Francesco Cusa (drums)

Tellef Øgrim (guitars)

Cusa and Øgrim first met at the Rara improvised music festival in Syracuse, Sicily in 2013, where they played amongst others in a trio with Gianni Gebbia.

Lately they have established a duo of percussion, drums, different fretted and fretless guitars, and electronics.

Cusa/Øgrim Duo draws on the rich and diverse field of European free improvisation, that during the last two decades has managed to secure a solid position in European music culture.

These two experienced musicians, with combined background from jazz, rock, and contemporary art music, aim at using improvisation to present ad-hoc compositions that put honesty and feeling over musical documentation or the showing off off instrument skills.

The project title - 3269 – equals the distance in kilometres between the streets where the two musicians live in Aci Catena, Sicily, and Oslo, Norway respectively.

A concert by the duo swings from strong driving blizzards, via dark atmospheric drone-landscapes to simple lyric passages.

Since meeting and playing at the RARA festival of improvised music in Syracuse, Sicily in 2013, the two musicians have been looking for occasions to get together again in order to develop their artistic project further.

Francesco Cusa has toured and recorded extensively both as a leader, composer and a side-man. Amongst the bands he leads are FRANCESCO CUSA TRIO, ”SKRUNCH", and FRANCESCO CUSA & THE ASSASSINS. He performs regularely with TRINKLE TRIO (feat. Michel Godard), PAOLO SORGE “Trio" (Sorge, Evangelista, Cusa), and ITALIAN SURF ACADEMY ((Marco Cappelli, Luca Lo Bianco, Cusa) and is involved in an association for promoting improvised and avant-garde music, the project/label "Improvvisatore Involontario". Francesco is also a writer of books and reviews. (http://www.francescocusa.it/)

Tellef Øgrim plays with Anders Berg, Jacek Kochan, Magnus Tenge, Ung Pike Forsvunnet, Mugetuft, Henrik Hellstenius, Jakop Janssønn, Peter Knudsen, Jo Fonda, Jan Wiese. He has developed into a profiled fretless guitar improviser and has released several records as a leader and a side-man. Tellef is also a writer and a journalist. (http://tellefogrim.com/)

The Italian Cultural Institute supports the project with travel and accommodation cost for Francesco Cusa.

Contact for booking:

Tellef Øgrim

Tellef@me.com

Tel: +47 95275966

CUSA / ØGRIM DUO