Jazz Articles

Nils Petter Molvaer: Baboon Moon

by John Kelman
November 9, 2011

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: Hamada

by Chris May
February 13, 2010

Despite ample evidence to the contrary, for many people trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær is synonymous with understated, electronica-drenched, ambient music. The perception gets stronger the further the Norwegian's name travels from its home turf, despite his record company's best efforts. In 2006, Sula Records released the fierce, high temperature An American Compilation, partly to increase Molvær's profile in North America, partly to define it more accurately. To little avail. Beyond his core audience, the trumpeter continues to be known as ...

Nils Petter Molvaer: Re-Vision

by John Kelman
May 12, 2008

The music of Norwegian trumpeter/Nu Jazz progenitor, Nils Petter Molvaer, has always been cinematic. Call it music for a non-existent movie or a film of the mind, Molvaer's albums, beginning with the groundbreaking Khmer (ECM, 1997), have always been about aural landscapes evocative of highly personal imagery and plenty of club-ready grooves. Even in performance, the lighting provided by Tord “Prince of Darkness" Knudsen is intended to provoke the imagination rather than focus attention on the musicians. It's ...

Nils Petter Molvaer: er

by John Kelman
December 15, 2005

With Khmer (ECM, 1997) Norwegian trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer almost singlehandedly introduced a new movement in the electronica-based nu jazz arena that would come to be known as “future jazz." Blending a group approach to improvisation with contemporary sampling and programming technologies, Molvaer creates hypnotic ambient soundscapes with compelling rhythms. Music for the body? Unequivocally. But equally, music for the soul and spirit. Since leaving ECM Molvaer has in some ways become the gold standard against which other ...

Nils Petter Molvaer: Remakes

by Chris May
March 13, 2005

Another manifestation of Nils Petter Molvaer's groundbreaking np3 album--which only last autumn made up the bulk of the material for the Streamer live set--Remakes offers six original tracks in eleven new mixes made by mixologists ranging from bandmembers Rune Arnesen and Raymond Pellicier through established console stars like Bill Laswell and emergent ones like Matthew Herbert.

First off, before assessing the music itself, the presentation of one of AAJ's highly coveted Track Title Awards, for “Axis Of Ignorance," ...

Nils Petter Molvaer: Streamer: Live

by John Kelman
September 6, 2004

Trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer, surely one of the founding fathers of the Norwegian nu jazz scene, continues to mine the depths of ambient texture with Streamer , a live album recorded in Norway and London in '02. Comprised mainly of material from NP3 (EmArcy, '02), with the exception of the title track from Solid Ether (ECM, '00), Molvaer demonstrates that music can be as much about the fabric of sound as it is more lyrical concerns.

That's not to say ...