Roy Powell

This Celestial Engine: This Celestial Engine

by Glenn Astarita
February 26, 2024

This self-titled debut album is a masterful concoction of genres, melding psychedelic nuances with avant jazz and progressive rock elements. It showcases the talents of Ted Parsons on drums, Dave Sturt on bass, and Roy Powell on keyboards. These musicians are celebrated for their extensive contributions across jazz, metal, rock, and experimental music genres. Operating out of Oslo, Norway, the band draws on their varied musical backgrounds to create immersive soundscapes that transport listeners across cosmic distances.The album ...

InterStatic: Arise

by Glenn Astarita
December 18, 2014

UK-reared keyboardist Roy Powell (Mumpbeak, Naked Truth)has called Norway home for several years while serving as a prime motivator for this futuristic UK-based, record label via sideman duties, and co-leading groups such as Interstatic. The band pushes the envelope yet again on this psycho, acid-rock slant on the jazz organ trio format. Nonetheless, the trio ups the ante a bit on its third album, featuring ECM Records recording artist Jacob Young and notable session drummer Jarle Vespestad. A little genre-busting ...

InterStatic: Arise

by Vincenzo Roggero
October 10, 2014

Interstatic è una sorta di power trio formato da virtuosi strumentisti quali il tastierista Roy Powell (Anthony Braxton, Art Farmer, Terje Rypdal), il batterista Jarle Vespestad (Supersilent, Tord Gustavsen) e il chitarrista Jacob Young (Karin Krog, Nils Petter Molvaer, Christian Wallumrod). Trio che ha trovato ragioni comuni solide e importanti visto che è alla terza incisione in tre anni. E prosegue a battere le strade di quella miscela stilistica di jazz, rock, ambient, noise che ha contraddistinto fino ad ora ...

InterStatic: Arise

by John Kelman
August 15, 2014

Its beginnings may have been a little closer to the jazz side of the jazz-rock equation with Anthem (PVY Records, 2011), but British expat keyboardist Roy Powell's and trio with Norwegian guitarist Jacob Young and drummer Jarle Vespestad has, since changing its moniker to InterStatic with the release of its first album on UK's RareNoiseRecords label, InterStatic (2012), ratcheted up the energy, the volume and the rock quotient. If InterStatic was the trio's first shot across the bow, then Arise ...

Take Five With Roy Powell

by AAJ Staff
April 7, 2011

Meet Roy Powell:Roy Powell studied piano and avant-garde composition at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester England, before defecting to jazz. He first came to prominence in 1994 with his debut recording, A Big Sky, which was hailed as “a real benchmark in British contemporary electric jazz" by Jazz on CD. He then emigrated to Oslo, Norway, where he collaborated on an album of free improvised music, Holus, which was described as “an outstanding success" by ...

Roy Powell: Solace

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
November 24, 2003

Solace came in through the mail slot with two strikes against it: an unfamiliar leader and a program of all originals. Too often, this turns out to be a bad combination – an ego fest of little musical interest – but for once, it was a happy surprise. Pianist/composer Roy Powell is better-known in Europe; born in England in 1965, he was trained there and later moved to Oslo. Powell has worked with Anthony Braxton, Art Farmer, and Vince Mendoza, ...

Roy Powell Trio: Holus

by Javier AQ Ortiz
October 9, 2003

Quick and to the Point: A rarity: spontaneous Jazz... .

For all the talk of improvisation in jazz, it is not widespread to have musicians draw together at a recording studio and just go with the flow. For all the talk of spontaneous virtuosity in jazz, the percentage of musicians who can gather jointly – and pull it off with fallout of note – is likewise somewhat limited. The Norwegian release Holus, featuring the Roy Powell Trio, is ...

RareNoise To Release Album "Doctoring The Dead" With Eraldo Bernocchi & Colin Edwin, Joined By Ted Parsons And Roy Powell

Source: hubtone PR
April 22, 2015

Metallic Taste Of Blood, the instrumental math-rock/outer rock unit lead by Italian guitarist and soundsculptor Eraldo Bernocchi and Australian bassist Colin Edwin is back with a vengeance, joined now by legendary drummer Ted Parsons, whose earlier ventures included Swans, Prong, Buckethead, Godflesh and Killing Joke, and British keyboard player extraordinaire Roy Powell, whose recent work includes InterStatic and Naked Truth. The vigor and inventiveness which characterized Metallic Taste Of Blood’s first release still sits center stage, a natural outflow of ...
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Interstatic's Arise With Roy Powell, Jacob Young, Jarle Vespestad, To Be Released On Rarenoise In August

Source: Antje Hübner
June 19, 2014

Interstatic Takes The Gloves Off On Third Recording For RareNoise. Arise Represents The Organ Trio's Most Intense Offering To Date. With each successive outing — first 2011ʼs Anthem followed by their raucous RareNoiseRecords debut, 2013ʼs InterStatic — the potent Norway-based trio of expatriate Brit organist Roy Powell, Norwegian guitarist Jacob Young and Norwegian drummer Jarle Vespestad has upped the ante on intensity and audaciousness while arriving at a nexus where rock organically meets jazz. Now the powerhouse unit has reached ...
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Jacob Young/Roy Powell/Jarle Vespestad Release CD Anthem

Source: Michael Ricci
March 26, 2011

Organ jazz for today. Brooding, melancholic, lyrical, with intense ensemble playing. This collectively lead trio was born a little over a year ago as a project bringing together three of Norway's leading jazz musicians on Hammond B3 organ, drums and guitar. Jarle Vespestad and Jacob Young belong to the new generation of Norwegian musicians on ECM records. Roy Powell (UK) lives in Oslo with a background in British cutting-edge jazz having played with the Creative Jazz Orchestra and leading American ...
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