Marius Neset

Marius Neset - CabaretCD / Vinyl / digital Marius Neset tenor and soprano saxophonesEWI Elliot Galvin keyboards Magnus Hjorth piano Conor Chaplin electric bass Anton Eger drums, percussion Cabaret: a song and dance or two, some jokes, hummable tunes, and perhaps some sparkles - right? OK, but know that this cabaret is informed by a breathtakingly wide-ranging musical imagination. Now you have a better idea what to expect from the latest inspired work from Norwegian saxophonist and composer Marius Neset. The players on the album “Cabaret” are the same as on Neset’s striking 2022 effort, “Happy”: Elliot Galvin (keyboards), Magnus Hjorth (piano), Conor Chaplin (electric bass) and Anton Eger (drums & percussion). “Happy” was the first time they played together as a quintet, lending it a freshness in discovery. Now, though, they are a seasoned working band: “we’ve played a lot of concerts, and the interplay is different”, recapitulates Marius Neset. After recent releases featuring Neset’s widescreen large ensemble writing for the London Sinfonietta including an appearance in the programme of BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall, a solo saxophone record, and a through-written duo suite with classical piano star Leif Ove Andsnes, a new project with the quintet was “a bit like coming home again”, says Marius Neset. But not do the same thing again. “The whole thing is about developing the music”. The five reconvened in the celebrated coastal retreat of Norway’s Ocean Sound Studio, which Marius Neset used for 2015’s ‘Pinball’, to tackle music in which “every single note was composed for these specific musicians”. That again exploits the sound of two keyboards. Neset thinks orchestrally, and the combination of Magnus Hjorth on acoustic piano - mainly focussing on melody - and Elliot Galvin’s texturally varied electric keyboards offers “enormous possibilities” for the composer. The new pieces also expand the envelope rhythmically, posing challenges for bassist Conor Chaplin and Anton Eger on drums - “the most dedicated musician I’ve ever met” - who puts enough closely targeted energy into the music to light a small town. A clue lies in the mysteriously titled ‘Hyp3rsonic Cabar3t’, the first piece here Neset wrote. The numerals signify the 33 beat rhythmic cycle that animates it, to mesmeric effect. Five other songs use the same figure, in very different ways. The listener may not realise, says Neset, but “it’s the most conceptual album I’ve ever made”. All this made for a memorable time in the studio. “Putting something like this together means making lots of choices the whole time. It’s hard. I’m getting better at throwing things out, but I don’t feel I understand more - it was very intense!” That effort comes out in the best possible way. Neset’s music is often dense and intricate, but needs players who can tackle it like him, with a kind of focussed abandon. And there’s plenty of that here. The listener is on a roller-coaster ride, following songs that are rich in contrasts, torrential melodic invention, and shifting dynamics. Many influences are mixed in, notably hints of Joe Zawinul’s melodic and textural signatures, and traces of one-time mentor Django Bates’ puckish humour. But the whole record, from the virtuosic sax playing on tenor and soprano - where a technique the equal of Michael Brecker meets a melodic sense to rival that of any horn player alive - to the compositional detail, is pure Neset. There is so much packed in here. The madcap dance of the two opening titles is offset by the cool lyricism of ‘Song for Maja’, the effervescence of ‘Midsummer Beats’ succeeded by the stately voyage of ‘Ocean’, the energy of ‘Quantum Dance’ by the wistfulness of ‘Forgotten Ballet’, while ‘Wedding In Geiranger’, written to mark Neset’s own betrothal last summer, ends the set with a theme like a freshly minted folk song. It’s an eventful and dramatic journey, after which the listener will surely want to begin again.Credits:Produced by Marius Neset & Anton Eger All music composed and arranged by Marius Neset, except #4 and #9 – composed by Marius Neset & Anton Eger Recorded by Henning Svoren at Ocean Sound, Giske in September 2024, mixed by August Wanngren at Virkeligheden, mastered by Sofia von Hage and Thomas Eberger at Stockholm Mastering

Marius Neset - GeyserCD / digital Marius Neset tenor and soprano saxophones Ivo Neame piano Jim Hart vibraphone/marimba/percussion Conor Chaplin double bass Anton Eger drums London Sinfonietta conducted by Geoffrey Paterson “Geyser is a piece in eight movements that takes us on an elementally exciting journey in its 65 minutes, with sounds and virtuosities of truly volcanic energy and intensity, and also moments of breath-taking stillness and lyricism.” That was how BBC Radio 3 presenter Tom Service prepared the radio audience for the broadcast of the premiere of “Geyser”, transmitted on live radio from the impressively cavernous spaces of the Royal Albert Hall. The BBC Proms, widely known as “the world's greatest classical music festival”, had commis-sioned Marius Neset to compose the piece and to give its world premiere performance of the new piece for his quintet and nineteen players of the London Sinfonietta during the 2022 Proms season. To receive a commission from the Proms is a tremendous accolade in itself, and the epic scale of “Geyser” suits the unique grandeur and scale of the famous London venue. The title, Neset says, is “a metaphor for the music’s underlying rhythmic energy, unleashed intermittently in ecstatic outbursts – like explosions of water and steam from a pressurised geothermal spring.” Tension boiling under the surface is a recurrent theme in his work, he says. And that energy is something very special. As cellist Zoe Martlew, who performed at the premiere remembers: “the shamelessly raw lyricism and emotion packed into the big themes are offset by brain-crunchingly complex rhythms layered on top of each other, and it requires 100% focus and energy throughout to keep everyone on board.” That edge-of the seat excitement is exactly what one can hear on this new album, a live recording of the concert. “Marius is a softly spoken, impossibly good looking, gentle man to meet, clearly completely obsessed by music, with a deep seriousness that suddenly lifts with a kind of boyish delight when something sud-denly comes together. His own playing is truly inspirational: packed with a fierce intensity and fire which is reflected in the extraordinary group of musicians in his own band. All of us were blown away by the driving force that is crazy genius Anton Eger on drums (by his own admission he has a slightly “whack brain” when it comes to combining irrational rhythms), the refinement of Ivo Neame's beautifully modulated pianism, and Conor Chaplin’s rock solid bass.” “Geyser” marks an important step in Neset’s development as a composer, something well expressed by violinist Thomas Gould, the leader of the London Sinfonietta for the premiere performance of “Geyser”. He says: “With this piece Neset is cementing his reputation as one of the most original and important compositional voices of his own time, in any genre. Geyser is fiendishly virtuosic for every single player on stage. But despite the enormous complexity of the music, Geyser is immediately comprehensible to the symmetry drawn from classical music that makes both listener and performer somehow feel an understanding of the arc of the piece.” And Geoffrey Patterson, who conducted, notes that the way in which Neset writes for the Sinfonietta has always shown a deep understanding of the orchestra’s strengths, and one which has improved as the relationship has developed : “I was so happy that we never felt like a backing band, and certainly the fearsome difficulty of Marius’ writing justified the involvement of an ensemble renowned for its virtuosity.”The story of the composition of the work speaks of Neset's honesty and authenticity as a man and as a musician. He had embarked on an optimistic work, but then came the Russian invasion of Ukraine: "I had already written much of the piece but I found that I couldn’t finish it. When I did eventually begin composing again it was impossible to pick up from where I’d left off. As someone who writes with a lot of emotion, such events will always affect the music." Neset says he "dismantled" much of what he had written and brought "darker edges" into the sequence. The final release of the geyser in the last movement "Outbreak" is ecstatic, but the route by which we get there has altered completely from Neset's first thoughts.Whereas Neset is most widely known as a prodigiously gifted saxophonist, his emergence and development as a composer during the past decade has been truly remarkable. “Geyser” is Neset’s third work involving the London Sinfonietta, after “Arches of Nature” and “Snowmelt” (2016), described as “majestic” by Downbeat, and “Viaduct” (2018) commissioned by the Kongsberg Jazz Festival. But they are just one of the many groups who have commissioned him, and his catalogue of works has been steadily growing. The first major work was “Lion”, written for the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra in 2012, first performed at the Molde Jazz Festival, and released as his ACT debut CD in 2014. Subsequent commissions have come from Big Bands in both Bergen and Copenhagen, from the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival, where artistic director Leif Ove Andsnes, one of the leading classical pianists in the world, is a close musical colleague and friend, and also major commissions for full orchestra from the Bergen Philharmonic: a saxophone concerto, “Manmade” (2020) and also “Every Little Step” (2021), a 20-minute piece for full orchestra without saxophone.“Geyser” was described in the concert programme as “a story in sound”. The coherence and flow of the story-telling in Neset’s composition are nothing short of miraculous. The whole venture, as John Fordham of the Guardian has previously written of the Neset/ London Sinfonietta combination, is “grippingly coherent as well as instrumentally dazzling.” Credits: Comissioned by BBC Radio 3 and first performed by the Marius Neset Quintet with the London Sinfonietta on 3rd September 2022 at the Royal Albert Hall, London, as part of BBC Proms 2022 Music composed, arranged and produced by Marius Neset Mastered by Thomas Eberger, Stockholm Mastering

