OK World
OkWorld started out as a project initiated by Bugge Wesseltoft and Oslo World for the twentieth anniversary of the festival. The idea was for Wesseltoft to meet up with musicians from, among other places, India, Spain, Lebanon and Mozambique. They visited each others home countries, developed music along the way and performed the result at the opening concert of Oslo World that year. Luckily, that wasn’t the end of the story. When Jazzland now announces their new subsidiary label and celebrates it with a concert at Victoria this Oslo World, OkWorld has become a home for music without borders. A musical microcosm, consisting of such acts as Sanskriti Shresta Avatar, Harpreet Bansal band, Bendik Baksaas, Bugge and Adama Barry, to mention a few.
That Bugge Wesseltoft and his label Jazzland is at the centre of something like this is to be expected. Musical meetings are essential to Wesseltoft – the initial concept behind the OkWorld project was music as the original language – and the best tool we have for bridging cultural divides. Over the course of a long career, Bugge has thrived in the gaps between jazz and club music, he has combined sounds from different continents and ages. That kind of ambition permeates the artist roster of OkWorld, who this night will be able to present six new releases. We will hear sounds both ancient and modern, from all over the globe.
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Eberson - "Empathy"
Two generations of Ebersons have created an exciting musical collaboration. Father and daughter - Jon and Marte - present the new album "Empathy".
Through Empathy, the duo will express the importance of mutual support in the face of adversity. Through various songs with melancholy shades, and aggressive rhythms, the duo places themselves in a textural and musical landscape, drawing from both the worlds of pop and of jazz.
In this joint project, Jon has provided the lion's share of chordal structures, while Marte has created the melodies and text.
RYMDEN- New Single - The Odyssey
"The Odyssey" is the first release by veritable European Jazz supergroup RYMDEN, feauring Bugge Wesseltoft, Magnus Öström and Dan Berglund.
Taken from the forthcoming album "Reflections and Odysseys", this single is a jolt of pure energy, with driven, rugged dynamism, and has a core riff that shows that Scandinavian jazz isn't all about frozen landscapes, or tranquil meditations on the fjords. This is high octane stuff that sounds much bigger than anything a standard piano trio should produce.
"Reflections and Odysseys" will be released February 2019.
Ensemble Denada - Live in Bremen
Jazzland presents a special - and unexpected and unplanned! - album by Ensemble Denada, featuring Torun Eriksen and Erlend Skomsvoll. Featuring Skomsvoll's wonderful arrangements of songs from Torun's "Grand White Silk" album, this record captures the final night of the tour in Bremen in the beautiful Sendesaal. And all thanks to the presence of mind of sound engineer Thor-Ivar Lund, who decided to hit the "record" button.
Siril Malmedal Hauge - New Single - Transfixed
Siril Malmedal Hauge's new single (and Jazzland debut) "Transfixed" is a cool blend of jazzy pop in the singer-songwriter tradition that meditates on our modern obsessions of money, success and self. Her crystal clear voice delivers the message via a melodic sweetness and catchiness over a laidback mix of jazzy horn, luscious string arrangements and a tumbling backbeat that is simply irresistible. "Transfixed" is taken from her forthcoming album, "Uncharted Territory" (to be released in early 2019).
Tortusa || Breistein remixed Mind Vessel
Tortusa (aka John Derek Bishop) and Inge Weatherhead Breistein's acclaimed album "Mind Vessel" is given the remix treatment by an array of remixers including Spanish producer Servando Barreiro, German producers Tarkatak and A thousand Vows, Norwegian Pjusk and Breistein/Gullåsen. Poet Erlend Wichne reads his work on "Hope".
The EP is available digitally on all streaming platforms and download stores.
Carolina Katún - New Album - "Al Silencio"
The first album by the Mexican-Swiss singer Carolina Katún "Al Silencio" is an ode to silence. The minimalist, crossover music is unified and highlighted by a great variety of vocal sounds, techniques and styles that revisit key songs from the Latino American songbook.
Available to buy from Bandcamp and your favourite retail outlets now.
Now Vs Now - New Album - The Buffering Cocoon
“★★★★. Bowie’s Blackstar keyboard player beams in from a galaxy far far away…Dilla-esque interlocking grooves are bathed in alien sounds…a darkly beguiling delight.” – MOJO
“This rich, dense, rewarding album offers further proof of Bowie’s impeccably excellent taste.” – Uncut
Jason Lindner, a keyboardist with eclectic musical sensibilities that intermesh to create a unique voice that has served as a key ingredient for numerous projects, including David Bowie's final album "Blackstar", presents his New York-based band's third album (and first for Jazzlandrec), "The Buffering Cocoon". READ MORE
Lassen - New Album - Eventyrer
Jazzland Rec is proud to present "Eventyrer", the brand new album by Lassen.
This is hybrid jazz improvisation, dipping into countless musical pools, creating wholly new sounds. However, leaving aside the inventiveness and will to explore unusual combinations, the album demonstrates how such experimentation can be a melodic adventure for the listener as well as the players. "I try to find a vibe, an atmosphere or a feeling. To me music is about feelings, energy, and connection between musicians and audience," says Harald Lassen. The players themselves deliver performances that accentuate and enhance the compositional journey perfectly. READ MORE
Torun Eriksen - New Album -Luxury and Waste
Torun Eriksen's "Luxury and Waste", her sixth solo album at Jazzland Rec, explores familiar territory in an utterly unfamiliar way.
Where her previous album "Grand White Silk" flirted with arrangements of grandeur, she turns now in the opposite direction and gives us new songs in an uncompromising, stripped-back sound, shifting between cool, drifting moods and driving pulsating rhythms. Bassist Kjetil Dalland is her sole companion here, and his subtle yet distinctive style the perfect complement to Torun's voice, as she invites us into "Luxury and Waste", her most intimate album yet. READ MORE
Listen here: https://Jazzlandrec.lnk.to/lUQhz
New Album "Leken/Playful" by Erlend Skomsvoll
The musician alone, unaccompanied.
Eschewing the support of either electronics or other musicians, Skomsvoll is alone at his piano, investigating musicality as a medium of expression, not an intellectual exercise. By the very nature of this arrangement this album becomes something more personal, but this feeling comes more so from Skomsvoll's playing.
This is a Jazzland debut for Skomsvoll as a solo artist, and represents a version of his musical vision in its most raw and unveiled form.
Beady Belle - Dedication - The Brand New Album
With "Dedication", Beady Belle has drawn together all the threads of inspiration at the core of who she is and has woven a brand new tapestry that is vibrant, organic, energetic, cool, emotional, intimate, and unequivocally funky. Soul and R&B have always been close to Beady Belle's heart, and with "Dedication", she is ...