Kjetil Mulelid: Agoja

Over the course of three albums with his trio between 2019 and 2022, and the exquisitely pretty solo set Piano (Rune Grammofon, 2021), keyboardist Kjetil Mulelid has emerged as a bright new star in Norwegian jazz. His playing is vivacious, his composing melodic and his overall sound consonant but full of unexpected twists and turns. Mulelid has been mentioned in the same breath as Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett and Brad Mehldau, and the comparisons, though excitable, have some merit.

Agoja (the word is the first one Mulelid heard his infant son say) confirms the early promise. This time Mulelid leads a trio augmented on six of the eight tracks by one, two or three guest musicians. The cast list is Signe Emmeluth on alto saxophone, Trygve Seim on tenor saxophone, Martin Myhre Olsen on tenor or soprano saxophone, Sasha Berliner on vibraphone, Selma French on violin, Lyder Roed on trumpet, Mathias Eick on trumpet and Arve Henriksen on trumpet and effects.

Mulelid dazzles on an array of keyboards—acoustic piano, Wurlitzer, Rhodes and synths. But most of the dazzling is done while in an ensemble role. The guests take much of the solo space and Mulelid concentrates instead on composing and arranging. When he does occupy centre stage, on the trio tracks "Alone" and "Thousands Of Lost Stories" with bassist Barbour Reinert Poulsen and drummer Andreas Winther, his overdubbed multi-keyboards are a baroque delight. Favourite trio-plus tracks on a rewarding album are the heartfelt "A Prayer For Peace" (check the YouTube below), featuring saxophonists Emmeluth and Seim, and the trippy "Waiting Song," featuring Berliner's vibraphone.