Nils Landgren - 3 GenerationsCD / Vinyl / digital Nils Landgren with Joachim Kühn, Michael Wollny, Iiro Rantala, Lars Danielsson, Cæcilie Norby, Viktoria Tolstoy, Wolfgang Haffner, Ulf Wakenius, Jan Lundgren, Ida Sand, Youn Sun Nah, Vincent Peirani, Emile Parisien, David Helbock, Marius Neset, Nesrine, Julian & Roman Wasserfuhr, Anna Gréta, Johanna Summer, Jakob Manz, and many more We are Family – Celebrating 30 ACT Years Nils Landgren has been and remains the absolute linchpin of the ACT family. To date, the Swede has made forty albums on the label as leader, plus another twenty as producer or soloist. Michael Wollny, whose many many projects with Landgren give him a special connection, sums up a key ele-ment in his success: “With Nils everything becomes easy.” There is indeed a particular ease about Mr. Red Horn’s way of being; it is infectious and runs through everything he does. Which is all the more remarkable when one considers the sheer number of roles he takes on: trombonist, singer, band-leader, producer, festival director, professor, curator, talent scout and mentor.All of Landgren’s multiple roles and traits come to the fore on “3 Generations”. Working alongside producer and ACT founder Siggi Loch, Nils Landgren brings together three gene-rations of ACT artists’ in various line-ups to mark the label’s 30th anniversary. Landgren and Loch have a friendship and habits of working well together which go back almost as long as the existence of ACT itself. The two met for the first time at the 1994 Jazz Baltica Festival, just two years after the label was founded. Landgren became an exclusive ACT artist shortly thereafter. Since that time, it has been through Landgren’s network that artists such as Esbjörn Svensson, Rigmor Gustafsson, Viktoria Tolstoy, Ida Sand, Wolfgang Haffner and many more have joined the label. Nils Landgren continues in his trusted role as ACT’s leading connector and integrator. Finding and nurturing young talent has always been one of ACT’s strong suits. It was true for Nils Landgren, then later for Michael Wollny who joined the label in 2005 and is today one of the most significant pianists in Europe. With artists such as Johanna Summer and Jakob Manz - both born many years after ACT was founded - the label looks to the future with its younger generation of musicians bringing new ener-gy and impetus to the world of jazz.The Times (UK) has written: “Since 1992, ACT has been building its own European union of musicians, fostering a freedom of movement between nationalities and genres, and has given us an authentic impression of what the continent is about.” “3 Generations” demonstrates quite how true that assertion is. Around forty artists from the ACT Family make this anniversary album a celebration of the breadth, openness and inclusive power of jazz. The core of the album consists of recordings made at a summer 2022 studio session lasting several days. In reality, it is only Nils Landgren and Siggi Loch who could have brought this pano-rama of musical Europe into being. The influences here range from jazz, popular song and folk to classical and contempo-rary music, and much more. Thirty tracks from three generations of musicians marking thirty years of ACT, with Nils Landgren as driving force. Not just a retrospective, but above all an insight into the present and future of the discovery label “in the Spirit of Jazz”.Credits: Recorded by Thomas Schöttl at Jazzanova Studio, Berlin on June 7 - 9, 2022, assisted by José Victor Torell – except as otherwise indicated Mixed and mastered by Klaus Scheuermann Produced by Siggi Loch and Nils Landgren The Art in Music: Cover Art by Yinka Shonibare CBE: Detail from Creatures of the Mappa Mundi, Mandragora, 2018

