RUNE GRAMMOFON 20TH ANNIVERSARY
In an intimate, theatre-style venue in Oslo, Rune Grammofon – probably the world’s leading purveyor of jazz/prog/skronk rock – is celebrating its 20th anniversary with two nights of gigs showcasing both the breadth and talent of the label’s current roster.
First up on Friday night is Maja S.K. Ratkje, one woman on a darkened stage producing a wild, untamed noise using just her voice and various electronic devices. The piece is entitled
Money Will Ruin Everything, and builds from a scrabble of whispers and wordless crooning into a chaotic spell of occult glitchtronica,
“HEDVIG MOLLESTAD CHANNELS HENDRIX, IOMMI AND MCLAUGHLIN ALL AT ONCE, YET PLAYS WITH A FLUIDITY THAT’S
ALL HER OWN.”
Ratkje flinging her arm at a theremin as though engaged in mortal combat. “Have mercy!” she growls before her set climaxes with the aid of plastic sheeting, a fan and a thumb piano.
Headliners Motorpsycho occupy the opposite end of the
Rune Grammofon spectrum, but their sound is no less exploratory. Legends of the Norwegian rock scene, the band gradually ease into their set before a reverent home crowd through old classic Un Chien D’Espace, which moves from portent-filled Floydian thump to deep space breakdown to an astonishing crescendo of pounding, light-speed space rock.
The rest of the set is mostly drawn from 2017’s superb The Tower, its combination of hard rock and cosmic proggery really coming alive on stage. The mellow Radiohead-isms of A Pacific Sonata connect in particular, while In Every Dream Home is the pick of the heavier material – a sudden, controlled drop from intense riffage to lush melody gets an ecstatic reaction.
Fire! open Saturday in confrontational mood: baritone saxophonist Mats Gustafsson’s t-shirt reads “I Hate
Musicians” and he spends his time physically wrestling with
his instrument, wringing howls, shrieks and frantic note clusters out of its monstrous brass body. This display threatens to be a bit too avant-garde even for this crowd, but underpinned by clattering percussion and muscular bass riffs from 2018’s The Hands, the set teeters between grindingly hypnotic and dynamically distressed.
Capping the celebration, Hedvig Mollestad Trio tear the place apart. Clad in a sparkly red dress and punching the air with glee, guitarist and singer Mollestad is a force of nature. She channels Hendrix, Iommi and McLaughlin all at once, yet plays with a fluidity that’s all her own, switching seamlessly between riffs, shred and abstract note bends. The whole band are tremendous: Arriving teases and cajoles before delivering a gonzoid NWOBHM pay-off, Bewitched, Dwarfed And Defeathered has a riff you could knock a wall down to, and First Thing To Pop Is The Eye is like King Crimson on fire. It’s an exhilarating end to
a fabulous weekend of music.