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JL 3779175CD
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Torun Eriksen presents Grand White Silk. Few songwriters can perform their material with such unobtrusive self-awareness as Torun Eriksen: she possesses many strengths as a lyricist, as a composer, as a singer. On Grand White Silk, she has pulled off the rare feat of playing to all of these enviable strengths with equal vitality and conviction. When you have set standards as high as Torun already has, all that remains to be done is aim higher: her aim has proven true, with a set of songs and performances that crown her work to date. Lyrically, the album draws on the place of the everyday amid the universal - those "little things we begin not to notice, that are important to us, yet we are blind to them through familiarity." Love; shame; self-acceptance; connections physical, emotional and electronic; contradictory feelings common to the modern world; the ability to simply breathe and accept a passing moment for what it is without question; the brief and frail existence of any individual within a universe without a visible, tangible beginning or end; all of this informs Grand White Silk, and it is delivered with images rich, poignant, sometimes seeming quotidian, at other times fragile and ethereal. Whether amid a lush arrangement with vast dynamic sweep, or against a sparse solo piano accompaniment, or against a juggernaut beat that seems close to unstoppable, Torun's sensitivity to her lyrical content is revealed time and time again by measured performances that are emotionally charged without melodrama, philosophical without cold intellectualism, meditative without haziness. Her distinctive tone, perfect phrasing and sensual delivery has few peers. Grand White Silk sets a new high-water mark for an already impressive career. Features: David Wallumrød on keys, André Berg on guitar, Kjetil Dalland on bass and Andreas Bye on drums.
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JL 3779122LP
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Is now the time? Spirit In The Dark has the answer. Take three of the hottest players on the scene, let them spin like a Leslie speaker, then chill or groove or get your gospel glad-rags on, because Now Is The Time is the answer. Featuring the combined talents of keyboardist David Wallumrød (Torun Eriksen, Beady Belle, Serena Maneesh, Jan Eggum, Jarle Bernhoft), bassist Audun Erlien (Knut Reiersrud, Nils Petter Molvær, Eivind Aarset, Bendik Hofseth) and drummer Anders Engen (Bugge Wesseltoft, Morten Harket, Eivind Aarset, Laurent Garnier), this is an all-killer-no-filler improvisational, musical conversational, and utterly sensational excursion through pure joy, whether on original compositions or carefully chosen classics. As regular participants in Cosmopolite Scene's Organ Club, the group has evolved, with a stylistically diverse but utterly consistent repertoire and spirit. Their sound is led by Wallumrød's keyboards, particularly the Hammond organ, but this doesn't mean that Erlien and Engen have their stars obscured - quite the contrary in fact: there are those locked-in grooves of drum'n'bass splendor underpinning some of the groovier tracks on the album, and there are enough improvisational flourishes and solo passages to keep even the hungriest fan of the rhythm section satisfied. Whether on an up-tempo groove, rocking out, shuffling, swinging, or floating through soulful atmospherics, the group remain on-point, neither missing nor wasting the opportunities presented by their jams. If there is any irony here, it's the fact that a group named Spirit In The Dark can make music that is so luminescent. So, to go back to that question: Is now the time? Absolutely! Personnel: David Wallumrød - Hammond organ, Clavinet, Minimoog, Prophet 5, piano, hand claps; Audun Erlien - bass, hand claps; Anders Engen - drums, percussion, hand claps.
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JL 3779138CD
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Beady Belle presents On My Own on Jazzland Recordings. Recorded in New York City, the songs features a strong - but not overpowering - undercurrent of '70s soul and vocal jazz, mixtures of intimacy and exuberance, and pulsations both urban and urbane. The musicians include Bugge Wesseltoft (who is also the producer) on keys, Gregory Hutchinson on drums, Reuben Rogers on bass. On My Own also features Joshua Redman on sax, Mathias Eick on trumpet and Fran Cathcart on guitar. Beady's compositional and lyrical skills are also showcased here as never before, weaving new tapestries through which her voice is the golden thread. Melodically gripping, harmonically intricate, lyrically intelligent (without pretentiousness) and underpinned by solid grooves. With each release, Beady Belle's voice has become richer, more capable, and laced with nuance and subtle expressiveness. Simply put, there is no one else like her.
