The interstellar journey has come to an end. Meditations on Time and Distance - the third part of the album trilogy, combines, re-visits and morphs material from the two previous albums (Fantasies on a Journey… and Contemplations…), creating an uncanny and dreamlike world, full of broken dreams and twisted memories.

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Meditations on Time and Distance

Improvisation recorded live at The Norwegian Museum Of Science, September 12th, 2010.

Isak Anderssen & Jon Halvor Bjørnseth played various electronic devices.

Båndvidda - Halvorsen's Workshop (2010)

Track from the forthcoming Upper Rooms album "Dream Glitch" (to be released March 26th 2021).

Dream Glitch

Download on Bandcamp

Upper Rooms - Golden

Fourteen Billion Years of Solitude

The Grid

Entexaz

Around twenty years ago I came up with this idea that I should start a project called Bleak Guitar - an instrumental "band" that would bring together all my preferences for shimmering guitars, dream pop, goth, postrock, folk etc. It never happened - until now. Some of the tracks I will publish here are based on old sketches that have been with me for quite some time. Some tracks have been used in other previous versions for plays etc., and some tracks are of a recent date. Maybe it will end up as an album one day? Enjoy!

Bleak Guitar - Swirly, Swirly

Memories of Dreams

Signs and Signals

Debris

Continuum Ripples

16. og 17. oktober holdt UNOF Oslo sitt høstseminar, hvor jeg var så heldig å holde workshop i komposisjon og musikkteknologi.
Stor takk til mine seks unge deltakere. Dere lagde et skikkelig fint verk!

Bela, Richard, Imma, Clovis, Ella, Nova & Isak - BRICENI

Båndvidda (Jon Halvor Bjørnseth & Isak Anderssen) improvising on a Sunday afternoon with Isak's daughter Ida on the bass guitar. Recorded live on Nov. 14th 2021, Oslo, Norway.

Båndvidda feat. Ida - Ivar Aasen Er En Hval

Long live the mighty lynx! This is the fourth single in the series of music for cello and electronics. Originally written for the play "Av dyr er du kommet" (2011). Slightly remixed and remastered for this release.

Written and produced by Isak Anderssen. Artwork by Isak Anderssen.

Gaupe

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Recorded live on March the 4th, 2006 at the Black Box Theatre, Oslo.
Isak Anderssen - electric guitar, electronics and backing vocs.
Jon Halvor Bjørnseth - bass stick, electronics and lead vocs.
Dancer - Kaja Slotnæs
Choreography - Inger-Reidun Olsen

Båndvidda - The Tic (2006)

"The Blue Hour - for bass guitar, domestic instruments and tape" by Isak Anderssen. Recorded live on VHS-tape at the Norwegian Academy of Music on Sunday 26th of November 1995. 
The members of Oslo Industriensemble were (in alphabetical order): Isak Anderssen, David Bratlie, Eivind Buene, Asbjørn Blokkum Flø, Lars Petter Hagen, Petter Udland Johansen, Johannes Martens, Maja S. K. Ratkje, Trond Reinholdtsen and Dagfinn Rosnes. 
Video link to performance here: https://youtu.be/IqKVdwvOKTo

Oslo Industriensemble - The Blue Hour (1995)

Båndvidda, aka Jon Halvor Bjørnseth and Isak Anderssen, trying out their new hanging xylophone - "Stokkofon" with the kids at www.festspillnn.no June 23rd 2015. 100 % improvised, 100 % fun!

Båndvidda - Stokkofon Impro (2015)

Upper Rooms is a provider of quirky and melodic electronic tunes since 1998. The new single Josie Magpie is now out on most streaming / DL-services!

Upper Rooms - Josie Magpie

Båndvidda - Halvorsen 2 (2010)

Båndvidda - Halvorsen Dub (2010)

Båndvidda - Halvorsen 1 (2010)

Yell Welts Elfie Light

Slightly

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Upper Rooms - Slightly

100 percent piano sounds - manipulated digitally. Thank you Bela Bartok for inspiration.
These pieces are made with funding from Komponistenes Vederlagsfond.

Spotify

Gons

Sounds from a passing car stereo heavily manipulated. Ørsta, July 29th, 2017.

This track is part of the evolving album "There Are Places I Remember":
https://soundcloud.com/isakanderssen/sets/there-are-places-i-remember

Ørsta

Here I've tried out the fantastic program for coding/livecoding - Sonic Pi by @samaaron  - easy to learn and very fun to use! You can download it for free here: https://sonic-pi.net/

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Sine Lullaby

This commissioned track from 2005 is finally available for all the world to hear!
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/6PQNkwMF7jZ9PcYVbcJe2w?si=thTfI9VVT6O2z7rzEMdaKw
Apple Music/iTunes: https://music.apple.com/us/album/basso-continuous-single/1488673020
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x97hZ-orvrk
Bandcamp: https://isakanderssen.bandcamp.com/track/basso-continuous
Written and produced by Isak Anderssen. Artwork by Isak Anderssen.

Basso Continuous

Song Of The Stellar Sirens

Another rare track from the Upper Rooms discography: The track Ice Pickle from the split 7-inch with Silverscale and Anodyne/Sophitia from 1998. Only 100 copies were made. The master tape is also hard to find, so I bring you a ripped version from my own vinyl copy (scratchy and noisy, but you get the idea).

Upper Rooms - Ice Pickle (1998)

Upper Rooms - Breeze (1998)

A slow paced krell-patch on the 0-coast, interacting with the Landscape Stereo Field and spiced up with some live sampling by the morphagene. A little reverb from the Little Plate added in the end.

Krell Study 1

Dirge

Once again I've patched the well known «Krell» on the Make Noise 0-coast. The Morphagene also plays along, making it's own live variations on the patch with a bit of manual knob manipulations. Finally I intercept everything with both the Korg SQ-1 and the Landscape Stereofield (both as a CV controller and as a sound source in itself). Live recording with no overdubs.

Krell Study 2

This is the sum of three improvisations on a drone patch following more or less the same structure. Subtle variations from each take blend together. The tracks are mixed together with no overdubs (just a few reverb effects added).

Isak Anderssen

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