One Small Step
Improvised music with elements of minimalism, jazz, contemporary music and Norwegian folk.
Tap dance Janne Eraker
Double bass Roger Arntzen
Fiddles Vegar Vårdal
Gol Variations - tap dance like you’ve never heard it before!
Did you know that there’s a tap dance trio in Norway? One Small Step has been busy exploring tap as percussion in music for years, and has finally made their first album Gol Variations. Tap dancer Janne Eraker, double bass player Roger Arntzen and fiddler Vegar Vårdal have improvised and recorded beautiful, exciting and groovy music in Gol stave church - the one that resides in the Norwegian folk museum. Audun Strype is responsible for the sound engineering, and has had a great time with the sound of that tare-covered wooden church from 1884 (originally built in Gol around 1200!). With background ranging from a wide spectrum One Small Step plays with minimal music, Norwegian folk music, jazz inspirations, and of course rhythms of all sorts. They challenge each other in their musical interaction and dive into musical escapades consisting of texture, tonality, imaginative suggestions and exhausting stretches. The audience easily joins them, for One Small Step creates an unpretentious and inviting atmosphere that directs all of the attention to the new music.
When One Small Step started recording their debut album the intention was to make one that gives room to the long lines in their music. The original plan was even to have just one track on each side of a vinyl record, rather than to be guided by the more traditional shorter tracks. One Small Step had to leave the vinyl project, but made an audiophile CD with the same thoughts in mind. They even added extra seconds in the middle of the album to give the illusion of changing to side B, to get closer to the experience originally intended. One Small Step thereby invites you to an epic journey in their universe.
"Gol Variations" was released on the label Clean Feed Records on November 18 and is available on all platforms.
The track "Morning" was released on the label Esc.rec. as a part of the compilation box "Matter Affect" on July 18.
"If you have an idea of tap dance, it's often from vaudeville or the Irish Riverdance. But when you hear Eraker, you understand that the potential of tap dance can be something very different from that. Here, she is a percussionist. She has a crazy groove, and the variation of sound that she creates by hitting the floor with the shoes is different angles makes it sound like a pretty cool drum kit." Torkjell Hovland, Ballade.no
"This is music that is perfect for a stage. "Gol Variations" moves some rocks in the open landscape, and even if One Small Step isn't "one giant leap for mankind" I would declare the album a little moon landing in itself." Arild R. Andersen, Jazzinorge.no
"One Small Step seems to have the most fun, creating a whistle and percussion pas de deux that comes across as playful pratfalls." A Closer Listen
Double bass Roger Arntzen
Fiddles Vegar Vårdal
Gol Variations - tap dance like you’ve never heard it before!
Did you know that there’s a tap dance trio in Norway? One Small Step has been busy exploring tap as percussion in music for years, and has finally made their first album Gol Variations. Tap dancer Janne Eraker, double bass player Roger Arntzen and fiddler Vegar Vårdal have improvised and recorded beautiful, exciting and groovy music in Gol stave church - the one that resides in the Norwegian folk museum. Audun Strype is responsible for the sound engineering, and has had a great time with the sound of that tare-covered wooden church from 1884 (originally built in Gol around 1200!). With background ranging from a wide spectrum One Small Step plays with minimal music, Norwegian folk music, jazz inspirations, and of course rhythms of all sorts. They challenge each other in their musical interaction and dive into musical escapades consisting of texture, tonality, imaginative suggestions and exhausting stretches. The audience easily joins them, for One Small Step creates an unpretentious and inviting atmosphere that directs all of the attention to the new music.
When One Small Step started recording their debut album the intention was to make one that gives room to the long lines in their music. The original plan was even to have just one track on each side of a vinyl record, rather than to be guided by the more traditional shorter tracks. One Small Step had to leave the vinyl project, but made an audiophile CD with the same thoughts in mind. They even added extra seconds in the middle of the album to give the illusion of changing to side B, to get closer to the experience originally intended. One Small Step thereby invites you to an epic journey in their universe.
"Gol Variations" was released on the label Clean Feed Records on November 18 and is available on all platforms.
The track "Morning" was released on the label Esc.rec. as a part of the compilation box "Matter Affect" on July 18.
"If you have an idea of tap dance, it's often from vaudeville or the Irish Riverdance. But when you hear Eraker, you understand that the potential of tap dance can be something very different from that. Here, she is a percussionist. She has a crazy groove, and the variation of sound that she creates by hitting the floor with the shoes is different angles makes it sound like a pretty cool drum kit." Torkjell Hovland, Ballade.no
"This is music that is perfect for a stage. "Gol Variations" moves some rocks in the open landscape, and even if One Small Step isn't "one giant leap for mankind" I would declare the album a little moon landing in itself." Arild R. Andersen, Jazzinorge.no
"One Small Step seems to have the most fun, creating a whistle and percussion pas de deux that comes across as playful pratfalls." A Closer Listen
There was an album release tour in Norway, Germany and The Netherlands, featuring the most renowned tap dancers in Europe:
November 28: One Small Step album release concert, Kafé Hærverk, Oslo
November 29: One Small Step release tour feat. Sebastian Weber, The Floor, Leipzig
November 30: One Small Step release tour, Petersburg Art Space, Berlin
December 1: One Small Step release tour feat. Bruno F. X. da Silva, Kopi Soesoe, Rotterdam
December 2: One Small Step release tour feat. Marije Nie and Peter Kuit, Splendor, Amsterdam
Both the tour and the album are made possible by generous support by Arts Council Norway, Norwegian Jazz Forum, Performing Arts Hub Norway and Fund for Performing Artists.
