Name: Christian Meaas Svendsen
Nationality: Norwegian
Occupation: Composer, improviser, bassist, label co-founder at Nakama
Current release: The new Nakama album New World is out now via Nakama Records. He also has a new tape out with Andreas Hoem Røysum, and Kresten Osgood on Astral Spirits with Music Improvised On September 23rd, 2021.

If you enjoyed this interview with Christian Meaas Svendsen and would like to know more about his music, visit his official website.

Over the course of his career, Christian Meaas Svendsen has worked with a wide range of artists, including Hans P. Kjorstad, and Helge Lien.

[Read our Hans P. Kjorstad interview]
[Read our Helge Lien interview]



When did you first start getting interested in musical improvisation?  

I picked up the guitar when I was about 15 years old. I grew up in a non-musical home. Music to me was … probably something that came in a package, and which had to be produced and consumed as such.

Some time after I started playing, I happened to just play something over a backing track on a play along CD for guitars which fit with the harmony. That’s when it occured to me that it’s possible to play something else than what’s written; that music exists elsewhere than on paper.

Which artists, approaches, albums or performances involving prominent use of improvisation captured your imagination in the beginning?

I grew up in Kongsberg, a rather small town west of Oslo. I had some mind boggling experiences on the jazz festival they arrange there every summer.

Of all the various stuff I heard, one experience that really stuck was seeing Henry Grimes. It was so out of this world. I didn’t understand anything. It was disturbing and haunting in a way. Probably because it was nothing to hold on to, but at the same time so much going on. I knew they were improvising, and I guess it just felt so pure. I also remember — from a lot of these concerts at the festival, be it with Ornette Coleman, Peter Brötzman or who have you — that I didn’t really get into the music the way I really wanted. I think because I thought I had to understand it.

I can’t even remember if I stayed for the whole concert, but it left a deep impression, and I know that I profoundly wanted to get to that level of musicianship and to understand music in that way. I wouldn’t use the word «understand» today, but that’s how I felt back then.

I borrowed music from the library. Ingebrigt Håker Flaten’s solo recording on Sofa (It’s just called Solo), Ingar Zach’s solo album (I think it’s called Percussion Music), some of Jazzmob’s records (Jon Klette). It was very random.

[Read our Ingebrigt Håker Flaten interview]



In many ways I was completely lost (and I still feel that way in navigating the history / discography. It’s so deep!), but at the same time I was the only one around me listening to these things, so for what I knew, this was all that was going on. I also had a teacher at my school copying some older stuff for me to cassettes; Gillespie and Parker, big band arrangements of Manteca and so on.

Focusing on improvisation can be an incisive transition. Aside from musical considerations, there can also be personal motivations for looking for alternatives. Was this the case for you, and if so, in which way?

I was a young guy who just wanted to learn how to play. I wanted to be good, and I wanted to be good at improvisation. And in my mind it was important to learn chords, scales and all that stuff before venturing into freer realms.

I wasn’t interested in sound, you know. It’s sad to say, but I don’t think I was that interested in music either. I was interested in becoming a good bass player. It was a very technical thing for me. A very left-side-of-the-brain approach. That was just who I was.

My main concern nowadays is to dig into and embody musicality and bypass the thinking part of my brain, and then hopefully end up with a good balance in the end. That’s a real challenge to me, I think mainly because the lack of musical in and output in my early years. Having a good ear and an open mind is key.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to improvisation? Do you see yourself as part of a tradition or historic lineage?

Follow, compliment, go against, minding my own business. In terms of tools I use, those four are essential — but only if I need to use some. I learned those from Art Lande, who I was fortunate to meet during a workshop in my school years. If you take care of yourself and your own playing, the music will take care of itself. Then there is no needs for any special approach.

I’m undoubtedly part of a lineage and a tradition — several traditions! At the same time I was never interested in digging into one particular style, tradition or artist for longer periods of time. My approach is more that of a spiral, touching on different things as I make the round, and hopefully those different things will gather in a singularity if the spiral ever reach a single point.

What was your own learning curve / creative development like when it comes to improvisation - what were challenges and breakthroughs?

My biggest challenge is that my interest is so broad, and then trying to come to terms with that broad interest. I’m not getting more time on my hands these days, so there’s a struggle between trying to settle for a few points of interest instead of being good at various improvisational aspects from the tradition.

As musicians, we are standing on a lot of other people’s shoulders. As artists, we are left on our own. The challenge for me is to master the tradition and at the same time spending enough time on my own ideas to become the artist I want to be. Or again — choosing one of those two.

Other than that I think it is hard to pinpoint a certain breakthrough. I just always had to work a lot in order to incorporate music into my system. It’s an ongoing process, and there are no shortcuts or quantum leaps for me.

Tell me about your instrument and/or tools, please. How would you describe the relationship with it? What are its most important qualities and how do they influence the musical results and your own performance?  

My main instrument is the double bass.

The instrument is just an extension of one’s musicality. Because we spend so much time with our instrument, it gives us a wide array of options in a musical setting. Everything can be an instrument, but some instruments have a wider palette than others, that’s all. Popular instruments are like memes that - for a mixture of good reasons and luck - have survived the multitude of other instruments which didn’t make the cut.

