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Jazz Articles about Thorleifur Gaukur Davidsson

About Thorleifur Gaukur Davidsson

Interview

Davidsson: A Lifeline from the Land of Fire and Ice

by Dean Nardi
May 5, 2026

Icelandic artist Thorleifur Gaukur Davidsson grew up on a volcanic island called Heimaey, four miles off the coast of Iceland. He records by his Swedish patronymic surname, meaning “son of David." His debut album Lifelines (OPIA, 2024) is filled with memories and emotions culled from family and the natural beauty of his home island. Davidsson took up guitar and harmonica at age 15, playing blues and folk music then adding pedal steel to his tools. He joined the Icelandic blues ...

Album Review

Club d'Elf: You Never Know

Read "You Never Know" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
October 19, 2022

You Never Know is the Club d'Elf studio album that captures the whirling, overlapping orbits of acoustic, electric and exotic sounds of the floating improvisational collective, which has recorded and performed together for more than two decades, with crisp studio clarity. But more importantly, You Never Know celebrates light born from darkness. Bassist and bandleader Mike Rivard, the sole constant in the collective's 24-year run, suffered a near-death experience from a pulmonary embolism which struck him while he ...

Album Review

Club D'Elf: You Never Know

Read "You Never Know" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
March 7, 2022

Near-death experiences can reboot the mind, separating the important from the trivial. It seems to have worked like that for bassist and composer Mike Rivard, founder and leader of Boston's world-dub-jazz band Club D'Elf. A few years back, Rivard was nearly felled by a pulmonary embolism while seeking spiritual insight in the Amazonian rain forest. A long, dark period of depression followed, before Rivard emerged recharged into the light, having been sustained in large part by gnawa, the Moroccan trance ...