DOPPELGÄNGER (2020)

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Personell on album
Vidar K. Schanche — guitar, synth
Ståle Birkeland — drums
Arild Hoem — baritone sax, synth
Eva Bjerga Haugen – vocal on “The Forest”

Anmeldelse i Stavanger Aftenblad

BUTCHER DIARIES (2014)

Personell on album
Vidar K. Schanche — guitar
Ståle Birkeland — drums, electronics
Inge Breistein — baritone sax, synth, samples

BUTCHER RED (2009)

Personell on album
Vidar K. Schanche — guitar
Ståle Birkeland — drums
Simon Kaylor — barritone sax

Some clever-clogs have claimed that the days of clearly defined musical genres are over. They say that today's youth grow up with such unlimited access to music that they can pick and choose from the entire history of music, and simply put these diverse elements together in order to form their own unique expression. It's a nice idea, but it should probably be taken with a pinch of salt - we're not exactly drowning in waves of groundbreaking new music, after all.

But if you look away from the mainstream and toward the margins, it is possible to find some real explorers: those who search out the places where few, if any, musicians have ever been, who throw such an unholy mix of references, experiences and demented ideas into the bowl that the result is impossible to classify. EGG3 is a group of such explorers, hopping from the wildest improv madness imaginable to the warm embrace of an ambient dreamscape, and sometimes falling into the mosh pit on the way.

The first EGG3 album owed as much to rock as it did to improv and straight jazz, but this time around they have embraced an even heavier rock aesthetic. At times, it sounds as if a musical dreamed up by King Crimson, Philip K. Dick and David Lynch has been hijacked by Slayer, Motörhead, Alice Cooper and Mastodon, while Tim Burton and Frank Zappa fight over who gets to direct.

And Zappa's music isn't the worst place to start looking for comparisons, if comparisons must be had, but the similarity is in the method more than the results. This music lives in the same fluctuating space, the gaps and cracks between controlled composition and improvisation.

Before going into the studio to record the album, the trio threw themselves into an intense ten-day, ten-gig tour in Poland. 'That's one way to find out if you can function as a band or not. And it also gets you into pretty good shape, playing-wise', says Schanche.

EGG3 is a central part of Stavanger's vibrant improvisation scene, and its members play regularly with other bands such as Kitchen Orchestra, Pocket Corner, Gunhild Seim's Story Water, Cirrus, RobbleRobble and others.

«The Butcher Diaries» is available on vinyl from the webshop.