Out of Scandinavia: New Indie Music from the Nordics
Ongoing, the first Thursday of each month (except for Monday, March 14, 2011), doors 7 pm/concert 7:30 pm
Concert for May 5, 2011 TBA
$10 ($8 ASF Members)

Out of Scandinavia is an on-going series of uniquely selected musical performances the first Thursday of each month, headlining a myriad of fresh Nordic musicians that features one-off and premiere performances. Through subtle, deft curating of disparate styles, Out of Scandinavia will satiate your craving for innovative and compelling new indie music from the Nordics.

Out of Scandinavia: New Indie Music from the Nordics is made possible in part by the Consulate General of Denmark, New York; the Consulate General of Finland, New York; the Consulate General of Sweden, New York; Iceland Naturally; Music Export Finland; Music Export Norway, and Export Music Sweden.

Double Bill: Helena Espvall & Pétur Ben
February 3

Helena Espvall
Born and raised in Sweden, and having played the guitar and cello in several rock bands (as well as performing in a silent movie orchestra and an Arabian Music ensemble), Helena Espvall moved to the U.S. in 2000. Besides performing with the renowned Philadelphia band Espers, Helena collaborates with many others in the psychedelic folk and free improvisation world. She has recorded with folk guitar legend Bert Jansch, toured with Vashti Bunyan, and Damon & Naomi, and released two albums on Drag City records consisting of Swedish folk songs and improvisations together with Tokyo musician Masaki Batoh.

Espvall has performed several times at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, twice at the High Zero Festival of improvised music in Baltimore, at the Improvised and Otherwise Festival in Brooklyn, at the Big Sur
experimental festival in California and at Terrastock 2006 in Providence, Rhode Island, among others.

Pétur Ben
Born in Reykjavík in1976, Pétur Ben has been playing and writing music since his teens. Although active in the Icelandic underground scene for years, Ben first became known for playing with Mugison, as well as arranging and writing Mugison's 2004 album, Mugimama is this Monkeymusic.

Ben graduated from the composition department at the Reykjavík Academy of Music in 2004, where he studied with Úlfar Ingi Haraldsson and Hródmar Ingi Sigurbjörnsson. The composition degree has come to good use for this indie rock artist. The music to Ragnar Bragason's Children/Börn (2006) and Parents/Foreldrar (2007) are his first film scores and he has been involved in several theatre productions. Most notable are his score for Strindberg's Dreamplay directed by Benedikt Erlingsson and his arrangement for Woyzeck a Vesturport production with original music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. Ben has also made a name for himself for arranging music for others, including Mugison, Slowblow, and Telepathetics.