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JL 3779142CD
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Jazzland Recordings are proud to present Moksha's beautiful debut album, The Beauty Of An Arbitrary Moment which combines jazz, Nordic cool and Indian fire. This trio, featuring guitarist Oddrun Lilja Jonsdottir, percussionist and vocalist Sanskriti Shrestha, and percussionist Tore Flatjord, produces a distinctly unique blend of jazz, Indian Raga, atmospheric improvisation, complex rhythms, textured expressionism, and spacious sonic architecture. Jonsdottir's guitar, whether electric or acoustic, fluidly digs, climbs, weaves, strikes, hums, and sparkles throughout, whether dancing across jazz chordal improvisation or rapidly chasing down what can only be described as Nordic gamaka runs. The layers of percussion provided by Shrestha and Flatjord drive the music forward, upward or quietly create changing dimensions and shifting soundscapes. Shrestha's vocal contributions range from sung melody to vocal percussion, adding unexpected coloring and textural transitions to these evocative compositions. The music is meditative and contemplative, each track making a journey that is emotional, intellectual, and spiritual in equal measure. It rarely sits still, yet feels elegantly unified. There is strength, fragility, drama, tension, serenity, and even agitation to be found amid structures that move seamlessly between the gently undulating and the angular. This is a confident and inspired debut. Jonsdottir and Shrestha's credentials are exemplary, and these have recently been augmented by their inclusion in Bugge Wesseltoft's New Conception of Jazz (JL 5372512CD, 2016) Flatjord has worked on many diverse projects, including Dr Kay, Kjetil Jerve Trio and Mongrel.
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JL 3779015CD
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John Derek Bishop, aka Tortusa, creates extraordinary sound collages featuring the unique musical sonics of Eivind Aarset on I Know This Place - The Eivind Aarset Collages. Tortusa is a Norwegian-American electronic musician and composer who fuses and transforms organic sounds and rhythms with both digital and analog manipulation and sound design. He draws inspiration from classical and jazz music, as well as contemporary electronic music. Utilizing samples from Eivind Aarset´s catalog on Jazzland Recordings, Tortusa creates a new set of compositions and soundscapes, melodic, wistful, dreamlike, meditative, unsettling, evocative, stirring, contemplative and personal. For the compositional process, Bishop employed both hardware equipment and software including retro tape recorders, modular synthesizers, samplers and a diverse array of other tools. The result is a sound that can be crystalline and grainy, razor-edged and misty, endlessly fascinating and expanding. The album is inspired by the atmospheres of Norwegian nature, and the inspiration is directly incorporated - Tortusa composed the album in a cabin near Egersund and his field recordings from the surrounding forests and coastline are an integral part of the record's soundscape. Eivind Aarset has been one of Tortusa's main influences in developing a unique sound and in musical composition. For Tortusa, it is a dream come true to make this record utilizing the sounds he has been inspired by, in addition to receiving creative input on the project from Aarset. Bishop has previously created collage compositions of Bodhild Vossgård of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, indie rock artist Sebastian Waldejer, jazz trio Moskus and more. Bishop is inspired by artists such as Brian Eno, Biosphere, Oneohtrix Point Never, Aphex Twin, Flying Lotus and Jon Hopkins. Bishop's own photography is featured on the cover and the included booklet.
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JL 4730728CD
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2015 release. Jazzland Recordings is proud to present a perfect marriage of tradition and modernity, both eastern and western. Bansal Trio, led by Harpreet Bansal (violin) and featuring Vojtěch Procházka (piano) and Andreas Bratlie (percussion) present Chandra. Bansal herself has had an outstanding career to date, working with many outstanding performers in both eastern (Ustad Sharif Khan, Tariq Khan and Sukhvinder Singh Namdari) and western (Unni Løvlid, Poing, The Source, Per Oddvar Johansen and Nils Olav Johansen) musical traditions. Her expressive, technically elegant style joyfully traverses boundaries of genre and historical tradition with graceful ease. Vojtěch Procházka also has a fine pedigree as one of the foremost young Czech pianists, and a CV that includes Ivar Grydeland, Per Oddvar Johansen, Kari Rønnekleiv and Espen Reinertsen. Andreas Bratlie is a drummer and percussionist who has quietly forged his career, and has worked with many artists, notably Andreas Ljones, Bertine Zetlitz, Mira Craig and Noora Noor. On this recording, he also brings elements of voice alongside his superb table and percussion work. The music exposes varied moods of light and shade, serenity through to agitation, and a degree of hinted spirituality amid urban humdrum automatism. The extended piece, "Bhairavi", is a traditional piece arranged and interpreted by the group, stands as a monolithic center piece, both in scale and variation, while the rest of the album features various meditations upon traditional pieces, as well as three original compositions.