My relationship with my instrument is an intimate one. It’s a relation which demands a certain attention and care. The double bass is also a very physical instrument, and I’ve been fascinated by how I can use my body in relation to the body of the instrument to evoke new sounds and new playing techniques.

I have a framework which I like to call «bass, body, bows», so there are no external preparations; just our two bodies and one, two, three — or even four — bows in play at the same time.

Can you talk about a work, event or performance in your career that's particularly dear to you? Why does it feel special to you? When, why and how did you start working on it, what were some of the motivations and ideas behind it?

I would like to mention the work with Zen Buddhist chants and the group of Zen practitioners at Rinzai zen-senter Oslo. I put a lot of work into that project, and I’m currently working on a new version with the new line up of my band, Nakama. The first version of this project is called New Rituals. It was released as a triple vinyl / triple CD on my own label. We put a lot of work and effort into making that record.

I started working on it because I wanted to do it, simple as that. I wanted to make some music which could go with the chants which that group (and I am a part of that group) were using, and to try to find ways around it in order to make it interesting for myself. It was a good challenge.

I’d also like to mention the work with Nakama in general. I’m very happy with the newest recording (New World), and I’m happy that I’ve been able to somehow run a lable for a couple of years (Nakama Records).



How do you feel your sense of identity influences your collaborations? Do you feel as though you are able to express yourself more fully in solo mode or, conversely, through the interaction with other musicians? Are you “gaining” or “sacrificing” something in a collaboration?

There’s no gaining or sacrificing. At least I’ve never thought of it that way. The importance is not on yourself, it is on the music. Like I said earlier, just take care of yourself, and the music will take care of itself (and you).

A different line up just means a different entry point into the music. The music is already there, we just need to bring it forward. In order to that, there’s a balance between being yourself and losing yourself, and that state is what I would describe as a «playing state».

Derek Bailey defined improvising as the search for material which is endlessly transformable. Regardless of whether or not you agree with his perspective, what kind of materials have turned to be particularly transformable and stimulating for you?

I can’t choose only one: Functional harmony, the natural overtone series, poly rhythms, synthesis (sound creation), my own physicality.  

When you're improvising, does it actually feel like you're inventing something on the spot – or are you inventively re-arranging patterns from preparations, practise or previous performances?

When improvising — If I feel like one or the other, it usually means I’m not serving music a just cause. All I can do, is to be of service of the music, and if I do a good job at that, the music will figure itself out. If it’s a new thing, or a re-arranging of something old, is not so important. I don’t rehearse on stage, I just try to play as good as I can.

I want to stress the fact that music / im,provisation does not have to be new to have value. When the music is good, it’s good — regardless of whether it is something unheard of or something that we’ve heard countless times. New sounds can be very crappy music if not performed in a good and sincere manner. New-ness in itself is not a very important value in music making, I think.

To you, are there rules in improvisation? If so, what kind of rules are these?

Nothing holy. Not always so.

In a live situation, decisions between creatives often work without words. How does this process work – and how does it change your performance compared to a solo performance?

When you’re playing with others, you’re having a conversation. The context might dictate how that conversation goes, and so does the vocabulary you have in common. Through practice and with all our tools at hand, we learn how we can react to various musical inputs.

A solo performance is also a conversation. It’s not only with yourself. There’s always a context: time, mood, audience, room, what you ate before the gig. If I return back to the idea that the music is always there, you’re still trying to do the same as when you’re playing with several people on stage. You’re doing what the situation is demanding in order to bring the music forward. You’re not simply soloing — you’re performing a ritual to evoke and conjure sound.

My point is that the music is always there. It doesn’t matter if you’re 100 people or just 1 person. In essence, there’s no use for any players at all. All sounds exist in silence in the sense that silence (and I’m talking about silence as a concept, not as an absolute silence devoid of any sound at all) holds the potential for all types of sounds. When we play, we’re just drawing on that potential.

There are many descriptions of the ideal state of mind for being creative. What is it like for you? In which way is it different between your solo work and collaborations?

Creativity is a fleeting thing. There’s no point waiting for it. Just work steadily, that’s my method.

Whenever I feel inspired or creative, I try to pull it out by the root, not portion it out. That’s not always so easy when you’re a family man and has taken up responsibilities outside of making music. It’s important to communicate this with your loved ones, so they might better understand.

How do you see the relationship between sound, space and performance and what are some of your strategies and approaches of working with them?

I will repeat myself with saying: Just take care of yourself and your own playing, and everything will sort itself out.

If you think too much, if you listen too much, if you take too much consideration to your surroundings, then how can you play? The other musicians and what they do is not your responsibility. Playing is an act in which listening is incorporated. How can you not listen?

As far as improvisation goes, I think it is important to not take too much care of your surroundings, or think too much about sound, space and performance. Experienced musicians know these things intuitively. Trust in your own mind.

In a way, improvisations remind us of the transitory nature of life. What, do you feel, can music and improvisation express and reveal about life and death?

Music is a big mystery to me. So is this thing we call life and death. It’s best for it to be that way.