Posts Tagged ‘Artisan’
The Volt chapter
January 9, 2012 | Author Jens F. Ryland
A month or two back I presented the idea to Asgeir and ICS Vortex about getting engaged with a Youth-Club I’ve come in contact with. This club is named Volt and is located in Lørenskogs Hus which is only 6-7 minutes away from where I live, just outside Oslo. Funny enough they both responded far more positive then I expected and the reasons are very obvious. First of all we have all been connected to different Youth-Clubs in our early music career where we played with bands, learned some tricks and got to try some equipment and ideas. Secondly we now have kids and it feels natural to get engaged with the Youth and learn about the different organized activities our kids can get involved with in the future.
Volt
Our engagement is volunteer and without schedules, and we also get to use the facilities they offer which are very good. The whole building named Lørenskogs Hus is brand new and Volt includes both a recording studio, a media/ film workshop, an art/ paint/ graffiti workshop and a “black-box” venue with state-of-the-art sound- and light-equipment. Connected to Volt is also the Music-School organized by the county and the whole eight floors of this building is all about culture with a brand new cinema and a library over three floors! Volt even has it’s own cafe which is open all afternoon.
Volt Kafè
So far we have scheduled rehearsal hours for ICS Vortex at Volt, although we have not quite started up for real. We want to engage with the Youth here to inspire the music scene to grow, there are already a few rock and metal bands lurking in the corridors and there seems to be some very skilled young musicians taking solo classes with different instruments. We will most likely schedule workshops, advice the bands on different issues, help to produce demos in the studio, organize concerts and so on.
Three weeks back we used Volt to do a photo shoot with Borknagar. We found it suitable as Asgeir was our photographer even. The shots are meant for the upcoming Borknagar album.
Asgeir Mickelson and Jens F. Ryland
Asgeir Mickelson and Jens F. Ryland
ICS Vortex
The bands who want to contact us can do so through the coordinator at the Volt Club. I’m thrilled with this, I’ve wanted to work with the youth for a while already and this seems to be a good opportunity.
————Jens
Lock Up- John Dee (Oslo)- Jan 4th 2012
January 7, 2012 | Author Jens F. Ryland
Got a few pictures from the Lock Up concert as promised, enjoy:
Lock Up- John Dee (Oslo)- Jan 4th 2012
Lock Up- John Dee (Oslo)- Jan 4th 2012
Lock Up- John Dee (Oslo)- Jan 4th 2012
Lock Up- John Dee (Oslo)- Jan 4th 2012
Lock Up- John Dee (Oslo)- Jan 4th 2012
Lock Up- John Dee (Oslo)- Jan 4th 2012
Lock Up- John Dee (Oslo)- Jan 4th 2012
And a bandphoto with a few guests.
—————-Jens
The Plan
January 3, 2012 | Author Jens F. Ryland
Artisan
No, I wasn’t quite done…
As you have probably noticed we have had a pause in the blog-posts. I think it’s time we gave a statement to why and let you know what is going on. I’m not going to elaborate on details, but let you in on some of my thoughts.
Things simply don’t always develop as planned, such is the case with “The Artisan Project”. This blog was established at a point where it looked like I would have a lot of “band activity” and the idea with the blog was (and still is) to report from these activities. With Asgeir joining we had even more bands to write about. And to keep up the continuity and communication with our readers we wanted to post some personal stuff.
It seems like the idea was just fine, only the circumstances haven’t been in our favour. Who would have believed that with an arsenal like Artisan, Sarke, ICS Vortex, Spiral Architect, God of Atheist and Borknagar we still wouldn’t have much more to write about then the occasional booking of an Arcturus concert! Ok, exaggerating a bit now, but you know what I mean…
And the result has been that our blog has been dominated by the personal posts and at some point I felt that I couldn’t continue with that.
It has been a steep learning curve with this and part of the process is to learn from the mistakes and develop the strategy. I have also developed a taste for working against the tide with this new media technology, because some of the feedback I get from people inside the music business on this blog is quite negative and arrogant. This is off course always the case with evolution, some people simply can’t grasp the concept of development and will fight to keep the old ways. And I end up even more determined to succeed.
We have attracted a fair amount of readers during 2011 and I think it’s not necessary any more to keep feeding you with insignificant posts. But our communication can’t stop now, I’m as always positive to the future and I’m sure that I still have some stuff to share that has a bit of interest. And we do have at least a couple of concerts booked for 2011 for ICS Vortex and Borknagar which I’m going to share with everyone who can’t come. And we have a Borknagar album to release as well. And I guess I could keep you updated when there’s something going on, like tomorrow when I’m going to the Lock Up concert here in Oslo, anyone want to see some pictures from that?
And don’t forget that Artisan is also a band. I have ideas, but need to find time for it all. Did I mention I have started playing Star Wars; The Old Republic? hint hint 
Does this make sense to anyone? As always I would very much appreciate some feedback on my thoughts.
———Jens
The Battle is here
October 30, 2011 | Author Jens F. Ryland
Leave no-one wondering, YES I’m playing Battlefield 3 these days!
Battlefield 3
And it’s awesome!
And frustrating! Trying to get into the different scenarios while you’re being fired upon is a challenge, but I’m getting along pretty good. I have to admit that I’ve been wondering how many cheaters there are, cause sometimes I seem to loose without a good explanation. Today I found a post on the forums saying that there are already over hundred people banned for using cheats. Banned hackers.
I also need to mention that there seem to be a few bugs and issues in the beginning, but being an MMO- veteran I have to say I wouldn’t expect less. All things considered the launch is rather smooth. I’m getting kicked out of the game now and then, but it’s fast to reload. There’s also a bit too much lag on some places, but oh well. I’m enjoying myself.
To comment on the real nerdy stuff, I have taken a liking in Operation Firestorm and Caspian Border, specializing as Engineer. I place mines to defend a flag and pick down helicopters with my SAM or UKLA missiles. All the time since Battlefield 2 I’ve dreaded the aviators in the BF series, never mastered to fly myself and they are very hard to bring down from the ground. In BF3 they have provided me with awesome AA equipment and I’m getting loads of points bringing down enemy helicopters and jets. Just the way I like it
I know ICS Vortex is playing, not hard to recognize with his nick; Gen-Vortex. We haven’t played much together as he likes a bit different games then I. Asgeir has also tried it a little on his xbox and is not persuaded. I still use JFRyland as my nick, looks like I have to start a new account to change it to something not so personal as my real name. That’s what I get for being hasty in the registration process…
There are Machinima (fan-made videos) being uploaded all the time. I find this very interesting as that is the core start of the whole Artisan project. If you go to Youtube, search for BF3 and organize by uploading date you can see my point. New stuff being uploaded all the time there. And most if it is useless dribble, but it has planted a thought in my head for the next Artisan project…
The video below is an official trailer released only a week ago, it shows footage from the campaign mode of the game which Dice have (apparently) put a bit more work into then before. But I can’t help it, to me only the multiplayer mode is interesting, but it’s a good video:
Oh, and it’s Sunday today and I’m supposed to write a summary of the weekend? You can find it here: www.artisannorway.com he he
————–Jens
Sushi and “Får-i-kål”!
September 4, 2011 | Author Jens F. Ryland
The menu this weekend has been Sushi/ maki and “får-i-kål”. A good combo of international cuisine and ol’ fashion Norwegian traditional food, pretty much like the last week of blogging.
