Nordic Jazz Fest, hosted annually by the embassies of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Denmark, has become Nordic Jazz Week for 2009, featuring an opening performance at the Embassy of Finland on Sunday, June 14, and then two nights of performances at the House of Sweden on June 16-17.

Of note in the lineup are Norwegians Nils Petter Molvær & Arve Henriksen, who are pioneers in the peculiar kind of jazz/electronic/ambient music crossover that labels like Rune Grammofon (to which Henriksen is signed) are currently exploring. These two play as a duo on June 17, probably my most highly anticipated set of the festival. A close second is the Søren Kjærgaard Trio on June 16; Kjærgaard is a Danish pianist whose tuneful, energetic style has made him an interesting collaborator with such avant-jazz luminaries as Peter Brötzmann, Derek Bailey, Tim Berne, Herb Robertson, and more.

Full lineup, location and ticket details after the jump.

Photo of Nils Petter Molvær above courtesy his Myspace page.

Sunday, June 14 at 6 pm
Concert at the Embassy of Finland
Karikko (Finland)
Bjørn Solli Quartet (Norway)

Tuesday, June 16 at 6.30 pm
Concert on House of Sweden rooftop
Jonas Kullhammar Quartet (Sweden)
Karikko (Finland)
Søren Kjærgaard Trio (Denmark)

Wednesday, June 17 at 6.30 pm
Concert on House of Sweden Rooftop
The Sunna Gunnlaugs Quartet (Iceland)
Nils Petter Molvær & Arve Henriksen (Norway)
Jonas Kullhammar Quartet (Sweden)

Where: Embassy of Finland, 3301 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, D.C. 20008 (June 14) and Embassy of Sweden, House of Sweden, 2900 K Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20007 (June 16 and 17)
When: June 14 at 6 pm, June 16 at 6.30 pm and June 17 at 6.30 pm
Tickets: Presale tickets only from ticketweb or 866 666 8932.
$25 per night; $50 for all three nights. (No ticket sales at the door.)

Pirates on the high seas have been stealing headlines lately, holding captains hostage and attacking their ships. But today, music industry execs struck a potentially fatal blow against e-piracy.

A Swedish court sentenced Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde–founders of the peer-to-peer (P2P) search engine/BitTorrent tracker site The Pirate Bay–to a year in jail and ordered them to pay damages of 30 million kronor ($3.54 million) to the music and film industries. (via Billboard)

According to Billboard, “The court found the defendants guilty of making 33 specific files accessible for illegal P2P file-sharing. It ordered that damages must be paid to companies including all the majors and film studios MGM and 20th Century Fox.”

The men denied the charges, arguing the Pirate Bay technically did not host copyrighted content–it just provided a tool to search for illegal P2P torrents.

According to the Billboard, Sunde dismissed the dramatic trial as “just theater for the media” in a recent Twitter post: ‘”It used to be only movies, now even verdicts are out before the official release,” he added, claiming that he received a leak of the verdict last night.’

The article also quotes Lundstrom’s attorney Per Samuelson, who is shocked by both the verdict and the sentence: “That’s outrageous, in my point of view. Of course we will appeal. This is the first word, not the last. The last word will be ours.”

This seems to be a dramatic continuation of the maligned RIAA “witch hunts” dragged into the international sphere. In the spirit of making examples of people comes the following quote from Helen Smith, executive chair of the Independent Music Companies Association IMPALA (of which Epitaph, HQ for the plasticization of punk, is a member), which exposes the naivety of out-of-touch/nostalgic industry execs:

“This [sentencing] is music to the ears of the thousands of small independents and artists who produce the majority of new releases today. It demonstrates a real understanding of the dilemma that if no one pays for music today who will make the exciting new music of tomorrow?”

Smith’s argument hinges on the glaringly narrow, essentialist assumption that artists create music with money as the end goal, dollar signs rather than creative vision in their minds’ eyes. While that may be true for some musicians, and not to preclude an artist’s right to see financial returns on their work, I’m not totally convinced that “exciting new music” was ever or will ever be the end result of purely monetary undertaking. So who will make the exciting new music of tomorrow? Artists embracing free downloads as a tool for DIY self-promotion, who aren’t afraid of touring for money and, in general, don’t take creative direction from money. People may not want to pay for recorded music, but they’ll sure as hell will pay to see live music, especially if they can familiarize themselves with the beats before hand.

