Stian Carstensen

John Kellman of All About Jazz recognized Carstensen's commission Flip for Vossajazz March 2013, as no. 1 of his "Best Live Shows of 2013".

He played the accordionist in the circus band (and the soundtrack) of the 2005 Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean film MirrorMask.

This seems to be a highlight in Carstensen's career, and he has been working a lot with that ensemble after this. Another highlight was his release of the new record Farmers Market on the German label Winter & Winter, he toured Europe and Japan with this band in 2000. They received very good reviews both for the album and the concert in magazines such as The Wire, Rolling Stone among others. Farmers Market has also played at the world's biggest jazz festival, the North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague, the Netherlands.

In 2000 Carstensen recorded his solo album, with only his own compositions for Winter & Winter, to be released in 26 countries.

In 1998 Carstensen was invited to write commissioned work for Vossajazz Norwegian Jazz Festival at Voss. He wrote some music and put together a band consisting of his colleague Jarle Vespestad, a leading Norwegian drummer who also play in Farmers Market), with Django Bates from England, with Tord Gustavsen Trio from Norway, and Ernst Reijseger from the Netherlands. The music was performed in April 1998, with great success. The choice of musicians was made carefully, because they each had one thing in common; they were into a lot of styles at the same time. The music was composed in a contemporary spirit, but contained elements from many different styles without being artificial.

In 1997 Farmers Market made their second album, Music from the Hybrides, with saxophonist Trifon Trifonov from Bulgaria. This was an extreme album with elements of many different styles and ideas from bluegrass in odd meters to metallica-like versions of traditional Balkan tunes and slick commercial music mixed with Stockhausen. The album got very good reviews from many contemporary music magazines as well as rock, folk and jazz magazines in Europe.

When Carstensen was 15 he started to play electric guitar in a rock band. After a while he resumed his interest in jazz and formed a trio with some local artists. He went freelance for a year or so and then he began to study in the Jazz Program at the Trondheim Musikkonservatorium, with the guitar as a main instrument. During his two years of study in Trondheim (1991–93), he formed the group Farmers Market. The group was originally a free jazz quintet, until they one day found sheet music with a Bulgarian folk tune in 11/16. This was a great experience for the band members and they practiced day and night to be able to play this asymmetrical music.

Stian Carstensen (born 5 January 1971) is a multi-instrument Norwegian musician, entertainer and with Jarle Vespestad (drums) and Nils-Olav Johansen (vocal and guitar), central members of the Balkan-jazz orchestra Farmers market.