BIOGRAPHY

 personal info

Name:  Håkon Berre

Date of birth: 19th of August, 1980

Living in:  Copenhagen, Denmark

Education: 9-year elementary school at Namdalseid Skole, 3-year secondary school with music as a major area of study at Namsos videregående skole, 1-year music course at Sunnhordland Folkehøgskole, ex.phil./ex.fac. at the Oslo Univeristy, and a minor degree in music (in all, 40 credits) at the Oslo Univeristy.

My main instrument is drums, and I have studied with drummers such as Ernst-Wiggo Sandbakk, Magnus Forsberg, Asbjørn Kårstein, Freddy Augdal, Tor Bjarne Bjelland, Wetle Holte, Per Oddvar Johansen, Martin Andersen, and Anders Mogensen. In the spring of 2007 I finnished my studies at Vestjysk Academy of Music in Esbjerg, Denmark with a rhythmical diploma exam.

Inspiring drummers: Jack DeJohnette, Jon Christensen, Roy Haynes, Tony Williams, Paul Motian, Rashied Ali, Jimmy Cobb, Elvin Jones, John Bonham, Milford Graves, Han Bennink, Tony Oxley, Mitch Mitchell, Billy Higgins, Bill Stewart, Jim Black, Joey Baron, Tom Rainey, Edward Vesala, Jarle Vespestad, Terje Isungset, Audun Kleive, Paal Nilssen-Love, Per Oddvar Johansen, Rune Arnesen, Anders Mogensen, Kresten Osgood, Stefan Pasborg

Downloads:

Press here for CV  (PDF document in danish)

Press here for presstext about Håkon Berre  (PDF document in english)

 short musical bio

During 2001/2002 I made my minor degree in music at the Oslo University. During these years I finished two written assignments. The first one was on "New tendencies in norwegian jazz in the 1990's with a primary focus on the Oslo venue Blå and the musician Bugge Wesseltoft." The second one was related to the subject "modern musicproduction", and on this assignment I tried to make a fusion of acoustic freejazz and analog noise. At the univeristy I had instrumental lessons with Per Oddvar Johansen. In the summertime I worked at the home cleaning service for elder people in Torshov, Oslo. Nice to meet old peolpe, but shitty to wash their floors. A huge respect to those people who devote their life to this job! During the two years in Oslo, I was mainly active with the afrobeat-band Afroblast (featuring the eclectic singer Abuwa Edema and upcoming saxophone player Frøy Aagre), the Jimi Hendrix-influenced rock-trio Ole Staveteig & The Ragged with guitarist Ole Staveteig, and the noisejazz/impro quartet Spö. I also did some gigs with the 'party-band' Rasende Kasser. After finishing my minor degree in music at the university I was qualified to study at The Aademy of Music and Communication in Esbjerg, Denmark.

The five years in Esbjerg (2002-2007) was used for developing band projects of different kinds, such as the jazzquintet Pohyola Group, the electro-impro quartet Telephön, the Tom Waits-cover band Raindogs, the pianotrio Trio Barefoot, the noise duo di-jun, the quartet CellBlock 4, the Coltrane-tribute quartet Stellar Regions, the freejazz orchestra Ært Ensemble, the electronica-band The COBE, and the sextet TinzelTown. During all the 5 yers, we did intensive touring all over europe (you can see all my tour calendars here) and had lots of fun on the road. One special project has been a quartet with fellow students Morten Pedersen  on piano and Adam Melbye on bass with the norwegian tenor sax player Petter Wettre (NO) as a guest. We did 4 tours together, and it has been great fun playing with Petter. Other great musicians I've got the opportunity to work with during the last years is the bassplayers Jeppe Skovbakke, Thommy Andersson, Jonas Westergaard and Niels Præstholm.  In may 2007 I ended my studies at  with a rhythmical diploma exam. My exam concert was a 100% freeimprovised piece of music with Adam Melbye on bass and german freeimpro-legend Peter Brötzmann on saxophones. We made a 1-week tour playing gigs in Copenhagen, Esbjerg and Hamburg. All nights were recorded on multi-track, and was released on Barefoot Records in march 2009.

