Photos By Svenn
John Paul Jones made a surprise appearance at the Punkt Festival in Kristiansand, in the south of Norway on Saturday  September 4th. John performed a solo piece that was a commissioned work for “Nearly Ninety” – formulated for the choreographer Merce Cunningham’s 90th birthday. He then remained on stage to be joined by Norwegian avant-garde/electro acoustic group Supersilent.

Photos By Svenn
John’s involvement in the festival came about after a chance meeting two years ago with Jan Bang and Erik Honoré the organizers of the festival who initially invited him over as a non-performing guest but it was then agreed that John should open up for Supersilent. What the organizers didn’t know, was that JPJ and the band agreed to perform together  during the soundcheck, so he remained on stage when they came on. The whole atmosphere was very relaxed and  very different from the recent Them Crooked Vultures performances.
John Paul Jones first performed the Cunningham piece with Sonic Youth at “Merce Cunningham at 90″, Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2009 prior to the world famous dance choreographer dying. The “Merce Cunningham at 90” performance is expected to be performed again at The Barbican Centre/Dance Umbrella, Bite10 Festival in London on October 26th-30th 2010.  John Paul Jones and Sonic Youth are both rumoured to be performing though there is no confirmation of that as yet.
Many  thanks to Svenn, who supplied the photos and the extra information. You can see more of Svenn’s photos over at his flickr.com page which include photos of JPJ with Robyn Hitchcock and Dave Pegg at Bergan Festival in 2008 (GF)