in collaboration with
Musicus Concentus - Tradizione in movimento
While many musicians eschew liner notes, preferring to let the music speak for itself, Norwegian noise improv group Supersilent has always taken that philosophy a step further. The names of the band members aren't listed; album titles are only in increasing numerical increments (from Supersilent 1 to Supersilent 8); and the collective spontaneous compositions are simply titled with the album and track (e.g. 1.1, 1.2). The covers are simple, single colors, with only the most basic release information in a simple white font. If it weren't for the unofficial Supersilent websites (the group has neither a website nor MySpace page), the anonymity of the group would be nearly complete.
Together, they played for the first time, without any prior rehearsal, at the Bergen Jazz Festival in 1997 and immediately made headlines. The musical success of the experiment convinced the participants that this should be a permanent group, and so they went into the studio to play many hours of non-stop improvisation from which their debut triple album, Supersilent 1-3 was ultimately drawn.
From this moment on, while the members of Supersilent have busy careers outside the group - most notably Arve Henriksen, whose ubiquity on the Scandinavian scene is nearly unrivaled - when they come together as Supersilent the premise is simple: no discussion, no preplanning, no rehearsals.
The band's sound lives in a no-man's-land between the genres, somewhere between rock, electronica, jazz and modern composition, always characterized by a rigorous improvisation.
