etc.The orchestra works in a musical field where improvisation, contemporary music and general collective awareness are important factors. These, combined with the ability to listen to music in different ways, are some of the key aspects of the workshop practice and endorse a holistic sense of music to all workshop participants.

These workshops can be combined with a concert. Kitchen Orchestra values the importance of educating the public in the unique world of improv and would be happy to host a workshop in addition to a concert booking.

Over the last seven years Kitchen Orchestra as an entity and as individuals has collaborated with countless national and international artists worldwide. Below are links to many of these collaborators and their various projects along with promoters and venues that support contemporary free jazz/ free improv music.

Artists

Alexander von Schlippenbach, Hiraku Suzuki, Tetsuya Nagato, Evan Parker, Keith Tippett, Øyvind Torvund, Trevor Wishart, Reidar Larsen, Svein Tang Wa, Dave Kane, Per Zanussi, Lotte Anker, Anthony Pateras

Promoters

Test Tone, Super Deluxe, Tou Scene, Stavanger Jazzforum, International Chamber Music Festival, Stavanger Konserthuset,

Research

Rhythm Changes, HERA Musical Hybridity