Jan Bang is a Norwegian producer, composer and performer known for pioneering Live Sampling and Live Remix. In 2005 together with Erik Honoré, they formed the internationally acclaimed Punkt Festival, now in it´s 18th year. Punkt has visited 27 cities around the world and has a reputation for being the musician’s festival.

Reading The Air is a set of songs composed by Bang with lyrics by Erik Honoré. The first recording session with Eivind Aarset, Audun Erlien and Anders Engen took place at Ampertone studio in Oslo, 2014. Another session was organized in 2021. Bang took these basic recordings and continued with further overdubs at Punkt studio in Kristiansand. New songs were made and with Erik Honoré onboard for writing the lyrics and final mix. Reading The Air will be performed live by a stellar set of musicians including Eivind Aarset (guitar, electronics), Anneli Drecker (vocals), Anders Engen (drums), Audun Erlien (bass), Jan Bang (vocals, piano, sampler) and Sven Persson (sound).

Jan – ”After having worked with mostly instrumental music for the last couple of decades, I saw myself drawn to melody and more traditional harmonic structures. This is what has been interesting me for the last few years. I returned to my old piano, the same instrument I used to write songs in my formative years. I quickly sent these songs to my creative partner, Erik Honoré who responded with lyrics quickly to the ten pieces as they were presented to him. This is the way we used to work together when we first met in the mid-eighties. Funny how returning to certain ways of working in the past resurfaces at a later stage in life.”

The album is due for release in spring 2023 on the new Punkt Editions label run by Bang and Honoré that has been established as a vehicle for new releases as well as Punkt Live Remixes from the vaults.