Kristian Skaarbrevik

In the arts Assemblage is an artistic process from where art is put together from different found materials. Kristian Skaarbrevik´s album “Assemblage” is a musical assemblage of music he´s discovered and developed in his life. Here sensitive classical strings meet brutal electric strings through rock music and improvisation in a landscape of electronics.

The Assemblage album is Skaarbrevik´s musical travel images from his nature and hometown on the west coast by the fjords with salty air, wind and tall mountains, to the wide farm landscape of Montana he visited in the U.S. where parts of his family immigrated to in the early 1920´s. The album is inspired by movies, among others Bergman´s images and abilities to prolong the moment.

With him on the album he has Aalesund String quartet, jazz trumpet player Stian Omenås and Italian vocalist Roberta Ianiro. The album artwork is by the New York City based artist Howard Boesendahl.

Kristian Skaarbrevik, originally from Aalesund, is a guitarist and composer based in Oslo. Skaarbrevik grew up in a musical world filled with Kiss cassettes and punk vinyl records. His first conscious encounter with classical music was when he as a child received a tape with the film music of “2001 – A Space Odyssey”, with various composers such as Ligeti. Since he picked up the guitar for the first time, he has improvised and composed music.

Skaarbrevik´s works and musicianship often involves usage of live instruments, electronics, graphic and traditional scores and social environments. He has performed with many contemporary music performers and improvisers, such as Christian Wolff (US), Pauline Oliveros (US), Frode Hatli (ECM) and Michael Duch.