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JL 0135092CD
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2004 repress; originally released in 2001. The Beady Belle debut, coming out of the left-of-field music underground of Norway. A major shot in the "Nu Jazz" wars. Beady Belle is one of the freshest new sounds to come out of the left-of-field music underground of Norway. A collaboration between singer Beate Lech and bassist Marius Reksjø, Beady Belle's debut album Home is a sensuous mosaic of sound that draws on the vast libraries of jazz, pop, techno and ambient to reveal the essence of Beate's stunning live performances yet to manages to combine it with the deliberate strategies of her creative musicianship.
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JL 0147242CD
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2001 release. Space Available is the first album of one of Norway's most critically acclaimed jazz groups, the Kornstad Trio. Over the past few years, a new generation of musicians has entered the Norwegian jazz scene that for so many years meant Jan Garbarek, Terje Rypdal, Jon Christensen, Arild Andersen and Karin Krog, but few others to the international jazz audience. Mainly thanks to the Special Jazz Studies at the Music Conservatory in the city of Trondheim, a steady flow of well-developed new talent has enrichened the Norwegian jazz scene during the nineties, and three of its most exciting and creative players have joined forces in the Kornstad Trio, a fearlessly improvising little powerhouse with an amazing degree of interplay that is rapidly gaining international recognition. Personnel: Håkon Kornstad - saxophones; Mats Eilertsen - bass; Paal Nilssen-Love - drums.
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JL 9812803LP
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2003 release. Jazzland Recordings present Kornstad Trio & Axel Dörner's Live From Kongsberg. Kornstad Trio won Kongsberg Jazz Festival's prize in 2002 - and for the prize-winning concert the following year they invited German trumpeter Axel Dörner. Live recording from Smeltehytta, Kongsberg.
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JL 4719919CD
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2015 release. Jazzland Recordings presents, Bits & Pieces, the second album from Mopti, and this time the group are taking things to a whole new level. Bendik Baksaas, turntablist and laptop musician, demonstrated through remixes of Mopti's album Logic (2013) that a collaboration might just be a great idea. In the summer of 2014, Mopti & Bendik Baksaas became a living reality at the Molde Jazz Festival. With Baksaas fully integrated into the band, they continued to explore the limitless possibilities the new combo had to offer, gradually mapping out a whole new world of their own. Bits & Pieces is an avant-garde album where the band have begun by challenging themselves, first and foremost, in the combination of contemporary jazz and experimental hip-hop, and this challenge is passed on to the listener in equal measure, a whole world of groove, mayhem, freedom, funk, soul, jazz, blinding lights and light-swallowing shadows to explore. There are moments of fanciful whimsy here, but also moments that feel downright dangerous. It's almost an album worth putting on safety gear before listening to! Personnel: Harald Lassen - saxophone, vocals; Kristoffer Eikrem - trumpet; David Aleksander Sjølie - guitar, vocals; Christian Meaas Svendsen - bass; Andreas Wildhagen - drums; Bendik Baksaas - DJ.
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JL 4721282LP
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LP version. 2015 release. Jazzland Recordings presents, Bits & Pieces, the second album from Mopti, and this time the group are taking things to a whole new level. Bendik Baksaas, turntablist and laptop musician, demonstrated through remixes of Mopti's album Logic (2013) that a collaboration might just be a great idea. In the summer of 2014, Mopti & Bendik Baksaas became a living reality at the Molde Jazz Festival. With Baksaas fully integrated into the band, they continued to explore the limitless possibilities the new combo had to offer, gradually mapping out a whole new world of their own. Bits & Pieces is an avant-garde album where the band have begun by challenging themselves, first and foremost, in the combination of contemporary jazz and experimental hip-hop, and this challenge is passed on to the listener in equal measure, a whole world of groove, mayhem, freedom, funk, soul, jazz, blinding lights and light-swallowing shadows to explore. There are moments of fanciful whimsy here, but also moments that feel downright dangerous. It's almost an album worth putting on safety gear before listening to! Personnel: Harald Lassen - saxophone, vocals; Kristoffer Eikrem - trumpet; David Aleksander Sjølie - guitar, vocals; Christian Meaas Svendsen - bass; Andreas Wildhagen - drums; Bendik Baksaas - DJ.
