The world as frankps sees it!
Concerts
I listen to music most of the day, but it is not that often that I actually go to a concert…
Coffee tasting, Kate Havnevik and Imogen Heap
11 year ago
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).
Concerts with Bjørn Berge and Haddy N’jie
0Yesterday Volker asked me if I wanted to join him for a concert. My answer was Of Course, as it is not to often that I go to concerts these days. And what a concert it was, I guess this might go down as the concert of the year for me. The concert was with the Blues artist Bjørn Berge, and it was the kick off of his Tour across Europe this summer. You never heard of him? Neither had I … . Volker had seen him 5 years ago, and was amazed by his guitar skills. I saw why, an amazing one man show! His style is more of an aggressive/angry blues and not the kind of blues were you just want to go and buy yourself a rope and … . So I was impressed and he changed the way I look on blues. It’s more to Blues then just feeling blue (miserable)!
Warming up up for Bjørn Berge was to my surprise Haddy N’jie & A Few Good Men. She is one of my favourite artists, and her last studio album Welcome Home is amazing, but not nothing compared to seeing and hearing her live. Her voice can best be described as a female Tom Waits, and I was almost shievering when she performed Punishment. It had a touch of Kaizers Orchestra’s sound in it, and it was just perfect.
She composes and perform her own songs. I heard her perform a song on TV late last autumn, and went straight out to try to buy the album. But had no luck, it was sold out in all the shops I visited. In the end I had to buy it on iTunes Music Store. She is also part of Queendom, a band of five women (with Norwegian, African and Caribbean), a band that I haven’t had the oportunity to see. She has a MySpace profile, where you can listen to some of her songs, and if you are living in Norway, Haddy is often writing in Dagbladet‘s weekend edition.
Great Lake Swimmers and Built to Spill
0About half a year ago I bought tickets to a concert with one of my favourite rock bands, Built to Spill. Yesterday the waiting was finally over. I brought with me a friend from work, Tron Harald Torneby, that also is a great fan of the band, and just as we were about to enter Rockefeller (the concert hall), head of the faculty administration also popped up.
I had never heard of Great Lake Swimmers before. They play Americano/Singer-Songwriter genre music. I was mighty surprised, and will rush out and buy some of their records. It’s the kind of easy listening that I mostly enjoy at work and at home. They could easily have hold a concert on their own. If you want to listen to the them, some songs are available on Last.fm and MySpace.
The indie rock band Built to Spill delivered. I haven’t heard to much from their last record, but it is solid. They are a great live band, with a lot of jamming. Some of the songs sounded quite different from the record! Which I just find cool. They also played 3-4 songs from the record “Perfect From Now On”, and it was just that PERFECT! An evening that I had been looking forward to for so long. The mandatory links to Last.fm and MySpace.