Jazz /
Arter
*2024 stock* First release of the Swedish duo Karin Johansson / Lisen Rylander Löve. Fine-veined Crinkle Weed, Wentletrap and The Two Lipped Door Snail are some of the poetically resonating titles on the pianist Karin Johansson and saxophonist Lisen Rylander Löve’s new album Arter (Species). The song titles are also names of plants and animals from the SLU Artdatabanken’s red list of threatened species. The reality that many species disappear completely from our planet yearly is what the duo sh…
Trancedance
Black Truffle is pleased to announce the first vinyl reissue of Trancedance, a wild slice of Swedish Afro-fusion from Christer Bothén, originally released in 1984. A major figure in Swedish jazz and improvised music since the 1970s, often heard on bass clarinet and tenor sax, Bothen studied doso n’koni (the large six-stringed ‘hunter’s harp’ of the Wasulu) in Mali in 1971-2 before turning to the guinbri (the three-stringed lute of the Gnawa/Gnauoua) in Marakesh later in the decade. In between, h…
Strands (Live At The Danish Radio Concert Hall)
"When we walked out on stage it felt like a homecoming,” says Jakob Bro of this texturally spacious and emotionally charged live recording from Copenhagen, on which three of the defining protagonists of improvisation in Denmark, leading musicians from three generations of Danish jazz, come together. The concert, in February 2023, was particularly poignant since it marked a return to performance for trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg, who delivers some of his most thoughtful playing here. Repertoire, dra…
Afric Pepperbird
Recorded in Oslo in September 1970, Afric Pepperbird was released on New Year’s Day in 1971. Half a century later, it still conveys the freshness and excitement of discoveries being made. The album signalled the arrival of four Norwegian improvisers – Jan Garbarek, Terje Rypdal, Arild Andersen and Jon Christensen – at the fledgling ECM label. It was the start of a lifelong association with each of the musicians, whose influence was soon to reach far beyond the borders of their homeland. In exten…
Family
Norwegian drummer/composer Gard Nilssen debuts on We Jazz Records with his major new album “Family” with the 17-piece Supersonic Orchestra. A veritable who’s who of Scandinavian jazz (and beyond), the Supersonic Orchestra is one of the most exciting large groups in the current international jazz circuit. Captured at Mondriaan Jazz Festival in Den Haag, Netherlands, “Family” presents the ensemble in top form across the 8 tracks, all of which are original compositions by Gard Nilssen and André Rol…
Trio
Jesper Nordberg Trio is a group based in Copenhagen (DK) and Malmö (SE), featuring the double bass player Jesper Nordberg, violinist Stefan Pöntinen and trumpetist Ruhi Erdogan. With Nordberg's compositions as a starting point, the trio's playing can be characterized by close interplay, radical shifts, and having elements ranging from experimental improvisation, Balkan music, Scandinavian folklore, jazz and expressionism. Jesper Nordberg's warm tone and rhythmic displacements meet Ruhi's trumpet…
Spirit Spirit
*2023 stock* Spirit Spirit is an improvised suite in nine parts and epilogue by the Scandinavian trio featuring the renowned saxophone player Torben Snekkestad, pianist Søren Kjærgaard, and double bass player Tomo Jacobson. The suite was carefully composed from almost 3 hours of spontaneously improvised studio recordings by the trio. The outcome is a focused, minimal, dark, dynamic, enigmatic 38 minutes of music that unfolds like a ghostly tale. The trio was formed in 2016.
Variations On No Particular Theme - Part 2
*2023 stock* Lo and behold, the second and final part of the diptych from the unusual free improvising quartet featuring two New York-based viola players Mat Maneri & Tanya Kalmanovitch, and Copenhageners Tomo Jacobson on double bass & Kresten Osgood on drums, is finally here! This time, we enter into a darker, fiercer, seemingly telepathic exchange - a powerful finale to an unprecedented musical journey.