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JL 4748261CD
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2015 release. Torg, featuring some of the finest emerging talent on the Norwegian music scene, proudly present Kost/Elak/Gnäll. The group explores an unbridled mix of micro-modular minimalism, desynchronized repetition, fractional maximalism, melodic deconstruction, variable repetition, and semi-thematic repetition and extrapolation: their findings are moody, atmospheric, unsettling, good-humored, menacing, ominous, jovial, and above all, original. Moments of pop merge with abstract jazz, classical art music structures fleet past as snatches of repetitive motifs fade and decay to be replaced by something altogether different and indefinable. The music never sits still, restlessly venturing forwards. Led by pianist Johan Lindvall, Torg consists of some of the finest emerging talent on the Norwegian music scene, with members of the original Torg (founded in 2012) alongside members from Pests, Monkey Plot, Karokh and Ich Nin N!ntendo. The album was recorded in August 2014. Produced by Bugge Wesseltoft. Mixed and mastered by Ulf Holand.
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JL 9817509LP
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2004 release. Film ing is a new masterpiece. Bugge Wesseltoft is back to recording after 2003's phenomenal live output, recordings and tours. Bugge is back to the roots and rudiments of his "New Conception of Jazz" project. Melancholy Nordic piano resonances, punishing synth funk, organic grooves, and guest musicianship of the highest caliber: all directed by the ever-watchful and forward-thinking Bugge.
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JL 0135342CD
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2001 release. For many, Moving stands as the ultimate New Conception of Jazz album (JL 5372512CD) - if you don't own it, you're missing out. Moving is a perfect document of Wesseltoft Bugge's new world order of jazz, ripping up the standards, and effortlessly taking the listener on a daring musical journey where melody and groove, soundscape and soul all come together, crossing over where others have tried, but failed. Be there, one foot on the dance floor - the other in the stratosphere. Moving was performed by the band live in the studio after two years of touring across Europe. It's based on the natural empathy that has developed in the band, tapping into the intuitive and leaving the limitations of rationality far behind in an ever changing mosaic of musical colors. "All the music is of the moment," explains Wesseltoft. "Maybe that's why it has that edge, music that is developed on the spot. 'Change' and 'Yellow is the Colour' have simple melodic forms, while 'Gare du Nord', 'Lone', 'Moving' and 'Heim' are just moods we created on the spot. All of us together in the same room, playing live, gave us that communication we have on stage and so we could develop and improvise forms on the spot. Jazz music, if you ask me!" Personnel: Bugge Wesseltoft - Fender Rhodes, grand piano, programming, voice & samples; Ingebrigt Håker Flaten - acoustic & electronic bass; Anders Engen - drums; Jonas Lönnå - programming & vinyl effects; Paolo Vinaccia - percussion; Marius Reksjø - acoustic bass; Håkon Kornstad - tenor sax.
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JL 4730726LP
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Double LP version. 2015 release. Eivind Aarset is a musician who has succeeded in the difficult task of creating an immediately identifiable sound and marrying it to a will to investigate as many musical possibilities as he can find or imagine. I.E. is his arguably most accomplished album embodying these traits. The nine tracks that comprise the album are often diptychs or triptychs, structured with clear movements, shifting in tone, color and mood. Aarset's sound-world has always been one that could be mapped by those willing to explore it. Where Dream Logic (2012) was something of an unexpected side-step out of the kind of sound Aarset fans had grown accustomed to, this album is equally so, yet - as usual - feels organically connected to everything he has done. All the nuances, textures, gestures and signs that appeared on the aforementioned Dream Logic remain intact here, but now nestle amid beds of the "traditional" Aarset band sound. This fusion creates a completely new set of surprises, not only in terms of their juxtaposition, but also in terms of their sheer audacity. The album's recording methods and locations have been varied in numerous ways, but the majority of the album was recorded live in the studio with the basic quartet: Eivind Aarset, Audun Erlien, Wetle Holt, Erland Dahlen. The effect upon the sound is energizing, allowing a rawness to remain untouched. Of particular note are Audun Erlien's keyboard work (something for which he rarely receives enough credit, overshadowed as it is by his marvelous double-jointed grooving bass work), Wetle Holt, and Erland Dahlen's menagerie of struck instruments, particularly the dulcimers and glockenspiels that create many highlight moments here. The appearance of the full brass section, the sampling genius of Jan Bang, and the vocal stylings, hyper-elastic acrobatics and pyrotechnics of Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari, also enrich the sound deeply, creating an utterly new dimension for Aarset's sound. Aarset's guitar remains the dominant force throughout, but never overpowers the music as a whole. His endless skill in finding the right notes to play, whether in a sparse ambient environment or a chaotic crescendo of polyphonic revelry, is a marvel to behold. I.E. marks yet another move upward in Aarset's ascent towards the summit of his powers.
