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Rymden + KORK: Rymden + KORK
by Gareth Thompson
The Norwegian Radio Orchestra (aka KORK) performs each year at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert. By contrast, it has also twice provided backing to the Eurovision Song Contest in Norway. Intriguing then to find them linking up with Bugge Wesseltoft, leader of Rymden and a pianist-composer whose work is both learned and accessible. Both parties create music that hammers at the spine, whilst also tingling it. The name of Wesseltoft's trio means “outer space" or “universe," whereas KORK is an ...
read moreMaridalen: Bortenfor
by Gareth Thompson
Maridalen's eponymous 2021 debut for Jazzland Recordings was quite the breakout success. Earning strong coverage across the British music press, it proved that sometimes the media gods are with you. A host of other fine Norwegian albums made less impact back then, but Maridalen look determined to seize the moment. And, with their follow-up record Bortenfor, they have the ultra-cool audacity to go one better this time. The title translates as 'beyond, or going past' in terms of ...
read moreJohan Lindvall Trio: This Is Not About You
by Chris May
If you ask a jazz fan to name the greatest piano trio albums ever made, the probability is that their top twenty choices will include Erroll Garner's Concert By The Sea (Columbia, 1955), Ahmad Jamal's But Not For Me (Argo, 1958), Bill Evans' Sunday At The Village Vanguard (Riverside, 1961), Keith Jarrett's Standards Vol. 2 (ECM, 1985) and Brad Mehldau's The Art Of The Trio Vol. 1 (Nonesuch, 1997). Sweden's Esbjörn Svensson's From Gagarin's Point Of View (Superstudio Gul, 1999) ...
read moreBugge Wesseltoft: Be Am
by Gareth Thompson
In a 2008 interview, Bugge Wesseltoft spoke of his despair at seeing civilians suffer throughout history, unable to protect their families and children from wars. He also noted that watching such events unfold from the safety of his Norwegian homeland was painful. Wesseltoft had recently released his superb album IM (Jazzland Recordings, 2007) which found him on reflective form at the piano. Come the pandemic of 2020, Wesseltoft was caught in a similar climate of fear to those ...
read moreMaridalen: Maridalen
by Gareth Thompson
The use of sacred spaces has long been a feature of jazz recordings. Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd made their classic Jazz Samba (Verve, 1962) album at All Souls Church, Washington DC, whilst a converted Greek Orthodox site played home to Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue (Columbia, 1959). Among similar stories, the Norwegian act Moskus recorded at Risør Church, a cruciform wooden hall built in 1647. Now comes another Nordic band, who created their eponymous debut in the Maridalen church, ...
read moreRymden: Space Sailors
by Gareth Thompson
Outer space and cosmic jazz have long been a match made beyond heaven. The latest act throwing their hat into Saturn's rings is the excellent Norwegian band Rymden, featuring keyboardist Bugge Wesseltoft. The trio has clearly boned up on Sun Ra and Lonnie Liston Smith, but rockier influences are present too from the likes of Hawkwind, The Doors, Soft Machine, even Throbbing Gristle, with Marc Moulin's acid jazztronics in there as well. Closer to home, you can hear ...
read moreViktor Skokic Sextett: Basement Music
by Mark Corroto
Basement Music, the title of bassist Viktor Skokic's premiere as a band leader, refers not to the social isolation of the 2020 global pandemic, but to the sites of his compositional efforts. Written in his basement, and recorded prior to the lockdown, the music is actually the converse of social distancing—'converse' as in conversation. His 'Sextett' navigates some precarious and complicated directions, such as the album's opener “Tre." Constructed as a puzzle with odd-shaped pieces, the music favors sharp turns, ...
read moreRymden: Reflections And Odysseys
by Tyran Grillo
Reflections & Odysseys gifts to the listening world the debut of pianist Bugge Wesseltoft's new trio—called Rymden—with bassist Dan Berglund and drummer Magnus Öström. The rhythm section, best known as part of e.s.t. (led by the late Esbjörn Svensson), serves Wesseltoft with fresh purpose, at once grateful for what came before and eager to chart maps ahead. It's a dual aesthetic embodied not only in the album's title, but also in its approach to crafting sound as a realm in ...
read moreEivind Aarset & Jan Bang: Snow Catches on her Eyelashes
by John Eyles
Although they had been collaborating since the early 90s, the first recording on which the Norwegian guitarist Eivind Aarset and American-born, Norway-resident Jan Bang appeared together was Bang's Pop Killer (Virgin, 1998). In the years since, Aarset and Bang have collaborated on many more albums, but this is the first to credit them as a duo. Particular high spots in their collaborations have included Bang's album on David Sylvian's label ...and Poppies from Kandahar (Samishadsound, 2010), Aarset's Dream Logic (ECM, ...
read moreLyder Øvreås Røed: The Moon Doesn't Drink
by Chris May
A promising own-name debut from the Norwegian trumpeter, Lyder Øvreås Røed's The Moon Doesn't Drink has both feet planted in analogue-era jazz yet sounds wholly modern. Røed's melodic, intimate style and burnished tone may be reminiscent of pre-electric Miles Davis, but if this album comes across, at times, a bit like Davis' Kind Of Blue (CBS, 1959), it sounds more like natural vibe than conscious retro. Røed shares the frontline with tenor saxophonist Hanna Paulsberg, whose spiritual-jazz infused ...
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