[Pic: Heitor Alvelos]

B J Nilsen, Sound and Recording artist.B.J. Nilsen lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden, Born in 1975. He has been active with experimental music since the early 90´s with various constellations. For the past 5 years he has been releasing records as Hazard on the UK labels Ash International and Touch, making music and sound for documentary film, television and commercials. He is focused on the sound of nature and its effect on humans, field recordings and the perception of time and space as experienced through sound, often electronically treated.

Audio releases 1999 - 2005

Ash 4.5 North
Ash 5.4/5.5 Wood c/w Bridge/Field
Ash 6.5 Wind (In collaboration with Chris Watson)
Touch Tone 17 Land
Touch TO:CDR5 Live at Konzerthaus, Vienna 06_12_03
Touch TO:65 Fade to White

Compilations and Collaborations [Selection]:

Ash 4.1 Antitrade - Peenemunde
Ash 5.2 HISS - Pylons
Touch T_ZERO_4 Touch Sampler 4 - Flood Gate
Touch Tone 13 Light - Meteosat
Touch Tone 20 SPIRE - Organ Works Past Present and Future - Breathe
Touch Tone 21 SPIRE LIVE at St. Pierre Cathedral, Geneva - Rue de Basses
EFA 12565-2 Jazzcity - The Vibrating Room
Charrm 28 &#8211 - Still
Fear Drop Compilation - Fluide
BJNilsen/Stillupsteypa CD Vikinga Brennivin (Helen Scarsdale)

Other music works:

1998-99: Music for TV 3 Program “Efterlyst”
2003: Music for Swedish SVT Documentary about Japaneese and Scandinavian architechture directed by Jesper Wachtmeister, “Kochuu”
2004: Sound recordist, Sound designer and Musician for the documentary “Europeans? United?”
2004: Contribution track for“Surre Terre”, Film commissioned by TV ARTE, France

Selected works and live performances and installations:

1992-97 Various gigs around Europe mainly Germany, Holland, France. With Deutsch Nepal, BDN

1998 Stubnitz (Stockholm)

1999 Lava Kulturhuset, and Athens (Greece), Podewil Berlin (Ger) KREV evening toghether With Leif Elggren Kent Tankred, MSCHarding and CM Von Hausswolff

2000:
TWE, Brussels (Bel), Umeå Konstmuseum (Swe)
USA Tour July: Atlanta, Chattanooga, Pittsburg, Chapel Hill, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit
Concert at the opening of the Leif Elggren retrospective @ Färgfabriken with Thomas Liljenberg, Jean-Louie Hutha.
ERROR, concert together with Zbigniew Karkowski, Leif Elggren, Kent Tankred, Ulf Bilting, CM Von Hausswolff, Mikael Stavstrand, Lars Åkerlund, mfl

2001:
February 8th Live at The Global Café, London
May 17th-28th Touch 2001+ UK Tour Bristol, Brighton, London, Glasgow, Newcastle, Salisbury (In collaboration with Portugese photographer Heitor Alvelos)
July 5th Live performance at the Royal College of Art, London
August 31st Live at Victoria and Albert museum, London
September 28th STUK Arts centre, Leuven, Belgium
September 29th Installation Berlin
October 14th Montreal Film festival Canada, together with Phill Niblock, Rafael Toral
November 3rd Sounds 2001 Fylkingen
November 14th Ljusfesten Fylkingen, together with dancer Katarina Eriksson
December 8th Live Sound Installation, Anagram

2002:
January 11-12th STUK, Leuven, Belgium
March 19th Live med Oren Ambarchi, Tomas Mera Gartz och Torbjörn Abelin
April 20th Malmö & Copenhagen
June 8th New Forms Festival, Den Haag, The Netherlands
July 25th Safe As Milk Festival, Haugesund, Norway with Fennesz and Jazzkammer
September 6th Fribourg, Switzerland With Fennesz and Philip Jeck
October 8th Cave 12, Geneva, Switzerland With Fennesz and Philip Jeck
October 31st Observatori Festival, Valencia, Spain
November 19th-23rd Vooruit, Gent, Belgium with Phill Niblock, Rafael Toral, Fennesz
November 25th-28th Les Boreales Territoires et Identites, Caen, France with CM von Hausswolff, Guds Söner, Cecilia Heisser
December 18th Teater Pero, Stockholm with Tape and TukTuk