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JL 4730724CD
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2015 release. Eivind Aarset is a musician who has succeeded in the difficult task of creating an immediately identifiable sound and marrying it to a will to investigate as many musical possibilities as he can find or imagine. I.E. is his arguably most accomplished album embodying these traits. The nine tracks that comprise the album are often diptychs or triptychs, structured with clear movements, shifting in tone, color and mood. Aarset's sound-world has always been one that could be mapped by those willing to explore it. Where Dream Logic (2012) was something of an unexpected side-step out of the kind of sound Aarset fans had grown accustomed to, this album is equally so, yet - as usual - feels organically connected to everything he has done. All the nuances, textures, gestures and signs that appeared on the aforementioned Dream Logic remain intact here, but now nestle amid beds of the "traditional" Aarset band sound. This fusion creates a completely new set of surprises, not only in terms of their juxtaposition, but also in terms of their sheer audacity. The album's recording methods and locations have been varied in numerous ways, but the majority of the album was recorded live in the studio with the basic quartet: Eivind Aarset, Audun Erlien, Wetle Holt, Erland Dahlen. The effect upon the sound is energizing, allowing a rawness to remain untouched. Of particular note are Audun Erlien's keyboard work (something for which he rarely receives enough credit, overshadowed as it is by his marvelous double-jointed grooving bass work), Wetle Holt, and Erland Dahlen's menagerie of struck instruments, particularly the dulcimers and glockenspiels that create many highlight moments here. The appearance of the full brass section, the sampling genius of Jan Bang, and the vocal stylings, hyper-elastic acrobatics and pyrotechnics of Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari, also enrich the sound deeply, creating an utterly new dimension for Aarset's sound. Aarset's guitar remains the dominant force throughout, but never overpowers the music as a whole. His endless skill in finding the right notes to play, whether in a sparse ambient environment or a chaotic crescendo of polyphonic revelry, is a marvel to behold. I.E. marks yet another move upward in Aarset's ascent towards the summit of his powers.
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JL 1734982CD
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2007 release. After ten years of strengthening technique, discovering nuances, and playfully exploring the sonic possibilities of the sax, Håkon Kornstad finally has released his own solo effort in Single Engine. "I think in the past I really wanted to try every imaginable style, every form of music," Kornstad says about the recording, "And I did. With this album, I feel for the first time that everything has come together and allowed me a greater range of expression than what I had previously, in that I'm not bound to any one style, but have gone beyond that and now am forging into another - one that's entirely my own." In the ten tracks on the album we are taken from myriad of sounds - from the sax, to the home-made flutonette, to electronics - which shows the driving force of Single Engine gaining momentum, clearly tied together with an impeccable artistry and Kornstad's willingness to explore. After a decade of collaborations and as sideman, he comes fully into his own and invites you to hear what he's discovered. With the culmination of his past, Kornstad is now firmly placed in the future, and Single Engine is certainly the driving, propelling force that will at last gain him the recognition for his own individual vision. Personnel: Håkon Kornstad - tenor and bass saxophones, flute, home-made flutonette & melodica; Bugge Wesseltoft - Hammond B3; Knut Reiersrud - acoustic guitar, lap steel; Ingebrigt Håker Flaten - double bass.