Further, “IMPALA’s mission is to grow the independent music sector, promote cultural diversity and cultural entrepreneurship, improve political access and modernise the perception of the music industry.”

Improving political access to what for whom, exactly? Access to the internet is already taken for granted, despite cultural and socioeconomic divides–high speed connections and iTunes accounts/credit cards required to download music legally are a luxury for plenty of people, and the internet is about 80% written in English, excluding individuals who don’t speak that language of globalization. Modernizing public perception of the music industry will only be hindered by such example-making of P2P sites like The Pirate Bay.

In my mind, it’s the music industry’s own perception of reality, of the direction in which technology is throttling ahead, and of harnessing free downloads as a means of PR, that needs modernizing.

Check out The Pirate Bay for footage of their online press conference held earlier today.

Big News: Frodus is playing Murky Coffee in Arlington on Wednesday night. Yes, Frodus is back together, at least temporarily.

Show starts around 9. Get there early.

We just talked to Shelby Cinca and got the back story on this surprise reunion. Apparently, the ground work for a full-fledged reunion show started last October at the Embassy of Sweden.

Cinca and Frodus’ Jason Hamacher went to the embassy to support Division of Laura Lee (who they count as pals). When the band ended up flipping out after some p.a. problems, the two were encouraged to jump up on stage and play. They ended up tearing through “Invisible Time Lines.”

“It was fun,” Cinca says. “It was really funny because no one knew it was happening. And Fritz,  who was a DJ at WMUC,  was there and he was like ‘Fuck! Fuck!’ He was so excited. It was hilarious.”

Still, that show wasn’t the impetus for the reunion.

Cinca says the band’s Conglomerate International has been recently reissued on vinyl and Lovitt Records called to see if they could play its SXSW showcase. It was time.

So Frodus is doing the Murky Coffee gig (RSVP slots, which are already filled, get in first–only 130 people can fit in the venue). Only 130 can fit there]. Cinca hopes the cops don’t shut the place down. They may play two sets. “We booked it there because it’s the easiest DIY show we could get,” Cinca says.

Cinca says after the warm-up gig at Murky Coffee, the reformed Frodus will do the Lovitt Records showcase on Saturday at SXSW and a 2 a.m. show Sunday morning somewhere else.

“It felt really natural,” Cinca says. “We were enjoying it. We’ve always been a punk band, we should just go for it.”

Liam Wilson, of the Dillinger Escape Plan, will be filling in on bass. “He just came into practice last week,” Cinca says of Wilson. “It sounded great. He adds a different element.”

Cinca adds that most of the material they will be playing will come from Conglomerate International.

“With the vinyl coming out and the album being about corporate greed and the weirdness of the late ’90s and corporate culture…all these box stores opening up…. We felt like it was a good political statement,” Cinca says. “This record is just as relevant now as it was when it came out in 1998.”

Are there plans for more Frodus shows?

“I don’t know,” Cinca says. “I’d like to do something in May. It depends on Liam’s schedule and if Nate wants to do it. I’m also moving to Sweden in the summer time. My wife is going to school there. She’s Swedish. And school’s free. Work’s kinda sucky here. That’s one of the reasons Frodus is happening—Jason and I have time. That’s what we were doing as kids—when nothing’s going on, we just made music.”

Here is a clip from Frodus’ show:

…but do you know about the supporting band for her current tour, Wildbirds & Peacedrums?

If not, you should – combining minimalist folk, Bjork-like caterwauling vocals, unusual instrumentation (lots of kalimba and whatever that stringed contraption is in the photo above), and insanely propulsive percussion, this duo were a pleasant if slightly misplaced surprise at Nordic Jazz 08 last year. At that show atop the House of Sweden, Wilbirds & Peacedrums opened for folksy jazz group Kristian Blak & Yggdrasil. That was a odd pairing; the pairing with Lykke Li, on the other hand, is downright inspired. Both are kind of spastic and mostly high-energy indie pop, but in completely different ways that I expect will complement rather than conflict with each other.

Unfortunately the show tomorrow at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue is sold out, but if you’re going, get there early enough to see the openers.