Slippfest på Notam; “Maj & Gunnar Sønstevold – The Kitchen Counter Experiments 1959-1984” & “Varder 1”

For over sixty years Maj Sønstevold (1917-1996) and Gunnar Sønstevold (1912-1991) were a driving force on the Norwegian music scene. The couple became famous for their sonic adventures into genres such as jazz, contemporary and screen music, writing some of the most well-known soundtracks and theme songs of their times. This double LP focuses on the electronic experiments conducted by the two composers – ranging from drone music, electroacoustics, minimalism and improvised electronics – firmly establishing Maj and Gunnar Sønstevold as pioneers within the field of Scandinavian electronic music.

In 1973 the composer Arne Nordheim made a series of radio programs about the history of electronic music. Here he presented Gunnar Sønstevold’s The Tempest/Stormen from 1959 as the first example in a Norwegian context and pointed to the fact that the composition was made using the “kitchen counter technique” – literally meaning that the sounds were produced at home or done in a simple studio. In an interview from 1966, Gunnar Sønstevold himself described the kitchen counter technique as: “We tumble together a tape recorder here, and then some other equipment there, and trick ourselves into the laboratory and borrow a generator and the like.” When asked if his dream was a full-fledged electronic music studio, Sønstevold answered the reporter without hesitation: “Yes, that’s for sure! To me the mixing console is the same as the organ console is to the organist.”

This album consists of previously unreleased electronic music by Maj & Gunnar Sønstevold, presented for the first time on vinyl. The compositions were made for different stage plays, radio plays and television theatre between the years 1959-1984. OGM have gotten hold of the original mastertapes and chosen the tracks and excerpts that sounded the most radical and interesting to our ears.

Linernotes by Lars Mørch Finborud og Knut Sønstevold

Varder is a new LP-series dedicated to unearthing early Norwegian electronic music. When this new form of music began to spread in the 1950s, it required large studios with expensive equipment, and the outcome was often considered not commercial enough for record labels to venture into. But despite the meagre means, Norwegian composers threw themselves into new sonic adventures such as electroacoustics, musique concrète and computer music, travelling to studios in Norway, Sweden, Poland and the Netherlands to realize their electronic dreams.

The small circle of composers that made music with the help of ring modulators, tape machines, filters and computers, can be seen as forerunners for a type of music production that today has become the norm. Although limited in scope, these early experiments have made an impact on younger musicians within genres such as electronica, space disco, ambient and sound art. At the same time, the history of early electronic music also conveys important chapters in Norwegian art history, since several of the compositions were made for use in sound sculptures, installation art and soundtracks to experimental films.

Varder 1 contains five rare and unreleased compositions:

Kåre Kolberg’s «Pausesignal» was made when NRK Radio announced a competition for a new interval signal in 1969. Kolberg travelled to Studio Eksperymentalne in Warsaw to produce his signal, working with composer and sound technician Bohdan Mazurek. In the 1960s and 1970s Kolberg scored several radio plays and television theatre. «Skjærselden» is a previously unreleased composition made in 1971 for a radio play based on a drama by William Butler Yeats.

In 1967 Karin Krog travelled to Los Angeles to perform and record with the Don Ellis Orchestra. Since Krog wanted to experiment with electronic effects on her voice, Ellis recommended her to go to Tom Oberheim’s workshop, where she bought a ring modulator. In the early 1970s Karin Krog booked some time in Rosenborg Studio in Oslo where she experimented with electronics, voice and multi-tracking. One of the tunes she recorded during these sessions was «Santa Monica», made together with harpist Elisabeth Sønstevold and dedicated to Tom Oberheim.

Hal Clark was hired as Tonmeister in 1972 at the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter and in 1975 he co-founded Norway’s first electro-acoustic music studio – Norwegian Studio for Electronic Music. «Ten Last Words from 7000 sMiles» was Clark’s first Norwegian-composed electro-acoustic work, made while employed at Rosenborg Studio in 1971. Using multiple tape machines, vibraphone, Moog synthesizer, ring modulator, and vocalizations, it was a capsule of early morning winter treks to Oslo’s Televerket building where Hal Clark ordered long-distance phone calls to hear a love lost.

Linernotes by Lars Mørch Finborud