On March 28th 2005, at the invitation of Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, the Foreign Minister of Norway Jan Petersen paid an official visit to China.

But he wasn't a very good DJ, so in an effort to repair fractured Sino-Norwegian relations, over 13 prominent musicians from two of Norway's hottest record labels (Jazzland and Smalltown Supersound) are collaborating with Chinese and Shanghainese artists as part of a three stop electro and synth jazz festival aptly entitled, NO+CH.

The three day Shanghai stop of NO+CH has shows at Rojam (Oct 4th and 5th) and at the JZ Club (Oct 6th) and pairs local electro musicians CY and B6 (of Antidote fame), new wave synth pop duo I-GO and video artist Song Tang with Norway's most provocative, genre bending progressive musicians.

Norway? China? Huh? What? - Not so bizarre a pairing as you might think. Here's festival organizer Yipeng Jiang on the new music of Scandinavia in the 1990s: "The 1990's is a significant "melting" period for Scandinavian music. Musicians from different genres, classic, jazz, hip-hop, underground... all broke boundaries... It became popular for jazz musicians to perform in a DJ club, or for a jazz club to invite electronic musicians. A new wave of electronic jazz was around the corner."

Looking at the base elements that were mixing and blending in the Scandinavian scene ten years ago and then shifting the optics to this city, it is quite evident why such a festival would find creative and aesthetic grounding in Shanghai. Spearheaded by Shanghai's local jazz community and various initiatives of the JZ Club (the new JZ School being one and the October jazz festival being another), the city is seeing something of a jazz revival as of late. A revival of jazz yes but, more importantly, a revival of new, forward thinking, innovative jazz played loud and live. Conversely, thanks to the efforts of the Antidote crew among others, who are continually challenging the stranglehold of commercial house music on this city, Shanghai has the makings of a young and provocative electro scene. If you take merge these two elements together, you get something very similar to what audiences can expect at the NO+CH festival: a collaborative, improvisational, performance-based, genre-crossing musical experience.

It is with this foresight that Jiang labels NO+CH a festival that showcases "tomorrow's music today" and makes the three day event a must see for all those interested in the future of music performance in this city.

Among the Nordic thirteen coming to Shanghai (and Guangzhou and Beijing) are electronic folk and jazz artist Kim Hiorthoy (billed as a "Nordic Aphex Twin"), synth pop group Frost, Jazzland record label founder Bugge Wesseltoft and "post Miles" electronic jazz musician Eiving Aarset. The tour, coinciding with Jazzland's ten year anniversary, will see the Asian releases of four new albums.

Notch 06 Website with schedule, ticket & venue information and artist profiles at http://www.smartshanghai.com/notch06.