HANS FJELLESTAD

Hans Fjellestad (b. 1968) is a musician and filmmaker currently based in Los Angeles. He studied music composition and improvisation with George Lewis at University of California San Diego (UCSD), and classical piano with Krzysztof Brzuza. Fjellestad has composed for film, video, theater, dance and has presented his music, film and video art in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan, Mexico and Brazil.

Fjellestad has an extensive discography both as a solo artist and in collaboration with many legendary players in the international experimental music scene. An “innovative musician” (All About Jazz) and “mad scientist of sound” (SLAMM), his music has been described as “unbridled sonic freedom… raw, almost shamanic energy that embodies the true essence of unrestricted music” (XLR8R) and a “spicy concoction… refusing to behave itself, it screams, throws things and makes a mess” (The Wire).

Fjellestad has performed and/or recorded with Muhal Richard Abrams, George Lewis, Peter Kowald, Lé Quan Ninh, Lisle Ellis, Haco, Miya Masaoka, Money Mark, Donkey, Takayuki Kato, Saga Yuki, Kojima Takashi, Arai Minako, Trummerflora Collective, Thomas Dimuzio, Tetsu Saitoh, David Slusser, Baiyon, Kazuhisa Uchihashi, Jakob Riis, P.O. Jørgens, Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Rob Rowland, Mike Keneally, Nortec Collective, among many others. His music is available on Hollywood Records, Accretions Records, Circumvention Music, Brain Escape Sandwich, Barely Auditable Records, Pan Handler, and Vinyl Communications.
Fjellestad (or his alter-ego, “33”) has performed in such far-flung venues as The Roxy (Prague), Shinjuku Pit Inn (Tokyo), Festival Beyond Innocence (Osaka), Big Apple (Kobe), ABC No Rio (New York City), Bimbo’s 365 Club (San Francisco), Velvet Jones (Santa Barbara), Don Loope (Tijuana), Spring Reverb Festival (San Diego/Tijuana), SIGGRAPH (Los Angeles), Den Anden Opera (Copenhagen), Yokohama Jazz Promenade, Big Sur Experimental Music Festival, San Diego Repertory Theatre, and the Northwest Electroacoustic Music Festival (Portland).

His film and video work has shown at the London Institute of Contemporary Arts, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Tokyo’s Shibuya Station, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Point Loma Wastewater Plant, Cleveland Museum of Art, Chicago’s Gene Siskel Film Center, Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Miami Art Central, Salina Art Center, IAF Videoart Festival Tijuana, and the São Paulo International Short Film Festival.

Fjellestad’s MOOG (2004), a feature length documentary on synthesizer pioneer Robert Moog, was released theatrically across the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia and Japan. Stephen Holden of the New York Times dubs MOOG a “compelling documentary portrait” of a “provocative, thoughtful and deeply sympathetic figure” and the London Daily Telegraph calls it “brilliantly inspiring on many levels.”

MOOG was an Official Selection at numerous international film festivals including the Rotterdam International Film Festival (Netherlands 2005), Madrid International Film Festival (Spain 2005), Adelaide International Film Festival (Australia 2005), Naples Sintesi Festival (Italy 2005), Belo Horizonte INDIE Film Festival (Brazil 2005), Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Czech Republic 2004), Sheffield International Film Festival (UK 2004), Dublin Electronic Arts Festival (Ireland 2004), Asheville Film Festival (North Carolina 2004), Bergen Ekko Festival (Norway 2004), and Barcelona In-Edit Film Festival (Spain 2004) where the film took home top honors at the Documentary Awards Ceremony. MOOG is distributed by Plexifilm.