"Torstein Lofthus (born 10 March 1977, in Øystese, Kvam, Norway) is a Norwegian drummer and composer, married to Hege Lofthus (b. Sørvig, 1981), and known from bands like Shining, Elephant9, Mathias Eick Band, D'Sound and Ebersson/Zanussi/Lofthus.

Lofthus has had a major influence on Norwegian music through studio work, live concerts and teaching at Norwegian Academy of Music and at University of Agder (the Faculty of Fine Arts). Based in Oslo, he now tours Norway and Europe with different bands and artists after finishing his master at the Norwegian Academy of Music spring 2006. He plays several genres, well known with both jazz and pop music. He has been the most sought drummer in Norway recent years, if not on tour with Vamp, Jarle Bernhoft, Oslo Gospel Choir, Mathias Eick or Marit Larsen, he collaborates with Maria Mena, Kurt Nilsen, Torun Eriksen, Bertine Zetlitz, Silje Nergaard, Eivind Aarset, D'Sound, Noora Noor, The Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Jon Eberson and Per Zanussi, to mention a few, both in studio and on stage."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torstein_Lofthus)
10/30/2024

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"Nikolai Hængsle (previously Nikolai Hængsle Eilertsen, born 24 June 1978) is a Norwegian bass guitarist. He is primarily known as a member of BigBang (1999-2004, 2009-) and The National Bank (2004-). Eilertsen, who was born in Skotselv, also participates in the bands Lester, Needlepoint and Elephant9.

Honors

- Spellemannprisen 2004 in the class Pop band for the album The National Bank

- Spellemannprisen 2010 in the class Jazz for the album Walk the Nile"

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_H%C3%A6ngsle)
10/30/2024

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"Ståle Storløkken (born 22 February 1969 in Dombås, Norway) is a Norwegian jazz musician (keyboards, organ and piano) and composer, known from co-operations with artists like Terje Rypdal, BigBang, Supersilent and Motorpsycho. He is married to the Norwegian singer Tone Åse.

Storløkken was educated on the Jazz program at Trondheim Musikkonservatorium (1988-90), and subsequently did his postgraduate there too. During the studies he started the band Veslefrekk together with fellow students Arve Henriksen and Jarle Vespestad (Helge Sten joined the band at a later stage). In 1997 the name of the band changed to Supersilent. They have released six critically acclaimed albums on the label Rune Grammofon. From 1995 he played in the trio BOL along with his wife Tone Åse and Tor Haugerud.

Storløkken has been active in many contexts, both as a band leader and member, for example The Stoken Experience, and Terje Rypdal's Skywards. Along with Christian Wallumrød, and he composed the commissioned work Eight Thirty to Kongsberg Jazz Festival 1994. He has collaborated on a number of albums with the named bands, and otherwise at such musicians as Gunnar Andreas Berg, Eldbjørg Raknes, Audun Kleive and Thomas Strønen.

Storløkken together with Thomas Strønen has the Humcrush duo, which has released three albums. He also plays in the trio Elephant9, along with Torstein Lofthus and Nikolai Eilertsen. He co-composed Berit Opheim's commissioned work An angel with for Vossajazz 2007, and in 2010 composed and performed his one commissioned work for Moldejazz with the band Motorpsycho, Trondheim Jazz Orchestra and Trondheim Soloists."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St%C3%A5le_Storl%C3%B8kken)
10/30/2024

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"Norwegian guitarist and composer Terje Rypdal, tone poet of the Fender Stratocaster, was born in Oslo in 1947. The son of a military conductor and clarinettist, Rypdal began piano lessons aged five and took up the trumpet three years later. When he was twelve he began teaching himself the guitar. While still in his teens, he became a member of the Vanguards, a Norwegian instrumental rock group that climbed the local pop charts, and then, after hearing Jimi Hendrix, he formed a psychedelic rock band, Dream, in 1967. But Rypdal's influences have always been eclectic: he was drawn to the music of Ligeti and Penderecki as well as Coltrane and Miles Davis. He recalled in an interview with Notes on the Road: "I heard Ligeti's music and I decided then to try to make a living as a composer and guitar player." Michael Tucker has described "Rypdal's blending of rock and jazz phrasing with a rubato concern for tone colour and dynamics often redolent of the classical world".

Rypdal's relationship with ECM dates back to 1970, when he was part of Jan Garbarek's quartet on Afric Pepperbird, the saxophonist's own label debut. Some Rypdal material that didn't find its way onto Garbarek's Sart the following year led ECM's Manfred Eicher to suggest Rypdal record his own album, thereby beginning one of the label's most fertile and long-lasting collaborations. Rypdal's eponymous debut as leader was recorded that same year.

A 3-CD set released in 2012, Odyssey in Studio & in Concert, brought together some landmark early Rypdal recordings from the mid-1970s. A BBC review identified in the set "shades of prog, psychedelia and a foretaste of Rypdal's later atmospheric tone poems". A logn series of collaborations with fellow ECM artists have followed, including Palle Mikkelborg, Jon Christensen, Miroslav Vitous, Jack DeJohnette and John Surman.

Yet, having studied composition with Finn Mortensen, he is also a prolific composer, with an opus list that includes six symphonies, choral and chamber music and pieces for mixed groups of classical players and improvisers. Undisonus received critical acclaim on its release in 1990 and won Work of the Year prize from the Society of Norwegian Composers. ECM released an album featuring his Double Concerto/5th Symphony in 1998 and Lux Aeterna in 2000, an intense, personal celebration of nature, light and the mountains of Rypdal's childhood."

-ECM Records (https://ecmrecords.com/artists/terje-rypdal/)
10/30/2024

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