02 Aug

[ August 2018 release from HUBRO – MOSKUS – Mirakler ]

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International release 17.08.18

In the Moskus universe there may be no such thing as a finished product, as everything remains permanently in flux and subject to further adaption and change. Even as it is articulated, a thought or musical phrase is already being reconsidered or evolving into something else. This is contingent music, hyper-alert to nuance and environment, changing like temperature or the weather just as the dynamic of the trio shifts its emphasis when roles are exchanged or the lead swapped from one player to another.

26 Jul

[ July 2018 release from HUBRO – SKADEDYR- Musikk! ]

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Norwegian release: 27.04.2018
– LP available May 11
International release: 27 July 2018

It’s a tough task going for transcendence straight from the off, but that is what Skadedyr’s new album does, almost immediately summoning up a mood of ecstatic abandon whose wailing guitar and keyboard drones, ululating voice and rattling percussion, bring to mind the cosmic spirit of Alice Coltrane and Carlos Santana, or the deep spiritual jazz of Pharoah Sanders at its most cathartic. That the opening (whose governing mood is to be picked up again in a later sequence) is then followed by a weird deconstructed interlude of percussion, parping tuba, free-improv glissandi, oompah-band musical jokes and ’noise’ might appear frustrating, but this is to penetrate to the heart of what Skadedyr are about.

02 Jul

[ July 2018 release from HUBRO – Hilde Marie Holsen- Lazuli]

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International release 13.07.18

Acclaimed trumpeter/soundscaper Hilde Marie Holsen follows up her critical hit mini-album debut, ‘Ask’, with the dark and mysterious ‘Lazuli’, a suite of four compositions inspired by visual art and named after minerals used to colour paint.

Hilde Marie Holsen’s ‘Lazuli’ is an almost shockingly complete musical statement. It’s as if an intense dialogue between the processes of composition and improvisation, and the interplay of sound and music, has led to the creation of experimental and often challenging work that nevertheless comes across as absolutely fully-formed; as inevitable, even.

07 Jun

[ June 2018 release from ODIN – Espen Berg Trio – Bølge , 8th of June 2018 ]

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Norwegian release 29.03.2018

International release 08.06.18

A bigger breakthrough

The jazz trio format is tried and tested and has become one of the basic ensemble formats of modern jazz. Here is a trio that has its feet planted firmly within the tradition, but still offers something unique to the listener. The Espen Berg Trio made its mark with the group’s first album, “Mønster”, in 2015. The trio was referred to as “the biggest and most important musical discovery in the first half of 2016” by Jazz Japan, and they have toured extensively in Japan, where they have also signed a recording contract. Now the trio is back, with a striking and elegant new album that very possibly will be an even bigger breakthrough for the trio. This is a group that is positively overflowing with talent and musical enthusiasm.

05 Jun

[ June 2018 release from GRAPPA – Ola Kvernberg: Steamdome , 8th of June 2018 ]

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Norwegian release 29.03.2018

International release 08.06.18

Three years after releasing the masterpiece The Mechanical Fair, Ola Kvernberg returns with a new magnificent, imaginative, rhythmic deluge of an album: Steamdome. The title of Kvernberg’s latest project was not chosen at random. Steamdome presents thoroughly percussive music. It lunges brutally ahead like a runaway train. As enthusiastic, surrealistic and swelling as Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns.

01 Jun

[ June 2018 release from HUBRO – Splashgirl – Sixth Sense]

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Norwegian release 16.04.2018

International release 01.06.18

Immersive electro-acoustic trio Splashgirl (Andreas Stensland Lowe, keyboards; Jo Berger Myhre, bass/guitar/electronics; Andreas Lonmo Knudsrod, drums/percussion) was the first act to sign to the Hubro label, with the group’s second album as a unit, ‘Arbor’, marking the label’s debut in 2009. Since then, each subsequent release has deepened and strengthened the developing Splashgirl sound, from ‘Pressure’ (2011) and ‘’Field Day Rituals’ (2013) to ‘Hibernation’ (2015).

29 May

[ April 2018 re-issue from ODIN – Svein Finnerud Trio – Plasic Sun, 1st of June 2018 ]

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Realise: 1st June 2018

A Norwegian Avant-Garde Classic.

Svein Finnerud Trio was one of the strongest voices in the Norwegian avant-garde of the late ‘60s/early ‘70s. Unknown outside the country, the trio pioneered forms of musical expression that later found an international audience through the ECM albums of Jan Garbarek, Arild Andersen, and Terje Rypdal. In this context, Plastic Sun is a statement as essential as any other of the period. Now finally available in a remastered edition on CD and in a 180g audiophile LP pressing.

21 May

[ Jazzpress concert review: Ken Vandenmark and Paal Nilssen Love DUO – 30th of May, Green Door Store – Brighton ]

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20.05.2018 The Green Door

Vandermark and Nilssen – Love have both long way behind together, as well as they do separately. I am following both musicians for over two decades now and I am constantly knocked out by their creativity and vitality, not even mention master class craftsmanship they both do represent. As it always is a case with top quality improvised music it is not a most fashionable one, therefore not easy to find neither on the shop’s shelves or the streaming services, to even to get wind of.

SkyDive-Trio_Sun-Sparkle_2400x2400-1024x1024

19 May

[ May 2018 release from HUBRO – SKYDIVE Trio – Sun Sparkle ]

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Norwegian release 02.02.2018

International release 25.05.18

SkyDive Trio’s second album ‘Sun Sparkle’ – which arrives three years after its acclaimed predecessor, ‘Sun Moee’ – presents the listener with an intriguing set of paradoxes. A power trio who use full throttle only very sparingly, the band can appear to play loud music quietly, and quiet music, loud, countering jazz subtlety with rock attack.

RCD2199 - Espen Eriksen Trio with Andy Sheppard - Perfectly Unhappy _cover

02 May

[ Rune Grammofon – 4th May release – Espen Eriksen Trio with Andy Sheppard – Perfectly Unhappy ]

By grzech In All That Jazz / No Comments

When I heard this trio some two years back in London with Andy Sheppard guest appearance on stage during second set I knew immediately that it is going to turn into something special. I said that before anyway, reviewing that gig. They had been touring back there with their third record, “Never Ending January” and there was a certain coherence in the way they did sound together, should I say: perfect energy merge ?