Variations On No Particular Theme - Part 1
Perhaps for the first time in the history of music, here is two violas, double bass, and drums quartet featuring the New York-based Mat Maneri & Tanya Kalmanovitch, and Copenhageners Tomo Jacobson & Kresten Osgood. Calling their music chamber free improv gives some clues about the sound world you are entering, but it also falls very short in the face of the multitudes presented here. ‘Variations On No Particular Theme’ is a pregnant name in which we can look for the key to this album. Of course,…
The Cod And The Cat
*2023 stock. 50 copies limited edition* After his oneiric, Casio-centric 'Nullpluss' that Kristian Tangvik released two years ago, the time has come for his next move. In Kristian's own words: "The Cod and the Cat has developed over the course of two years. It came to me in a dream. Some compositions arrived while traveling, others in a complete standstill. And so I have gathered a fresh combination of exceptional performers from the rich and exciting underground of Copenhagen's music scene, and…
The Studio Intim Sessions, Vol.1
*2023 stock* Geir Sundstøl has made a name for himself as an innovative session musician on hundreds of Norwegian and international albums. 2015 saw the release of Furulund, the first self-composed long player from this Master of Strings. Langen Ro, Norwegian Grammy winner Brødløs and St.Hanshaugen Steel, followed soon after. Now, the stage is set for something quite different. The Studio Intim Sessions, Volume 1, Sundstøl's fifth solo album, has taken a trip on its own, away from the cinematic …
Fengselsfugl
*2023 stock* "Trond has been compared with guitar calibers such as Bill Frisell and Ry Cooder among a number of reviewers. "Bedehus & Hawaii" locates Trond Kallevåg at the right height on the heels of Ry Cooder and Bill Frisell. " - Jazzaroundmag.
On "Fengselsfugl" (prisonbird in english) Trond takes the listener into musical landscape inspired by his job as music teacher in Oslo Prison. Isolation, hope, darkness and the ballads inside the prisons in the 18th century are some key words that desc…
Nyanser
Originally released in 1979 on Mistlur Records in Sweden, Nyanser is widely considered Thomas Almvqvist’s masterpiece.
Echoes
Mats Gustaffson and the Fire! Orchestra return with an album recorded in the company of Jim O'Rourke entitled Echoes and to be released on 14 April 2023 by Rune Grammofon. For the 14th anniversary the Fire! Orchestra presents itself with a gigantic line-up of 43 elements. Within the big band we also find the confirmation of singer Mariam Wallentin, as well as the addition of the voices of David Sandström and Joe McPhee (also present as tenor sax).
Echoes is a new chapter within the discography o…
Black And White
Tip! Existing somewhere between the post-psychedelic period of Soft Machine and the electric funk of Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters, Black And White, the 1976 album from Norway’s Vanessa is without question a formidable beast of a jazz-rock record. A potent brew of sonic experimentation and pulsating off-kilter groove. Taking their name from the genus of Nymphalidae butterfly, Vanessa was founded in 1971 by saxophonist Svend Undseth and pianist Frode Holm, the founder of the Oslo record store turn…
I'm Here
*Limited edition of 500 copies* Drummer and composer Edward Vesala, the most internationally renowned jazz musician from Finland, was very keen on percussion instruments. Oddly enough, this broad and enduring interest is hardly evident on his albums.Whether playing on his own albums or contributing to other musicians’ work, Vesala played a standard drum kit most of the time. He hardly used external percussionists on his own albums either. And most of all: his music was almost never percussive, a…
Diversity
*In process of stocking.* The grand old man of Finnish Jazz, Eero Koivistoinen, has not kept still in his old age. Far from it, he's played with rappers from the younger generation, Argentinian tango singers, you name it. The Eero Koivistoinen Quartet, onto its 10th year in existence, is his outlet for what he knows by heart like no one else - cool quartet jazz in which Eero is aided by younger luminaries from the scene. Alexi Tuomarila is on the grand piano, Jori Huhtala on bass and Jussi Lehto…
Signe Emmeluth
Its an honor for the AFJ-Series to introduce the self-titled debut album by Danish Oslo resident Signe Emmeluth. Recorded at Flerbruket, in the forest an hour outside of Oslo - Emmeluth alone in a room with her alto and tenor saxophones.
A fantastic session of sax solo ecstasies recorded by Magnus Hemnes Nergård. Much like Joe McPhee's Tenor and Peter Brötzmann's 14 Love Songs, this album share the same beautiful intimacy. It is close, sparse, poetic and raw at the same time. Minimalist and soul…
Åpning
*2022 stock* "Ketil Bjørnstad´s credentials are so vast, it´s impossible to fit them all on a one-sheet. Born in Oslo in 1952, he soon became a prodigy, leaving primary school to study piano in Oslo, London and Paris. He made his debut at 16, playing Bartok´s Piano Concert nr. 3 with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. But soon other pathways beckoned, discovering Miles Davis´s “In a Silent Way” and meeting poets, painters and jazz musicians around the creative music spot “Club 7” in Oslo. Amongst …
Sympathetic Magic
Sympathetic Magic is an ecstatic, delirious, and deeply touching piece of music; a towering new work in Kim Myhr’s increasingly substantial output as an artist and composer. It is the follow-up to Kim Myhr’s 2017 album You | me, which was widely praised and received an honorary mention at the 2018 Nordic Music Prize. While the immersive warmth of You | me is still present, Sympathetic Magic is more expansive than its predecessor. A band of eight musicians playing a wide variety of instruments in…