Moment#11

"A view from the mountain" with Nils Petter Molvær.

Born in Molde, Norway, Knut Bjørnar wasted little time to begin his journey with music. First playing the guitar at the tender age of 6, it was not long before he had written and recorded more than 80 songs on a cassette recorder for his nearest and dearest family members - and all before his 13th birthday. Early on, he was heavily influenced by bands such as Kiss and Deep Purple, and spent the majority of his time practicing scales, chords, solos, and mimicking his heros' stage moves in front of the mirror. The town of Molde annually plays host to one of the world's most celebrated jazz festivals - the Molde International Jazz Festival. This festival proved to be a key ingredient in Asphol's development, and a significant channel for him to explore great musicians, and provided an open door for the discovery of improvised music. Soon Knut Bjørnar found himself shifting influences from Gary Moore, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Jimi Hendrix to the improvisational genius of players like John Scofield, Pat Metheny, and Terje Rypdal.

In 1998, Asphol completed his Masters Degree in Music from the University of Oslo. His main dissertation was based on his research in the development of the distorted sound. This essay, entitled "Exploring Distortion", was a new direction for subject study within the University. Staffan William-Olsson and Eivind Aarset, two of his guitar teachers and advisers at this time, helped Knut Bjørnar to embark on his journey into these previously uncharted waters. Eventually his work and life as a freelance musician provided the perfect platform to start Masterpool Studio, where he began to record and produce music for other artists. Then delving even further, Asphol established a world-class analog mastering studio. In 2003, he participated in the National Eurovision Final with his band (Monopole) and as a composer. Knut Bjørnar then joined the band Postscriptum in 2005. Two years later, 2007 saw the release of the group's widely acclaimed album "Prophet Deny". Postscriptum then embarked on a heavy tour schedule throughout Norway and the rest of Europe in support of said album. In 2009, our hero decided to end his relationship with the band - due to his increasing demand as a producer and mastering engineer.

October 14, 2011 celebrates the awaited release of Knut Bjørnar Asphol's latest opus, "Mnemonic". Many of the early ideas for this album were recorded in the autumn of 2008, but like a fine wine; it would need time to fully mature and be "un-corked".

Knut Bjørnar produced lots of albums for different artists in this period, so the album was ready for the world in June 2013. He was lucky to get many of his favourite musicians on "Wilderness Exit". This great team of musicians made the album to a fantastic atmospheric journey : Nils Petter Molvær, Helge Lien, Stian Carstensen, Harpreet Bansal, Magnus Westgaard, Zotora, Torstein Lofthus, Martin Hystad and Sanskriti Shrestha. In March 2013 he recorded a duo album with the great violin player Harpreet Bansal. She participate on two tracks on "Wilderness Exit". This is a great ambient album with violin, guitar, electronics and tabla. The album "Ragatronic" was released in February 2014, and was a great collaboration that inspired both Bansal and Asphol to collaborate again in the future.

Asphol released "Tabloid Red" in February 2016. It is an ambient album best described as reminiscent of the classic works of Brian Eno. On the nine tracks of "Tabloid Red", Asphol's guitar playing is transformed into mostly spherical soundscapes, some – as with "The Silver Thread" – featuring everyday sounds, or else with percussive elements worked into the mix by way of sampling and programming. The album is produced by Jan Bang and was recorded in his studio in Kristiansand, Norway. Erik Honoré mixed the album and did some additional sampling. "Tabloid Red" is Knut Bjørnar Asphol's most experimental work to date. It is an ambient gem of solemn beauty, one that requires a great deal of time and idiosyncratically leads us to rediscover the beauty of slowness.

Knut Bjørnar loves electronic music and loves to combine organic acoustic instruments with electronic textures. He began diving deep into this genre in the late 90’s. He has also used a lot of electronic elements on his solo albums and on albums that he has produced for other artists. In 2016, he released the first single from his electronica project D’Dorian. He released three singles the first year and followed up with an EP trilogy called Mind Flower. Part 1 was released in February 2017.

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