The Bebop Shop : Current Events: New Jazz and Beyond : Contemporary Scandinavians
Strømme’s beautiful compositions are inspired by the Norwegian landscape and the band’s respect for the modern jazz tradition is mixed with references and influences from other musical styles. A must-have album for fans of Tord Gustavsen Trio, Jan Garbarek, Esbjörn Svensson Trio and Lars Danielsson. (Proper Music) Price: £12.99
The title In Cinema provides a clue to the darker, edgier, sound of this work compared to the earlier albums. Originally written for four independent films and later developed for the album the soundscapes are uncompromising, contrasting emotive melodies than reach deep and touch the listener on a very personal level with intense dynamic pick ups built on guitar riffs (Lasse Sakara) and uplifting, soaring melodies carried by the unusual cello (Osmo Ikonen )/trombone (Ilmari Pohjola) front line and underpinned by staunch bass playing (Lasse Lindgren). (Edition Records) Price: £13.99
'Flow' bursts with energy which echoes the fluidity and brilliance of Keith Jarrett’s European Quartet combining hypnotic riffs, absorbing melodies with elegant improvised piano phrases from Tuomarila, intertwined with Kummert’s haunting vocal chants and virtuosic, harmonically rich saxophone solos. (Edition Records) Price: £13.99
Within each track there are many wonderful surprises. Highlights include the title track Birds where the opening melody is not played by saxophone but by Bjarke Mogensen on accordion, demonstrating Marius Neset´s influence by Norwegian Folk Music. Birds is a further development of Marius Neset as a performer and bandleader. It is the perfect showcase of his brilliance as an inspirational and inspired composer. The stage is set… (Edition Records) Price: £13.99
The three main compositions on “Snowmelt” are the fruit of intense work during the period from 2012 to 2015. Given Neset's long, considered process, the scale of the undertaking, and the sheer amount of work, time and thought that have gone into his compositions, it comes as no surprise that each listen brings seems to bring more revelations. There is always something more here for the listener to discover and unravel. (Harmonia Mundi) Price: £14.99
"Tributes" is an album where everything seems to click in a particularly happy and enjoyable way. Neset has found an ideal context - and the right musicians - to mark the end of one chapter in his life and to turn the page for the beginning of another. (ACT Records) Price: £14.99
The album "Happy" features Neset with a new, top-class quintet. The album is divided into two parts: In the first half, playful, intricate, energetic songs dominate. And in the second part, Neset & Band take the listeners into a calmer suite. What all pieces have in common: You can hear the musicians' pure joy of playing in every note. (ACT Records) Price: £14.99
Recorded in a single day at London’s fabled Abbey Road studios, Parallax is a brilliantly realised piece of music-making. It has all the standout features of the trio’s work. Rhythmic drive. Constant shifts in mood and texture. Drama heightened by dazzlingly fast reactions. All leavened by a melodic sense all three draw on as much when improvising as composing. (Edition Records) Price: £13.99
180g high quality pressing. Includes download code. Price: £26.99
Rantala’s compositional horizons are mostly what defines “How Long Is Now?”, but he also has a conscious intention to take a jazz trio in a specific direction: “The basic concept,” he says, “is to avoid the basic concept of the jazz piano trio and to make it more groovy, with simple melodies.” Seven of the thirteen compositions here are by Rantala himself, three tracks by the other players in the trio, and three more are by others who, in their different ways, have helped to construct Rantala’s appealing musical personality - Jimi Hendrix, Kenny Barron and Johann Sebastian Bach. (Harmonia Mundi) Price: £14.99
Bullhorn is a key album in Pohjola’s career, marking the shift from a rising start to an artist of real substance with a powerful, unique sound and a sense of deepening maturity and clarity of vision. Bullhorn is the album that finally realises Verneri’s enormous creative potential. (Edition Records) Price: £13.99
The 32-year-old saxophonist from Tønsberg in Norway is one of the rising stars from the land of the Northern Lights. Cycle of Silence is her third album and her ACT debut. Price: £14.99
180g vinyl pressing.
