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Moster!: Moster!: Edvard Lygre Moster

By John Kelman
May 13, 2013
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He may be flying somewhat beneath the radar internationally, but in Norway, saxophonist Kjetil M?ster has a vibrant career that ranges from the acoustic post-John Coltrane group

The Core

" data-original-title="" title="">The Core—whose Office Essentials (Jazzland, 2008) made clear that the American tradition is a touchstone, at least to some, in the country's distinctive jazz scene—to ongoing work with the

Trondheim Jazz Orchestra

band / ensemble / orchestra
b.2000

" data-original-title="" title="">Trondheim Jazz Orchestra on albums including the renowned ensemble's collaboration with pianist

Chick Corea

piano
1941 - 2021

" data-original-title="" title="">Chick Corea, Live in Molde (MNJ, 2005). What neither of these acoustic recordings reveal is that M?ster is also—like many fellow Norwegians including saxophonist

Hakon Kornstad

saxophone
b.1977

" data-original-title="" title="">Hakon Kornstad, guitarists

Eivind Aarset

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">Eivind Aarset and

Stian Westerhus

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">Stian Westerhus, trumpeters

Arve Henriksen

trumpet
b.1968

" data-original-title="" title="">Arve Henriksen and

Nils Petter Molvaer

trumpet
b.1960

" data-original-title="" title="">Nils Petter Molvaer and keyboardists

Bugge Wesseltoft

piano
b.1964

" data-original-title="" title="">Bugge Wesseltoft and St?le Storl?kken—a master of integrating electronics with his instruments in organic ways that render the use of the term "effects" both irrelevant and incorrect. Artists like M?ster don't use electronics for effect; they use them to expand the palettes of their instruments, and integrate them so seamlessly as to make the result sound less like an instrument with electronics added and more an entirely new instrument.

Edvard Lygre M?ster, the recorded debut of his hotter-than-hot quartet M?ster!, may come three years after the quartet's beginnings at the 2010 Kongsberg Jazz Festival and 17 months after it was recorded at Oslo's Victoria- Nasjonal Jazzscene club in December, 2011, but it was more than worth the wait. Two of its members—keyboardist Storl?kken and bassist Nikolai Eiltersen—work together regularly in the equally high octane power trio

Elephant9

band / ensemble / orchestra

" data-original-title="" title="">Elephant9, most recently heard in collaboration with Swedish guitarist Reine Fiske on Atlantis (Rune Grammofon, 2012). Drummer Kenneth Kapstad, in addition to his work with the progressive space-rock group

Motorpsycho

" data-original-title="" title="">Motorpsycho—whose collaboration with Storl?kken, The Death Defying Unicorn (Rune Grammofon, 2012) ranked as one of last year's best recordings alongside Atlantis—is also a co-founder of

Grand General

" data-original-title="" title="">Grand General, whose self-titled 2013 Rune Grammofon debut is already on the short list for one of this year's top titles.

So, with intrinsic chemistry, high-powered virtuosity, a collaborative improvisational approach and original music that runs the gamut from near-silent to ear-shattering and, conversely, hard-edged to achingly beautiful, Edvard Lygre M?ster certainly stands alongside Grand General as one of the year's most important debuts. With M?ster's use of extended techniques and electronics, it's sometimes difficult to differentiate between the saxophonist and Storl?kken, though it's usually given away by timbres that are reliant upon breath, and the keyboardist's otherworldly Moog tones are hard to miss.

At his most extreme, M?ster can be reminiscent of [{Mats Gustafsson}} (

The Thing

band / ensemble / orchestra

" data-original-title="" title="">The Thing, Fire!), but the Norwegian's use of electronics create immediate differentiation from the Swedish saxophonist's largely acoustic approach, though both saxophonists are clearly capable of filling a room with a massive sound—in M?ster's case, either acoustically or electrically and, in particular, when he switches to baritone.

Eilertsen has, over the past few years, garnered attention as an electric bassist capable of hanging onto a riff as if his life depended on it—not unlike

Michael Henderson

bass, electric

" data-original-title="" title="">Michael Henderson's work in trumpeter

Miles Davis

trumpet
1926 - 1991

" data-original-title="" title="">Miles Davis' electric bands of the 1970s, but with a huge, thunderous tone not heard since bassist John Wetton and Larks Tongues in Aspic-era

King Crimson

band / ensemble / orchestra
b.1969

" data-original-title="" title="">King Crimson. Kapstad proves, no surprise, as capable of hammering a raucous groove as he is creating a percussive maelstrom, doing both on the opening "Plastic Disco." The tune—one of four M?ster compositions that make up this 46-minute set—opens with a conglomeration of ethereal atmospherics from the saxophonist and Storl?kken, but gradually builds to an unrelentingly groove of stentorian proportions, calming back to atmospheric angularity before segueing into "Ransom Bird. "Hard though it may seem to believe after "Plastic Disco," "Ransom Bird" attacks with even greater energy, Eilertsen's two-chord vamp driving some of M?ster's most frenzied playing of the set before leaving space for Storl?kken to take an effects-laden Fender Rhodes solo of similarly epic magnitude.

"Composition Task #1" proves that M?ster! is capable of taking things down—way down—with the saxophonist leading a seven-minute excursion into music evocative of Norway's more rugged but beautiful landscapes. It's a rubato tone poem that builds to a tempestuous peak courtesy of M?ster's over-blowing and Kapstad's ambidextrous turbulence before gradually fading back to near-silence, the audience's enthusiastic response encouraging the quartet to deliver the closing "The Boat"—at over 16 minutes, Edvard Lygre M?ster's longest track—with even more incendiary vigor. A baritone and bass melody floats over Kapstad's frenetic pulse before opening up for an in-tandem solo between Eilertsen's overdriven, wah-wah-inflected bass and Storl?kken's punchy Rhodes. When M?ster returns for the final solo of the set, he does so with both barrels blazing, the reverb on his baritone making it sound as if it's traveling towards the group from light years away, ultimately arriving and, with a combination of heavy overdrive and even heavier over-blowing, driving the group to a deafening peak and cataclysmic conclusion.

Not for the faint-at-heart, Edvard Lygre M?ster not only makes for a rarely paralleled debut of raw, unfettered energy—and spotlights a leader whose commanding assimilation of his instrument and electronics is similarly inimitable—it serves notice of a group of monumental potency that is clearly best experienced live...but until then, this extraordinary debut will more than suffice.

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Track Listing

Plastic Disco; Ransom Bird; Composition Task #1; The Boat.

Personnel

M?ster

band / ensemble / orchestra

Kjetil M?ster tenor and baritone saxophones, electronics; St?le Storl?kken: Fender Rhodes, Moog, electronics; Nikolai Eilertsen: electric bass, electronics; Kenneth Kapstad: drums.

Album information

Title: Moster!: Edvard Lygre Moster | Year Released: 2013 | Record Label: Hubro Records

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