Marius Neset - HappyCD / Vinyl / digital Marius Neset tenor and soprano saxophones Elliot Galvin keyboards Magnus Hjorth piano Conor Chaplin electric bass Anton Eger drums & percussion Very great musicians are often ahead of their time. Saxophonist/composer Marius Neset is one of the most critically and professionally acclaimed musicians in jazz in Europe. He has not only launched his instrument "into a new dimension" (Süddeutsche Zeitung), recent concerto-type works written for the London Sinfonietta and the Bergen Philharmonic have redefined its role as a solo or group-leading instrument with orchestra. His achievements are astonishing, complex, visionary... and maybe sometimes hard to grasp straight away. His unique path of achievement continues, however: Neset will make his debut on the main stage of the Royal Albert Hall, as soloist on 3 September 2022 with an ambitious new work. ‘Geyser’, one of the main festival commissions of its current season from the prestigious BBC Proms. What might it take, then, for the respect and admiration he so clearly has, particularly among other musicians and from promoters, to start to become reflected in wider popular acclaim, maybe even cult status? Perhaps this new ACT album "Happy" will be a step along that path. Here he draws for the first time on the pop, soul and funk of the 70s and 80s: "There is a 'message' in the title of this album,” says Neset. “It is very simple, but also a very strong one. We had a great time recording the album. A week in the studio, day and night, everyone was loving it. And that long process of making it has essentially been whittled down...into the happiest moments we had." Neset admits that his compositions in the past have often been influenced by the darker side of world events. In view of the many current crises, however, this time he decided to go for the opposite: this is genuinely happy music, which nevertheless doesn’t either deny or abandon anything of Neset’s own musical DNA.  Listeners can expect – as is usual with Marius Neset – to be taken on a roller-coaster ride from the start. And yet there is something else going on in the title track “Happy” which opens the album: delight and pure joy. It may be a wild ride, but the unmistakable felling of happiness finds its way deep into the listener’s ear as well. The music is full of quotations (there’s Stevie Wonder and Cool & The Gang as well as David Sanborn and even Michel Legrand, for starters), the tempo is full-on, the mood is definitely ‘up’, but it is also full of surprising twists and stylistic clean breaks. The piece acts as a prelude to an album which allows Marius Neset to explore new directions: "Some pieces are rhythmically very experimental, although they are explicitly inspired by the simplicity and authenticity of soul," Neset tells us. "The use of keyboards and synth sounds was also new to me. It almost takes me back to 'Golden Explosion', my debut album." On "Wildlife", Neset clearly is drawing on Afrobeats and West African high-life sounds: this is a piece originally composed for classical orchestra, this is a piece originally composed for classical orchestra, and it finds a new serenity in these ideal surroundings. "A Hand To Hold", on the other hand, is a completely classic and quiet ballad – this pared-down purity being a new departure for Neset. As someone who is known for his dynamism and for the velocity and power of his saxophone playing, this time the dial has been set for a different destination: softness. Finally, "Diamonds" is another kind of adventure, as Neset plays over ethereal, electronically generated sounds. Just as there are new sounds in “Happy”, Neset has also enlisted new band-members. Following on from a period in which his attentions have been drawn by writing works for large ensemble, and also his most recent album – for solo saxophone – he returns to the small-group setting, but with only one constant from his most recent, much-loved and astonishingly well-travelled quintet, and that is Anton Eger. The Swedish drummer has the capacity to be in synch with Neset's explosive rhythmic ideas like nobody else. Pianist Magnus Hjorth, also from Sweden, is an acquaintance from Neset's early career, and makes a return here. Back in 2005, he was the original pianist in the trio Phronesis, from which Neset over time was to recruit other band members...There are also completely new British components in Neset's quintet: "I wanted an electric bass player and a keyboard player for the project. I had already met Conor Chaplin at some gigs, and started to imagine his bass sound as I was composing, he is a very fresh and inspiring presence for me. I had, of course, heard a lot of good things about Elliot Galvin. I thought his keyboard playing would be a perfect fit in the quintet, his style being so unconventional. As luck would have it, he agreed with me. Very crucial for the album is the balance that Magnus on the piano and Elliot on the keyboard found for their completely different musical identities. They had an instant chemistry and I'm still blown away by the way their opposite musical natures seem to complement each other."Neset has also been particularly focused on the bigger structures, the narrative arcs of this album. Therefore, after the groove-infused introduction and a brief excursion to Africa, the album takes off onto new paths and finds its way into the unknown. One particularly inspired flick of the switch is "The Unknown". Here, Neset says, an over-arching influence has been György Ligeti. We might think of Marius Neset as adventurous, elemental and yet with the wish to express melancholy. Here we find him in several new guises: he can also by turn be "classical"...or gentle...or cheerful. The sheer delight of this new album is bound to win him new fans.Credits: Produced by Marius Neset & Anton Eger

Marius Neset - A New DawnCD / digital Marius Neset saxophone “What Neset does on the saxophone is nothing less than taking this instrument into a new dimension” (Süddeutsche Zeitung.) The energy and the unassailable virtuosity with which Marius Neset burst onto the scene have not been forgotten. Back in 2004, as a nineteen-year old student recently moved to Copenhagen, he won the Talent Award at Norway’s Nattjazz Festival. He then made a huge impression as a member of groups led by Django Bates in 2008-2010. John Fordham of the Guardian described his 2011 debut album of original compositions as “sensational”, “indispensable”. He was the only artist from Europe in the Downbeat 2016 feature “25 For The Future,” in which he was described as “not only an impressive technician but also a formidable composer.” There has always been much more to Neset’s artistry than mere virtuosity: he has achieved several huge and successful composition projects with both classical and jazz orchestras, notably on three of the six previous albums he has produced on ACT since 2014, one of which, “Lion”, won him the coveted Norwegian Grammy, the Spellemannprisen. Now back and settled in Norway, the “Wizard from Os” (Jazznyt) finds new ways of combining the urge to construct compositional structures with being free in the moment. Among the many delights of his seventh ACT album “A New Dawn”, Neset says that one of his own favourites is “Morning Mist”. His transformation of the opening of Lutoslawski’s first cello concerto into a vivid dialogue between two very different characters, a high and a low voice, does indeed feel like a stroke of genius. And his new take on Breckerish jigs and reels in “A Day in Sparrow’s Life”, originally written for a flautist, communicates not just dervish-like inspiration but also sheer joy. Marius Neset has written an eloquent and carefully thought-through sleeve-note for “A New Dawn”, explaining the origins and the concept of this album, which looks forward to better times: I have always dreamed of doing a solo album, an album where I am completely alone playing the tenor saxophone with no overdubs or effects, just as pure and honest as it can be. It is an amazing challenge – and also a bit scary: I cannot lean back on a rhythm section or another player, I am completely responsible for every little detail in the music myself. I have chosen a combination of songs that I have composed during the past few years. Some of them were written for solo saxophone, others for small band, some even for symphony orchestra. What all of these songs have in common is that they were originally composed by me, playing the tenor saxophone, alone. In other words, they all started out as solo saxophone pieces. When the Covid-19 pandemic made us all isolated and alone, I started to work more and more on these songs, and gradually the idea about making a record became more of a reality. I finally decided to record them in a beautiful-sounding room a few kilometres away from where I live in Oslo. There was something very special about the atmosphere on the day of the recording. It was a beautiful, sunny and very cold winter day, which reminded me of all the good things I have been doing almost every day in the past year: being outside in nature, walking, running, skiing or just being together with my lovely family. I felt inspired, so I just started playing and recording the songs that I felt most like playing at that moment. And this was more or less how I spent the rest of the recording day. I would let the tape run and play what felt most natural to me in the moment. Playing alone also allows you to focus much more on the little details. I played around a lot with different sound colours, for example using quartertones, or playing a note very softly with a particular embouchure to produce a very nice little multiphonic sound which would have been scarcely audible if I hadn’t been playing alone. I also thought as I played about the stories behind many of these songs, and that seemed to make them more relevant to me than ever before. Some of the pieces are not just directly inspired by the many challenges that the world faces today, they also have a story to tell about hope and brighter times to come. I can’t wait to get back to making music with all my friends again, but in the meantime playing alone in my home gives me energy and positivity as we wait for life as we know it gradually to come back, as a new dawn. Marius Neset Credits: All music composed and arranged by Marius Neset Recorded and mixed by Daniel Wold at OSLO:Fuzz in January 2021 Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann Produced by Marius Neset The Art in Music: Artwork by Rune Mortensen

