LiV - Music from the North
In English ...
This French-Norwegian collaboration started in 2013-2014 when Thierry Girault lived and worked in Tromsø - as a composer for the city’s big band. During this year he met Liv Hanne Haugen and Øystein Blix, with whom he started a musical collaboration exploring improvisation and experimentation.
Back in France guitarist Alain Kawczak joined and together they formed the band LIV. Since then they’ve toured regularly and played concerts in France, Swiss and Norway.
Mixing traditional songs, pop and improvised music, the sound of LIV is inspired by the spaciousness of the nature in the northern part of Norway.
LIV is a collective of musicians from France and Norway that each bring in their own personal colours and styles blending it into a tapestry of sound and pictures, always in motion.
Liv Hanne Haugen (voice), Øystein Blix (trombone and voice) Alain Kawczak (guitar) and Thierry Girault (keyboards, vocals).
En Français ...
Cette collaboration franco-norvégienne a commencé en 2013-2014 lorsque Thierry Girault (fondateur de la grande formation LEBOCAL ) a vécu et travaillé à Tromsø en tant que compositeur pour le big band de la ville.
Au cours de cette année, il a rencontré Liv Hanne Haugen et Øystein Blix, avec qui il a commencé une collaboration musicale explorant l'improvisation et l'expérimentation.
De retour en France, le guitariste Alain Kawczak les rejoint et ensemble ils forment le groupe LIV.
Mélangeant des chants traditionnelles Sami (éleveurs de rennes ), de la pop et de la musique improvisée, l'univers de LIV est inspiré des grands espaces de la Norvège du Nord.
Chacun des musiciens apportant, sa couleurs et son style en les mêlant à une tapisserie de sons et d'images, toujours en mouvement.
Liv Hanne Haugen (voix), Øystein Blix (trombone et voix) Alain Kawczak (guitare) et Thierry Girault (claviers, voix )
HAGE <<< NEW ALBUM Losen Record - Photo by Jamie M. Bivard
NOVEMBER 2021
with MARI BOINE as GUEST
KEMEDU
The resulting music played by the group is bold, innovative and very unique, which is pretty unusual these days, where individuality and experimentation become obsolete.
The music is quite diverse, moving between melodic, ambient and improvised parts. The unusual instrumentation, with the trombone as a lead instrument, adds to the mystique and the wonderful weirdness which prevails over this music. But Haugen's vocals are the most dominant factor which makes this music so wonderfully bizarre. She completely disregards any conventions whatsoever, using her voice to sing, howl, screech, scream, yell and whisper, whatever seems appropriate at a particular moment. Her wordless vocalese is hauntingly beautiful and extremely powerful. When all these factors are combined and intertwined into a tapestry of sounds, the result is simply overwhelming.
This music grows on the listener very persistently and I personally had a hard tie taking the CD out of my player after listening to it repeatedly several times in a row. What a magical experience! Happy International Women's Day to you Liv!
This is definitely the boldest and most surprising album I have heard so far from the Losen Records catalogue, and I have to salute the label's owner Odd Gjelsnes for his courage and vision that made him release this highly unusual, farsighted and non commercial music, against all odds. .
