Hans Fjellestad (born 1968) is a pianist, music composer and documentary filmmaker based in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
.
Biography
Early life
Hans Jorgen Fjellestad was born on May 2, 1968. He studied music composition and improvisation at
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...
in
San Diego, California
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...
.
Career
A classically trained pianist, he has composed for film, video, theater, dance and has toured with his music and film work throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, New Zealand, Mexico, and Brazil.
In 2002, he directed his first documentary film, ''
Frontier Life''. It explores
Tijuana
Tijuana ( ,["Tijuana"](_blank)
(US) and [< ...]
, Mexico, with a focus on the local underground electronic music scene. Two years later, in 2004, he directed ''
Moog'', the feature-length documentary about music synthesizer pioneer
Robert Moog
Robert Arthur Moog ( ; May 23, 1934 – August 21, 2005) was an American engineer and electronic music pioneer. He was the founder of the synthesizer manufacturer Moog Music and the inventor of the first commercial synthesizer, the Moog synthesi ...
, which premiered at the
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival ( cs, Mezinárodní filmový festival Karlovy Vary) is a film festival held annually in July in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. The Karlovy Vary Festival is one of the oldest in the world and has become ...
. In 2009, he was the writer and producer for the 2009 music documentary ''
The Heart Is A Drum Machine'' with Juliette Lewis, Elijah Wood, John Frusciante, and Jason Schwartzman. In 2010, he released a film about Depression-era life and art, ''
When The World Breaks'', which premiered at the 2010
Doc Edge Festival in New Zealand.
In 2012, he directed the documentary ''
Sunset Strip
The Sunset Strip is the stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through the city of West Hollywood, California. It extends from West Hollywood's eastern border with the city of Los Angeles near Marmont Lane to its western border with Beverly H ...
'', which premiered at
SXSW
South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...
2012 and was broadcast on
Showtime
Showtime or Show Time may refer to:
Film
* ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film
* ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur
Television Networks and channels
* Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...
. The Hollywood Reporter describes it as "entertaining almost to a fault, this color-packed doc boasts a lifetime's worth of glamour and sleaze" featuring Mickey Rourke, Johnny Depp, Ozzy Osbourne, Keanu Reeves, Sofia Coppola, Hugh Hefner, Sharon Stone, Courtney Love, among others.
He co-founded the
Trummerflora Collective, and has worked as a curator/producer for the international art initiative,
inSite 05. He was artist-in-residence at the
Steve Allen Theater
The Steve Allen Theater at the Center for Inquiry in Hollywood, California, was a 99-seat theater which was developed by founding artistic director Amit Itelman. Moved to The Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan Theater.
The Center for Inquiry is a nonprofit ...
in Hollywood 2008-2011, curating and hosting the monthly live music series ResBox.
He is directing a new documentary about the offshore radio outfit
Radio Caroline
Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly and Alan Crawford initially to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly. ...
, currently shooting in London and planned for 2014 release.
Music career
He has an extensive discography both as a solo artist and in collaboration with many musicians in the international experimental music scene including Muhal Richard Abrams,
George Lewis George Lewis may refer to:
Entertainment and art
* George B. W. Lewis (1818–1906), circus rider and theatre manager in Australia
* George E. Lewis (born 1952), American composer and free jazz trombonist
* George J. Lewis (1903–1995), Mexican ...
,
Peter Kowald
Peter Kowald (21 April 1944 – 21 September 2002) was a German free jazz and free improvising double bassist and tubist.
Career
A member of the Globe Unity Orchestra, and a touring double-bass player, Kowald collaborated with many European ...
, Lé Quan Ninh, Lisle Ellis, Haco,
Miya Masaoka
Miya Masaoka (born 1958, Washington, DC) is an American composer, musician, and sound artist active in the field of contemporary classical music and experimental music. Her work encompasses contemporary classical composition, improvisation, ele ...
,
Money Mark
Mark Ramos Nishita (born February 10, 1960), known professionally as Money Mark, is an American producer and musician, best known for his collaborations with the Beastie Boys from 1992 until 2011.
Early life
Born in Detroit to a Japanese-Hawai ...
,
Yoshimi P-We
Yoshimi (born on February 18, 1968) is a Japanese musician best known for her role as the longest consistent drummer in the Japanese rock band Boredoms.
Alongside her drum playing skills with Boredoms, she performs the vocals for the all female ...
, Thomas Dimuzio, G.E. Stinson, Damon Holzborn (with whom he forms the duo Donkey), Tetsu Saitoh, David Slusser, Baiyon, Kazuhisa Uchihashi, Jakob Riis, P.O. Jørgens, Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen,
Mike Keneally
Michael Joseph Keneally (born December 20, 1961) is an American session guitarist, keyboardist, vocalist and composer.
Early years and musical influences
Keneally started playing music at the age of 7 when he received an electric organ for h ...
,
Nortec Collective
Nortec Collective was a musical ensemble formed by various individual one- or two-man production projects. The group came together in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. Their genre mixes electronic music with musical elements and instrumentation o ...
, 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.
He usually records and performs under his own name, but has sporadically employed his alter-ego 33, as with performances at The Roxy in Prague and
Bimbo's 365 Club
Bimbo's 365 Club, also known as Bimbo's 365, is an entertainment club located at 1025 Columbus Avenue in San Francisco. It specializes in live rock and jazz shows. The location is one of San Francisco's oldest nightclub sites, and has operated un ...
in San Francisco. His track "Abominatron" on the ''
Moog'' original film soundtrack (Hollywood Records) is credited as 33. Strangely, 33 is also the title of Fjellestad's 2003 solo cd (Accretions Records), making the artist's intentions behind the moniker somewhat unclear.
Kobe Live House
Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, which ...
(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
Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...
, 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
Nord, a word meaning "north" in several European languages, may refer to:
Acronyms
* National Organization for Rare Disorders, an American nonprofit organization
* New Orleans Recreation Department, New Orleans, Louisiana, US
Film and televisi ...
synthesizer and a custom software instrument programmed in MaxMSP. More recently, his music projects in the studio and on the stage are produced entirely on analog electronic instruments (mainly Moog) as with his 2007 release.
References
External links
*
Hans Fjellestad official website
Sunset Strip (Showtime)Accretions Records
Moog film official website
When The World Breaks film official website
Trummerflora Collective
inSite 05
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fjellestad, Hans Jorgen
1968 births
Living people
University of California, San Diego alumni
American classical pianists
American male classical pianists
American male composers
20th-century American composers
20th-century American pianists
Film directors from Los Angeles
21st-century classical pianists
20th-century American male musicians
21st-century American male musicians
21st-century American pianists