Movements for Listening
- a tap dance album
- a tap dance album
Movements for Listening is a wild exploration of sound by Janne Eraker and friends, with borderless worlds of music, widening the horizon and moving outside of all boxes. The ambition of the project was to find ways to use tap dance as percussion in a variety of musical styles, genres and collaborations, and to make recordings that represent this in the best possible way.
Eraker went to extremes to try different sounds, textures, material, shoes, dynamics, concepts and, of course, rhythms! Sometimes it’ll be hard to know what’s tap dance and what’s not, because the players get so close in timbre, texture and sound. There’s both composed and improvised music, and music that is based on a standard jazz tune, score, groove or melody. There’s tap dance on wood, metal, bubble wrap, sand, in water, with different types of shoes and with bare feet. Eraker plays on a collection of taps hanging from a rack, like a percussionist playing a carillon, and wooden taps bound together in her hands, like a flamenco dancer playing castanets. Tap dance Janne Eraker Pedal steel guitar Ivar Grydeland Drums Michaela Antalová Vocals Juliana Venter Noise Harald Fetveit Guitar Knut Reiersrud Percussion Anders Kregnes Hansen Banjo Hans Martin Rundberg Austestad Piano David Arthur Skinner Double bass Roger Arntzen Fiddle Vegar Vårdal Electronic music Kristoffer Lislegaard Label Esc.Rec. |
Links
See here for all the full videos of all the recordings. See here for all the teasers. See here for all the time lapse videos of the art work. See here for the videos of the release concert. See here for the extensive blog (liner notes). The music can be found on all streaming platforms, like: Bandcamp Spotify Interviews Relative Rhythms Insounder Now's The Time (in Norwegian). Jazzinorge (in Norwegian). Samtiden (in Norwegian). Kontekst (in Norwegian). Studio2, P2 (in Norwegian). H17 podcast (in Norwegian). Previous dates:
2025 April 5: with Juliana Venter at Jazzprisen, Oslo 2024 October 11: Janne Eraker Ensemble, Hammerfest October 10: Janne Eraker Ensemble, Alta September 20: Janne Eraker Ensemble, Kafé Hærverk 2023 Movements for Listening release tour: November 3: Release concert, Gamle Munch, Oslo October 26: KC Klastor, Slovakia October 25: with Thomas Marek, Theater Arche, Vienna October 21: Union Scene, Drammen October 20: BRUT, Deventer October 19: Gelderlandfabriek, Culemborg October 18: Splendor, Amsterdam October 17: Worm, Rotterdam |
Reviews
Jazzinorge
Concert review Janne Eraker Ensemble
Musikerne, som møttes på en av Oslos mest egalitære scener denne kvelden, har lenge arbeidet med og i miljøet rundt det kraftsentrum – eller stjerna, om du har sans for den kosmiske analogiserien jeg har startet på her – som er steppdanser Janne Eraker. Foreløpig den eneste stjerna som lyser på jazzens steppdansehimmel, men til gjengjeld ei som lyser sterkt.
JazzMania.be
Album review Movements for Listening
On se trouve ici à la croisée entre la survivance de musiques traditionnelles (qui auraient pu être éditées par Smithsonian Folkways Recordings), de musiques concrètes et d’avant-garde. « Movements for Listening » porte à merveille son titre. C’est assurément un des disques les plus énigmatiques qui nous ont été donnés à écouter au cours de l’année écoulée.
Vital Weekly
Album review Movements for Listening
From pretty straightforward jazz guitar stylings to radical explorations of timbre and texture, Eraker and Co manage to blow to pieces the image one might hold of tap dance and jazz or improvised music, for that matter. In doing so, they provide a record of highly engaging musical interest far beyond expectations or conventions. The material would not be out of place at the Holland Festival or Gaudeamus Festival. Music too that stretches the physical and embraces the natural (check the reverb in the recording made at the immersive resonances of Emanuel Vigeland Museum!!) into uncharted territories of bliss and wonder (at time surpassing even the Cuts-series of Merzbow, Pándi & Gustafsson in brutal noise force). True movements for engaged deep listening. It is a record for the top spots of the Year List 2023 for sure.
