NXN Recordings
11 products
Memorabilia / Mats Eilertsen Trio & Trio Mediæval
Memorabilia was written in 2016 by jazz bassist and composer Mats Eilertsen and premiered at JazzFest in Trondheim the same year. The work is written for two trios: Mats Eilertsen Trio (Harmeen Franje, piano; Thomas Stronen, drums; and Mats Eilertsen, bass), and the vocal ensemble Trio Mediaeval (the acclaimed vocal trio of the three sopranos Anna Maria Friman, Linn Andrea Fuglseth and Berit Opheim.) Recently recorded in Newtone studio in Oslo, the album is now available, and has been released alongside a concert in the Norwegian Opera House. The music unites the two trios in a sacred, lyrical expression, giving the piano trio room to improvise. The lyrics are a mixture of traditional masses and poems by the Norwegian lyricist Tor Ulven. Darkness and drama meet nicer views of life. About faith, doubt, and time. “Minutes, maybe hours, of your own existence. That you forgot, but I still remember. You live a secret life in someone else’s memory.” (Tor Ulven)
Christmas Songs / Thom Hell, Andreas Ulvo
The aim of "Christmas songs" recorded by duo Thom Hell (vocals) and Andreas Ulvo (piano, synth) was to create something intuitive and with familiar and beloved Christmas songs; The performance should be unpretentious, contrary to how we are used to hearing holiday songs. In order to keep the nerve and spontaneity only one take of each song was made, with some overdubs where they later felt it was needed.
Andreas Ulvo (b. 1983), pianist and keyboardist from Eidskog in Hedmark. He has a master's degree in jazz and improvisation from the Norwegian Academy of Music. He is active with several own projects Andreas Ulvo ensemble, Eple Trio, Innlandet and his own solo project, with several releases. He has also worked with bands and artists such as Ingrid Olava, Mathias Eick, Solveig Slettahjell, Ellen Andrea Wang, Karl Seglem, and others. Thom Hell (b. 1976), is a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist from Hånesin Kristiansand. Has released 8 albums as a solo artist and won 3 Norwegian Grammy Awards: 2 as artist of the year and 1 as pop composer of the year. Has worked as a producer and starring Jonas Alaska, Matilda, Jonas Fjeld and Marte Wulff. Thom Hell has also participated in several Norwegian Music TV shows.
Hidden Soul Of The Fjords
MEMORABILIA (LP)
LEAVE YOUR THOUGHTS HERE (LP)
Fitkinwall- Uist
The Hamar Concert / Espen Berg
Following the internationally acclaimed improvised solo piano album The Trondheim Concert and the digital album release The Nidaros Concert, NXN now release The Hamar Concert recorded in front of a live audience in The Hamar Concert Hall.
Sandsengen: Solace
Christina Sandsengen is an educated classical concert guitarist, and has performed in concert halls around the world. Solace is her debut album as a composer and the album highlights her technical skills as well as a wide range of contrasts, emotions and feelings. Sometimes dark and dramatic, then suddenly brighter and melodic. Christina says: “The classical guitar is the key to my unconscious world of emotions and thoughts, and so I put the classical guitar in the center and use different soundscapes and elements to highlight or enhance the colors and the expressions from the guitar, and I use a lot of imitation of church bells played on the guitar to capture the empty and painful feeling of a funeral.” The album consists of 13 tracks and invites the listener on a personal musical journey from dark and light, grief, passion, and pain. The melodic language of the music are similar to Norwegian folk music. Fredrik Falk has produced the album and also contributes with piano and soundscapes. Recorded by Ole Teigen in Crowtown recordings and mastered by Kenneth Amundsen. Artwork by Nihil.
