Articles by Daniel Mège
Jazz Out of Norway: 12th Set 2026
by Daniel Mège
Jazz Out Of Norway is a collection on Odin Records that compiles tracks drawn from some of the most emblematic albums released in Norway since 1989. The 12th Set is a valuable document that takes stock of the situation in 2026. This edition is remarkable for its musicality, its diversity of styles, but also for the sequencing of the 36 tracks (almost three hours), which highlights each one within the setting created by the tracks surrounding it. The ...
Continue ReadingAmalie Dahl's Dafnie: Live at Kafé Hærverk
by Daniel Mège
There is a strange relationship between alto saxophone and marine biology. Akira Sakata, the breathtaking yet unsung altoist of torrential intensity and a marine biology researcher, specialized in daphnia (dafnie in Scandinavian languages), those tiny, endearing-looking crustaceans, as early as 1969; Amalie Dahl made them her orchestra. She knew nothing of this weighty legacy. Dafnie is made up of Jørgen Bjelkerud (trombone), Oscar Andreas Haug (trumpet), Nicolas Leirtrø (bass) and Patrycja Wybrańczyk (drums), standing in here for Veslemøy Narvesen. Dahl plays alto ...
Continue ReadingDen Andre Festivalen #9
by Daniel Mège
Den Andre Festivalen Oslo, Norway September 4-5, 2026 The Other Festival, The Other Collective, The Other Ensemble, Other Records: a unique binational initiative L'Autre Festival/Den Andre Festivalen (in French and Norwegian; The Other Festival) is a unique jazz festival that grew out of a master's project at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. In 2019, five students from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique (CNSM) in Paris founded L'Autre Collectif/Det Andre Kollektivet (The Other Collective). ...
Continue ReadingIdiotek: IDIOTEK
by Daniel Mège
One of the basic principles of physics holds that materials can respond to force in three ways: elastic (reversible), plastic (irreversible), or viscous (progressive over time). Combining all three, the possibilities are limitless and hard to master. IDIOTEK's material is mastered, and it explores the domain of viscoelasticity. Time stretches and contracts at the whim of the polyphonies and polyrhythms. Nothing is irreversible, but time can do a great deal. IDIOTEK is the debut album by guitarist and ...
Continue ReadingAlex Ventling's Wavemakers at Becco in Oslo
by Daniel Mège
Alex Ventling's Wavemakers Becco Oslo September 3, 2026 In Oslo's Tullinkvartalet district, the pulsing of the Delta Light Installation leads to the courtyard of Becco, a wine bar and hotspot of the city's music scene, where on the second floor one finds a concert venue. On this night, light converged with the music of the Wavemakers, a Nordic chamber jazz quartet. Alex Ventling, the New Zealand-born pianist and composer with Swiss roots now ...
Continue ReadingMoon Inhabitants: Canned Luna
by Daniel Mège
Is there anybody up there? The question is not as far-fetched as it sounds: NASA's lunar program is about to celebrate All About Jazz's 35th anniversary with the start of construction of a permanent lunar base (2030), laying the foundations for AAJ's 50th anniversary with its completion. Jazz will win: once the planet's taxpayers' money has been squandered, the economic interest found to be close to nil, and the scientific interest, still the fifth wheel, only AAJ (Thirty Years Later, ...
Continue ReadingMoldejazz Jam Sessions: What Makes Them Tick?
by Daniel Mège
Jam sessions are greatest fun for jazz musicians and the audience. Yet behind their apparent spontaneity lies one of the most demanding traditions in jazz. Learning the repertoire, the language and the unwritten codes can take years, and it is in this sometimes intimidating setting that musicians can make or break their reputation. The Moldejazz jam sessions have long been legendary. Drummer Rino Sivathas has been in charge of the festival's jam sessions since 2018, and was joined by Isak ...
Continue ReadingRino Sivathas: Speak Volumes
by Daniel Mège
Which country has the highest proportion of outstanding drummers relative to its total population? A difficult exam question, but by rough estimate, the number of drummers in Norway (really a lot of them), relative to its population (really a small one), makes it an obvious contender. Those who follow the scene have heard of Veslemøy Narvesen, and perhaps Øyvind Leite, Hans Hulbækmo and August Glãnnestrand, to stop at a square whose corners are arranged in reverse alphabetical order. But ...
Continue ReadingMoldejazz 2026
by Daniel Mège
Located at 62°7 North, Moldejazz (the Molde International Jazz Festival) is the ideal place for a festival in week 29, in early summer. A floral scent drifts through The Town of Roses, a ribbon less than a kilometer wide wedged into a peninsula between fjord and mountains. Even once it has set, the sun is never far away. A single jam session is enough to carry you from sunset to sunrise. At that precise moment, after three in the morning, nothing ...
Continue ReadingBabies On Airplanes: Music For A Noisy Environment
by Daniel Mège
Babies On Airplanes is Anna Ueland's trio project. The cover's suggestion of a run-of-the-mill piano/synthesiser-bass-drums trio formula is deceptive. The album deploys a bric-à-brac in the service of a jazz that navigates between synth-pop, pure improvisation (whatever that means), rock, and pretty much anything else one might want to put in it. Ueland, a physicist who turned to music early, is a unique voice on the young Norwegian jazz scene, impressing through her vigorously melodic instinct (melody: first keyword), without any ...
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