Balke's solo piano was recorded at Oslo's Rainbow Studio, and the sound images were recorded and processed by Balke and Audun Kleive. Additional field recordings by Balke were integrated in the mix of the album at RSI Studio Lugano in September 2015. 'Warp' was produced by Jon Balke and Manfred Eicher. It is the pianist's second solo album for ECM, following the 2007 release 'Book of Velocities', a sequence of aphoristic pieces with affinities to Kurtág and Ligeti, described by Jazzwise as "a fascinating statement that is as beckoning as it is beguiling". (Proper Music) Price: £13.99
These three albums are from the middle period of Ketil Bjørnstad’s career, and were recorded in 1984 and 1987. The music evokes imagery, and like so much of Bjørnstad’s music it straddles the border between classical and jazz. All the music on the records has been composed, but there is plenty of space for improvisation. (Proper Music) Price: £19.99
At 16 years old Ketil Bjornstad debuted as a pianist with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra in the University ceremonial hall, the Aula. The acclaimed writer and musician celebrates 50 years as a musician and artist in 2019. Bjornstad's 50th anniversary as an artist kicks off with a reissue of "Rainbow Sessions", earlier released as a limited edition in 2006. This is Ketil Bjornstad's homage to the world known Rainbow Studios and the Steinway grand piano. When studio owner and sound guru Jan Erik Kongshaug in 2004 was moving the studio to a new location, the idea to make the last to record in the old studio and the first to play in the new, was born. Two solo piano albums were planned, at the time it turned into three, and for this release evolves into four. This celebratory edition consists of five different Rainbow sessions recorded in the period 2013-2017, which Bjornstad has put together into a fourth bonus CD. Everything is presented in a new, wonderful design, accompanied by newly written liner notes by Bjornstad. (Proper Music) Price: £32.99
CD2 contains the Nightwalker suite played on the classic Fender Rhodes piano, sent through an equally classic Leslie that creates this almost ghostly intensity and a unique atmosphere which give the suite a totally different vibe. (Proper Music) Price: £27.99
180g vinyl edition.
“This is the chill-out as a state of grace, and it can go as deep as you like. Sublime,” wrote the Independent on Sunday of the Gustavsen’s trio’s Being There, released in 2007. Over the last decade Tord has explored other ensemble forms and formats, but on The Other Side - recorded at Oslo’s Rainbow Studio in January 2018 – he opens a new chapter in his piano trio story, with faithful drummer Jarle Vespestad, and excellent new bassist Sigurd Hole. Hole’s approach to his instrument, drawing on folk influences as well as modern jazz, is ideally suited to Gustavsen’s slowly-developing, deeply melodic pieces. (ECM Records) Price: £14.99
Bugge Wesseltoft is never still, always moving. His music, since the release of ‘New Conceptions of Jazz’ 15 years ago, has continuously crossed musical frontiers, and always questioned the need for these frontiers to exist at all. Yet what remains certain is the fact that Bugge is a Jazz man - through and through. Now, on ‘Songs’, he takes a fresh look at the music that made him what he is, the songs and compositions that have informed this jazz sensibility throughout his career. No electronic sleight of hand or post-production: this is pure musicianship.
Bugge covers standards from the 1930s onwards such as “Darn That Dream”, “My Foolish Heart”, “How High the Moon” and “Giant Steps”. His meditation on music that has inspired many before him is deeply contemplative, and is often evocative of the spirit of the originals, while venturing into spontaneous arrangements both unexpected and truly satisfying. (Proper Music) Price: £13.99
On 'Be Am', Wesseltoft has allowed his creative impulses to wander where they may - no preset rules to govern the composition and production, no obligations to (not) use electronics, not even a will to be totally alone. This is pure playing and composition, where the music speaks freely by whatever means it will. (Proper Music) Price: £13.99
This is music that reflects all aspects of the Scandinavian milieu of the 21st century, filled with rugged dynamism, extended playing techniques, brooding or melancholic atmospheres. It offers cinematic and epic sounds, cascading drama, crashing and splashing, tension and release. It delivers melodic, high-octane unison riffs, Minimalism immersed in rich improvised tapestries, vocal doubling of melodies, and moments of growling menace. Rymden does this with minimal electronic trickery, with Wesseltoft moving between piano and Rhodes, and Berglund and Öström coaxing just about every possible sound from their instruments. (Proper Music) Price: £13.99
The trio have taken the dynamics, textures, moods, and perfect blend of subtle detailing and big sonic gestures to new levels, and have picked up new elements of 60s psychedelia and punk energy along the way. The prog and fusion elements you already know and expect are still here, but with different colours and markings.
Featuring a more diverse sonic palette, with electronic keyboards and various effects coming further into play, there would be a danger of the trio becoming reliant upon the trickery these things afford, but instead they are perfect garnishes to Rymden's musical recipe of core compositions rich in melody, deep exploratory soloing, and musical elaborations and in-the-moment re-imaginings. And although each member has their (almost perfectly equal) share of individual composer credits, the overall signature is clearly Rymden. (Proper Music) Price: £13.99
Beady Belle is led by charismatic vocalist/composer Beate S. Lech, whose compositional and lyrical skills are 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 new release, her voice has become richer, more capable, and laced with nuance and subtle expressiveness. Simply put, there is no-one else like her. (Proper Music) Price: £13.99
