microtub

Robin Hayward – microtonal F-tuba

Martin Taxt – microtonal C-tuba

Peder Simonsen – microtonal C-tuba

Consisting of three fully microtonal tubas, Microtub explores group tuba music from the perspective of microtonality. Colour-coded sculptural scores are used to define areas of harmonic space in Just Intonation, presenting geometric structures to be explored by the players over time.

Microtub have presented their music at various festivals such as Maerzmusik, Wien Modern, Sonic Acts in Amsterdam, Ultima Festival in Oslo, Festival Densites in France and FIMAV in Canada. They have also been touring Germany and Japan. Recently they have also premiered works by the composers Catherine Lamb and Ellen Arkbro 

They have released five albums since 2011. Check out their music here!

GENIUS LOCI

Artists: Martin Taxt (b.1981) and Eirik Blekesaune (b.1980)

Genius Loci is a multimedia diorama consisting of birch veneer, plexiglass, mirrors, lighting components, and speakers. The diorama is an abstract representation of Taxt's childhood home in Honningsvåg in the 1990s, which is now condemned/uninhabited. The work consists of a 15-minute sound collage with the cruise ship Hurtigruten and the local school band Honningsvåg Skolekorps as main performers. In September 2021, Taxt and Blekesaune visited Honningsvåg for the first time in 30 and 20 years respectively, and fragments of the conversation that the artists had on their way through the city are also part of the collage.

The first showing of this work was at Lydgalleriet in Bergen in November 2022 as part of Ny Musikk Komponistgruppe’s group exhibition Territories.

NakaMURA/TAxt

Toshimaru Nakamura is a pioneer on his instrument no-input mixing board. Releasing nearly hundred albums since the mid 90’s, including 9 solo albums. However, in this project with Martin Taxt he appears with a new approach to his instrument. Taxt has connected his microtonal tuba to Nakamura’s mixer through a microphone, and thus interrupts his analog signal. This creates a raw, brutal and surprising character to the music. Since releasing the album "Pan on Fire" on Monotype Records in October 2015, they've played shows in Germany, Switzerland, Norway and Japan. 

Their second album 'Listening to the footsteps of living ones who are still on the ground'  was released on FTARRI in April 2017. Recorded during their Japan tour in April 2016. 

VERDENSTEATRET

VERDENSTEATRET are artists from different art-fields who work together and make live-art and other art-related projects. They endeavour to use a collaborative process to deeply integrate different artistic disciplines into projects that bridge the gap between artistic boarders.Characteristic for their work is that they are building exquisite links between seemingly incompatible technologies and materials. The experimental use of audiovisual technology in a close dialogue with more traditional and historic tools of artistic expression results in complex orchestral works or space-related musical compositions.
 

Seeing the sound, listening to the images.

Today Verdensteatret is one of the most innovative companies in Norway. Their works are presented widely international in different art contexts and locations, such as art galleries, contemporary music festivals and theatres. They have developed a unique and complex audiovisual style, where sound spaces mingle with sculptural scenography and stories of the fragile human soul.

They say that their activity now has become a ”telling orchestra” that performs compositions in the “movable room genre”. Established notions of form or style about “performance” are more or less useless for these peculiarly captivating works of art.

Verdensteatret is supported by Arts Council Norway and other official art-foundations in Norway. 

Muddersten

Håvard Volden - electric guitar, tape machines

Henrik Olsson - objects, friction and piezo

Martin Taxt - microtonal tuba and electronics

Muddersten was established as a trio in 2015, and released their first album, Karpatklokke, on SOFA Music in January 2017. Already in April 2018 their second album Playmates was released. Both albums has been received well. 

Music for a while

Music for a while, lead by Norway's uncrowned queen of cabaret, Tora Augestad, released their long-awaited second album with the ambiguous title Graces that refrain to high acclaim in 2012. Now they release their new album with starling winter songs with shimmers of christmas: Canticles of Winter. As leading lady for Music for a while, Augestad fronts a dream team of Norwegian jazz musicians: Stian Carstensen (Farmers Market), Mathias Eick (Jaga Jazzist, Manu Katché), Martin Taxt (Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, Koboku Senju) and Pål Hausken (In the Country, Susanna). What particularly characterizes Music for a while, is the group´s personal, organic and creative treatment of the material. On their critically acclaimed first album, Weill Variations, the band did original and fresh versions of Kurt Weill´s immortal music. Graces that refrain features fearless "cover versions" of compositions in classical music: from John Dowland to Poulenc.