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Scene Norway 2 at King's Place
by John Kelman
Scene Norway 2 Artist-in-Residence: Nils Petter Molv?r 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 ...
Continue ReadingNils 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 ...
Continue ReadingNils 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 Molv?r? 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 Molv?r and ...
Continue ReadingNils Petter Molvaer: Baboon Moon
by John Kelman
While Nils Petter Molv?r'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 ...
Continue ReadingNils Petter Molvaer: Colors, Noises and Moods
by Adriana Carcu
Trumpeter/composer Nils Petter Molv?r 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. Molv?r performed recently at the 2010 Enjoy Jazz Festival in Mannheim, Germany, with Food--Thomas Strønen and Iain Ballamy--also featuring Christian Fennesz, and ...
Continue ReadingNils Petter Molvaer: Hamada
by John Kelman
It's been four years since Norwegian trumpeter/Nu Jazz progenitor Nils Petter Molvær released a studio album (excepting Re-Vision (Sula, 2008), a collection of film music). When he performed at Punkt '07 in Kristiansand, Norway, it was one of his final performances with his longstanding group of guitarist Eivind Aarset, live sampler Jan Bang, turntablist DJ Strangefruit and drummer Rune Arnesen. Aarset and Bang return on Hamada, but it's a significant change for Molvær, representing a number of directional shifts and ...
Continue ReadingNils Petter Molvaer: Skeletons, Samples and Fish Fillets
by Paul Olson
There's no overstating the impact that Nils Petter Molv?r's debut CD Khmer made when it was released on the ECM label in 1997. The Norwegian trumpeter/composer was no stranger to ECM and its founder/producer Manfred Eicher-- Molv?r had been a member of the collective jazz group Masqualero, that had released records on the label, and he'd played on sessions by ECM artists such as percussionist Robyn Schulkowsky. With his impeccable European jazz credentials and his winsomely melodic, atmospheric trumpet playing--distilled ...
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