Jazz Articles about Bugge Wesseltoft

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Bugge Wesseltoft: Am Are

by John Eyles
November 19, 2025

Jens Christian Bugge Wesseltoft was born in Porsgrunn, Norway, in February 1964 , the son of Erik, a guitarist. Thankfully, he was soon just known as Bugge and people learned that his first name is pronounced “Boogie" not “Bug" or “Bugga... “ Having flirted with a punk band that he did not enjoy much, Wesseltoft moved towards jazz, in particular to the style identified as “future jazz" or nu jazz.In 1995, Wesseltoft formed his own five-member band, called ...

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Rymden + KORK: Rymden + KORK

by Gareth Thompson
March 16, 2023

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 ...

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Jazz Lent 2022 in Maribor, Slovenia

by Ziga Koritnik
September 23, 2022

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Bugge Wesseltoft: Be Am

by Gareth Thompson
February 27, 2022

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 ...

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Rymden: Space Sailors

by Gareth Thompson
September 13, 2020

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 ...

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Rymden: Reflections And Odysseys

by Tyran Grillo
March 29, 2020

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 ...

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Jazzkaar Interviews: Bugge Wesseltoft

by Martin Longley
March 10, 2020

Your scribe witnessed the Nordic supergroup Rymden three times during 2019, illustrating how much this new constellation (in Norwegian, the word means 'space,' as in cosmic space) has expanded almost uncontrollably since making their debut. Even as an abstract concept, the combination was tantalising in the extreme. Purely acoustic piano and electronically distressed keyboards from Bugge Wesseltoft, combined with the bass and drums of Dan Berglund and Magnus Öström, previously two-thirds of the Swedish e.s.t. Those Rymden appearances ...