Stian Carstensen

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Stian Carstensen at the Kongsberg Jazzfestival 2011. Photo: Thomas Bjørndahl

Stian Carstensen (born January 5, 1971 in Eidsvoll ) is a Norwegian jazz musician ( accordion , also guitar and banjo ).

Live and act

Carstensen, whose ancestors come from an Eastern European family of instrument makers and dance musicians, learned to play the accordion from his father at the age of nine and then received classical accordion training. He has performed classical pieces on radio, television and at festivals; at the same time he played swing jazz with his father, a bass player .

At the age of fifteen he played electric guitar in a rock band. From 1991 to 1993 he studied jazz at the Trondheim Conservatory . During his studies, he founded the free jazz quintet Farmers Market with his fellow students Nils-Olav Johansen , Jarle Vespestad , Finn Guttormsen and Håvard Lund . After the chance discovery of a Bulgarian folk piece, Bulgarian folk music increasingly gained influence on the style of the group. After a trip to Bulgaria, the live album Speed ​​/ Balkan / Boogie was created at the Molde International Jazz Festival in 1994 with the singers and instrumentalists of Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares .

Carstensen also learned to play the bluegrass style banjo and worked with Jon Christensen and Bendik Hofseth . In 1996 he recorded the quintet Farmers Market with Trifon Trifonov, his first album Music from the Hybrids , which opened up to Balkan music. In 1998 Carstensen received a composition commission for the Vossajazz Festival ; his composition was performed in April 1998 with Jarle Vespestad, the Englishman Django Bates and the Dutchman Ernst Reijseger .

In 2000 the album Farmers Market was released ; the band toured Europe and Japan and performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague . In 2001 Carstensen supported the singer Silje Nergaard at some concerts during the tour to present her album Port of Call . In 2004 the album Backwards into the Backwoods was released with Iain Ballamy , followed in 2005 by Rose Room with Jimmy Rosenberg .

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