Jazz /
Breezy
The second album of Ingebrigt Håker Flaten’s Knarr band is now ready for release on his own label Sonic Transmissions Records. The band that was first put together as a commissioned one-off project for the Vossa Jazz festival in 2021 has now become Håker Flaten’s main outlet as a bandleader and composer. Clearly something sparked putting the Vossa Jazz project together, and those of us who knew and had followed Håker Flaten for over three decades as a one of the finest musicians working within (…
Catching Fire
"Elephant9 established their reputation as a live powerhouse well before their album debut in 2008 and have since released six more studio albums as well as the two double live albums in 2019, Psychedelic Backfire I and II, the latter with guest guitarist Reine Fiske, whose favourite guitarist happened to be Terje Rypdal. With both albums out of print, Catching Fire is a most welcome addition to their discography. Recorded at a remarkable concert from 2017 in Oslo, Rypdal would turn 70 later in …
Dafnie
2024 stock. The energetic somersault greeting us on the debut of Danish born Trondheim based saxophone player and band leader Amalie Dahl’s Dafnie is a heads up for this fresh breath of air that Dafnie represents. The quintet colour out Dahl’s strong, melodic compositions with playfulness and convincing weight. What we hear is harmonic yet avant-garde, with references to both old school free jazz and modern contemporary reed-leaded bands. But be not in doubt - Dafnie is something of its own.The …
Føkt Mose
All songs written and performed by Erlend Smalås and Trond Wiger. Recorded and mixed in GODSterminalen by Trond Wiger for Alt for Høyt for Langt for Kort Forlag 2023. Mastering by Karl Klaseie, Øra Mastering. Chorus lyrics På gli by Stig Aarskog
Texas Edition
*200 copies limited edition. 2024 stock* This release is an orchestral expansion of the vocabulary of The Hatch. The duo work of Desprez and Rasmussen extrapolating into two local scenes in Texas. A co-release with Astral Spirits from Austin, Texas.Pressing off only 200 copies! Beautiful gatefold double LP with artwork by Jaime Zuverza!
Svensk Jazzhistoria Vol. 11 - Swedish Jazz History 1970 - 1979 - Jazz Cosmopolit
Svensk Jazzhistoria is a unique series about the evolution of jazz in Sweden, published by Caprice Records. While the first ten volumes reflect the years between 1899 and 1969, this red-hot eleventh installment delves deep into the 1970s. On four albums with a total of 62 tracks, and a book of 188 pages, we summarize a vigorous, explosive, and many-sided decade of Swedish jazz. Like with the preceding ten volumes, volume 11 is the masterstroke of jazz archaeologist Jan Bruer. Assisting him this …
Svensk Jazzhistoria Vol. 10 - Swedish Jazz 1965 - 1969 - Watch Out!
The project Swedish Jazz History is a CD series issued by Caprice Records. The research for this is subsidized by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation and the production is partly financed by the Swedish Council for Cultural Affairs. Our ambition has been to reflect the development of Swedish jazz up to and including the 1960s, and Volume 10, the final album in the series, covers the latter half of that eventful decade. Like its predecessor, Vol. 9 (“Brand new!”), the box contains 4 CDs an…
Lucus
*2024 stock* Norwegian drummer/composer Thomas Strønen presents a revised edition of his acoustic collective Time Is A Blind Guide, now trimmed to quintet size, and with a new pianist in Wakayama-born Ayumi Tanaka. Tanaka has spoken of seeking associative connections between Japan and Norway in her improvising, a tendency Strønen seems to be encouraging with his space-conscious writing for the ensemble, letting in more light. As on the group’s eponymously-titled and critically-lauded debut album…
Spirit
Spirit is the debut album of Brede Sørum Quartet, with Sørum himself as the frontman. The young quartet offers acoustic music that blooms with pure youth, but with a maturity and musical excess that will make even the most experienced jazz listeners open their ears. The written music is based on the band's ability to create and maintain energy over time with strong musical passion and an energetic interaction. The music opens up, and in good jazz tradition this allows the musicians to freely unf…
Ravensburg
*2024 stock* One of the pleasures of Mathias Eick’s Midwest album was hearing his vaulting trumpet supported by violin, an instrumental combination further developed on Ravensburg. The new violinist in Eick’s ensemble is Håkon Aase, one of the up-and-coming players of the Norwegian scene, whom attentive ECM listeners will already know from his work with Thomas Strønen’s group. The core Eick road band is further shored up by the addition of Helge Andreas Norbakken, who interacts excitingly with f…
Bayou
*2024 stock* A fresh and open music, delicate and space-conscious, is shaped as drummer Thomas Strønen and Ayumi Tanaka, previously heard in the ensemble Time Is A Blind Guide on Lucus, resurface in a new trio with clarinettist/singer/percussionist Marthe Lea. The group first came together at Oslo’s Royal Academy of Music, where for two years the players would meet each week for exploratory music making. Strønen: “We always played freely- drifting between elements of contemporary classical music…
When We Leave
*2024 stock* Norwegian trumpeter Mathias Eick’s expressive playing, which according to the New York Times radiates a “pristine yet penetrating tone”, is remarkably well complemented in the company of his gifted supporting players and fellow travelers. Violinist Håkon Aase, one of the outstanding improvisers of his generation, shadows the leader with lines that draw upon folk traditions as well as jazz. Drummers Helge Andeas Norbakken and Torstein Lofthus mirror their exchanges, as they interact …
More Human
The seventh album from Splashgirl, “More Human” is made in collaboration with singer/sound artist Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, and producer Randall Dunn. The album title, “More Human”, explores the role of humanity in a society increasingly reliant on technology, where artists face direct competition from artificial intelligence.
