Music for Cities Jonas Sjøvaag & Juhani Silvola

• 1 Soft Milieu 10:26
• 2 Underground Ballad 08:57
• 3 Epicentric 05:22
• 4 4 La Peste 2448 08:16
• 5 Quiet and Deadly 08:00
• Total Runtime 41:01

Info for Music for Cities

Sjøvaag and Silvola is responsible for a number of productions and bands, both as musicians, producers and technicians. Amongst other things, they stand behind critically acclaimed constellations such as Eple Trio (Sjøvaag) and Summers Silvola duo.

In this collaboration they collect common references and present Music for Cities; a dark album with pulses from popular music, rock and modern European improv. With rare melodic flair, solid rhythmic structures and superbly improvised interaction as key elements through 5 songs, this album is a soundtrack for 2018 that is worth noting.

„Music For Cities" ist kein Album für den gemütlichen Jazzabend zwischen Coleman Hawkins und Louis Armstrong. Dieses Werk der beiden Skandinavier richtet sich an Musikfreunde, die anspruchsvolle und progressive, moderne Klänge zu schätzen wissen. Da diese Schallplatte auch klanglich überzeugt, kann man die Finessen der Musiker noch mehr entdecken und erleben.

Jonas Sjøvaag, guitar
Juhani Silvola, drums

Jonas H. Sjøvaag
is a multi-talented artist and musician, working with everything from musical improvisational structures, pop music, photography, linographic and other prints, carving, digital artwork and editing, composing, drumming and web developement, to combinations of these or something completely different.

While listing David Hockney, Uta Barth, Tom Waits, Jan Garbarek, Jan Johansson and Hiroshi Sugimoto as major sources of inspiration, Sjøvaag has a unique touch and mode of expression, both in his visual work, as well as in his compositions and lyrics.

Jonas was born in München on Nov. 03, 1978, started playing classical piano at age 5. He had his solo debut with Vestfold Youth Symphony Orchestra at age 11. He started playing drums at age 10, and switched main focus to jazz drums at age 17.

Visual expression through drawing, painting, photography or other outputs has always been a big part of Sjøvaag's daily routine. An autodidact in the field, countless hours has been spent digesting books of technique, perspective, color, anatomy and art philosophy.

Juhani Silvola
I work at a high level in a wide variety of styles. My main areas of expertise are electro-acoustic contemporary music, acoustic traditional music and experimental jazz, rock and electronica. I have a masters degree in composition from the Norwegian Academy of Music, where I studied with Natasha Barrett.

My music is characterised by expressive energy and visceral impact, melodic invention and multilayered and highly detailed soundscape. I both record and mix my own music, and have a studio in downtown Oslo. I play plucked instruments, synthesizers and percussion, and have access to extremely high level musicians who play various styles and instruments.

My experience of composing for visual media has been mainly within theatre (Norwegian National Theatre) and contemporary dance. I am now expanding to write for film & tv, and I wish to meet relevant people for that purpose. I have mixed and produced many high profile albums and worked with amongst others: Highasakite, Sarah-Jane Summers, Jenny Hval, Sam Lee, Frode Haltli AvantFolk, Unni Løvlid, Splashgirl, Erlend Apneseth, Poing, Erlend Viken Trio, Sigrid Moldestad, Joachim Badenhorst, Sver, Hayden Powell and Jessica Sligter.

This album contains no booklet.