Format: Double Vinyl + booklet (32 pages) and/or digital

Release date: 25th of May

The H-block, or Høyblokka as it is called in Norwegian, was the Government Quarter’s main building. The was building was completed in 1958. Architect Erling Viksjø was inspired by the French modernist Le Corbusier, and set out to create an elegant, monumental but sober functionalism.

On 22 July 2011 at 15:25:22 (CEST), a car bomb was detonated outside H-block. The car, a Volkswagen Crafter, was parked just outside the main entrance. The bomb killed eight people and injured a further two hundred. It also left a deep crater in the ground and caused major damage to the building, which nevertheless remained standing. 

The terrorist then travelled to Utøya island outside Oslo, where the Labour Party Youth Wing, AUF – Arbeiderpartiets Ungdomsforening, held its annual summer camp. Disguised as a policeman, he killed sixty-nine innocent young people and injured another sixty-six before he was stopped by the police Delta Force Group seventy minutes later. 

During two nights in October 2017, sound artist Alexander Rishaug was granted permission by Statsbygg (Norwegian Directorate of Public Construction and Property) to enter Høyblokka and record the sound of the vacant building. All the interior, furniture and equipment had been removed, leaving the building completely empty and abandoned, like a ghost in the middle of Oslo city centre. 

Equipped with a directional microphone, two DPAs, and a set of contact mics, Rishaug began to explore and monitor the building’s acoustics, vibrations and resonance. Y (59°54’54,76”N 10°44’46,03”Ø) is a sonic portrait of the Government Quarter, an investigation of Høyblokka’s psychoacoustic state, at a point in time between past and future, before it is renovated, refurbished, and put to new uses as a political and administrative centre. In the title of this soundscape, the Y represents the Y-block and the coordinates (59°54’54,76”N 10°44’46,03”Ø) locate the H-block and the Government Quarter .

The album and art project is part of  and co-produced by osloBIENNALEN, FIRST EDITION 2019 – 2024, curated by Eva González-Sancho Bodero and  Per Gunnar Eeg-Tverbakk. osloBIENNALEN is initiated and financed by the City of Oslo, Agency for Cultural Affairs, Norway. 

The project could not have been realised without the funding and courage from URO / KORO and Bo Krister Wallström. 

Recorded inside Høyblokka, Oslo:  
29 October 2017, 05:38PM–11:45AM 
30 October 2017, 03:30PM–06:47AM 

Recording assistant: Ilay Bachke 

Mixed and edited by Alexander Rishaug at SinZen Studio, Oslo, 2018 – 2019 

Mastered by Helge Sten  at Audio Virus Lab, Oslo 

Mastercut by Helmut Erler at  Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin 

Design by Blank Blank / Petri Henriksson and Sandra Stokka 

Photos by Arne B. Langleite and Alexander Rishaug, October 2017 

Cover photo by Teigens Fotoatelier circa 1960, Dextra Photo/NorskTeknisk Museum. 
Backside photo by Arne B. Langleite

 Copy Editing by Martin Berner Mathiesen

Booklet printed by Livonia Print Ltd. 

Vinyl pressing by Optimal Media 

Vinyl manufacturing by handle with care 

The dialogue with Statsbygg regarding the recording sessions in Høyblokka were coordinated by Charlotte Hagelund and Jan Christensen. 

Thanks to 22. juli-senteret for their trust and support and for granting permission to record during closing hours. 

Thanks to Ebba Moi for endless love and support, Per Henrik Svalastog for critical feedback, Statsbygg for granting permission, DSS – Departementenes sikkerhets- og serviceorganisasjon for guiding us safely around the building. 

Co-published by osloBIENNALEN, Agency for Cultural Affairs, City of Oslo and Motto. 

Distribution by Motto. 

www.mottobooks.com 
www.oslobiennalen.no
www.arishaug.com

Y (59°54′54​,​76′′N 10°44′46​,​03′′Ø)

Ma.Org Pa.Git is the fifth solo release from Norwegian sound artist and experimental musician Alexander Rishaug, exploring the space, the acoustics and the mechanics of a church organ, and the hiss, overtones and feedback of an old tube amp and electric guitar. 

The album consist of two long duration pieces that were recorded in the Norwegian Seamen’s Church in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, in January 2012. Edited, mixed and digitally processed in Brugata and studio oran/zen in Berlin. 

Ma.Org Pa.Git was initially released as a limited edition of 200 copies, 180g vinyl, and as a digital download by Crónica

Recorded in the Norwegian Seamen’s Church in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, January 2012, using church organ, electric guitar and a Vox Limited amp. 

Mixed and edited in Brugata, Oslo & oran/zen, Berlin, 2014. 
Mastered by Miguel Carvalhais. 
Released by Crónica 2015

Ma.org Pa.git

During the period October, 2018–October, 2021, sound artist Alexander Rishaug has explored the sound of the Norwegian landscape, with focus on Northern Norway. While a research fellow in artistic development work at the Academy of Arts, The Arctic University of Norway, he has explored how sound affects us and changes our experience of place, time and space.

