Remix of original Vanessa Black and White tapes

We are proud to announce that Vanessa Black and White album will be available for download later this year. Until then you can listen exclusively to all tracks from this page.

When the original tapes were found last summer, we were astonished of the fullness of the sound. Compromises were made in the cutting room because the record were to long. The bass area had to be reduced in the vinyl cutting room. Now online in all its pride, remixed.

Musicians

Bass – Harald Salater
Drums – Thorsten Dulsrud
Piano, Synthesizer, Voice – Frode Holm
Saxophones, Flute, Alto Clarinet, Guitar – Svend Undseth

Recorded at the Basement, Oslo, September 1976. Remix by Svend Undseth 2018

Review from Ultima Thule records

Vanessa were one of the finest of Norwegian jazz-fusion outfits (part of a family of bands including the also excellent Moose Loose). They had an original style that did not shy away from its influences of Hugh Hopper era Soft Machine and classic heavy Terje Rypdal.

On their earlier album City Lips, they played it a lot more safe with some patent/funky Miles Davis type grooves holding it together, whereas they’d matured a lot on Black and White and become far more technical, composing huge complex works that surge and buzz, riddled with all sorts of electronic processing. A classic indeed.

Winds player turned multi-instrumentalist Svend Undseth later went on to make an excellent electronic based solo that sit midway between the early pioneering Peter Frohmader (Nekropolis) and the spacier parts of Black And White, and has done other works since that I’ve not yet encountered.