muzycy:
Jon Larsen, guitar, martian
Tommy Mars, keyboards, telephone
Bruce Fowler, trombone
Arthur Barrow, general magic & bass
Rob Waring, marimba
Jimmy Carl Black, vocal, percussion
Knut Reiersrud, guitar, harmonica
Hakon Mjaset Johansen, drums

Editor's Info:
Norwegian guitarist, composer, painter and surrealist Jon Larsen has recorded a concept album with some of the musicians from Frank Zappa's famed band The Mothers of Invention. Strange news for Mars tells the story of the spacecraft Big Ear III's voyage to the red planet.

Underway captain Zurcon and his crew are about to solve three of the greatest mysteries to mankind. Only hearing the record itself will reveal what these are, but needless to say, extra terrestrial intelligence is a key here.

The album is written, arranged and produced by Jon Larsen in its entirety. It was recorded in Los Angeles in March with Tommy Mars, Bruce Fowler, Jimmy Carl Black and Arthur Barrow. Strange News also features musical stunts from Norwegian musical dignitaries such as Knut Reiersrud, (guitar/harmonica), Rob Waring (marimba), Ole Morten Vagan (bass), and Hakon Mjaset Johansen (drums).
Zappa's old musicians were so taken by the project and the sessions that they immediately requested a sophomore. And now the plan as to make it a trilogy! Tours are already in the planning.

Jon Larsen is best known perhaps from his legendary Django-ensemble Hot Club de Norvege, which he founded way back in 1979. The band has had an astonishing success in Norway and worldwide, releasing 25 albums and collaborating, across genres, with elite musicians and all kinds of ensembles and orchestras.

Larsen is a guitarist, composer and painter. Painting was his first vocation, and from studying Dali and surrealism in the late 70s he eventually started infusing much of that spirit into music, especially when he took up composing in the nineties. In his blog he explains that: �Discovering the short way between improvisation, which I've been doing all my life, and composition, was also a discovery of what had really been going on in the Zappa universe to which I was always so drawn. Understanding more how that remark.......
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Jon Larsen, jeden ze spadkobierców tradycji Django Reinhardta, genialnego cygańskiego gitarzysty konsekwentnie wychodzi poza swingową stylistykę. Jednak tak daleko jeszcze nigdy się nie zapuszczał.
Okazuje się, że ten niezwykle płodny gitarzysta i kompozytor [także malarz] ma jeszcze jednego bohatera, jest nim Frank Zappa. Niestety Franka Zappy już nie wśród żywych, są jednak muzycy, którzy przez lata jemu towarzyszyli, czy to w The Mothers of Invention czy też w innych składach. Na płycie usłyszymu Eda Manna [percussion], Tommy Marsa [keyboards], Bruce'a Fowlera [trombone], Jimmy'ego Carla Blacka [vocal/percussion] i Arthura Barrowa [bass].
Ponadto Jon Larsen zaprosił jeszcze muzyków z rodzimej, norweskiej sceny muzycznej: Knut Reiersrud (guitar/harmonica), Rob Waring (marimba), Ole Morten Vagan (bass), Hakon Mjaset Johansen (drums).
'Strange News from Mars' to dowód na to, że spuścizna surrealistycznej wyobraźni Zappy potrafi znaleźć bardzo podatny grunt.
Płyta nagrana została w Lotek Studio, Mar Vista, Los Angeles, to tutaj powstały najsłynniejsze nagrania takich wykonawców jak The Doors, Zappa, Van Morrison. . .
autor: Paweł Matuła