This resulted in an extensive audio and image archive, notes, audio experiments, an album, a photo book and a series of sound installations.

Rishaug has visited, and listened to, a buzzing bitcoin factory, Fakken wind farm on Vannøya, Hurtigruta's creaking hull, a closed down Tromsø city centre, an abandoned swimming pool, electromagnetic sound currents and the urban city's constant vibration.

The book documents three years of field work and recording and comes a long with a digital (QR-code) field recording album.

Published by Mondo Book and design by Blank Blank Design.

To purchase the book, go here: https://alexanderrishaug.bandcamp.com/merch/alexander-rishaug-tuning-into-the-norwegian-landscape-2018-2021

Field notes - Tuning into the Norwegian landscape

In parallel to Ma.Org Pa.Git, the remix album Ma.Org Pa.Git Re.Mx features an international selection of sound artists and their interpretations of Rishaug’s compositions. He invited artists that have been an inspiration or that influenced his work from early involvement in the experimental music scene in the mid-nineties until present. Norwegian and Oslo-based Svalastog, Dutch and Rotterdam-based Machinefabriek, Icelandic Curver, Japanese and Tokyo- based Tetsuro Yasunaga and Sakana Hosomi, member of SND and UK-based Mark Fell, Belgian- based Köhn, Norwegian-based and member of Alog, Espen Sommer Eide alias Phonophani, Canadian-based Loscil, Japanese and Kanazawa-based Asuna and Australian-based Seaworthy.

Released by Crónica, February 18, 2015 

Compiled by Alexander Rishaug. 
Mastered by Miguel Carvalhais.

Ma.org Pa.git Re.mx

"Shadow of Events" by Alexander Rishaug. Recorded and edited in Oslo 2006 - 2010. Mixed and produced in Berlin 2010. Master by Audun Strype. Cover art by MVM, Magnus Voll Mathiassen. Released on Dekorder 2011

Shadow of Events

Kabelvåg Torg 20.03.2019 19:24

Digermulen Skole, Svømmehall 18.09.2019 14:26

Tønsnesvarden, Tromsø/Romssa 08.10.2019 17:54

Kryptovault, Dale 04.02.2019

Huk, Bygdøy, Oslo 13.02.2021 19:40

Recorded with Sound Devices MixPre-6, stereo DPA 4061

Henriksen Kaia, Kirkenes/Girkonjárga 15.02.2019 15:31

Fakken Vindkraftpark, Vannøy/Várdnasuolu 02.06.2019 16:42

Hurtigruta, Tromsø-Brønnøysund 30.04.2021 14:29

Machinefabriek - Ma.org Remix

Per Henrik Svalastog - Ma.org Remix

Köhn - Ma.org Remix

Mark Fell - Ma.org Remix (Mf Ar Long)

Hosomi Sakana - Ma.org Remix (alx rmx skn)

Phonophani - Ma.org Remix (alexremix2mix)

Alexander Rishaug live synth improv at Basic Electricity #12, K77, Berlin, 27.06.2014. Using a modular synth and a Roland Juno 60. 

Photo: James Welburn

Alexander Rishaug live improv at Basic Electricity #12, K77, Berlin

Alexander Rishaug, Soup, Tokyo, Japan 25.10.2014

Soundtrack for the experimental short film Y, by Sabina Jacobsson. Ergeverk 1999.

Soundtrack for the short film Y

Remix for Andi stecher. From the album 
Austreiben / Antreiben, Heart of Noise Records.

https://andistecher.bandcamp.com/album/austreiben-antreiben

Alexander Rishaug - Tödi Remix

Speaking & Building, prosessing choreographic relations / research performance by EC Richardsen, Sound: A.Rishaug, Light: T. Leira. KHIO 2015, Oslo, Norway

Speaking And Building, Documentation Part II

Speaking & Building, Documentation Part I

Constructions to be made . . . where recorded at EMS in Stockholm 2011 during a two week residency. Source material include a Serge modular and a Buchla synthesizer. The piece had a limitation of 4 minutes, so I divided the structure in to four themes, with a duration of one minutes each. The track where finished and mixed down at Brugata, Oslo 2012. The piece where selected for the exhibition ProPro Prob at Moderna, Malmö. A dive into EMS archive between 1963-2012.

Constructions to be made . . .

The piece Untitled / No Merzi was commissioned by Lasse Marhaug and Lars Finborud, as a part of the Schwitters Day. Performed on Dubbin & Davidson sound sculptures and an external PA. Source material from the art center and live improvisation with a modular synthesizer. An edited version of this will find it's way to a vinyl later . . . !

Alexander Rishaug

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