Polarity is an acoustic jazz project from Jan Gunnar Hoff and the Hoff Ensemble. Of the new release, Hoff writes: "My main goal is to create a specific identity for each album I make. This time I chose to involve Anders Jormin and Audun Kleive, two of Scandinavia's finest jazz artists. The result is Polarity, an album based on both new and older compositions of mine, recorded in a unique acoustic setting." Polarity has been conceived as a cohesive experience where the compositions themselves, the moments of spontaneous inspiration during performance and the natural sound world of the church acoustics all affect the final result. The compositions are inspired by actual experiences and particular states of mind. The album was recorded using state of the art technology called Immersive Audio. The listener is surrounded by music and can move about in the aural space and choose angles, vantage points and positions. Prepare to be fully enveloped in a cocoon of life-like audio.
All the ''pigeonholing'' and talk about genres in our day and age has led to confusion in one or another of the camps: is it jazz, is it classical, or what actually is it? With this clearly in mind, we - the classical singer and the jazz pianist - have ventured together in Terra Nova's tonal world in an attempt to create our own ''universe''. Jan Gunnar Hoff is a jazz pianist, but he composes in a style that overlaps with what can be defined as classical, with its fine melodies and melodious improvisations, and with its singable compositions. We wish to give you a genre-free musical experience, in which the music elevates the text, and in which the two of us, each in our way, bring the essence, melancholy and beauty of the music into this indefinable universe of text and melody.
Human Vibe is the sound of three musicians whose shared understanding runs deeper than geography. Pianist Jan Gunnar Hoff, bassist Jasper Somsen, and drummer Carsten Lindholm come from three different countries, yet their friendship and musical intuition make them feel like lifelong companions. In this trio, a glance, a breath, or a single musical gesture is enough to set the group into fluid, unified motion. A Trio Shaped by Conversation and Connection For their second album together, the trio reunited in the Netherlands, where long conversations over lunches and dinners flowed directly into their creative process. Out of these moments came the title Human Vibe-a phrase that perfectly captures the essence of their collaboration: three individuals, each with his own artistic pulse, meeting in a shared space where honesty, curiosity, and joy guide the music. Their performances embody the same spirit. They speak openly with audiences, share stories, and create an environment where listeners feel personally connected to the unfolding music. The album was recorded at Studio 2 in Hilversum, the Netherlands' oldest radio studio and a place rich with musical history. Photographs of legendary jazz artists still hang on the walls, creating an atmosphere steeped in the past. Hoff, Somsen, and Lindholm recorded exactly the way they play live: together in a single room, in full view of one another. The result is an album that captures not only the music, but the trio's closeness and immediacy.
Jan Gunnar Hoff - Stories - Stories is Jan Gunnar Hoff's third solo piano album on the 2L label and is a sequel to his critically acclaimed album LIVING from 2013. On the new release Hoff stretches his creative abilities, presenting contrasting compositions and improvisations, in a distinctly personal mixture. Some of the pieces are meditative and expressive, while others have a strong rhythmic vibe. Stories also displays Hoff as an arranger, presenting versions of classics like "God Only Knows" and the traditional Swedish folk song "Värmlandsvisan". SACD and Blu-ray Audio
Norwegian pianist/composer Jan Gunnar Hoff, Dutch bass player/composer Jasper Somsen and Danish drummer/composer Carsten Lindholm made this step in 2023 and brought their individual voices together for some concerts that year. Quickly it turned out that this was more than just three musicians performing together; the trio very quickly became an ensemble playing jazz with a bit of US jazz tradition mixed with a European classical sensibility; immediately their individual sounds became one voice.
Exclusive vinyl edition: HOME can be seen both as a homage to and as a statement of belonging to northern Norway, with it's naked landscape and it's Arctic location. The title can also allude to a quest for identity, both from a personal and from an artistic perspective. All these sentiments and aspirations find expression in the music on this album. Many of the pieces here are interpretations of well known themes, while others are original compositions by Hoff. Some of the pieces are completely improvisatory. In May 2021 Morten Lindberg got in touch with me and asked if I could make a solo recording in Stormen Concert Hall in Bodø. With open minds and very few pre-conceived ideas we went ahead and, broadly speaking, took things as they came - the way we felt at the time, the actual piano and the concert hall itself determining what we recorded for two days in August that year. This album does not aim to present a particular genre, with all the expectations such a commitment might carry, but rather to give each number it's own shape and style. When you interpret text-based songs instrumentally it's best to keep a sharp focus on melody, rhythm and phrasing. By freeing the phrasing of the melody from the constraints of a fixed tempo, I can put more strength and intensity into my interpretation, and broaden and embolden the melodic material. - Jan Gunnar Hoff, 2022
Hoff: Polarity - An Acoustic Jazz Project (Vinyl Edition)
2L
Vinyl
$53.99Mar 24, 2023
Exclusive vinyl edition: "My main goal is to create a specific identity for each album I make. This time I chose to involve Anders Jormin and Audun Kleive, two of Scandinavia's finest jazz artists. The result is Polarity, an album based on both new and older compositions of mine, recorded in a unique acoustic setting" - Jan Gunnar Hoff 2018
