Jazzland Recordings

Ola Kvernberg returns to Jazzland with his keystone ensemble, the Ola Kvernberg Trio. Northern Tapes, recorded in 2011 (during two studio sessions at the Ocean Sound Studios on the northwest coast of Norway), perhaps offers the most distinctive glimpse into the musical identity of one of Europe's most innovative and quietly ambitious musicians. 

On the new album, Ola's folk music heritage is even more apparent, while the underlying and entrancing impulses from bluegrass makes for a diverse yet unified repertoire. When adding the increasingly familiar classical romanticism known to listeners of Kvernberg's music, the result is an intimate and particularly playful album, both intimate and expansive. Northern Tapes is the Trio in the dim autumn woods, unambiguously and intimately present for the listener. 

The trio invited drummer Børge Fjordheim, whose career spans an impressive variety of genres and projects including Cloroform, Wunderkammer, Morten Abel and Sivert Høyem, to complete a line-up of violin, bass and two drumsets on the majority of tracks. While adding Fjordheim to the line-up technically makes for a quartet, Kvernberg still insists, "it feels like a trio - besides, we just don't like the word 'quartet' - it has a traditional ring to it." Certainly, this is not a traditional line-up, nor is it traditional music. The seemingly telepathic interplay between drummers Nylander and Fjordheim, supported by the solid but playful bass of Steinar Raknes, generates an optimal platform for the distinctly lyrical and folky sound of Ola's violin. Northern Tapes is produced by Ola Kvernberg and Erik Nylander. 

Ola Kvernberg has received no less than three awards since his latest release. "Liarbird" (2011) was unanimously celebrated among critics both in Norway and abroad, and went on to win the Norwegian Grammy (Spellemannsprisen) for Best Jazz Album in 2012. During the Kongsberg Jazz Festival later that year, he received the country's biggest prize; The Kongsberg DNB Musicians Award, receiving 300.000NOK. In 2013, he went on to win the Best Movie Music category at the Amanda Awards (Norwegian Oscars equivalent) for his musical score for the movie "Chasing the Wind". 

Ola Kvernberg - viola, violin++ 

Erik Nylander - drums 

Steinar Raknes - double bass 

Børge Fjordheim - drums++