From Thursday September 4th to Saturday 6th 2025, Kristiansand hosted a series of concerts and seminars as part of this year’s PUNKT Festival. Events took place across the venues Kunstsilo and Teateret, with afterparties held at Foajeen. The festival drew significant attention thanks to its exciting lineup and innovative concept. Organized in collaboration with CreaTeME, the festival reflects the foundational ideas behind CreaTeME’s development, which are closely tied to PUNKT Festival.
“Punkt is the brainchild of musicians and record producers Jan Bang and Erik Honoré which started in 2005 as an annual «festival of the Live Remix» – a unique, hugely respected three-day music event taking place in Kristiansand, Norway. Punkt is a creative organisation that was sparked by a concept: the live sampling and live remix of music. At the heart of Punkt’s DNA is continuous creation and collaboration, with a shared creative ethos and artistic connection among its family of musicians and artists.” Punktfestival.no
"If there’s one thing that has characterized Punkt over these twenty years, it’s the ability to renew and further develop the framework for the music that unfolds during these three days in September each year."
Day 1 of PUNKT Seminar featuring David Toop, Crys Cole, Oren Ambarchi and Mariam Rezaei (from left to right).
PUNKT Seminar
PUNKT Seminar, a vital part of the festival was once again curated and led by David Toop, this time at Kunstsilo in Kristiansand. This year’s program featured presentations and performances by a distinguished lineup of artists, including Mariam Rezaei, Oren Ambarchi, crys cole, Sofia Jernberg & Alexander Hawkins, Makoto Oshiro, and Kate Carr.
The Punkt Seminar is a space for curiosity and conversation, where artists and audiences come together to explore cutting-edge ideas in sound, art, and technology. It runs alongside the festival’s concerts and live remixes, offering a deeper dive into the creative processes and concepts that shape contemporary music and performance.
As part of Punkt’s collaboration with CreaTeME—the University of Agder’s Centre for Excellence in Creative Use of Technologies in Music Education—the seminar promises to be a space for inspiration, innovation, and interdisciplinary exchange.
Live Remix Workshop
As part of this year’s Punkt Festival, students participated in an intensive remix workshop exploring the art of live remixing. Led by experienced artists and educators, such as Peter Baden, Alessandra Bossa, Tone Åse, Jan Bang, David Toop, and Ania Psenitsnikova. The sessions covered both technical foundations and aesthetic approaches to real-time reinterpretation.
Students engaged in hands-on playing sessions and attended the full festival program, culminating in their own live remix performances. These showcases reflected a strong grasp of the format and a willingness to experiment, offering a valuable learning experience in collaborative and spontaneous music-making.
Read the reviews from the the two live remixes below.
Reviews of CreaTeME-related ensembles
During this year’s PUNKT Festival several performances and live remixes featured artists and students directly connected to CreaTeME, a collaborative partner of the festival.
Even Røstad Live Remix
Even Sigurdsen Røstad, alongside CreaTeME-affiliated students Emanuel Bang, Max Kraft, and Audun Skeie, delivered a series of compelling live remixes that resonated deeply with audiences. Their performance at Biscenen was described as creating: “a sense of joy in the room,” where they “showcase and highlight the elements they extract from the concert… and shape and develop it into new contexts.” (salt-peanuts.eu, Johan Hauknes)
Max Kraft’s manipulated trumpet playing was particularly evocative, “evoking thoughts and stirring memories — and a sense of longing.” The quartet’s blend of “new school remix integrated with old school remix” was praised for evoking the legacy of Punkt while pointing toward its future, with Kraft’s tone “carrying historical lines… that trace back to Jon Hassell.” (salt-peanuts.eu, Johan Hauknes)
Arild R. Andersen also commended the group’s remix of Seim’s ensemble, noting how they “give substance to a new story” and “take the curves with flair.” (jazzinorge.no, Arild R. Andersen)
Internationally, Kevin Le Gendre highlighted Røstad’s remix as a standout: “Even Sigurdsen Rostad’s smart distillation of Seim’s multi-layered score into strange, shadowy interludes… seem to surgically restore the spirit of the late, great Jon Hassell from the night sky.” (jazzwise.com, Kevin Le Gendre)
Jan Bang ++ Album Release
The release of the seventh Punkt Editions album, published by Jazzland, was marked by a performance in Silohallen featuring Jan Bang, Erik Honoré, Eivind Aarset, and Audun Kleive, alongside dancers from Scenekunst Sør. Johan Hauknes described the opening as a moment of mastery: “Henriksen and Bang open the show, and we know immediately this will be good. Four masters on the same stage… representing many tons of Punkt experiences and stories.” (salt-peanuts.eu, Johan Hauknes)
"A series of concerts featuring unique and powerful storytellers that are as consciousness-expanding as the most intense experiences with hallucinogenic substances seem to be."
The interplay between music and dance was noted as a powerful audiovisual experience:
“Music is not just a sonorous phenomenon – it is fully an audio-visual phenomenon. Something for ears and eyes. For body and soul.” (salt-peanuts.eu, Johan Hauknes)
Neringa Live Remix
Vocalist and electronic artist Neringa Bertašiūtė, together with CreaTeME students Jacob Sæterstad, Ingri Jordahl, Torbjørn Kamfjord Eriksen, and Sara Klobučar, presented two remix sets in the basement venue. While the performances were technically solid, critics noted a lack of emotional connection. As with many exploratory performances, the process of refining emotional resonance is part of the journey, and this set offered a valuable step in that direction.
Johan Hauknes observed: “An interesting sequence, but it doesn’t let us in, and participate. The deep storytelling doesn’t surface, and we remain observers.” (salt-peanuts.eu, Johan Hauknes)
Arild R. Andersen echoed this sentiment: “I experience the music as a strip where the distance between vital ideas becomes too long… I fail to find my way into everything that is presented.” (jazzinorge.no, Arild R. Andersen)
Love Your Latency
The project Love Your Latency, featuring remote performers from Oslo, Trondheim, Fjorda, and Kristiansand, was another highlight. With Sarah-Jane Summers, Agnese Amico, Ivar Grydeland, Michael F Duch, Lene Grenager, Torben Snekkestad, and Jan Bang, the performance was a testament to musical cohesion across distance.
Johan Hauknes praised the ensemble’s synergy: “It sounds both beautiful and compelling… They succeed in promoting a wholeness that is theirs.” (salt-peanuts.eu, Johan Hauknes)
Photo credit: CreaTeME // Anja Kathrine Laland Gyberg