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JL 4757114CD
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2015 release. "One of the world's finest saxophonists now reveals himself as an utterly unique and deeply personal singer. Rarely, if ever, has a performing artist managed to combine two vastly different musical expressions at such a sky-high level, and at the same time made the total output seem so clear and coherent." -- Ketil Bjørnstad. Dubbed by international jazz critics as poster boy for the new Norwegian jazz, Håkon Kornstad has been listed in the US jazz magazine Downbeat's "Critics Poll". He has been an inspiration for a generation young jazz musicians with his groups Kornstad Trio and Wibutee. He has performed live collaborations with both Pat Metheny and Joshua Redman, and was a central figure in Bugge Wesseltoft's New Conception of Jazz (JL 5372512CD). Kornstad has been nominated for the Norwegian Grammy several times, most recently for his unique solo saxophone recordings. Then, as his jazz career is skyrocketing, he decides to start singing opera. In 2009 he is in New York, and hears Cavalleria Rusticana at the Met. Six years later, he has a master's degree from the Norwegian Opera Academy. But the saxophonist is very much alive. In the '50s, the jazz saxophonists competed in playing fastest and loudest and called it a Tenor Battle. In Håkon Kornstad's new ensemble the expression takes on a rather different meaning, when he mixes his newfound tenor voice with his unique tenor saxophone playing. And the sound -- Caruso meets Coltrane? Björling meets Garbarek? On Tenor Battle, opera arias by Massenet, Gluck and Bizet, as well as classical art songs are mixed seamlessly with Scandinavian jazz. Håkon Kornstad sings in Italian, French and German, with a haunting, light Scandinavian tenor voice, bringing back memories of 78RPM era salon orchestras. And then he plays the saxophone, with his distinct warm sound. Sigbjørn Apeland's harmonium sounds like a blend between strings and wind instruments, and drummer Øyvind Skarbø plays nuanced percussion on arias that were never intended for drums. Harpsichordist Lars Henrik Johansen fits in naturally with his baroque instrument on romantic pieces, while double bassist Per Zanussi also plays the singing saw, without it ever turning circus-like. The musicians in Kornstad's ensemble have worked intensively with the freedom to improvise and arrange, be it instrumental numbers or classical arias - respectfully and playfully at the same time.
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JL 4759115LP
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LP version. 2015 release. "One of the world's finest saxophonists now reveals himself as an utterly unique and deeply personal singer. Rarely, if ever, has a performing artist managed to combine two vastly different musical expressions at such a sky-high level, and at the same time made the total output seem so clear and coherent." -- Ketil Bjørnstad. Dubbed by international jazz critics as poster boy for the new Norwegian jazz, Håkon Kornstad has been listed in the US jazz magazine Downbeat's "Critics Poll". He has been an inspiration for a generation young jazz musicians with his groups Kornstad Trio and Wibutee. He has performed live collaborations with both Pat Metheny and Joshua Redman, and was a central figure in Bugge Wesseltoft's New Conception of Jazz (JL 5372512CD). Kornstad has been nominated for the Norwegian Grammy several times, most recently for his unique solo saxophone recordings. Then, as his jazz career is skyrocketing, he decides to start singing opera. In 2009 he is in New York, and hears Cavalleria Rusticana at the Met. Six years later, he has a master's degree from the Norwegian Opera Academy. But the saxophonist is very much alive. In the '50s, the jazz saxophonists competed in playing fastest and loudest and called it a Tenor Battle. In Håkon Kornstad's new ensemble the expression takes on a rather different meaning, when he mixes his newfound tenor voice with his unique tenor saxophone playing. And the sound -- Caruso meets Coltrane? Björling meets Garbarek? On Tenor Battle, opera arias by Massenet, Gluck and Bizet, as well as classical art songs are mixed seamlessly with Scandinavian jazz. Håkon Kornstad sings in Italian, French and German, with a haunting, light Scandinavian tenor voice, bringing back memories of 78RPM era salon orchestras. And then he plays the saxophone, with his distinct warm sound. Sigbjørn Apeland's harmonium sounds like a blend between strings and wind instruments, and drummer Øyvind Skarbø plays nuanced percussion on arias that were never intended for drums. Harpsichordist Lars Henrik Johansen fits in naturally with his baroque instrument on romantic pieces, while double bassist Per Zanussi also plays the singing saw, without it ever turning circus-like. The musicians in Kornstad's ensemble have worked intensively with the freedom to improvise and arrange, be it instrumental numbers or classical arias - respectfully and playfully at the same time.
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JL 0134212CD
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2001 release. Jon Eberson Group presents Dreams That Went Astray. A bit of retro-funk blended with modern beats and soundscapes. Eberson is great, bringing back a lot of memories with his special guitar sound. Personnel: Jon Eberson - guitars; Bugge Wesseltoft - keys, synth bass; Tom Erik Antonsen - bass; Pål Thowsen - drums; Pål Strangefruit - vinyl; Beate (from Beady Belle) - vocals.
