DARK STAR SAFARI

Sales Info: Dark Star Safari, a newly formed group featuring Samuel Rohrer, Jan Bang, Erik Honoré and Eivind Aarset, present its eponymous recording debut, an evocative song-driven album. These songs conjure shadows of memory, clouds of dreaming and silhouettes of foreboding through the album™s layered, many-textured fabrics and Jan Bang's silken delivery of Erik Honoré's acute lyrics. Dark Star Safari is the work of four kindred spirits, their open modus operandi, and a remarkably interconnected creative nerve system. Key to their collaboration is an organic freedom that enables the music što fill itself in", to be self-actualizing via the musicians as medium. The music of the 10 songs resulted from a two-stage process: an initial phase of free flowing open improvi- sation, and a subsequent exploratory phase where hidden potenti- als were discovered and nurtured. The groundwork of the album™s music originates from a session initiated by Samuel Rohrer, who invited Jan Bang and Eivind Aarset to the renowned Candy Bomber studio in Berlin. The ses- sion was run under the imaginative craftsmanship of sound engi- neer Ingo Krauss, who worked in the famous Conny Plank stu- dio, and its recording and mixing employed sophisticated use of vintage analogue equipment alongside cutting edge digital pro- cesses. This meeting opened the door for something larger to emerge. The group did not settle for just the outcome of the initi- al open improvisation. They were driven to dig deeper, to atten- tively examine and manipulate the material, in order to discover what it had to offer. This caused a creational chain reaction, forcefully spreading across the group. During this second phase, Jan Bang, while meditating upon the possibilities and reach of the improvised material, felt a strong urge to give additional shape and colour to it by singing. Thus, he organically stepped into the role of vocalist, a role he had not pursued since the early days of his musical career. He sent the results to Erik Honoré, who immediately was inspired by its po- tential, quickly penning lyrics and providing the project with its name. Honoré composed two additional songs, Mordechai and Fault Line, and thus rounded the project out towards a fully reali- zed opus. The group continued this back and forth process, with Samuel Rohrer and Eivind Aarset bringing in fine-tuning and e nrichment to the song structures and textures. Born out of the spirit of open improvisation and the improvisa- tional practice of the immediate live-remix, Dark Star Safari transcends both of these creative processes in a pursuit of fresh approaches to songwriting. Their music is now ready to meet the hearts, minds and bodies of live audiences, to evolve even further through that interaction. Short Bios: Jan Bang is a Norwegian musician and record producer, known from several albums and collaborations over many years with musicians like Sidsel Endresen, David Sylvian, Jon Hassell, Tigran Hamasyan, Nils Petter Molvær, Eivind Aarset, Arve Henriksen and Erik Honoré - the latter of which he co-founded the Punkt festival with in 2005. He is one of Norway™s most accomplished and influential producers and the epit- het electronics guru has stayed with him for a long time and with good reason. Eivind Aarset Ùs debut as a bandleader on Jazzland Recordings was described by the New York Times as "One of the best post-Miles electric jazz albums," setting a high benchmark that Aarset has consis- tently met and exceeded, both in the studio and in live performance. As one of Norway's most in-demand guitarists, Eivind Aarset has worked with Laurie Anderson, Jon Hassell, Bill Laswell, Nils Petter Molvær, David Sylvian, Sly & Robbie, Jan Bang, Dhafer Youssef, Andy Sheppard,and Arve Henriksen to name a few. Erik Honoré has contributed to around 50 recordings as producer, composer and musician and released two critically acclaimed releases under his own name, «Heliographs» and «Unrest». On these albums and in concert, he has collaborated with artists like David Sylvian, Nils Pet- ter Molvær, Sidsel Endresen, Jan Bang, Arve Henriksen, Jon Hassell, Greta Aagre and Eivind Aarset. He has also composed music for films, and written three novels published by Gyldendal. Samuel Rohrer is one of the influential improvisational musicians of his generation and has worked with musicians like Sidsel Endresen, Nan Goldin, Laurie Anderson, Jan Bang, Stian Westerhus, Max Loder- bauer, Skuli Sverrisson, Tobias Freund, Ricardo Villalobos, NP Molvaer and Eivind Aarset. As an improvisatory sound pilot, he is able to ele- gantly navigate beats and anti-beats and expands the world of rhythmic functions with his artistic cross-style overall concept, to include striking emotional components. Tracklisting: 01 Labyrinthine 02 Resilient Star 03 Family Gospel 04 Child of Folly 05 Thoughts and Prayers 06 Mordechai (A Prophecy) 07 November™s Child 08 White Rose 09 Your Fathers™ Names 10 Fault Line