Bugge Wesseltoft
Bugge Wesseltoft is a border crosser and is considered one of the most innovative jazz pianists of today.
His collaborations with DJs like Henrik Schwarz and experiments with electronic music have made him known far beyond the jazz scene.
In the early 90s, Wesseltoft became a leading figure in a radical new conception of jazz in the Norwegian progressive jazz scene around musicians such as Nils Petter Molvær and Eivind Aarset. He called his groundbreaking project "New Conceptions of Jazz", in which he incorporated house, techno, ambient and noise elements into jazz with partly free improvisations.
Wesseltoft's lyrical and melodic playing, however, always remains at the centre of his art.
And it is precisely this facet with which he has made a name for himself, especially on ACT: the Christmas album "It's Snowing On My Piano" from 1997 presents him solo in an intimate, acoustic setting. In 2012, the continuation of this special, aesthetic line in Wesseltoft's work appeared, so to speak: The album "Last Spring", created in collaboration with the classical Norwegian violinist and violist Henning Kraggerud.
On this album, too, there is a recourse to Norwegian folk tunes, but also to classical works - by Edvard Grieg, for example - which lead into sustained, minimalist meditations.