In ocotober 2006 I moved to Copenhagen, and I'm now living in Nørrebro working with all kinds of different band projects (see all band projects here). Most of the time I devote to my record label, Barefoot Records (more info beneath). I also teach drumstudents once a week at Sønderborg Musikskole and at the productionschool KUBA. Once a week I deduct the Baggårds Bigband. I also have a part-time job in the cozy café and record shop Jazz Kælderen in Skindergade Copenhagen, where we often do collaborations with Barefoot Records involving concert series at jazzfestivals etc.

BAREFOOT RECORDS ®

I started the record label Barefoot Records with my friend Ole Jonas Storli in 2006, mainly to release Trio Barefoot's debut-CD "Like You". Further on, we found the joy of running a record label so big - that we decided to do more releases. During 2006 to 2009 the label has released 10 records, ranging from singer/songwriter to freejazz and avant-garde. I have the main responsibility for design/advertisement/promotion etc., but the label is built up as a democratic company where all the musicians involved helps promoting each other. This way we can get a lot of promotion done, without a huge budget. All CD's from Barefoot Records are distributed in Denmark by Danacord Distribution, in Norway by MusikkLosen, and in Japan by Disk Union. Digital distribution (iTunes, etc.) is done by DiGiDi.

Barefoot Records Catalog - january 2010:

- Trio Barefoot : Like You  (Barefoot Records 2006 / bfrec001)

- Synnjadrag : Himmelen er fortsatt blå  (Barefoot Records 2006 / bfrec002)

- Trio CrEePy : Adventurous Instrumental Music  (Barefoot Records 2007 / bfrec003)

- The Mighty Mouse  (Barefoot Records 2007 / bfrec004)

- Synnjadrag : En påtatt vår  (Barefoot Records 2007 / bfrec005)

- Maria Faust Group - Bitchslap Boogie  (Barefoot Records 2008 / bfrec006)

- GaYa  (Barefoot Records 2008 / bfrec007)

- Melbye/Berre/Brötzmann - A tale of three cities  (Barefoot Records 2008 / bfrec008)

- Skylight Lounge  (Barefoot Records 2008 / bfrec009)

- EstherOrkester : Why we woo  (Barefoot Records 2008 / bfrec010)

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON UPCOMING RELEASES  &  CD SHOPPING :  WWW.BAREFOOT-RECORDS.COM

 other stuff

Another form of expression which fascinates me besides music, is art, design and photography. I'm doing some hobby-based cover- and posterdesign work for my bands, something I find incredibly fun. For this work I simply use my digital camera, a scanner, and sometimes handcrafted paintings/objects and drawings. Digital editing is done with Adobe Photoshop. Here's a selection of some CD-covers I've done for my bands:

Besides playing regular drumset, I also do a lot of electronic freeimprovised music and noise. For this music I use an analog drum synthesizer, a laptop and a sampler in addition to percussion which I sample together with the rest of the sounds around me. In the end I mix these sounds toghether with various effects.

The electronics I use is a Korg Electribe ER-1, a Yamaha SU200, and a laptop with Ableton Live. The Korg Electribe is an analog rhythm synthesizer with lots of possibilities for analog noise generation and programming of grooves. It's as fun as a PlayStation....! The Yamaha SU200 is a loopsampler with a 6-voice polyphony and holds 3 banks with 8 samples each. It's got built-in effects, and is amazingly easy to use. Ableton Live is a fantastic program which lets you sample, playback and edit muliple samples and effects at the same time, all in realtime. I control this program with a midi keyboard.

I connect the Korg and the Yamaha to a Behringer Eurorack 6-channel mixer and a Fostex DE-1 effectprocessor. They work perfectly together, and through the Fostex I can process a 2X effect which makes most samples unrecognizeable. This is great for making noise....

I've also just started learning how to play the saxophone and the trumpet, as I got the opportunity to buy a cheap second hand tenor sax and a second hand trumpet. I love to play the sax & the trumpet, and I've just started checking out standards. But my favorite thing is just pure free blowing, which my neighbours probably hates..

My dear Elkhart tenor      My dear Frank Holton trumpet