{"title":"Bendik Giske","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBendik Giske is a Norwegian saxophonist and performance artist, currently residing in Berlin. His unique sound is influenced by his background in dance and his sense of queerness, resulting in captivating performances that showcase the importance of the body. With circular breathing on the saxophone and a striking stage presence, Giske's music transcends traditional boundaries.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThrough his music, Bendik Giske explores the connection between body and sound. Drawing from his experience in dance as a child, he brings an embodied approach to his saxophone playing. This physicality extends beyond technique; it is also reflected in his sense of queerness, which has shaped his own distinctive sound.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBendik Giske's artistry can be experienced not only through recordings but also through live performances. His stage presence is mesmerizing as he immerses himself fully into each piece, creating an immersive experience for the audience. Whether you are listening to one of his albums or witnessing him perform live, Giske's music will leave a lasting impression.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"cracks","title":"Cracks","description":"\u003cp\u003eBendik Giske (NO\/DE) is an artist and saxophonist whose expressive use of physicality, vulnerability and endurance have already won him much critical acclaim. You can hear all of this in his debut album Surrender, released at the start of 2019 on Smalltown Supersound, which can be described as Giske stripped to the core: no overdubs, looping, or effects. Just his body, breath, the saxophone and a resonant physical space, plus lots of microphones.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe body is important for Giske, even more so than as an acoustic musician. Not just in the strength and muscle control required to accomplish circular breathing on the saxophone, the unusual technique he employs to mesmerizing effect. It’s also reflected in the tradition of dance he practiced as a child in Bali – where he split his time between Oslo with his artist parents – and enjoyed as part of an electronic music epiphany in his adopted hometown of Berlin. And body is implied in his sense of queerness, which has helped him create his own sound, blossoming luxuriantly not only on record but also in his striking, embodied performances.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs such, in the past Giske has likened his performance to transmuting electronic music through all of his human faults, akin to becoming a machine. And with second album \u003ci\u003eCracks\u003c\/i\u003e he introduces a new set of parameters for the automated processes of his muscle memory to work against. His decision to collaborate with producer André Bratten and his extensive studio of electronic machines saw Giske play in the new ‘resonant’ space of Bratten’s reactive studio tuned to his original sounds.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn a sense, you could call it generative music – a term coined by Brian Eno to describe music made within a set of rules that can constantly evolve within that system. But here the only algorithms at work are responding to Giske’s self-imposed constraints (or parameters) – like the afore-mentioned circular breathing. As a practice, it induces in the player – and perhaps the listener, too – a kind of altered state, more open to discovery, and as a cycle of sound it defies time. This atemporality, or out-of-timeliness, hints at theorist José Muñoz’s notion of “queer time”, which is a chronology wholly other than the default.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIf this new studio-as-an-instrument process has brought Giske one step closer to the manmachine, it’s also a way to bridge the separation – or crack – between the two. This kind of liminal space, according to Giske, is to be treasured: “The tracks wedge themselves into the cracks of our perceived reality to explore them for their beauty. A celebration of corporeal states and divergent behaviors,” he explains. He cheerfully admits to mining the thought universe of Muñoz – especially his book Cruising Utopia– as inspiration, and the resulting \u003ci\u003eCracks\u003c\/i\u003e have a sensual, deeply-felt and lingering beauty with a touch of the superhuman.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Smalltown Supersound","offers":[{"title":"Black | LP","offer_id":50500851630411,"sku":"1126304","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/33d201b5-1eec-444a-bd5f-26155d0703da_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727780089"},{"product_id":"bendik-giske","title":"Bendik Giske","description":"\u003cp\u003eNow on the cusp of his third solo album, Norwegian saxophonist Bendik Giske knows himself well. With his new, self-titled record, he is in his prime as an artist: confident in his voice and abilities, buoyed by critical acclaim from all corners – including two Norwegian Grammy nominations – and a surge in audiences everywhere. With the intriguing choice of Beatrice Dillon as album producer – clearly the British electronic musician is a fellow traveler in the practice of original aesthetic expression – her influence is immediate and keenly felt. Together, they strip away a layer of melodicism, honing in on pattern and rhythm to bring out a different dimension of his mesmerizing sound.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile again working with single-take recordings, no overdubs, only saxophone and his body, gone is the reverberant space and mellifluous glamor. Giske finds the result akin to musical full-frontal nudity – every detail, every huff and puff audible, no obscuring, no aestheticizing. People may look away when it’s not as pretty, but what’s left feels more present and potent. Confrontational, it demands greater attention, but through its physicality – you can hear and feel his body in the music – it takes you to a flow state, somewhere between ecstasy, elation, and spiritual awakening.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntensely human, there’s stark tension there, too – there always will be when fighting for existence and validity – elegantly illustrated by Florian Hetz’s striking photographs of the artist on the covers of the release. In part, Giske is inspired by Judith Halberstam’s The Queer Art of Failure. As much as he has benefitted from his training and participation in the environment of the jazz conservatory, his path took him far outside its confines. Working these new explorations with his instrument has been a ten-year process of peeling away what he knew ultimately didn’t fit, finding the sonic territory of his lived experience. What emerged were systems that allowed for studies of tempo and proportion, a starting point for an immersive improvisatory approach, mapping years of musical probing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt’s the sound of social emancipation through the meditative pulse and velocity of circular breathing and the dance of the body, especially fingers, tongue, and lips. Giske knows that music can be a powerful tool in bringing people together to find ideas, and the longevity of his project is at its utmost a call for care, togetherness, storytelling, and the ability to gather for a shared cause. In all earnestness, Bendik Giske is a proposal for truthfulness and existence, a space for one to express their most profound self.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"No Label","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50506724180299,"sku":"2022284","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/bf79b7b0-ed3d-7412-69f8-7e174285d38d_58d519d2_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727828534"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/collections\/test_757152b8_thumbnail_4096_de24514d-b63c-4658-900d-030df7231b30.jpg?v=1727780067","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/bendik-giske.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}