Erik Honoré - "Temporary Empire"

Temporary Empire

Temporary Empire is a music and spoken word performance rooted in a forgotten corner of history: the fifteen ships stranded in the Suez Canal after the Six-Day War in 1967. Cut off from the world, their crews formed a fragile, floating community—building routines, inventing systems, and creating a nation of sorts amid uncertainty and sand.

Drawing on archival echoes and personal connection, Temporary Empire weaves together layered soundscapes, text fragments, field recordings, and live performance. Voices and instruments drift through a liminal space where isolation gives rise to care, and impermanence becomes its own kind of belonging.

Part memory project, part sonic collage, Temporary Empire is a meditation on what endures when nothing can last.

Erik Honoré: Concept, texts, musical framework, samples, synthesizer
Mark Wastell: Percussion
Eivind Lønning: Trumpet

The concert includes recorded excerpts from Estonian / German piano duo Kirke Karja / Felix Hauptmann.

Erik Honoré

After working for many years as a collaborator with artists like Jan Bang, David Sylvian, Sidsel Endresen, Eivind Aarset and Arve Henriksen, Punkt co-founder Erik Honoré released his first solo album “Heliographs” on the Hubro label in 2014. The album was positively received, Uncut Magazine highlighting its “artisan delicacy and nerve-tingling beauty”, and Dagens Næringsliv calling it “beautiful and inviting music which challenges the listeners’ traditional understanding of song structure”.

In 2017, Honoré released the follow-up, “Unrest”, and last September saw “Triage“ released to critical acclaim. Fred Grand of Jazz Journal wrote: “Playing with the idea of triage in both its battlefield sense and through the themes of urgency, recovery and the prioritisation of those things we cherish, Honoré has created an album that is at once challenging and immersive. Using sound in much the same way as a visual artist uses paint, Honoré mixes, layers and edits his musical sources into coherent compositions, each with its own particular characteristics and mood.”

Apart from releases under his own name, Erik Honoré has contributed to around 50 recordings, notably “Uncommon Deities” by Jan Bang / Erik Honoré with David Sylvian, Sidsel Endresen and Arve Henriksen; the Punkt album “Crime Scenes”; “Punkt Live Remixes vol. 1” with Jan Bang, Jon Hassell and Sidsel Endresen; David Sylvian’s albums “Died in the Wool”, “The Blemish Remixes” and “Camphor”; and as a co-composer/-producer on several Arve Henriksen albums including “Chiaroscuro”, “Cartography” and “Places of Worship”.

Erik Honoré has performed live with, among others, Jon Hassell, Sidsel Endresen, Nils Petter Molvær, David Sylvian and Arve Henriksen. Together with Jan Bang, he has brought the Punkt concept to more than 25 cities around the world. He has also composed music for films and written three novels published by Norway’s largest publisher, Gyldendal.

Web: https://erikhonore.bandcamp.com/album/triage

Mark Wastell

Mark Wastell is a versatile improvising musician who has played a central role in the British improvised music scene for thirty years. He has performed and recorded extensively and his varied resume includes projects with Derek Bailey, Phil Durrant, John Butcher, Lasse Marhaug, Rhodri Davies, Simon H. Fell, Burkhard Beins, John Tilbury, Mattin, Tony Conrad, Evan Parker, Tim Barnes, Bernhard Günter, Keith Rowe, John Zorn, Peter Kowald, Joachim Nordwall, Otomo Yoshihide, David Toop, Max Eastley, Hugh Davies, Julie Tippetts, Alan Skidmore, Mike Cooper, Chris Abrahams, Stewart Lee, Clive Bell, Arild Andersen, Jan Bang, Erik Honoré, Maggie Nicols, Will Gaines, Thomas Lehn, Thurston Moore and David Sylvian.

Mark has also run the Confront Recordings label since 1996.

Web: https://confrontrecordings.bandcamp.com/

Eivind Lønning

Eivind Lønning is one of the most prominent musicians and composers on the Norwegian creative music scene, and has developed his own distinctive sound on the trumpet. He is touring and composing music as a solo artist, and with bands like Streifenjunko and Christian Wallumrød Ensemble.

His latest collaboration as a solo artist with Jim O’Rourke, «most, but potentially all» was released on the record label Smalltown Supersound in 2024. He has recently also performed as a soloist with The Norwegian Radio Orchestra, NEON Ensemble, and TIME TIME TIME Opera by Jennifer Walshe and Timothy Morton. As a composer he has made commission works for performance arts, several in collaborations with Choreographer Bára Sigfúsdóttir, among them a commission work for the Venice Biennale 2019.

In the duo Streifenjunko with sax player Espen Reinertsen, Eivind Lønning has worked with modern improvisation and extended playing techniques for the trumpet. They have worked closely together for many years to present a truly unique repertoire, which has resulted in 3 critically acclaimed albums.

Web: http://www.streifenjunko.no
https://www.barasigfusdottir.com/tide/

Illustration: Nina Birkeland