That's Why
*2024 stock* Sublime Christian folk jazz from 1970s Norway. In the '60s and '70s churches throughout Europe had serious competition for the attention of its younger members. The ecclesiastical establishment was shocked to hear teenagers expressing 'Sympathy for the Devil' rather than sympathy for Christ and his teachings. In Norway at this time the same situation was prevalent as was happening across Europe; teenagers were turning their back on the church and embracing the temptations and pleasu…
Plays Carter, Plays Mitchell, Plays Shepp
Founded by saxophonist and composer Johan Jutterström, the Swedish septet STHLM svaga has emerged as one of the most intriguing and distinctive jazz ensembles of the 2000s. Their expertise lies in crafting jazz with remarkably soft dynamics, resulting in a wholly distinctive and captivating ensemble sound. Plays Carter, Plays Mitchell, Plays Shepp is their new release and features specially composed pieces by three iconic figures in jazz history: Ron Carter, Roscoe Mitchell, and Archie Shepp, pe…
Hemligheter På Vägen
*2024 stock* Swedish pianist Karin Johansson has set music to some of Tomas Tranströmer’s poems for her band ORD. Vocals, horns, and bass converse freely around the piano. Some parts are free improvisations, often with a prepared piano.
Arter
*2024 stock* First release of the Swedish duo Karin Johansson / Lisen Rylander Löve. Fine-veined Crinkle Weed, Wentletrap and The Two Lipped Door Snail are some of the poetically resonating titles on the pianist Karin Johansson and saxophonist Lisen Rylander Löve’s new album Arter (Species). The song titles are also names of plants and animals from the SLU Artdatabanken’s red list of threatened species. The reality that many species disappear completely from our planet yearly is what the duo sh…
I grunda vikar är bottnarna mjuka
Outerdisk is very pleased to present Rosanna Gunnarson's and Karin Johansson's dizzying (sound) work, which was composed in 2021/22. Their piece "I grunda vikar är bottnarna mjuka" is inspired by August Strindberg's classic short story about a fortepiano being dropped into deep waters off an archipelago island, Stora grusharpan. The musical content is based partly on secret underwater recordings during a summer, autumn and winter, as well as audio recordings of a piano being lowered into the wat…
Trancedance
Black Truffle is pleased to announce the first vinyl reissue of Trancedance, a wild slice of Swedish Afro-fusion from Christer Bothén, originally released in 1984. A major figure in Swedish jazz and improvised music since the 1970s, often heard on bass clarinet and tenor sax, Bothen studied doso n’koni (the large six-stringed ‘hunter’s harp’ of the Wasulu) in Mali in 1971-2 before turning to the guinbri (the three-stringed lute of the Gnawa/Gnauoua) in Marakesh later in the decade. In between, h…
A Passion For John Donne
*2024 stock* Ketil Bjørnstad’s passion for the English metaphysical poet John Donne (1572-1631) is a lifelong affair. His settings of Donne’s verse have led to recordings including The Shadow, Grace and the ECM album The Light. “After working with the texts of John Donne for more than twenty years, I still find new approaches to understanding what he wrote and I find music throughout. It is in the language, in the rhythm, in the silence between the sentences – a passionate quest for meaning and …