Jazzinorge
Concert review Movements for Listening release concert
Eraker elevates: It's captivating, and it works in a natural way - not just on the level of ideas. The images, movements, instruments and sounds create a kind of materiality that is difficult to translate into text.
Luminous Dash
Single review Chulas Fronteras from Movements for Listening
Eraker gebruikt haar voetjes als instrument, eerst al tappend (niet achter een bar, maar zover waren jullie wel al mee) en dan, tapdansschoenen af, in een zandbak. Wat dan weer het geluid van een jazzdrummer geeft die – voorzichtig, heel teder – zijn trommelvellen streelt met een borsteltje.
Now's The Time
Album review
Det starter elegant, med et lurt og lekent femtaktvamp, før vi deiser inn i den psykedeliske gryta, hvor Reiersrud vrir på knottene, finner fram en fele og Eraker tar av seg skoene (i videoen får vi se at hun har mange forskjellige par som vi sikkert får høre på resten av plata) og fortsetter barbent, på en plate dekket av sand. Når man skriver føles det alltid som å ta på seg en litt rar og fjong hatt å bruke ordet taktilt om musikk, men det er noe her, altså.
Jazzinorge
Concert review Janne Eraker Ensemble
Musikerne, som møttes på en av Oslos mest egalitære scener denne kvelden, har lenge arbeidet med og i miljøet rundt det kraftsentrum – eller stjerna, om du har sans for den kosmiske analogiserien jeg har startet på her – som er steppdanser Janne Eraker. Foreløpig den eneste stjerna som lyser på jazzens steppdansehimmel, men til gjengjeld ei som lyser sterkt.
JazzMania.be
Album review Movements for Listening
On se trouve ici à la croisée entre la survivance de musiques traditionnelles (qui auraient pu être éditées par Smithsonian Folkways Recordings), de musiques concrètes et d’avant-garde. « Movements for Listening » porte à merveille son titre. C’est assurément un des disques les plus énigmatiques qui nous ont été donnés à écouter au cours de l’année écoulée.
Vital Weekly
Album review Movements for Listening
From pretty straightforward jazz guitar stylings to radical explorations of timbre and texture, Eraker and Co manage to blow to pieces the image one might hold of tap dance and jazz or improvised music, for that matter. In doing so, they provide a record of highly engaging musical interest far beyond expectations or conventions. The material would not be out of place at the Holland Festival or Gaudeamus Festival. Music too that stretches the physical and embraces the natural (check the reverb in the recording made at the immersive resonances of Emanuel Vigeland Museum!!) into uncharted territories of bliss and wonder (at time surpassing even the Cuts-series of Merzbow, Pándi & Gustafsson in brutal noise force). True movements for engaged deep listening. It is a record for the top spots of the Year List 2023 for sure.
Jazzinorge
Concert review Movements for Listening release concert
Eraker elevates: It's captivating, and it works in a natural way - not just on the level of ideas. The images, movements, instruments and sounds create a kind of materiality that is difficult to translate into text.
Luminous Dash
Single review Chulas Fronteras from Movements for Listening
Eraker gebruikt haar voetjes als instrument, eerst al tappend (niet achter een bar, maar zover waren jullie wel al mee) en dan, tapdansschoenen af, in een zandbak. Wat dan weer het geluid van een jazzdrummer geeft die – voorzichtig, heel teder – zijn trommelvellen streelt met een borsteltje.
Now's The Time
Album review
Det starter elegant, med et lurt og lekent femtaktvamp, før vi deiser inn i den psykedeliske gryta, hvor Reiersrud vrir på knottene, finner fram en fele og Eraker tar av seg skoene (i videoen får vi se at hun har mange forskjellige par som vi sikkert får høre på resten av plata) og fortsetter barbent, på en plate dekket av sand. Når man skriver føles det alltid som å ta på seg en litt rar og fjong hatt å bruke ordet taktilt om musikk, men det er noe her, altså.