Marius Neset - TributesCD / digital Marius Neset tenor & soprano saxophone Danish Radio Big Band, conducted by Miho Hazama “This album marks a new phase,” says Marius Neset. “It was the last thing I did in Copenhagen, which has been my life for the past seventeen years.” In late 2019 the saxophonist and composer moved from the Danish capital to return to his native Norway. In “Tributes”, recorded shortly before he left, he marks this point of transition with music that has astonishing freshness – and unmistakably vivid feelings of joy and fulfilment. The Norwegian saxophonist was already making his mark while still a student at the beginning of those Copenhagen years. This was a player of “hurtling virtuosity” (Guardian) for whom there seemed to be no technical barriers on the instrument, and his star has continued to rise ever since. In 2016 he was included in Downbeat magazine’s list of "25 for the Future", the first time a musician based in Europe had received this accolade. More recently his prowess as a composer has also been to the fore. Neset has the skill and the focus to conceive and build extensive musical structures from simple ideas. “Tributes” is indeed conceived as a continuous sequence. His music is nonetheless always full of incident, surprises and excitement. Having written substantial works for chamber orchestras, this collaboration with the DR Big Band has a different, and arguably more natural feel to it. As Neset says: “Working with jazz musicians again, it’s more like my home. I know these musicians well from my time in Copenhagen, and I wanted to get back to the joy of playing, to the feeling of each player having freedom.”The album opens with the two-part composition "Bicycle Town", a homage to Copenhagen. "I always cycled there. A rhythmic and melodic idea came to me, and it seemed to me to be the musical equivalent of biking. I then developed it with the orchestra." It starts off gently and becomes an increasingly wild ride. It is as if a single cyclist sets off and gradually finds he is being joined by more and more people with similar ideas, until a multiform throng of cyclists grows into a single organism, which in the end – as the music concludes in a march motif – triumphs over gravity. It is a complete tour de force of rising intensity, led from the front by Neset's ecstatic saxophone playing. The title track "Tribute" is, on one level, just a gentle little feature for DR Big Band soprano saxophonist Hans Ulrik, but appearances can be deceptive: compositionally Neset has managed to combine several contrasting musical worlds into its span of not much more than five minutes. There are quotes from the Allegretto of Beethoven's 7th Symphony, one from the Adagio of Mahler 9, plus allusions to Queen (Love of My Life), to Grieg and Brad Mehldau. "Farewell" and "Leaving the Dock" follow. Both tracks allude to the theme of saying goodbye to Copenhagen, with the latter giving extended solo spots to both trumpeter Mads La Cour and pianist Henrik Gunde. The album comes to a magical and playful close in the three-part "Childrens Day". "It's the part of the album I composed first, but it's also the perfect finale," says Neset. Children’s Day is a tradition in Nor-way, and the rising calypso-like figure that brings the composition to life after a short prologue came into Neset’s mind after a party in honour of his young nephew. This extended structure brings to the fore the playing of Per Gade on guitar and Andres Gaardmand on baritone sax in the first section, and then Kaspar Vadsholt on bass and Gerard Presencer on trumpet in the second. Celebrating the joy that small children bring to the world is another and very current theme for Neset: “I became a father for the first time in January 2020.” An important contributor to "Tributes" is Japan-born, New York-based composer and arranger Miho Hazama. "She was fantastic to work with," says Neset. "She came with great suggestions – different tone colours like the soft woodwinds on Tribute". Hazama was, incidentally, also included alongside Neset in the 2016 "25 for the Future" list by Downbeat, and was recently appointed chief conductor of the DR Big Band. “Tributes” is an album where everything seems to click in a particularly happy and enjoyable way. Neset has found an ideal context – and the right musicians – to mark the end of one chapter in his life and to turn the page for the beginning of another.Credits: Music composed and arranged by Marius Neset Produced by Marius Neset Recorded by Morten BuDchert at DR Studio 3, Copenhagen, March 2019. Assistant recording engineer: Ossian Ryner Mixed by August Wanngren at Virkeligheden Mastered by Thomas Eberger at Stockholm Mastering

Marius Neset - ViaductCD / digital Marius Neset tenor & soprano saxophones Ivo Neame piano Jim Hart vibraphone, marimba & percussion Petter Eldh double bass Anton Eger drums & percussion London Sinfonietta conducted by Geoffrey Paterson The 34-year-old Bergen-born tenor/soprano saxophonist-composer Marius Neset presents his new recording Viaduct and makes his boldest, most restlessly diverse statement to date. On his fifth album for leading European label ACT, Neset organi-cally integrates a wide-ranging, colourful kaleidoscope of influences with his compelling compositions/arrangements for a pair of extended suites. Originally commissioned for the opening concert of the Kongsberg Jazz Festival in 2018, Viaduct offered Neset a fantastic opportunity to reunite his regular top-notch Brit-Scandi jazz quintet with world-class 19-piece London Sinfonietta, having initially performed together for his 2016 ACT re-lease Snowmelt. Made up of members of celebrated UK and Scandinavian contemporary jazz groups including Phronesis, Django Bates’ Beloved and Cloudmakers, Neset’s quintet (featured also on ACT CDs Pinball, (2015) and Circle of Chimes (2017)) consists of the pianist Ivo Neame, vibraphonist Jim Hart, drummer Anton Eger and bassist Petter Eldh, the latter pair of which Neset met while studying at the Copenhagen Rhythmic Music Conservatory under the inspirational tutelage of Django Bates. “We are so connected after all these years of playing together, and the music is very much composed for them specifically,” he says. Described by the Guardian’s John Fordham as, “one of the hottest European jazz talents of recent years,” Neset uniquely combines the killer punch virtuosity of a Michael Brecker with the ethereal folk-ish qualities of legendary compatriot Jan Gar-barek. He went on to embark on projects that underlined his obvious flair in composing for large ensembles starting with Lion in 2014 with Trondheim Jazz Orchestra. A year in the making, Neset describes Viaduct as existing, “somewhere between improvised and modern contemporary classical music.” Viaduct is split into two half-hour parts. The orchestral palette of the first part is restlessly idiomatic and cinematic in scope while the second shines the spotlight more on the brilliant interplay between Marius, his band mates and London Sinfonietta. Viaduct part one explodes with a scintillating fireworks display of twentieth-century art music and spiky jazz rhythms: bursts of Stravinsky-like motor rhythms interlace with Leonard Bernstein-esque urban symphonic jazz faintly echoing West Side Story. Later passages exude the romantic aspects and calmness of Neset’s Nordic sensibilities filtered through his intuitive symphonic writing skillset. “The way the piece is shaped,” he says, “is it starts with these atonal lines played very aggressively on the strings and it continues for quite a long time before it finally resolves getting more and more harmonies into it. And that’s where I feel it gives the music meaning.” Viaduct part 2 sees Neset and his quintet play a more central role. It opens with a high-spirited bluesy fanfare reminiscent of Gershwin before the quintet bolster the excitement levels, spurred by Eger’s characteristically mega-propulsive drums. Wondrous Mahler-like string passages counter acclaimed pianist Neame’s imaginatively enigmatic piano that draws from the haunting exoticness of Olivier Messiaen and Bartok. There’s never a dull moment as Neset draws on the inspiration of Joe Zawinul with Hart’s African-inspired vibes and his sax launching into free-funk overdrive for a truly volcanic grand finale. “The reason it’s called Viaduct is that this is about a connection to different musical ideas,” says Neset. “For me music can give associations about how you go from one world to another and it’s all about the way things are connected, the transitions, and how you can make it into something meaningful.” The evidence is crystal clear in his thrillingly resourceful integration of ensemble jazz and symphonic writing on Viaduct. Viaduct has its UK premiere at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 21 November as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival.Credits: All music composed and arranged by Marius Neset Produced by Marius Neset Recorded by Jon Bailey at AIR Studios, London, 19th and 20th December, 2018. Assistant recording engineer: Laurence Anslow. Mixed by August Wanngren at Virkeligheden Mastered by Thomas Eberger at Stockholm Mastering