2003:
February 13-23rd , Sonic Light festival, Paradiso/de balie Amsterdam, with Francisco Lopez, Hecker, Yasuno Tone amongst others
March 21-22nd, IDEAL Festival, Nantes, France with Wire, Glenn Branca, Carsten Nicolai, Massimo
April 6th “Voices” ICA, London with Chris Watson's insect sounds
June 1st-6th, Disturbances, Copenhagne, Denmark. Sound as Space Creator, freq_out 1.
August 21st Performs “Lake hits the ocean” @ Agriturismo ai colonos, Villacaccia di Lestizza (Udine) Friuli ITALIA
August 28th live @ Blå Oslo
November Tour with KK.Null and Earth:
9th Nijmegen, The Netherlands - Extrapool
10th Antverpen The Netherlands
11th Brussels, Belgium - Magasin 4
December 6th Vienna, Austria. Generator nr. 9 @ Wiener Konzerthaus · Neuer Saal with Fennesz, Philip Jeck and Touch visuals
December 12th @ Sonikas, Festival Internacional de Música Experimental de Vallecas. Centro cultural Paco Rabal, Madrid, Spain

2004:
February 9th-18th and March 21st-28th Commissioned as a sound recordist for a Film to be shot in the east of Europe, Estonia, Lathvia, Poland, Romania, Slovenia
March 9th Live at Fylkingen with Johan Berthling and Oren Ambarchi
IDEAL Festival 2004 w/ Fennesz, Pan Sonic, DJ/Rupture, C.P.U., Mikkel Metal and others
11th-13th of March, 2004 @ Nefertiti, Gothenburg, Sweden
April 23th Live at Häpna Festival
May 2nd, 7 Hour concert interacting with the Ex Silentio, an photography installation by Gustav Broms
September 5th September, La Batie festival, Geneva Switzerland, Cathedral Saint Pierre
September 15th Palace Hotel Anacapri, with Jean Louis Huhta
September 17th Axel Munthe Villa Anacapri, Italy, with S.L.E.M [Lars Åkerlund, Johan Skugge, Andreas Berthling, Jean-Louis Huhta]
September 25th at The Paradiso [Sonic Acts] with Philip Jeck, Fennesz, Chris Watson
October 4th-9th freq_out 2 Soundinstallation at the Heine Onstad Kunstcenter, Oslo, Norway together with Kent Tankred, Maia Ursad, Jacob Kirkegaard, Brandon Labelle, Jim Thirwell, CM von Hausswolff, Mike Harding, PerMagnus Lindborg, Petteri Nisunen, Jana Winderen, Finnbogi Pètursson, Tommi Grönlund, Franz Pommasl. Each Participant were given a frequency range to work within, then the result is presented in a space through speakers
November 11th Ugglan, Stockholm with J-L Huhta
December 15th Performance at Phill Niblock´s Loft, Experimental Intermedia @ Canal Street, NYC, with with Lary 7

2005
March 25th Live at Ultrafest festival, Budapest
March 29th Live at Rhiz, Vienna

Additional info:

Benny Nilsen is published by Touch Music [MCPS] and is a member of STIM. He is also a member in the Fylkingen Society and EMS in Stockholm.

Some selected reviews:

The Wire (UK)
" Fade to White is Benny Jonas Nilsen's first release since last year's rather lovely Live At Konzerthaus Wien, It continues a fascination for environmental soundscapes but, unlike its predecessor, breaks proceedings into six tracks that range in duration between five and fifteen minutes. Each piece was recorded in open spaces around central Europe before being digitally remixed and arranged... These soundscapes mirror the strange intersections of natural and manmade worlds in lengthy brooding passages that accrete into moments of elegiac grandeur."

Aquarius Records (USA)
" Lots of clatter and ambient detritus, footsteps, and passing vehicles, crickets and wind, but over the course of the performance, they shift and flow together until it's a warm and whirring wash of delicate low end rumbles and faraway shimmer. So beautiful.."

VITAL (The Netherlands)
" ..On his live concert in Vienna, Hazard adds another recent element of his field recordings to it: church organ sounds. Over the course of thirty seven minutes, Hazard plays some fine stretched out sounds, in which maybe the field recordings are no longer be recognized as such (save for some insect sounds), but in a rather subdued ambient setting. Cleverly building up tension, working towards a large crescendo at the end of the concert. A crisp clear recording with lots of care for the finer details that lurk in this kind of music. Just before this recording was made, I had the pleasure to see Hazard play similar material live and I was overwhelmed by some of the volume he put on, but in a controlled domestic atmosphere, one can adjust the volume to one's own needs and that makes this into a most welcome addition to his already fine body of works."