BJÆRGSTED FESTIVAL is a one-day festival for experimental music where living legends share the stage with Stavanger's young contemporary music scene.
Following the success in 2023, nyMusikk once again takes over Loftet at Tou, offering the latest from composers and performers affiliated with the Faculty of Performing Arts in Bjergsted. This year’s programme spans a wide range of expressions and genre experiments, from atonal interpretations of Kielland to minimalist synth trios and 1960s chance music in 2024 form. The evening concludes with an improvised set featuring two of Europe's most significant avant-gardists: John Butcher and Xavier Charles.
Butcher and Charles are both known for their trio with trumpeter Axel Dörner in the project The Contest of Pleasures. This evening, they appear as a woodwind duo, showcasing legendary UK saxophone improvisation alongside French, virtuosic minimalism.
JOHN BUTCHER (saxophone) / XAVIER CHARLES (clarinet)
MOX Torbjørn Säll, Jonas Sundal, and Erlend Strand Rolfsen (synthesisers)
MATTEUS JOHANNESSON ERIKSSON (viola and vocals)
MARI KJØSNES SINGSTAD (piano) & JOAKIM JAKOBSSON (drums)
Welcome!
TOU Loftet Doors open at 19:30 Concert starts at 20:00
More about the artists
John Butcher (saxophone) / Xavier Charles (clarinet)
John Butcher is one of the UK’s leading improvisational musicians. The London-based artist is internationally recognised for his original compositions, passion for experimentation, and finely honed improvisational skills. Xavier Charles is a French clarinettist and an authority in European improvisational music. His work ranges from noise with The Ex to electroacoustic conceptualism, including sound poetry and minimalism, as seen in his collaboration with Christian Wallumrød, Ingar Zach, and Ivar Grydeland in Dans les Arbres.
MOX (synth trio)
MOX is an experimental synth trio consisting of Torbjørn Säll, Jonas Sundal, and Erlend Strand Rolfsen. The trio explores droning passages, subtle melodic developments, and frenzied breaks in streaming soundscapes through a minimalist approach.
Matteus Johannesson Eriksson (bass baritone and viola)
Matteus grew up on Sweden’s west coast with parents who had both been at sea at different times in their lives. Perhaps that’s why he was moved when he read Alexander Kielland’s novel Garman and Worse (1880). Kielland’s sharp depiction of what it means to be a coastal person – living with "eyes turned to the sea" – captivated him, inspiring him to turn the book into music. The result is his original piece, “Coastal Cantata”, for bass baritone and viola, performed by himself. The music’s tonal language is atonal and rooted in both folk and art music traditions.
Mari Kjøsnes Singstad (piano) & Joakim Jakobsson (drums)
In this duo, Norwegian Mari and Swedish Joakim explore principles of chance within a free improvised musical landscape. With a nod to 1960s modernism, the musicians draw instructions from a hat and let themselves be spontaneously guided in unexpected directions.