Marius Neset - Circle of ChimesCD / digital Marius Neset tenor & soprano saxophones Lionel Loueke guitar & vocals Andreas Brantelid cello Ingrid Neset flute, piccolo & alto flute Ivo Neame piano Jim Hart vibraphone, marimba & percussion Petter Eldh double bass Anton Eger drums & percussion The 32-year-old Bergen-born saxophonist-composer Marius Neset has been at the height of his creative powers, especially on the evidence of a trio of consecutive albums released since 2014 on ACT, one of Europe’s leading jazz recording labels. He’s been keeping good company too. Aligning with other internationally-renowned, kindred spirits working at the borderline between jazz, improv and classical music, Neset released Lion in 2014, originally a ‘live’ commission in collaboration with the celebrated young Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, and collected a Norwegian Grammy award (Spellemannprisen). Last year he released Snowmelt, a project with the 19-piece London Sinfonietta, another highly esteemed European orchestra at the cutting-edge of 21st century genre-bending new music. In 2015 his quintet album Pinball received an unusual five-star rating from The Guardian writer John Fordham who described Neset as, “one of the hottest European jazz talents of recent years.” As a saxophonist, Neset has been instrumental in reinvigorating the post-70s fusion ‘big tenor’ tradition of Michael Brecker, Chris Potter and Jan Garbarek, contrasting his dazzlingly ferocious technique with a soulful spontaneity. But it has been difficult to separate Marius Neset the saxophonist Marius Neset from the composer. He’s been hailed as one of the most exciting and ambitious composers of the younger generation of innovators on the European jazz scene today. On the new release Circle of Chimes, he again takes a spectacular leap forward in redefining the role of composition in the contemporary jazz and improvising world. “This album is more personal to me than any other album I have made,” he says. “A lot of things were changing in my life and that was inspiration for the ideas on the album. It’s the darkest, most melancholic album I have made so far, even if it has lots of brighter moments on it as well.” Neset turns again to the personnel he employed on Pinball, a quintet featuring the UK’s understatedly eloquent Phronesis pianist Ivo Neame and French-based percussionist/ vibraphonist Jim Hart, Neame’s fellow Phronesis drummer Anton Eger and Swedish double bassist Petter Eldh, both of whom Neset studied with at the Copenhagen Rhythmic Music Conservatory, under the inspirational tutelage of Django Bates (an influence very much apparent on the new recording). To this first-rate cast, Neset adds the stellar Benin-born Herbie Hancock/Terence Blanchard guitarist Lionel Loueke who brilliantly adapts his unique African-jazz vocal scat and angular funk, effected guitar to Neset’s compositions. His sister-flautist Ingrid Neset and the cellist Andreas Brantelid as well make a vital contribution to the recording. Neset says, “it´s about eight musicians that have an equal role in the music. It was great to work with Lionel. I thought about his sound and voice when I was composing, how he could add his very unique and distinctive playing to fit this music. Andreas Brantelid on cello is a very unique musician too. His way of phrasing and shaping the lines I had written for him is so musical.” At key moments, Circle of Chimes features the ring of tubular bells that’s referred to in the album title, giving the recording a haunting almost cinematic Ennio Morricone-like air. Neset explains its significance. “What became the ‘main idea’ for the whole album, which is clear yet sometimes quite hidden, is the tubular bells that it opens with. I was sitting for hours by myself in a kind of a trance or a meditative state playing just the same note in octaves. I found out it was interesting when one of the notes moved just a bit, so in the end I had worked out a pattern that was kind of a circle of these two notes, so that in the end they would meet again. This was later transformed into the tubular bells, and this pattern became important in more pieces such as ‘Life Goes On’. It’s one of the things that connects the songs. Another idea with the bells was to ring in the New Year.” Indeed the Circle of Chimes project originated in late 2014 when Neset was asked to compose music for a New Year’s Day Concert at Kölner Philharmonie in Cologne. The premiere took place in 2016 in front of an audience of 1500, and was recorded in the next few days in a studio in Copenhagen. Says the saxophonist: “Although this music is a New Year’s Concert originally, it doesn’t open in a bright, celebrating New Year kind of way; it opens very dark. But then I felt like opening it up gradually, so the first two tracks ‘Satellite’ and ‘Star’ are gradually becoming brighter.” ‘Star’ is a delirious yet entirely cohesive mix of avant-sax jazz rock, post-Zawinul world-jazz and chattering Zappa-esque melodies. In contrast 'Prague's Ballet' is a wonderfully mellow chamber classical-jazz piece featuring the leader in wonderfully lyrical mood on soprano sax. Says Neset, “The street where I was composing it in Copenhagen was called Prague’s Boulevard. I remember I heard some music by Mozart one evening, and that made a big impact on me. When I closed my eyes I got pictures from a ballet in my head.” By seamlessly as well as organically linking the worlds of composition and jazz improvisation, Marius Neset’s Circle of Chimes offers a kaleidoscopic wide-angle lens on the state of contemporary art music. It’s arguably his most striking compositional statement to date. Credits: All music composed and arranged by Marius Neset Produced by Marius Neset Co-produced by Anton Eger Recorded by August Wanngren at The Village Studios, Copenhagen, 2nd - 4th January 2016 Mixed by August Wanngren at Virkeligheden Mastered by Thomas Eberger at Stockholm Mastering

