Lars Ove Stene Fossheim
ELECTRIC GUITAR VOL I.
Photo by Juliane Schütz
Electric guitar vol i. is Stene Fossheim’s debutalbum.
Release: 18 august 2023
“Is there a right or wrong way to perform experimental music? Like any other music there is the element of tradition: a way the score has been interpreted before, pieces composed with specific performers and/or their instruments in mind. We might even see, and perhaps rightly so, a time when experimental music will be treated the same way as certain classical styles and genres: That is, being performed authentically, or «the right way», on period instruments.
I can think of a few cases where this has already happened, and I’m not saying this is wrong, quite the contrary: we need the knowledge on where this music came from, how it sounded and also why it sounded the way it did. In fact, we’re quite lucky not only to have early recordings and documentation, but also many performers and composers involved in the early days of experimental music that are still around and very much actively involved in the contemporary experimental music scene today.
However, sometimes someone comes along and does things differently, and even dares to experiment with experimental music…
Personally, I think Sonic Youth’s “Goodbye 20th Century” is a great example of this, and I think that comparing their approach to the experimental music canon two decades ago, to the album you’re holding in your hands right now, isn’t too far off. I first met Lars Ove at a jazz college just north of Trondheim a decade ago, when he was aspiring to study at the Jazz Department at the University in Trondheim and being very curious about free improvisation and experimental music at the time.
Since then, he has been actively involved in Trondheim’s music scene in various jazz, rock and experimental music, and met and collaborated with Pauline Oliveros, Christian Wolff, Mats Gustafsson, Christina Kubisch, to name a few. I was lucky to be Lars Ove’s supervisor when he took his masters degree at NTNU 2019-20, and what you hear here on this album was the core of his project: it not only represents the work he did during these two years, but it is the same programme as his final exam concert.
What is refreshing to hear in the recording of these pieces is both the respect and knowledge about the music and its tradition, yet a willingness to experiment and perform them with the sounds and means of today, rather than just simply trying to recreate something that has been.”
Words by Michael Francis Duch
Musicians:
Lars Ove Stene Fossheim - guitar
PRODUCTION // OF 204
All music played by Lars Ove Stene Fossheim on electric guitar
Recorded and mixed in Øra Studio by Kyrre Laastad
Mastered in Øra Mastering by Karl Klaseie
Track list:
1. Pauline Oliveros - Horse Sings From Cloud (1975)
2. Arne Nordheim - Partita 2 for Electric Guitar (1969)
3. Bjørn Fongaard - Improvisasjoner for microintervallgitar (1968)
4. Morton Feldman - The Possibility of a New Work for Electric Guitar (1966)
5. Lene Grenager - Moving The Stones (2008)