LabField

Biography

LabField's musical objective is to create a condition that the listener apparently can experience as static, but upon closer listening contains layers of detail that is constantly changing. The sound in the room helps to reinforce the chaos of the produced sound, and to make it difficult for the listener to localize sound sources to the various teams that sounds. Their debut album Fish Forms (2008) and the follow up Collab (2010), showed an improvising duo using an overwhelmingly rich sound, on a steady course through a hypnotic drone landscape. Third album, Bucket of Songs (2014), now as a trio with guests, shows a band that has expanded its palette considerably since their previous release. Whereas the focus was previously on a soundscape characterised by long, richly detailed, slowly flowing drones, this new album is more a collection of improvised songs and tunes. The amazing Mariam Wallentin, known from bands like Wildbirds & Peacdrums, Mariam the Believer, Fire! Orchestra, contributes vocals on many of the tracks.

LabField has been a duo comprising the Swedish guitarist David Stackenäs, known from bands like Territory Band, Seval, Fire! Orchestra, and the Norwegian percussionist Ingar Zach, known from collaborations like Huntsville, Dans Les Arbres, Arve Henriksen, Erik Honoré). Both are well-known names in the European improv scene. Stackenäs and Zach previously played in the trio Tri-Dim together with saxophonist Håkon Kornstad. When the trio was put aside, they decided to form a duo and create a laboratory for trying out radically different approaches to music. Giuseppe Ielasi from Italy, joined the duo as guest on the album Collab, but is now included as a full member, making the duo into a trio. Ielasi has released several solo albums on the label 12K, and has previously collaborated with Taku Sugimoto, Jerome Noetinger, Phill Niblock, Oren Ambarchi, to mention a few. Ielasi also operates the label School Map.

Band members

Discography