Articles | Popular | Future

Nils Petter Molvær at the 2018 Torino Jazz Festival

By Antonio Baiano

Enjoy Jazz 2016

By John Kelman

2016 Enjoy Jazz Festival Heidelberg, Mannheim & Ludwigshafen, Germany October 24-November 1, 2016 Returning to Heidelberg and the Enjoy Jazz Festival after a three-year absence is still more than a bit like returning to a second home. Not just the same hotel (the ever-charming Hollander Hof, along the Neckar River by an old footbridge), which has not only managed to retain most of its staff from 2009-13, but still remembers and assigns the same hotel room ...

Nils Petter Molvær: Buoyancy

By Karl Ackermann

More than thirty years ago, Norwegian trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær had left his mark as an exceptional improviser with his ECM Records debut on Masquarelo's Bande à Part (1985). Those beginnings--in the company of Nordic jazz legends--led Molvær to an ongoing process of nurturing his musical sensibilities across electronic grooves, club beats, jazz, and more genre-defying styles. Molvær's new quartet offers Buoyancy, a natural progression from 2014's Switch (Okeh). Geir Sundstöl on guitars and banjo and Erland Dahlen ...

Nils Petter Molvaer: Khmer

By John Kelman

Nils Petter Molvær KhmerECM Records 1997 At a time when, with the sheer volume of music vying for attention it's almost an impossibility to release a recording that actually shakes the foundation of what music is and what it can be, there was a time, in 1997-98—and in, perhaps, the most unlikely of places—when four albums changed the course of music...particularly in their native country, to be sure, but also on an international scale. Out ...

Nils Petter Molvær: Switch

By Karl Ackermann

From his first major recording date almost thirty years ago, Norwegian trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær has been a unique innovator with a seemingly insatiable appetite for testing new waters. Beginning with Masquarelo's seminal ECM Records debut, Bande à Part (1985), Molvær joined with the already established bassist Arild Andersen and his long-time collaborator, drummer Jon Christensen. Along with Jon Balke on keyboards and saxophonist Tore Brunborg, the quintet represented a Nordic lineup whose individual members continue to make significant contributions ...

Nils Petter Molvaer in Benrath Forest

By Adriana Carcu

Nils Petter Molvær: Lucid DreamBenrath Forest Duesseldorf, GermanyMay 31, 2014 Nils Petter Molvær's ambient sound and light installation, Lucid Dream, was performed in Germany on the last night of May, 2014. The floating dreaminess of the music was enhanced by sound designer Jørgen Larsson and lighting/video artist Pekka Stokke. Molvær has elaborated the concept of the performance together with Beate Schüler, who was also the curator of the event. The performance, sounding the elusive territory ...

Nils Petter Molvaer: Switch

By John Kelman

Sometimes when forced into change, the best thing to do is toss what came before and shoot for something completely different. With Stian Westerhus leaving trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær's trio after three years of extensive touring and the sole, spectacular document Baboon Moon (Sula, 2011), Molvær's career--defined, since emerging in the mid-'80s with the acclaimed group Masqualero, by a restless drive for evolution and surprisingly regular revolution--was at a crossroad. If there's anything predictable about this spearhead to a new ...

Scene Norway 2 at King's Place

By John Kelman

Scene Norway 2 Artist-in-Residence: Nils Petter Molvær King's Place, London, UK November 15-17, 2013 Walking into King's Place, in London, England, is an experience in itself. A building opened in 2008 near King's Cross station in downtown London, it was built with the kind of foresight that is rare these days. Above ground is office space, largely occupied by The Guardian newspaper, along with two restaurants and a large, welcoming open space with plenty ...

Nils Petter Molvaer: The Trumpet Does the Dreaming

By Adriana Carcu

Nils Petter Molvaer has long reached the musical excellence that places him amongst the most accomplished contemporary jazz musicians. As an early exponent of Nu Jazz, he mapped out a virgin musical territory and contributed to the branding of the Nordic Sound, today a genre in its own right, and still in full expansion. Molvaer's sonic hallmark--traced back to Miles Davis by many jazz critics, and accredited by himself to Jon Hassell--has that unique quality in which the ethereal dreaminess ...

Nils Petter Molvaer & Moritz von Oswald: 1/1

By John Kelman

With the breakup of his trio responsible for the superb Baboon Moon (Sula, 2011), it's been a fair question to wonder: what's next for Nils Petter Molvær? One possible answer is certainly 1/1, the Norwegian trumpeter's debut with German multi- instrumentalist and influential techno producer Moritz von Oswald and his nephew, Laurens. The trio's debut performance at Kristiansand, Norway's 2013 Punkt Festival, while strong, was largely misleading; the show certainly occupied some of 1/1's more ethereal territory, but Molvær and ...

Nils Petter Molvaer: Baboon Moon

By John Kelman

While Nils Petter Molvær's last release--the first after breaking up his band of ten years--demonstrated plenty of change for the Norwegian trumpeter, he still relied on two of that group's most significant players: live sampler Jan Bang and, most importantly, guitarist Eivind Aarset, who contributed to eight of its ten tracks. Still, Hamada (Sula, 2009) began to move away from the programmed beats of er (Sula, 2005), towards a harder-edged sound--driven, in no small part, by drummer Audun Kleive's thundering ...

Nils Petter Molvaer: Colors, Noises and Moods

By Adriana Carcu

Trumpeter/composer Nils Petter Molvær is one of the main exponents of Nordic Jazz--a geographic ramification that has acquired, especially during the last decade, the status of an independent genre. He has created his own style by combining traditional instrumental elements with electronic sound processing: a fusion characterized by pregnant rhythmical patterns and a meditative mood. Molvær performed recently at the 2010 Enjoy Jazz Festival in Mannheim, Germany, with Food--Thomas Strønen and Iain Ballamy--also featuring Christian Fennesz, and ...