Randi Tytingvåg

Various Artists - Magic Moments 8 "Sing Hallelujah"CD / digitalThe eighth edition of the popular series Magic Moments is a 71-minute musical joyride through the current ACT release schedule, and features not just the stars of the label but also its newcomers and discoveries. The ACT label's proprietor and producer-in-chief Siggi Loch has put together a programme of sixteen tracks, under the title “Sing Hallelujah.” Encompassing jazz, soul, gospel and Afro-American roots music, it is yet another example of the Munich-based label defining itself by the will to be different, and by steering well clear of predictable and well-trodden paths. This is music “in the spirit of jazz,” which slips effortlessly between genres. It is fresh and up-to-date, and refuses to be a slave to any pre-ordained style. Magic Moments 8, “Sing Hallelujah” places the vocal artists of ACT in the spotlight. The collection opens with soul-blues legend Mighty Sam McClain, who died very recently. He is heard here with Knut Reiersrud, the Norwegian guitarist. Reiersrud himself is also heard later on another track with singer Solveig Slettahjell and the trio In The Country. They perform “Borrowed Time” from the album "Trail of Souls,” a CD which marries the American gospel and spiritual traditions with a Norwegian sound aesthetic. The title track “Sing Hallelujah,” a song by Mike Settle, is sung by Torsten Goods. He is surrounded by an all-star band of Roberto Di Gioa, Tim Lefebvre and Wolfgang Haffner, and delivers the song with his characteristic cool and nonchalance. Ida Sand has one track "Hey Hey, My My,” in which she honours Neil Young. The voice of Natalia Mateo "has a story all of its own to tell,” in the words of Die Zeit. Mateo gives “I Put a Spell on You,” - sung in the fifties by American blues singer Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and later a huge hit for Nina Simone – a treatment which is bound to take people by surprise. Norwegian singer-songwriter Randi Tytingvåg shows her genuine class on “Steady Going,” a song with its roots in American folk and country music. Drummer Wolfgang Haffner in “Piano Man” brings vocals to his “Kind of Cool” group with the powerful soul singer Max Mutzke. The final tracks of Magic Moments 8 are all instrumentals, but they could not be more varied and contrasted. Bassist Dieter Ilg with his regular trio interpret Beethoven; Iiro Rantala plays John Lennon's “Imagine” alone at the piano; saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, a 3-time Downbeat winner in 2015, honours the great Charlie Parker with “Bird Calls. The old cowhand shout of Yippee Ki Yay….in Berlin? Kalle Kallema the Finnish guitarist now makes his home in the German capital and his trio's take on the western classic “Ghost Riders In the Sky,” by Stan Jones and the Death Valley Rangers really does bring High Noon to the mean streets of Kreuzberg. Pianist Frank Woeste, born in Hannover, is a new face on the ACT Label. He has been a major and consistent success in France where he now lives, and where he frequently performs with Ibrahim Maalouf and Youn Sun Nah. Here the singer brings her unique and inimitable voice to “Star Gazer.” “If music be the food of love, play on,” begins Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night. Add the words “... and of life,” and what results is an artistic credo, the philosophy which underlies all that the ACT label does. Siggi Loch and his team have been producing nourishing music for the past 23 years with an unstinting passion and an instinct for quality. This is music which goes straight the hearts and minds of people whose ears are open to the unexpected, and who love good music. “Magic Moments 8” is 100% true to that vision.Credits: Compilation by Siggi Loch Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

Randi Tytingvåg - ThreeCD / digital Randi Tytingvåg vocals, prepared piano Dag S. Vagle guitar, vocals, backing vocals Erlend Aasland banjo, tenor guitar, cavaquinho, prepared piano, backing vocals The Norwegian singer and songwriter Randi Tytingvåg is about to enchant her audience once again. “Three” is her first album released under the Emotion label that promotes varied music of different genres besides jazz. The album is strongly influenced by Tytingvåg’s love for American folk and country music, and features her own songs as well as interpretations of great classics from various genres. Born in Stavanger, Norway, the 36-year-old is one of Norway’s most popular singer-songwriters. Throughout her five albums she has cultivated a blend of folk, pop and jazz music that is typical for Scandinavian singers, “I have always listened to all different kinds of music, not just one,” says Tytingvåg. She began her professional career by moving to London in the late nineties to study at School of the Arts Roehampton, “I decided to live abroad for a while. This has influenced my personality, my whole development. Singing classes were more of an old-school jazz training, very classical. But to me, it was an important basis before starting to vocally experiment and to move on to crossovers. In Michael Burnett I had a great composition teacher who encouraged me to write my own songs. Additionally I wanted to become fluent in English and therefore learn it in the country itself. “ Her early albums contained some country music, and “Three“ focuses on that early love of hers. “I have always tried to follow my heart. Even as a child, I listened to Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash or Gram Parsons. And I am still doing that today.” But there is more to it: “I am always influenced by the musicians I am working with at the moment.” On “Three” this is Dag S. Vagle und Erlend Aasland, whom Tytingvåg met just two years ago though Vagle grew up close to Tytingvåg’s hometown Stavanger, and both are not only outstanding representatives of Norway’s country scene, but have also played jazz. In these two musicians she found the perfect complement for the trio she envisioned. “I wanted a project that despite the small line-up offered many opportunities. Dag is a fantastic singer and guitarist, Erlend, too, is an extraordinary singer and masters a whole variety of instruments. This was perfect. We have worked on the arrangements for a long time to create our sound.” In fact, “Three” has its own, very calm flow, celebrating the sound of voices and strings. Aasland’s high banjo or cavaquinho-voice (a kind of ukulele), sometimes calm, sometimes grooving energetically, melts harmonically with Vagle’s warm, rocking guitars. Every now and then a prepared piano adds a different colour or a new bass line. Absolutely outstanding however are Randi Tytingvåg’s duets with Vagle and the chorals sung by the three of them: expressive, calm and powerful at the same time. This becomes even more prominent as Tytingvåg works completely without drums or percussion. “It was very important to me to get away from any staffage. I have tried to undress the songs and to reach for their core. And to focus on what the song is actually about”, she stresses. She makes this vision come true not only in six beautiful, varied compositions, but also in eight standards of different genres – stretching from Gilbert Becaud’s “Let It Be Me” and “Que Sera Sera”, brought into prominence by Doris Day, over Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” and Bob Thiele’s Louis Armstrong evergreen “What A Wonderful World” to Cole Porter’s “Don’t Fence Me in” and Gillian Welch’s “Hard Times”. “These are all songs I grew up with, that formed part of my musical education. Songs that I really love to sing”, says Tytingvåg. One song that might especially appeal to the German audience is Friedrich Hollaender’s “Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß auf Liebe eingestellt” – performed in German! “I have learned German at school, I love the language. It is so clear and direct. First I knew only the English interpretation of the song, “Falling In Love Again”, but when I later found out about Marlene Dietrich’s version, I was literally blown away. This was so much more powerful and profound. It was without any question that I would sing this song in German if I ever recorded it.”Credits: Music and lyrics by Randi Tytingvåg unless otherwise noted Produced by Randi Tytingvåg Recorded live at Nrk Rogaland, September 2014 Sound engineer: Per Ravnaas Mixed by Per Ravnaas Mastered by Ulf W.Ø. Holand at Holand Sound