various artists: Le Jazz Non
CD - Smalltown Supersound, Norway - 2000

Track:
Lasse Marhaug: Light Silence
DEL: Sunset Cover
Jazzkammer: President of Improv Shipping Company

Liner notes:

Le Jazz Non: It's The Norwegian Thing.
Three years ago if you'd asked me which nation was the likely to be the next to produce a crop of world class noise artists, I'd have ranked Norway down near Peru. Which just goes to show how little my prognostications are to be trusted. When Kjetil Brandsdal sent me his second solo LP out of the blue, I really debated whether or not I'd be listening to it all the way through. In fact I listened to it twice without pausing for breath, so surprising was it's impact. I was much less surprised by the next great Norwegian record I received, because my own experience working in a peripheral area of global culture has always been that talent seldom blooms in isolation. In fact quite the opposite, one good thing produces more of the same, either in a spirit of supportive collaboration, or competitive emulation. Even so, the depth of talent present in that other small mountainous country bordering one of the world's major ocean masses still surprises me. In fact I rapidly formed the opinion that without any direct influence, 'fringe' sound artists in both New Zealand and Norway had come to occupy uncannily similar positions within the full spectrum of 'outside music' experimentation. While both nations have produced 'harsh noise' artists the classic Japanese style, overall both tend towards the quieter, more melancholy and 'cool' (as in glacial) side of the tracks. Norwegian noise artists are more likely to unsettle the listener with almost-listenable improvisations that teeter constantly on the edge of ugliness, rather than bludgeon you with an all-out assault on your hearing. This is what appeals to me about the work being produced in my own country as well, as evidenced by the original NZ edition of Le Jazz Non, which I curated in 1996. In fact, when I first heard a cassette compilation showing more of the breadth and depth of work being produced in Norway (it was put out by the Gold Soundz magazine), I remember thinking, 'I would have released every track on this myself' - with (let me assure you) a complete sense of wonderment. The mere fact that I found myself listening to that most worthless of artifacts, a fanzine cassette compilation, suggested that the Norwegian scene was at a stage where the available talent far outstripped the available infrastructure to make it heard. That situation has changed quite a bit over the last three years, as more and more outside attention is turned to what is happening of the far northeast Atlantic littoral. Hence this compilation. When the idea of a 'reply' to Le Jazz Non was mooted to me, I was immediately keen. Coming from almost anywhere else on the globe, this idea might seem pointless, but I felt that in the light of the accidents of synchronicity that link these two small and peripheral nations, it made perfect sense. And hearing the final selections it still does. By further coincidence, last month a major news story in New Zealand concerned the purchase of this country's largest woodpulp and paper manufacturing concern by a Norwegian conglomerate. In the globalised economy pine trees are pine trees the world over, all equally ripe for exploitation by the unfettered forces of global capital. So also are sonic events, but in a nice inversion of the usual imperatives of globalisation, I'm delighted to say that the Hermetic Corporation is not colonising Norwegian music. Rather we are working in partnership with the indigenous people of Norway, empowering them to advance their own culture on their own terms. Altogether a more caring, sharing and globally sustainable strategy. And so, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, here it is...

Bruce Russell, Lyttelton, New Zealand,Easter 2000