Janne Eraker is a tap dancer with a background in modern and contemporary dance. She works as a musician and dance artist in projects in Norway and abroad. Eraker uses tap dance as both music and dance, in varying degrees, depending on the project. Her main music projects are Øy (el. music), One Small Step, and a huge solo album titled Movements for Listening. As a tap dancer she also dances with the Sebastian Weber Dance Company as well as in her own works Rhythm is a Dancer and Tap Noir. She received a 3 year Artist grant from Arts Council Norway, and is the first tap dancer to be included as a musician in the Norwegian Jazz Forum and to be employed by the Alliance for Actors and Dancers. She also leads the studio collective Dansens Haus, which resides in a 70m2 studio in the heart of Oslo.
Roger Arntzen is a double bass player known from the Norwegian piano trio In the Country, which started out as an alternative prog jazz piano trio and was awarded Young Jazz Musicians Of The Year early on in Norway. In the project band Trail of Souls, In the Country forms the rhythm section and singer Solveig Slettahjell and guitarist Knut Reiersrud complete the quintet. On the more avant-garde side Arntzen is one of the founding members of the minimalist semi-improv trio Ballrogg, and the jazz rock quartet Chrome Hill. Recent years he has also collaborated in trios and quartets with the unique Japanese koto player Michiyo Yagi and drummers Tamaya Honda and Noritaka Tanaka.
Vegar Vårdal is a fiddler with an energy and a musical language that can tackle folk music with improvisation, playfulness, rhythm and dialogue. It is important for Vårdal to work in multiple genres, with folk music as a base. Vårdal has his roots deep in the valley of Gudbrandsdalen in Vågå, and his musicianship is reflected in a variety of collaborations that have spread their musicality across Europe. He plays both Hardanger fiddle and regular fiddle, in addition to having a career as a folk dancer. In 2015 he was invited to the Venezia Biennale to play in the exhibition in the Nordic Pavilion together with Camille Norment Trio. Vegar received the award for Folk Musician of the year in 2020.
November 28: One Small Step album release concert, Kafé Hærverk, Oslo
November 29: One Small Step release tour feat. Sebastian Weber, The Floor, Leipzig
November 30: One Small Step release tour, Petersburg Art Space, Berlin
December 1: One Small Step release tour feat. Bruno F. X. da Silva, Kopi Soesoe, Rotterdam
December 2: One Small Step release tour feat. Marije Nie and Peter Kuit, Splendor, Amsterdam
Both the tour and the album are made possible by generous support by Arts Council Norway, Norwegian Jazz Forum, Performing Arts Hub Norway and Fund for Performing Artists.
Janne Eraker is a tap dancer with a background in modern and contemporary dance. She works as a musician and dance artist in projects in Norway and abroad. Eraker uses tap dance as both music and dance, in varying degrees, depending on the project. Her main music projects are Øy (el. music), One Small Step, and a huge solo album titled Movements for Listening. As a tap dancer she also dances with the Sebastian Weber Dance Company as well as in her own works Rhythm is a Dancer and Tap Noir. She received a 3 year Artist grant from Arts Council Norway, and is the first tap dancer to be included as a musician in the Norwegian Jazz Forum and to be employed by the Alliance for Actors and Dancers. She also leads the studio collective Dansens Haus, which resides in a 70m2 studio in the heart of Oslo.
Roger Arntzen is a double bass player known from the Norwegian piano trio In the Country, which started out as an alternative prog jazz piano trio and was awarded Young Jazz Musicians Of The Year early on in Norway. In the project band Trail of Souls, In the Country forms the rhythm section and singer Solveig Slettahjell and guitarist Knut Reiersrud complete the quintet. On the more avant-garde side Arntzen is one of the founding members of the minimalist semi-improv trio Ballrogg, and the jazz rock quartet Chrome Hill. Recent years he has also collaborated in trios and quartets with the unique Japanese koto player Michiyo Yagi and drummers Tamaya Honda and Noritaka Tanaka.
Vegar Vårdal is a fiddler with an energy and a musical language that can tackle folk music with improvisation, playfulness, rhythm and dialogue. It is important for Vårdal to work in multiple genres, with folk music as a base. Vårdal has his roots deep in the valley of Gudbrandsdalen in Vågå, and his musicianship is reflected in a variety of collaborations that have spread their musicality across Europe. He plays both Hardanger fiddle and regular fiddle, in addition to having a career as a folk dancer. In 2015 he was invited to the Venezia Biennale to play in the exhibition in the Nordic Pavilion together with Camille Norment Trio. Vegar received the award for Folk Musician of the year in 2020.