VArious Artists - Twenty Five Magic Years - The Jubilee AlbumCD / Vinyl / digitalIt is now 25 years since Siggi Loch properly set about being “useful rather than important” (the phrase is from his autobiography) and to move on from a successful and distinguished career in the international record industry to found his own independent jazz label, ACT. What he had in mind from the start was that it should be a platform to promote the kind of musicians who are capable of touching the emotions of their audience, of creating excitement and winning people over, artists who tend to court danger by avoiding the well-trodden paths – in other words they make their music “in the spirit of jazz.” Now, a quarter of a century and over 500 albums later, it is definitely a case of having delivered on that promise. As a “discovery label”, ACT has written part of the continuing story of jazz, and its family of musicians are now leading figures in the genre. ACT is proud to mark this milestone with a “Jubilee Album”. However, the label has taken care to steer well clear of the predictable. Except three tracks everything on the album is being released for the first time. Furthermore some tracks were in fact especially recorded at sessions involving a gradually permutating all-star line-up at the Hansa studios in Berlin. The result is a newly crafted summation of the kind of music for which ACT exists: music that can touch the heart, stir the soul and lift the spirit of the listener. It is a kaleidoscope of magical musical moments by artists with an openness of mind to all genres and styles. The opening track is the Beatles’ “Come Together”, interpreted by Nils Landgren, Ulf Wakenius and Lars Danielsson. This placing is deliberate. First it is a particularly fine example of the ACT motto of “connecting the unexpected,” following the long-standing jazz tradition of taking material from other musical areas and repossessing and transfiguring it through improvising. Great musicians reveal all kinds of unimagined things in seemingly well-known music. This stellar trio is also representative of another distinctive achievement by ACT, namely that the label is out in front as the leading exporter of Swedish jazz to the rest of the world. Landgren has been an exclusive ACT label artist since 1995 and has become the label’s most successful artist. Here on the “Jubilee Album” he also shows his funky side in “Walk Tall”. In “Paco’s Delight”, Ulf Wakenius pays homage in a duo with his son Eric to flamenco icon Paco de Lucía. The Swedish connection has been particularly fruitful for ACT. It was through her one-time accompanist Esbjörn Svensson that vocalist Viktoria Tolstoy joined the label, and the “Jubilee Album” features her singing his irreplaceable and bittersweet composition “Monologue”. The album’s closer is Svensson’s “Prelude in D Minor” and that placing has been done on purpose too. Svensson was the most important innovator in European jazz right up to the time of his tragic and fatal accident in 2008, and this solo piano piece was the only completed track from a solo album which was planned but sadly never completed. “Dodge The Dodo” reminds us of the massive charisma of the Swedish genius. Svensson’s classic tune is brought to us emphatically yet subtly by a quartet consisting of Polish violinist Adam Bałdych, Finnish Pianist Iiro Rantala and flautist Magnus Lindgren. Alongside Svensson, Bałdych and Rantala, the Norwegian saxophonist Marius Neset with “Prag Ballet“ is another example for the “Sound of Europe” which the ACT label has welcomed into its fold since the start. This commitment has been followed through with continuing and growing success, as can be vividly heard in “B&H”, a track from a live album recently recorded by the brand new combination of French stars Vincent Peirani and Emile Parisien with Swiss vocal phenomenon Andreas Schaerer and pianist Michael Wollny, who “breaks new ground for his instrument.” (The Observer, UK) Wollny is a once-in-a-lifetime talent. He is also rare among German jazz musicians in that he has successfully carved out an international profile. He is heard on this album as part of two more units: “Swing, Swing, Swing” is an explosive performance in a duo with Germany’s foremost drummer Wolfgang Haffner. This track demonstrates another important tenet for ACT: that home-grown German talent should never be overlooked. Wollny also plays “White Moon” in a duo with Iiro Rantala recorded live at the Philharmonie in Berlin, and this reflects the mission of ACT to present exceptional and pre-eminent jazz pianists to the widest possible audience. Finally, this birthday party could hardly be complete without the “great artistry of a genuine vocal marvel” (Vogue): we hear Youn Sun Nah’s “Bitter Ballad”. The “Jubilee Album” is a retrospective, a panoramic view and a peek into the future all rolled into one. As these exceptional artists perform unforgettable compositions, it becomes clear what ACT has been, what it is, and what it intends to remain: a reliable compass for new and exciting music “in the spirit of jazz.”Credits: Curated by Siggi Loch Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann Cover art by Jiri Geller, SMILE!, 2016 @ ACT Art Collection  

Various Artists - Magic Moments 9 "In The Spirit of Jazz"CD / digitalPresenting the 9th edition of ACT's popular Magic Moments series. This CD presents sixty-five minutes of the best of current jazz. Thoughtful moments sit alongside pure joy and entertainment. Coruscating energy is there, but serene contemplation too. With established ACT stars and promising newcomers, this is music for open ears, for the mind and soul. And for everyone who loves good music. “Jazz is the freedom to play anything.” At ACT, we let those words of Duke Ellington resonate through everything we do. Our releases do not adhere to a single musical canon or to a fixed sound aesthetic. Our motto is: “in the spirit of jazz.” Jazz is at the centre of our vision, because we delight in its openness to so many strands and inspirations: classical music, music from other traditions, and pop and rock. Magic Moments 9 opens with a homage straight from the heart to a person we all miss in the ACT family; the first track is a symphonic interpretation of the e.s.t. piece “From Gagarin’s Point Of View,” remembering pianist Esbjörn Svensson. “ACT seems to be on a mission to introduce the world to Europe's rising new jazz-classical pianists”, wrote John Fordham in The Guardian a couple of years ago. We have continued further along that path and Magic Moments 9 offers vivid reports from some places where that continuing journey has taken us. We take in Schloss Elmau in Bavaria, where the new duo CD by Michael Wollny and accordionist Vincent Peirani was recorded. From their album we hear “The Kiss.” Plus we travel to Austria and then to Martinique: two piano players who are both making their hugely promising debuts on the label are David Helbock and Grégory Privat. We also hear from two pianists of renown: the 'old master' Joachim Kühn is joined by his 'young lions' Eric Schaefer (drums) and Chris Jennings (bass) for a refreshing take on “Sleep on it,” a reggae-dub number by the French band Stand High Patrol. Iiro Rantala is on fine form in the “super-trio” with Lars Danielsson and Peter Erskine. They play Kenny Barron's “Voyage” with a Finnish lightness of touch. Der Tagesspiegel wrote of the “Jazz at the Berlin Philharmonic” concerts: “This is jazz history in the making”. We have released recordings of two further completely memorable evenings in one of Europe’s great halls: in “Tears for Esbjörn,” a group consisting of stars of the ACT label unite to pay homage to Esbjörn Svensson. In “Celtic Roots” we set off into the swirling mists of the North, in search of the Celtic influences on jazz. ACT is the place to hear European sounds. A good example is the new Mare Nostrum recording, seven years after the first. In the track “Kristallen den fina,” Jan Lundgren und Paolo Fresu have combined the musical hues of Sweden and of Italy, and the results are magical. For more than 20 years, Nils Landgren has been setting the agenda for European jazz like no other musician. His project “Some Other Time” also draws its inspiration from the other side of the Atlantic. He pays tribute to the great Leonard Bernstein, deploying all of the rich textural possibilities offered by the Bochum Symphony Orchestra. Swedish pianist Jan Lundgren, with a classical string quartet honours one of the great pioneers of Swedish jazz, Jan Johansson. In “Lycklig resa” (meaning 'bon voyage'). The extraordinary encounter of the guitarists Gerardo Núñez from Spain and Ulf Wakenius from Sweden demonstrates what can happen when an intercultural musical exchange really delivers the goods. The interplay, the sense of flow generated by three Scandinavians Lars Danielsson (b), Marius Neset (sax) und Morten Lund (dr) in their album “sun blowing” is “a testament to the power of spontaneity and trust” (Irish Times) - evident in the track “Folksong.” The Finn Jukka Perkko and a new “strong and distinctively touching voice” (Jazz Magazine) from France Lou Tavano also make their mark, and contribute to the richness of the ACT label's offering of characterful European sounds. Magic Moments 9, packed with all kinds of excitement and emotion, not only captures an up-to-the-minute snapshot of European jazz in the many different forms it exists today, but also offers a glimpse into its future.Credits: Compilation by Siggi Loch Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