Husebo: Years of Ambiguity
On the album Years of Ambiguity, experienced composer and jazz artist Kjetil Husebø has created music at the crossroads between ambient, drone and jazz. The grand piano has been replaced with synthesizers, samplers, electronics and programming. Internationally renowned musicians Arve Henriksen (trumpet) and Eivind Aarset (guitar) collaborates with him on several of the tracks. The moods on the album is cinematic and full of contrasts, alternating between being minimalistic and maximalist, sometimes light, sometimes dark. Musically oriented towards huge sonic landscapes, abstract sounds but also with a sense for melody. The album is recorded and mixed in the artist’s own Grandis studio in Oslo, Norway, and mastered by sound engineer Morten Lund. Coverart by designer Lucas Dietrich.
Skulason: Farfuglar
Ingi Bjarni is a pianist and a true Nordic artist. Coming from Iceland and traveling around the Nordics and Northern Europe to both perform and find new musicians to play with, he has created a fine blend of musicians from different countries to complete his musical vision. His music is clearly inspired by jazz traditions and nordic folksongs, still he has a distinct own sound. Farfuglar is proof to that.
Song Dust / Karl Strømme
Song Dust is the first trio recording from trumpeter Karl Strømme. Having toured as a member of the European Union Jazz Youth Orchestra, and recorded several albums as a member of the experimental outfit Peloton, Strømme released Dynalyd, for quintet in 2019. For his NXN Recordings debut he teamed up with exciting young musicians Gard Kronborg on acoustic bass and Per-Arne Ferner on guitar. Listeners will enjoy both nods to the Westcoast jazz as well as the Nordic cool, especially through the expressive trumpet inspired by the Chet Baker trio recordings on Steeple Chase. The traditional jazz trio would often include a drummer, but you won’t miss one on Song Dust. Besides a joyful percussive part on track 5, VM all musicians are given plenty of space and time to make beautiful soundscapes and passages throughout the album.
REVIEW:
“Nods to West Coast jazz and Nordic cool” is an excellent description of Song Dust, Norwegian trumpeter Karl Strømme’s debut date for the Naxos label NXN Recordings. It’s also Strømme’s first trio recording, and features the somewhat unusual trio lineup of trumpet, acoustic bass guitar (Gard Kronborg) and guitar (Per-Arne Ferner).
Strømme, who teaches at the Norwegian Academy of Music, has an extensive performing and recording history that includes touring with the European Union Jazz Youth Orchestra and, most recently, his well received 2019 quintet recording Dynalyd.
An easy comparison to Strømme is Chet Baker, in both his often airy tonal quality and his phrasing and material. He emphasizes that here with the opening track, the standard “Nature Boy,” which he presents quite naturally and freely, with only minor embellishments from bass and guitar behind his trumpet lines. But elsewhere he follows his own path, particularly in his penchant for playing trumpet and synth lines simultaneously. The second track “Opal” finds him pursuing this subtly on a mostly traditional sounding post-bop piece of lovely melodic lines.
It’s almost cheating to call this a trio, and I say that with a smile, but the synthesizer is truly a fourth instrument here. The electronic keyboard-trumpet pairing is quite explicit on the brief, languid “Dance Of The Cohort,” with burbling synth sounds nearly alone in accompanying Strømme’s horn. A few songs later, the similarly brief “0502Y” presents a dreamlike soundscape that includes a Rhodes-like keyboard in addition to shimmering synth and faux glockenspiel. The only track with explicit percussion, “VM” adds handclaps and hand drums for a Latin vibe behind an engaging trumpet improvisation that to me recalls Kenny Wheeler. Lots of that “Nordic cool” vibe comes through on the mysterious “One Two Trees” with some nice atmospheric guitar from Ferner and Strømme accompanying his horn with a unison line on the synth – again, very subtly, no prog bombastics here.
Kronborg provides solid and inventive rhythm throughout, and really displays his chops on a lovely, melodic solo on the title track, which finishes the album. My favorite is the rhythmically complex “Bela Waltz,” which only truly runs on waltz time for brief melodic choruses. Ferner’s guitar moves seamlessly from rhythm to melody and back again more than once here.
Atmospheric but never background music, Song Dust is consistently engaging, upbeat, cool modern jazz.
AGreenManReview.com (Gary Whitehouse)
