Hans Fjellestad
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Hans Jorgen Fjellestad (born 2 May, 1968) is a musician and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Fjellestad co-founded the Trummerflora Collective, and has worked as a curator/producer for the international art initiative, inSite 05. A classically trained pianist, he studied music composition and improvisation at University of California, San Diego. Fjellestad has composed for film, video, theater, dance and has toured with his music and film work throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan, Mexico and Brazil.
[edit] Film career
He is best known as the director of Moog (2004), the critically acclaimed feature-length documentary on synthesizer pioneer Robert Moog. He is also credited as producer, writer and editor. Fjellestad's previous film Frontier Life (2002) is a documentary feature that explores the world of Tijuana, Mexico, with a focus on the vibrant electronic music scene thriving there. Fjellestad began working on film, television and multimedia projects in the mid-1990s. He directed/edited music videos and enhanced cd content for the likes of Soundgarden, John Lydon, the Monkees and Terence Trent D'Arby. In 2000, partnering with producer Ryan Page, he started the Los Angeles-based independent film production firm ZU33, which develops music-oriented film projects.
[edit] Music career
As a musician, Fjellestad has an extensive discography both as a solo artist and in collaboration with many legendary players in the international experimental music scene including Muhal Richard Abrams, George Lewis, Peter Kowald, Lé Quan Ninh, Lisle Ellis, Haco, Miya Masaoka, Money Mark, Trummerflora Collective, Thomas Dimuzio, Tetsu Saitoh, David Slusser, Baiyon, Kazuhisa Uchihashi, Jakob Riis, P.O. Jørgens, Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Mike Keneally, Nortec Collective, among many others. His music is available on Hollywood Records, Accretions Records, Circumvention Music, Brain Escape Sandwich, Barely Auditable Records, Pan Handler and Vinyl Communications.
Fjellestad usually records and performs under his own name, but has sporadically employed his alter-ego 33, as with recent performances at The Roxy in Prague and Bimbo's 365 Club in San Francisco. His track "Abominatron" on the Moog original film soundtrack (on Hollywood Records) is credited as 33. Strangely, 33 is also the title of Fjellestad's 2003 solo cd (on Accretions Records), making the artist's intentions behind the moniker somewhat unclear.
Fjellestad began playing the piano in 1973, at age 5. He first encountered the synthesizer (a Minimoog model D) three years later and has been fascinated by both instruments ever since. His music is often characterized as experimental, avant-garde, free jazz or outside electronica.
Kobe Live House (on Accretions Records) was released in February 2006 and is a prime example of how the keyboardist approaches his unconventional mix of acoustic and electronic sounds. Recorded live on October 17, 2003, at Big Apple (a jazz club in Chūō-ku, Kobe, Japan) the concert was part of the club's 14th Anniversary Special Concert Series. Both sets are unedited and appear as they did the night of the show in Kobe, performed with a grand piano, Nord Lead 3 synthesizer and a custom software instrument programmed in MaxMSP. More recently his music projects in the studio and on the stage are produced almost entirely on analog electronic instruments (mainly Moog).
