The Good Life

I had a brilliant day yesterday. The afternoon started with a coffee tasting with Tim Wendelboe, one of the best baristas in the world! He runs a nice micro roastery with a small coffee bar at Grünerløkka, Oslo. The small roaster specializes in importing the best coffee lots. Often down to as little as 10-20 bags.

We got a nice presentation of coffees from Kenya and Honduras, and we even got the oportunity to taste this year’s coffee from one of the best coffee areas in Kenya. The area, Tekangu, has a cooperative with three factorires: Tegu, Ngunguru and Karagoto where the coffee is collected, depulped, washed, fermented and dried. Tekangu is a well developed cooperative that focuses on producing quality coffee and get high prices for this coffee in order to improve the quality of life of it’s members. And Wendelboe pays to cooperative well:

To make sure they wanted to sell it to us, we offered USD 400,- per 50 kg, 220 USD above the price they had payed but on the condition that all the extra money went directly to the Cooperative.

So forget all about buying “fairtrade coffee” and buy the coffee from Wendelboe instead. Some thing tells me that I am about to become a frequent visitor Grunersgate 1.

After the coffe tasting I rushed down to Tilt for a beer with friends before going to a concert with Imogen Heap. I had no idea that Kate Havnevik would be “warming up”. I love her first record, Melankton (2006). I bought her new EP, Me, and I hope to be able to go to her next concert here in Oslo, May 4th. She streamed yesterday’s concert on USTREAM, but sadly with a really bad quality.

Imogen Heap has long been one of my favourite artists. She is a modern Mozart, and can make music out of everything. I was just as amazed yesterday seeing her alone on the stage, sampling, playing the piano and putting her voice on top of that. I some where read that Imogen was a classically trained pianist. That was easy to see yesterday, her fingers were running elegantly over the piano keys. Yesterday was her second stop on her tour, and if you haven’t bought your tickets yet, run to the ticket shop!

Her Speak for Yourself album from 2005 is one of the albums that I have listened most to. Her carrere got a boost when “Hide And Seek”, a song from the Speak for Yourself album, got used in the TV series “The O.C.”. I also really enjoyed her last album, Ellipse (2009). Sadly, I should have bought her second record, Frou Frou (2002). I had the oportunity yesterday. She played one or two songs from that album as well. I Megaphone, her debut release was as far as I know, only made available in the U.S.

Imogen Heap is to perform, on one of three music festivals, here in Norway this summer. But I got the impression that no deals were closed yet. I hope it will be one in Oslo. I do not fancy travelling down to the Hovde Festival, down in Arendal. I hope she will appear on Norwegian Wood or Øya.

(Sadly no photos from the coffee tasting or Kate Havnevik’s performance. Lots of photos got corrupted on the memory card yesterday. Never experienced that before).