Marius Neset - SnowmeltCD / digital Marius Neset tenor and soprano saxophones Ivo Neame piano Petter Eldh bass Anton Eger drums London Sinfonietta conducted by Geoffrey Paterson Legendary US jazz magazine DOWNBEAT has selected Norwegian saxophonist Marius Neset as the only European resident among its “25 FOR THE FUTURE” list of young and upcoming musicians destined to shape the future of jazz. According to the magazine Neset is “one of the most exciting artists in jazz”, his “discography reveals not only an impressive technician but also a formidable composer” who “strives for deep originality in his music.” The three main compositions on “Snowmelt” are the fruit of intense work during the period from 2012 to 2015. On the printed page, these carefully planned and thought-through works, meticulous in their attention to detail and brimming with life, contrast and inventiveness, cover no fewer than 239 pages of full orchestral score. Neset burst onto the scene with his first album as leader in 2011, and was instantly hailed as combining “Brecker's power and Garbarek's tonal delicacy” and being “on his way to being one of the biggest new draws on the circuit” (Guardian). The album „snowmelt“ is his most ambitious, cherished and personal project to date. In these concentrated works, Neset has sought out chaos and dissonance, he has also been drawn to lyricism and tenderness, and then worked at finding a balance between the extremes, using compositional methods which subliminally bring out the continuities between them. The origins of the album “Snowmelt” is a 15-minute piece for solo saxophone and chamber orchestra and five singers, commissioned by the Oslo Sinfonietta which had its first performance in March 2013. “I loved working with them and their instrumentation,” but that composition also gave Neset the impetus to take on some more ambitious goals. He wanted not only to work with a bigger body of strings, but also to do a whole album, and to include his quartet. “This is rhythmic music, and I needed the rhythm section from my own band to keep whole thing together.” Neset says “there is a clear method pinning whole thing together.” This is done in compositional terms by taking a single melodic line and putting it through a kaleidoscope of permutations and a multiplicity of moods. At the beginning of part two, the melodic line is adapted into a twelve-tone row which is stated first by the bass, then the piano, and then bassoon. The use of the tone-row is not a random element. It stands as a memory a decisive spur to the composition of these works. Neset's musical consciousness was deeply affected by hearing Berg's opera “Lulu” at the Copenhagen Opera in 2012. Another decisive shadow hanging over the piece (notably in the tender sixth section of “Arches of Nature”) is the drawn-out melody in the adagio of Mahler's tenth symphony, that landmark composition in which Mahler peered furthest into a new world following the collapse of traditional tonality. Other influences from that period are also evident: Stravinsky – there are certainly echoes of the “Circus Polka” in the final section of “Arches of Nature”, in which themes from earlier in the work are combined. The theme of balancing order and chaos is also a live issue within Neset's quartet, a long-standing working unit, three of whose members, Neset, bassist Petter Eldh and drummer Anton Eger have known each other since their student days most of a decade ago. The three were joined by pianist Ivo Neame in 2012. How do the personalities in this group combine? “Anton and I are planners,” says Neset, “we plan a lot of stuff. Petter and Ivo they are two players who need freedoms. If I suggest something, you can guarantee they will do something else. But I want those surprises. They have great taste and what they do gives me the impetus to create.” Another feature in this album is the sheer variety of sounds which Marius Neset can derive from the soprano saxophone, which is the result of a conscious and concentrated effort on his part. “I have been working more with the soprano, looking for extremes finding contrasts,” he says. Neset's achievements here recall the long list which that supreme soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy put in his book “Findings,” of all the things that this sometimes unforgiving instrument can do. The soprano sax, wrote Lacy, “can moo hiss kiss whine sigh hoot peep pipe pop ....whirr bark caw...sneeze tease freeze." On this album, Neset does all of these - and many, many more. “The Storm is Over” is an opposite pole to all the sequential logic, planning and forward movement of “Arches of Nature”. It holds and sustains a mood of positivity and contentment. The string section writing as the piece reaches its end all tenderness and calm, and the final section is a blissful farewell, never rising above a pianissimo. “Snowmelt”, the last of the pieces to be written, has the constant rhythmic instability and swagger implicit in its (4 + 4 + 3) time signature. The string writing has echoes of Bartókian savagery, the bass clarinet has some gruff and angry petulance to offload. There is one open section when the quartet is let off the leash and goes where it wants, and other parts of this infectiously rhythmic piece where the three rhythm players dominate the texture and lead the orchestral dance. Given Neset's long, considered process, the scale of the undertaking, and the sheer amount of work, time and thought that have gone into his compositions, it comes as no surprise that each listen brings seems to bring more revelations. There is always something more here for the listener to discover and unravel. Neset says of this work that he aspires to is to “find the point when everything makes sense.” For the listener, the search for that point will bring its own rewards.Credits: All music composed and arranged by Marius Neset Recorded by Jon Bailey at AIR Studios, London, 16th and 17th March, 2015 Assistant recording engineer - Chris Barrett Mixed by August Wanngren at We Know Music Studios Mastered by Thomas Eberger at Stockholm Mastering Produced by Marius Neset with Anton Eger

Danielsson - Neset - Lund - Sun BlowingCD / digital Marius Neset tenor saxophone Lars Danielsson bass Morten Lund drums It happens so rarely nowadays. Three musicians, who all make their homes in Copenhagen, met for the very first time as a trio in a studio. That initial encounter was recorded, and an extremely fine record is the result. The instigator was Danish drummer Morten Lund. The seed was sown in a conversation with Norwegian-born saxophonist Marius Neset and Swedish bassist Lars Danielsson, when all three were travelling back by train to Copenhagen from Jazz Baltica in 2012. That encounter gave Lund the idea that a session like this could work. Danielsson and Lund were already familiar with each other from their work in groups led by Caecilie Norby and Ulf Wakenius. Marius Neset had hardly ever played with either the bassist or the drummer. “The saxophone/ bass /drums trio gives space and freedom”, says Lund. “I felt that the three of us had same passion for trusting the moment.” So, when the owner of Copenhagen's Millfactory studios offered Lund a free day at the studio, he put the idea to the other two musicians that they could bring three or four songs, and play “with as little preparation as possible.” He also had the foresight to invite Siggi Loch to record the session. Game on. The three musicians arrived at the studio on Thursday April 3rd 2014, ready to start work at 2pm, and by the time they emerged some five or six hours later, they knew they had created something very special. Lars Danielsson remembers vividly how the session got going: “It all went so smoothly. The best thing about improvised music is when it has a flow, and we could feel that directly after the first take of “Little Jump”. That very first take of Danielsson's blues composition is the one which has found its way straight onto the album. Marius Neset normally plans and organizes his recordings thoroughly and meticulously, so in his recorded output “Sun Blowing” is in many senses the exception, the outlier. Neset remarks: “This was definitely something else from what I am used to. It's a different way of making music, much more open and free. Quite a lot of it was about finding each other by playing.” And what was Neset's method with these previously unheard compositions? “I was thinking all the time: how would I play it if I had written it?” That strong sense of inhabiting and owning the work comes across astonishingly strongly in Neset's playing. When talking of Danielsson's “Blå” (blue), for example, Neset had just one thing to say: “It felt like home.” There was a naturalness about the whole process. The tracks were recorded “as live” on acoustic instruments and mostly in long single takes. The exceptions to that rule are an overdubbed second saxophone part on “Evening Song For B”, and also that Danielsson changed the game at the session itself on a couple of tracks, by creating a subtle veil of programmed harmonies. The three achieve miracles throughout, both in settling into grooves and in giving compelling shape to the freer sections. but what also shines through is Neset's innate sense of pacing .The emotional heart and the longest sequence is Neset's composition “Salme” (Psalm) which proceeds naturally through free, improvised, rhetorical sections recalling the keening sound of Jan Garbarek, but also settles into funky grooves before disappearing into the sound of abstraction. It is a piece which Neset had performed in duo 3-4 times with Daniel Herskedal, but this is the first recording of it. Another slow number – the only composition not by the members of the band - recalls Michael Brecker: it is Don Grolnick's “The Cost Of Living”, a tune suggested by Lund. Brecker is a common thread in all three musicians' lives. Danielsson toured in Europe with him in the 1980s, Lund played in a duo with him in a workshop situation, and Neset is the first to acknowledge Brecker as a massive influence. In this recording, Neset was determined to depart from the original, which he progressively does. The closing section has a remarkable series of enclosures and monotones. Neset escapes off finally into the other-worldly sounds of reed slaps and unvoiced breath, yet never losing a sense of telling a story. According to the studio website, “the walls of the Millfactory studio have a long history.” Like the painters of the Italian buon fresco tradition who had the courage to work directly on wet plaster, these three fine craftsmen have put in a very fine “giornata”. Or, as Lund recalls the mood at the playback on the day after the session: “It was like: Wow – did we really do that?!”Credits: Produced by Morten Lund & Lars Danielsson Executive Producer: Siggi Loch Recorded by Boe Larsen at Millfactory Studio, April 3, 2014 Mixed by Boe Larsen and mastered by Klaus Scheuermann Cover Art based on a painting by Wilhelm Morgner (1891 - 1917)