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JL 4719918CD
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2015 release. Since their inception in 2000, the Scandinavian ensemble Atomic has garnered widespread acclaim for creating a completely unique and identifiable sound that seamlessly merges the American and European free jazz traditions. They are equally indebted to the music of Archie Shepp and Derek Bailey, and use these traditions as sources of inspiration -- not restrictions on their creativity. No strangers to the touring circuit, Atomic were on the road almost as soon as they formed, and since 2000 they have extensively toured throughout Europe, Japan, and the US. Lucidity follows the 2010 two-volume Theater Tilters release (commemorating the band's ten-year anniversary) and 2013's There's a Hole in the Mountain. Håvard Wiik, piano; Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, bass; Fredrik Ljungkvist, trumpet; Magnus Broo, trumpet; Hans Hulbækmo, drums.
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JL 4715330CD
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2015 release. Fronted by Beate Slettevoll Lech, a stunning singer, songwriter, and composer, with the unparalleled backbone of Marius Reksjø (bass) and Erik Holm (drums) and such regular top-notch collaborators as David Wallumrød (keyboards), Beady Belle has progressed, digressed, and evolved to become one of Norway's most consistently excellent bands, both live and in the studio. This fabulous three-disc collection offers a superb selection of tracks that effortlessly demonstrate the power of Beady Belle's work. The first two discs present the group in the studio, featuring a selection of tracks that fans helped choose, while the third disc contains a live recording of a performance in Oslo, Norway, on August 15, 2013. Instead of chronological order, the tracks are sequenced to complement each other and create a smooth flow. There are tracks from each of the band's albums, showcasing an array of collaborators including Jamie Cullum, India Arie, Torun Eriksen, Bugge Wesseltoft, Jørgen Munkeby, Geir Sundstøl, Anders Engen, and countless others. Despite line-up adjustments, the sound remains unmistakably Beady Belle throughout. From the minimalist funk opening of "Saved" and the hint of reggae funk on "So Far, So Good" (both from the breathtaking 2013 concept album Cricklewood Broadway) through the unlikely fusion of jazz and bluegrass stylings that is "Diamond in The Rough" (from 2010's At Welding Bridge), the Latin-influenced beats and Middle Eastern structures of "My Name on the World" (a return to Cricklewood Broadway),the soul-funk-jazz gumbo of "Lose & Win" (Home (2001)), "Irony" (Closer (2005)), and "Self-fulfilling" (Belvedere (2008)) to the swamp-blues-meets-smooth-jazz of "Runaway Mind" (At Welding Bridge), the slightly off-kilter club jazz of "Skin Deep" (Closer), and the jubilant disco-inflected grooves of "Moderation" and driving rhythms of "Ghosts" (both from Home), the first disc displays an eclecticism that would suggest inconsistency in any other band. But here, each track is imbued with the immediately identifiable essence of Beady Belle.
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JL 3786602CD
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2014 release. When Bugge Wesseltoft and Henrik Schwarz produced their collaboration Duo in 2011, it was clear that their synergy was both unique within, and revitalizing to, the whole genre of electroacoustic beat-based improvisation. Now the duo becomes a trio, and the dialogue becomes a Trialogue. Bassist Dan Berglund (e.s.t., Tonbruket) brings additional dimensions and a whole new range of improvisational possibilities, musical conversational topics, and layers of sound, giving this project a different drive yet retaining the spirit of the Duo project. The musicians' will to surprise -- not just the audience, but also themselves -- dominates proceedings. Moments of quasi-ambient atmosphere sit alongside driving, energetic swathes of blues-inflected jamming from the future while near-metallic, semi-sinister meteor storms of sound rest easily beside moments of classic jazz noire, in addition to a marked assimilation of classical chamber sensibilities. Pokerfaced humor laces intricately woven improvisations, and the harmonic interplay guides the listener into passages of sumptuous soloing from Wesseltoft and Berglund. Minimalist structures are recrafted, working in hints of folk, spaciousness, and baroque inflections. A certain smoky jazz ambience pervades the whole, punctuated by moments when it feels like aliens have attempted to reconstruct jazz with just a few strands of musical DNA. Passages of the music are saturated with a fragile tension, bowed bass, lingering piano phrases, and endless static chatter. Sparse introductions melt effortlessly into tangible chord structures underpinned by gentle but insistent beats. Where other musicians have engaged in similar stylistic juxtapositions, Wesseltoft, Schwarz, and Berglund set themselves apart by managing the near-impossible feat of crafting a perfectly coherent aesthetic -- a complete musical language of their own. Bugge Wesseltoft: grand piano, Rhodes, synthesizers, percussion; Henrik Schwarz: computer, small percussion; Dan Berglund: double bass.
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