Music: Francisco López, Otomo Yoshihide, Jazzkammer, Merzbow, Toshimaru Nakamura, Supersilent, Tore H. Boe, David Cotner, Lasse Marhaug, Deathprod, Nordic Miracle, John Hegre, ARM, Hakon Kornstad, Alexander Rishaug, Fe-Mail, DEL, Helge Sten, MBD, Michael Duch, KA, Kai Mikalsen, Jan de Gier, H.C. Gilje, Arne Borgan, Ivar Grydlland, XYZ, Ingar Zach.
Nor Noise is a documentary – or rather an interview film – about Noise music. Which is not music nor mere noise but something in between.
Through 12 interviews with 12 highly diverse artists within the Noise scene, answers are given to What is Noise? Where does it come from? How do you work with sounds as your main instrument? The relationship between Noise and popular culture is reflected upon, and Noise is put into a historical context spanning from the Futurists and up to todays laptop artists.
The film contains a lot of rare concert footage with the artists. Featured artists: TORE H. BØE, DAVID COTNER, MASAMI AKITA, LASSE MARHAUG, TASHIMARU NAKAMURA, ARM, ASBJØRN FLØ, MAJA S.K. RATKJE, KJELL RUNAR JENSSEN, FRANCISCO LÓPEZ, HELGE STEN and OTOMO YOSHIHIDE.
“This film started out with me wanting to make a documentary about Lasse Marhaug. But that had to include what happened on the especially vibrant noise scene in Trondheim around the turn of the century. And it had to include Tore H. Bøe, whom together with Lasse organized it all.
This was back in 2001. That year was seminal for Noise in Norway. The compilation “Le Jazz Non” got rave reviews and made the media aware of the fact that Norwegian Noise artists were having success abroad. And a lot of big names came to Norway: Masami Akita, Otomo Yoshihide, Tashimaru Nakamura, Francisco López. Suddenly “everybody” talked about Noise music. And I was in the middle of it all with a camera, asking every artist I met the same simple question: “What is Noise music?”
This film collects twelve different answers from twelve very different artists. Even though they work differently, have different musical backgrounds and seem to have very little in common musically, they belong to the same tradition. Through the interviews the history, aesthetics and technical aspects of Noise is covered. That’s the red line of this film.
I never had any money making this film, so the artists interviewed are the ones I had the opportunity to meet. But this isn’t a comprehensive history about noise music or about the artists anyway, it’s a documentation of some of the ideas and techniques that make up Noise music. Another thing: This film was always meant to be released as a DVD; hence the structure. Also I wanted to make a simple, clean cut film where the visual expression didn’t emulate the Noise music. I wanted to make a film where the artist got the time to say what they had to say about what they were doing. And that’s this.
(By the way: The Masami Akita interview – it’s supposed to be like that…)”