musiConspiray release - wagon8 at BrÖtz
wagon8 got together for rehersals in oslo in april, getting ready for a concert at brÔtz in gothenburg april 22. videos from gig at this page.
nottwo records released musiConspiracys debut album Do I the In?. first reviews and availability here.
fall 08 and a christmas duo
in early novemer 08 we managed to get the band behind the wagon8 cd together for concerts in norway. on this page you can listen to live recordings from the concert at the club bidrobon in oslo november 2. the band is dag einar eilertsen on trombones, jacek kochan drums, henrik hellstenius on laptop ++ and yours truly on fretless guitar. you will NOT hear peter knudsens live visuals but i can promise you that they contributed greatly to the evening. during christmas i had a nice exchange via the internet with the great guitarist gunnar backman in sweden. a couple of duos are on the menitoned page. another one will be added to the player shortly. the player by the way is from my page at www.reverbnation.com/tellef. and reverbnation is hereby recommended to you.
radial1
may 29. 2008
in 1997 i bought a sony short wave receiver in a radio shack somewhere in san fernando valley (tarzana?) in order to be able to listen to norwegian radio from the house up in the santa monica mountains where we were going to live for half a year. short wave listening turned out to be a stressfull activity turning out very little audible radio. the radio however was very strong, in the sence that it could be put to use 10 years after as a musical instrument. today i uploaded a new track to tellefogrim.no where i play this radio into ableton live, chopping the recorded track into small pieces, adding some effects and then improvising on the ten loops. the track is called radial1 and the millions who found and read this blog now know why. the file is here
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santa cruz duo jam
march 28. 2008
the drive from Berkeley to Santa Cruz took us around 90 minutes. As my friend Oivind, the always well oriented, already knew his way around town from earlier visits and I had directions to Rick Walkers house on my cell phone, it wasnt to hard to find Rick Walkers house. When we got there Rick was packing his stuff into a rack with the rack placed on his workbench, a very old big and rusty American car. As he was running a bit late for our improv session at Meta Records downtown he asked us to take a look around inside the house. Rick’s house is a dream for any musician, and can be turned into a theme park for imagination and improvisation any time. Before we had had time to check out more than a very little part of his collection, Rick was ready. I packed the Fender Strat I was to borrow into a gig bag and off we drove to the main street. The Meta Records store is a very nice place filled with vinyl records. Rick put up is stuff in the corner, went one more trip back home to get some more, and was almost ready by the time people had gathered around him to listen. He gave us a set with the most varied and imaginative collection of instruments and sounds. This man is a true sorcerer of sound, instrument search and loops. I went on an hour later and did a short stretch alone before Rick seamlessly made his way into my playing. After having played for another half hour for a small but exclusive crowd. A gig like this with a person you have never met, and with none of your own equipment or instruments with you, is always a risky thing. What saved me was Rick’s ability to be both fun, innovative and highly attentive of what I was doing. Rick is coming to Europe in May, in order to play in different countries. LOOK OUT FOR THAT!
New review for Wagon 8
march 1. 2008
Department of Virituosity just released a review of our record Wagon 8. This is the concluding paragraph:
The trio plays a kind of experimental, ambient, avantgarde, electronic music blended with nu-jazz. It's also odd, weird, twisted, unorthodox, unconventional and simply freaky. Tellef's ingenuity is staggering, that's why the stuff is flooded with experiments on tones. In other words, here are many sonic pranks and a tonal disharmony. It can place enormous stress on unpractised listeners' brains, but all open-minded human beings should understand this crazy music offered by Tellef and his company. "Wagon 8" surely reflects his instrumental aptitude and personality in a sense. It is really a good alternative against the mainstream.(complete text here.)
live recording in crakow
new cd out
PRESS RELEASE march 2007
Norwegian guitarist Tellef Ogrim now releases his first full solo CD, WAGON 8. An album that reflects his love for improvisation, the sound of electronics AND the fretless guitar. Wagon 8 is a co-operation between Tellef and the Polish drummer/live electronic-player Jacek Kochan as well as Tellef's old friend, trombonist Dag Einar Eilertsen.
With its blend of contemporary jazz improvisation and electronics, the release places itself solidly in the young tradition called nu-jazz (aka electronic jazz, e-jazz or jazztronica). In addition to the mentioned trio, Wagon 8 offers two duo tracks, one with singer Anne Danielsen and one with electronic improviser Henrik Hellstenius.
Tellef's main fretless guitar is a Yamaha SG600 from which he removed the frets in 1987.
Tellef says:
"While many fretless guitar players start by modifying a very bad instrument I was both lucky and crazy enough to attack a really good one. The result was that my first fretless guitar instantly gave me that rich exciting tone that any good fretless guitar will produce. My fretless is hard to play, but when I succeed it responds a lot more than any of my other guitars. However, there are things this guitar cannot do very well, notably to produce clean, rich chords .
In return the tone of this instrument gives me more meaning, depth and dynamics than ordinary guitars. I am convinced the fretless guitar is here to stay, not least because of its special quality of tone. Additionally, I feel that the great tone of this instrument and it's "free intonation" makes it especially well suited for playing in a free form project like Wagon 8.
Wagon 8 was recorded and mixed in Bugges Room in Oslo, in Tellef's kitchen, his basement and on several laptops.
Tellef Ogrim (fretless guitar)
In the 1980s he played and recorded with various rock and jazz groups and also composed music for theatre. The last years he has been concentrating on the fretless guitar. In 2004 he released a mini-CD featuring the fretless called "Some Dodos Never Die".
Wagon 8 is his first recording with this exciting instrument and a band. He has appeared twice at the International Fretless Guitar Festival in New York.
Tellef also works as a technology columnist for the Norwegian Business Daily, is a father of 3 children and is married to Anne Danielsen (on track 12 on Wagon 8).
Jacek Kochan (drums and live electronics) has worked with: Lars Danielsson, Palle Mikkelborg, John Abercrombie, Greg Osby, Tomasz Stanko, Dave Liebman and many more. He has released a number of CDs as a composer and leader, the two latest entitled "One eyed horse" and "Yearning". In the fall of 2007 he composed for the Warsaw festival for contemporary music, the Warsaw Autumn.
Dag Einar Eilertsen (trombones) has played and written for big bands, small bands, theatre and film and has toured extensively for the Norwegian State Concert Institute (Rikskonsertene). He also plays solo trombone with Kaunas Big Band in Lithuania.
Henrik Hellstenius (electronics) is a well established and much celebrated composer of contemporary art music. His music for both smaller and bigger ensembles can be found on a long list of recordings. He made his first jazz - recording with Tellef with the group "Libido" in 1987. Henrik appears on track number 6 on Wagon8.
Anne Danielsen (voice, audio edit) has played together with Tellef in two rock bands and on three recordings. She was front figure and composer for the band Duck Spin. Anne Danielsen is a music researcher at the University of Oslo and the author of the book "Presence and Pleasure: The Funk Grooves of James Brown and Parliament". Anne appears on track number 12.
