Jon Balke

From the very first note, Norway’s Jon Balke proposes a new sonic dimension with Skrifum, continuing a line of inquiry begun with Warp (2016) and Discourses (2020), solo piano albums which also processed the acoustic environment in which the music was heard. Skrifum (the Icelandic word for “write”) takes things a step further.  With the aid of electronic audio tool the Spektrafon, which he helped develop, Balke is now able to directly manipulate ambient audio sound from the piano while playing –…

Two-CD anthology compiled by Jon Balke from the Magnetic North Orchestra albums Further (1993), Solarized (1998) and Kyanos (2001), with Anders Jormin, Audun Kleive, Per Jørgensen, Arve Henriksen, Morten Halle and string players including the Cikada String Quartet.

Third album by Jon Balke's Siwan, setting poems from 11th-century Al-Andalus, with singer Mona Boutchebak, Derya Türkan (kemençe), Pedram Khavar Zamini (tombak), Helge Norbakken and Barokksolistene. Recorded May-June 2021 at The Village Recording, Copenhagen.

Third ECM solo album by Norwegian pianist Jon Balke: sixteen short pieces for piano and processed soundscapes on the theme of dialogue and polarised speech. Recorded at Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI, Lugano (session of December 2019), produced by Manfred Eicher.

Second ECM album by Jon Balke's Siwan, with Algerian singer Mona Boutchebak, Derya Türkan (kemençe), Helge Norbakken and Pedram Khavar Zamini (percussion) and strings of Barokksolistene, setting poetry of Al Andalus. Recorded January 2017 in Copenhagen.

Second ECM solo album by Norwegian pianist Jon Balke: sixteen short piano pieces set in "sound images" (field recordings, electronics, voices) made with Audun Kleive. Recorded September 2014 at Rainbow Studio, Oslo, mixed 2015 in Lugano; produced by Balke and Manfred Eicher.

Fifth album by the Norwegian trio Jøkleba (Per Jørgensen, trumpet, voice; Jon Balke, piano, electronics; Audun Kleive, drums, electronics) and its first for ECM: free collective pieces recorded in May 2014 at Madstun and Rainbow Studio, Oslo.

Second ECM album by Batagraf, led by Jon Balke and Helge Andreas Norbakken, with Erland Dahlen, singer Emilie Stoesen Christensen and poet Torgeir Rebolledo Pedersen, recorded in various locations in 2009 and mixed by Olav Torget in 2010/11.

Jon Balke (keyboards, conductor) and Amina Alaoui (voice) set Andalusian, Sufi and Christian mystical poetry with Kheir Eddine M'Kachiche (violin), Jon Hassell (trumpet, electronics) and Bjarte Eike's Barokksolistene. Recorded 2007-2008 at Rainbow Studio, Oslo.

First solo piano album by Jon Balke: 19 short composed and improvised pieces in four chapters and an epilogue, recorded September 2006 at Radio Studio DRS, Zurich, produced by Manfred Eicher. CD, ECM 2010, 2007.

Jon Balke (piano, keyboards) and the Magnetic North Orchestra, a septet with Per Jørgensen, Arve Henriksen, Morten Halle, Svante Henryson, Anders Jormin and Audun Kleive. Recorded November 2001 at Rainbow Studio, Oslo, released by ECM in 2002.