Jazz Articles about Espen Eriksen
About Espen Eriksen
Instrument: Piano
Article Coverage | Calendar | Albums | Photos | Similar ArtistsEspen Eriksen Trio featuring Andy Sheppard: In The Mountains
by John Eyles
Formed in 2007, with personnel which has remained unchanged since, the Espen Eriksen Trio released its first Rune Grammofon album, You Had Me At Goodbye, in 2010. Since then, they have regularly released albums on the label, the most recent being End of Summer (2020). Prior to the current release, their only album which did not feature the trio alone was Perfectly Unhappy (2018) on which they were joined by the renowned British saxophonist Andy Sheppard. In the Mountains is ...
read moreEspen Eriksen Trio featuring Andy Sheppard: In The Mountains
by Gareth Thompson
Espen Eriksen uncorks a surprise at the end of this remarkable live album. For the closing cut, his trio takes on Krzysztof Komeda's theme tune for the 1968 urban horror flick Rosemary's Baby. To begin with, gothic piano hammerings and eerie bass scrapings replace Komeda's spooked female “la-la" vocals. Yet by the end, Eriksen's keyboard genius sweeps us into a realm of muted melancholy, pitched somewhere between dread and contemplation. It becomes a piece that seems to articulate the very ...
read moreEspen Eriksen Trio: End Of Summer
by Gareth Thompson
Any album recorded during the lockdown of 2020 will doubtless be scrutinised for cryptic references. As such, End Of Summer as a title might hint at something deeper (or darker) than mere seasonal flux. But amidst so much global turmoil, the Espen Eriksen Trio has held its nerve and created another poignant opus. Tranquility at the centre of chaos. As a Nordic pianist with a keen awareness of folk ballads and lullabies, Eriksen brings an innocent guile to ...
read moreEspen Eriksen Trio with Andy Sheppard: Perfectly Unhappy
by John Eyles
The Norwegian Espen Eriksen Trio was formed in 2007 and its personnel has remained unchanged ever since, across three previous album releases on Rune Grammofon. Such stability has allowed pianist Espen Eriksen, bassist Lars Tormod Jenset and drummer Andreas Bye to bond together and develop the particular chemistry that a successful trio needs, without having to resort to gimmicks or trickery to get their music noticed. Primarily based upon Eriksen's own compositions, that music has a rich sense of melody ...
read moreEspen Eriksen Trio With Andy Sheppard: Perfectly Unhappy
by Gareth Thompson
Primo Levi wrote that perfect happiness and perfect unhappiness are both beyond reach. For this he blamed our human condition, which is opposed to everything infinite. Maybe this album's title is also a comment on our hope and despair through life's journey. Not within the realm of Levi's suffering, of course, but in our common role as sentient beings. Those of us for whom music is a great solace should thus revere the union of Espen Eriksen and ...
read moreEspen Eriksen Trio: You Had Me At Goodbye
by John Kelman
When Rune Grammofon released In the Country's outstanding 2005 debut, This Was the Pace of My Heartbeat, it was promoted as the Norwegian label's “first jazz record." Still, that piano trio's eminently beautiful music retained the skewed edges so definitive of the label, while subsequent releases, including 2009's ambitious Whiteout, have aligned even more closely with Rune's experimental, forward-looking aesthetic. With You Had Me At Goodbye, Norwegian pianist Espen Eriksen and his trio further mine a new tradition forged, in ...
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