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Torhild Ostad / Carsten Dahl: Jeg roper til deg
by Jakob Baekgaard
Back in 1982, the Norwegian singer, Radka Toneff, released a very special duo album with the American pianist, Steve Dobrogosz, called Fairytales. Since then, the fate of the music has also become something of a fairytale, with the album being chosen as one of the best Norwegian albums of all time. It seems almost impossible that someone would once again reach the heights of that iconic Norwegian album, but out of nowhere comes Jeg roper til deg, ...
read moreHåkon Storm: Fosfor
by Eyal Hareuveni
Norwegian guitarist Håkon Storm's sixth album Fosfor features his artistic mastery of the solo guitar. Storm is a gifted storyteller. His evocative, melodious lines intensify the expressive, poetic playing style that is often exploratory, suggesting exotic soundscapes. Storm uses a variety of guitars that allow him to stress distinctive originality as a composer and improviser. The album's warm, crystalline sound was captured beautifully by sound guru Jan Erik Kongshaug at the legendary Rainbow studio in Oslo, home-base of many ECM ...
read moreCirrus: Méli Mélo
by Ian Patterson
Norwegian group Cirrus started life as a drummerless trio when singer Eva Bjerga Haugen, saxophonist Inge Weatherhead Breistein and bassist Theodor Barsnes Onarheim met while studying performance and improvisation at the University of Stavanger. The final piece of the puzzle fell into place when teacher and drummer Stein Inge Braekhus joined for this debut recording, bringing a heightened sense of groove and shifting dynamics to what is essentially chamber jazz. Though the strikingly gifted Haugen may garner most plaudits for ...
read moreFerner/ Juliusson: Undertowed
by Ian Patterson
The striking artwork on Undertowed serves as metaphor for guitarist Per-Arne Ferner and pianist Per Gunnar Juliusson's musical relationship. A brooding, cloud-heavy sky and a still sea seem like reflections of each other, or a seamless whole. The lone figure juxtaposed against this imposing landscape is at once a part of it, and yet apart. The inner gatefold reveals a snow blizzard on the left and two black birds in a leaf-shorn tree opposite--suggestive of quiet power, melancholy, and evolution. ...
read moreEple Trio: In the Clearing / In the Cavern
by John Kelman
With all the controversy over what jazz is--and, more to the point, what it isn't--proprietary ownership often seems more about seemingly insurmountable cultural concerns. It's difficult for those living in the relative hustle and bustle of North American cities to appreciate a different pace, a different vibe--the effect, for example, of winters where daylight diminishes to a few short hours in the south of a country, to the far north, where polar winter imposes darkness for upwards of four months. ...
read moreFerner/ Juliusson: Undertowed
by Eyal Hareuveni
The duo of Norwegian guitarist Per-Arner Ferner and Swedish pianist Per Gunnar Juliusson was established in 2008 and already in 2010 was awarded the title Young Jazz Musicians of the Year in the JazzIntro competition in Molde Jazz Festival. This award led to a series of promoted performances in the next two years, culminated in this debut recording. Ferner and Juliusson refer to themselves as the “Nordic school of ECM"-- lyrical, melodic and often introspective music. Their ...
read moreBMX: Bergen Open
by John Kelman
Tradition, in a living, breathing art form, is something that is continually defined, refined and redefined. When drummer Paul Motian--first coming to fame in pianist Bill Evans' mid-1950s trio--trimmed his quintet of the early 1980s into a bass-less trio featuring then-emergent guitar whiz Bill Frisell and equally on-the-rise saxophonist Joe Lovano, its very first recording, It Should've Happened A Long Time Ago (ECM, 1985), defined a whole new aesthetic, challenging conventional roles and redefining how improvising musicians collaborate. Bergen Open, ...
read moreSigbjorn Apeland / Oyvind Skarbo / Nils Okland: 1982
by John Kelman
On a per capita basis, creativity and innovation coming out of Norway is thoroughly disproportionate to a population straining to reach five million. With a particularly strong reputation for its intrepid exploration of modern technology and instrumental orthodoxy, there's also plenty going on without the benefit of laptops, turntables and effects processors. When harmonium player Sigbjørn Apeland, drummer Øyvind Skarbø and violinist Nils Økland--billed as 1982 Trio--performed at the top of Mount Ulriken as part of JazzNorway in a Nutshell ...
read moreKallerdahl / Seglem / Ulvo / Hole / Sjovaag: Skoddeheimen
by John Kelman
With NORSKjazz.no (Ozella Music, 2009), veteran saxophonist, producer, label head and goat horn virtuoso Karl Seglem brought a distinctive Norwegian flavor to the conventional sax/piano/bass/drums format. By recruiting younger players, Seglem ensured the continuance of his country's jazz tradition--one as imbued by folkloric elements and dark classicism as it is the American vernacular--through the increasingly endangered process of mentoring. For NORSKJazz.no, Seglem enlisted the preexistent chemistry of Eple Trio, whose The Widening Sphere of Influence, released on Seglem's own NORCD ...
read moreEple Trio: The Widening Sphere of Influence
by Ian Patterson
Recorded at legendary Rainbow Studios in Oslo, Norway, Eple Trio's second album, The Widening Sphere of Influence is an apt title, revealing the evolution of the trio and the incorporation of new sonorities a year on from its fine debut, Made This(NORCD. 2007). That album announced the arrival of a trio distinctive for the subtlety and beauty of its playing and the sparseness of its arrangements. The blend of Norwegian folk sounds--waltz, lullaby and church influences--minimalist European classical tradition and ...
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