POING 

Rolf-Erik Nystrøm – saxophones (www.rolferiknystrom.com)
Frode Haltli – accordion  (www.haltli.com)
Håkon Thelin – double bass

"This unusual Norwegian trio is doing interesting work off the beaten track. The unusual begins with the instrumentation ...and display considerable technical depth and breadth, as well as strong ensemble identity."

-Julian Cowley, The Wire

POING started to play together in 1999, and has since then been one of the most interesting ensembles for contemporary music in Scandinavia, with more than 50 first performances by European and Asian composers. They have visited large music festivals as well as clubs in Europe and Asia playing mostly contemporary music, but also free improvisation, Kurt Weill or cabaret/tango-heavy metal. POING have a special collaboration with composer and singer Maja S. K. Ratkje, with a project created around music by Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht, and their annual 1.may concert. In 2006/2007 POING will premiere new works by Dror Feiler, Richard Barrett, Michael Finnissy, Atli Ingolfsson, Rolf Wallin and Helmut Oehring. 

Their first CD “Giants of Jazz”, with works by young Norwegian composers, was released on Legendary Royal Records in 2003. "Planet POING" with works by Maja Ratkje, Lars Petter Hagen, Sachiyo Tsurumi, Jexper Holmen and Áki Ásgeirsson was released in 2005 on Jazzaway Records.

“It is unique to be able to write and compose for musicians who are not only capable of playing the impossible, but who also do so with pleasure. Poing has got an admirable Midas touch that turns everything they lay their hands on into good music. They have played even the most stumbling of my ideas with such energy and conviction that I have almost begun to believe in them myself, something that of course makes everyday life seem much easier for a poor composer” Bendik Hagerup, Oslo

Contact thru Sunniva Engeland, tlf.: 92014870, email: poing@poing.no

"New music, with its enormous technical and expressive demands, depends for its very existence on a type of pioneer performer, who, in fact, is engaged in creating and codifying the Aufführungspraxis of our own time. The number of such dedicated performers is perhaps not large; fortunately, however, they do exist, and I have the privilege to work with three from about two weeks ago. Your efforts were tireless, artistic purpose single-minded and uncompromising. For these I am most grateful"
Dr Chen Hing-yan, professor in composition, head of the Music Dep at the Hong Kong University