Marius Neset - PinballCD / Vinyl / digital Marius Neset tenor and soprano saxophones Ivo Neame piano, Hammond B3 organ, CP 80, clavinet Jim Hart vibraphone and marimba, additional drums on track 4 Petter Eldh double bass Anton Eger drums and percussion Additional musicians: Andreas Brantelid cello on track 1, 2, 6 and 7 Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen violin on track 1 and 11 Ingrid Neset flute on track 1, 5 and 11 August Wanngren tambourine on track 3 Pinball band clapping on track 1, 2 & 7 Push the button, see what happens. Artists prize certain recording studios as much as they do producers or players. The room that adequately captures sound and provides optimal conditions for musicians working at the highest creative level is much in demand, and in some instances it is the location that can be something of a game changer. A studio in an unusual place with a unique ambience or history can greatly affect the act of making music. Ocean Sound Recordings is a case in point. Built on the Norwegian island of Giske, it wears its name well, offering those who come to blow horns, strike keys or beat drums a grandiose view of the Atlantic. It was here that Marius Neset, the 29 year-old Norwegian saxophone prodigy who has made major waves on the European jazz scene in the past three years following the release of the lavishly acclaimed albums, 2011’s Golden Explosion, 2013’s Birds and 2014’s Lion, a collaboration with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, spent five days with his band in the spring of 2014. The experience has hardly ebbed from his mind. “The studio is in a big house, and the musicians who use it, get to live on the second floor,” Neset explains. “It’s the most amazing feeling to be in this space where you’re surrounded by nature. We all worked from early morning until late night but you’re aware of this unique environment all the time. I mean it’s just two minutes walk from the studio to the beach, so it was a very special place to make music.” Pinball, the fruit of those endeavours, is arguably the strongest artistic statement Neset has made to date insofar as it acts as a dual showcase for his gifts as an improviser and composer. It also unveils an international band where the whole is greater than the sum of the not inconsiderable parts. The long-running creative relationship between the players has no doubt been a major contributory factor to this cohesion. Norwegian drummer Anton Eger, who also co-produced the album, is a long-term associate of Neset’s, having worked with him on Golden Explosion and Birds. The two musicians previously lined up with the Swedish double bassist Petter Eldh in People Are Machines. Furthermore, Eger gigs regularly with pianist Ivo Neame in the highly successful trio Phronesis, so Neset’s core rhythm section hardly comprises strangers washing up on an unknown musical shore. As for vibraphonist Jim Hart he has been playing with Neame for many years. Neset was more than happy to dive head first into this talent pool. “It felt really good to be right in the middle of a band again. I loved doing the project with the Trondheim Orchestra, but that was more about composing and arranging. This is my group. I love being right in the middle of the music. I’m playing much more here and that’s what I really I love to do. But they're great to play with, so it makes sense.” This move back into a soloist spotlight is a timely reminder of why the jazz world pricked up its ears when Neset emerged several years ago. His virtuosity, from the bedrock strength of tone to the torrents of phrasal ideas, extends a rich lineage of sax giants that runs from Chris Potter to Michael Brecker back to one of their key role models, Joe Henderson, but also references the more serene ways of Jan Garbarek. While Neset’s improvising has lost none of its cascading verve his new compositions mark a considerable shift compared to previous material. Rhythmically and harmonically, there are constant flashes of the multi-layered vocabulary of the pioneers who bridge jazz and non-western folk music, namely Hermeto Pascoal, Joe Zawinul or Trilok Gurtu, above all in collaboration with the aforesaid Garbarek. Yet there is a distinct digital age slant to the groove, a kind of sharply quantized jitter that offsets the lyricism of many of the themes. This flows from Neset’s key aim: the clarity of the song amid all the choppy percussive action. “I think the focus is on strong melody compared to my other work, though the music is still complex. There are still difficult polyrhythms and challenging harmony, but I think that the melody is kind of holding things together. You know, I was able to sing them a lot myself. So at times the music can be complex and almost a bit chaotic, but there is a melody, sometimes a simple thing, really, that keeps it all together. “Pinball is about the fact that anything can happen in the music. We have to react to each other and to ideas in the moment, and that’s what I love about jazz. That’s what keeps it fresh. Golden Explosion and Birds were both albums that were planned as suites, but Pinball is more like a set of songs where every piece can really just stand on its own.” Each of the twelve tracks does indeed have a sense of individual life cycle, which is effectively served by production from Neset and Eger that entailed a considerable amount of work both before and after the studio sessions. The comprehensive involvement of the two players in the recording process has lent the album an identity and character every bit as distinctive as a triangle of earth in a great circle of water. Kevin Le GendreCredits:Produced by Marius Neset and Anton Eger Recorded by Henning Vatne Svoren at Ocean Sound Recordings, 30th June - 2nd July 2014 Mixed by August Wanngren at We Know Music Studios Mastered by Thomas Eberger at Stockholm Mastering Cover photo by Lisbeth Holten

16 tracks, over 50 contributors, 70 minutes of the best jazz-infotainment featuring the current ACT lineup at a special price.

Marius Neset's "Lion" with Trondheim Jazz Orchestra blends explosive saxophone mastery and bold orchestral arrangements for a fresh, dynamic jazz experience.

Duo Art - it is the most reduced form of making music together. No less rich, if it succeeds, the smallest "big band" in the world. Two musicians on their own, in harmony and competition. Complementing each other, questioning each other and giving each other their opinion - a fascinating dialogue ear to ear. Spontaneous and intense, call and response - jazz in its purest form. Sometimes less is more to create magical moments - as "Duo Art Creating Magic" proves.

70 minutes of the best jazz infotainment through the current ACT line-up at a special price.

On "Imaginary Room" you forget every violin stereotype and witness Bałdych's impressive virtuosity, expressivity and variability. Not for nothing did Ulrich Olshausen finally write in the FAZ that Bałdych is "undoubtedly the greatest living violin technician in jazz. You can expect everything from him." - And what you can expect from him is impressively demonstrated on his ACT debut!