ESPEN ERIKSEN TRIO
What Took You So Long
RCD2129
Rune Grammofon 2012
10 Tracks. 42mins21secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP | DLD UK: CD | DLD Boomkat: CD | LP iTunes: DLD

Espen Eriksen Trio’s debut, You Had Me At Goodbye, published two years ago on Rune Grammofon, was a thing of great beauty, its lush piano-led jazz, fluid and melodic, developed over the course of the whole record in a variety of delicate hues. On their second opus, What Took You So Long, the Scandinavian trio pick up where they left off two years ago with eight new compositions and two somewhat unexpected cover versions. Continue Reading »

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Twenty Centuries Of Stony Sleep
RCD2100
Rune Grammofon 2010
13 Tracks. 75mins24secs

Amazon UK: CD US: CD | LP Norman Records: CD | LP

Twelve years on from Supersilent’s monumental triple CD debut release, Rune Grammofon have reached a new milestone with this, their hundredth release. Twenty Centuries Of Stony Sleep collects thirteen tracks, twelve of which exclusive to this album, from quite a wide cross-section of the label’s roster, ranging from long-serving acts (Alog, Scorch Trio, Supersilent, Ultralyd, In The Country, Deathprod or Maja Ratjke) to more recent joiners (Espen Eriksen Trio, Puma, Bushman’s Revenge or new signing Jenny Hval).

There are few record labels who have developed such a strong and consistent aesthetic as Rune Grammofon, not only visually, there is not one release which hasn’t had the Kim Hiorthøy treatment, but also through its catalogue, which, in the case of Rune Grammofon stretches from abstract jazz, traditional Scandinavian folk to ambient electronic music and from ethereal pop to avant-garde classical to heavy metal, always with a strong exploratory angle at its core. Continue Reading »

ESPEN ERIKSEN TRIO
You Had Me At Goodbye
RCD2096
Rune Grammofon 2010
08 Tracks. 37mins30secs

Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD Boomkat: CD iTunes: DLD

This debut album from Espen Eriksen Trio is something of a rarity on Rune Grammofon; a record so smooth, gentle and beautifully melodic that it breaks with the label’s experimental tradition to open up towards very different grounds. Led by pianist Espen Eriksen, who, beside playing with some of the best Scandinavian jazz artists, including Mats Eilertsen and Thomas Strønen, has also over the years dabbled in pop music, the ensemble also comprises bassist Lars Tormod Jenset, who is also a member of swing trio Hot N Spicy and experimental jazz/folk ensemble Rodent, and drummer Andreas Bye, who regularly plays with the likes of HÃ¥kon Kornstad, Joshua Redman, Nils Petter Molvær or John Scofield, and was once a member of Bugge Wesseltoft’s New Conception Of Jazz. Continue Reading »