Nils Petter Molvær
Encyclopedia
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
er, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, and producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
. Molvær is considered a pioneer in fusing jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
, showcased on his best-selling album Khmer, released by the German record label ECM
ECM (record label)
ECM is a record label founded in Munich, Germany, in 1969 by Manfred Eicher. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a wide variety of recordings, and ECM's artists often refuse to acknowledge boundaries between genres...
in October 1997 in Europe and early 1998 in North America.
Biography
Molvær was born and grew up on the island of Sula, NorwaySula, Norway
is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Sunnmøre region. The administrative centre is the village of Langevåg. Other villages include Solevåg, Fiskarstrand, Veibust, Leirvågen, and Mauseidvågen. Sula is one of the most densely populated municipalities of Møre og...
, and left at the age of nineteen to study music at the conservatory in Trondheim
Trondheim
Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...
. He joined the band Masqualero, alongside Arild Andersen
Arild Andersen
Arild Andersen is a Norwegian bass player.Born in Lillestrøm, Norway, he started out as a member of the Jan Garbarek Quartet , with Terje Rypdal and Jon Christensen...
, Jon Christensen
Jon Christensen
Jon Christensen is a Norwegian jazz percussionist.In the late 1960s he played alongside Jan Garbarek on several recordings by the composer George Russell....
and Tore Brunborg. Masqualero (named after a Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards...
composition originally recorded by Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
) recorded several albums for ECM Records, and Molvær recorded with other ECM artists before his 1997 debut solo album, Khmer. The record was a fusion of jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, electronic soundscapes, and hip-hop beats
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
– and quite unlike the delicate "chamber jazz" typically associated with ECM. Molvær's muted trumpet sound, sometimes electronically processed, had an obvious debt to Miles Davis's work of the 1970s and 1980s, but without being a slavish copy. For the first time, ECM released singles - "Song of Sand", backed with three remixes, and "Ligotage". In 2000, a second album followed, Solid Ether, after which Molvær left ECM. He has recorded several albums since, and has also produced film and theater music.
He often working with guitarist Eivind Aarset
Eivind Aarset
Eivind Aarset is a Norwegian guitarist who has worked with artists such as Ray Charles, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ute Lemper, Ketil Bjørnstad, Mike Mainieri, Arild Andersen, Abraham Laboriel, Dhafer Youssef and Django Bates and trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer.His style is often associated with that of nu...
.
Solo
Original albums- 1997: Khmer
- 2000: Solid Ether
- 2002: NP3
- 2005: Er
- 2005: Edy (soundtrack to the film by Guérin-TilliéStéphan Guérin-TilliéStéphan Guérin-Tillié is a French actor, director, and screen writer. Guérin-Tillié has directed the films Edy , Requiem, and J'ai fait des sandwichs pour la route, and acted in a number of films and television roles.-Filmography:-Writing:-Directing:| 2001 || teto-External links:* * * at IMDb...
) - 2008: Re-Vision (OST outtakes merged into an album)
- 2009: Hamada
- 2011: Baboon moon
Reprise albums
- 2001: Recoloured (remixes)
- 2004: Streamer (2002, live versions of previous tracks)
- 2005: Remakes (remixes)
- 2005: An American Compilation(compilation)
With others
- 1990: So I Write (Sidsel EndresenSidsel EndresenSidsel Endresen is a Norwegian jazz singer.She was part of the Jon Eberson Group from 1981 to 1987, resulting in five CDs and two "Spellemannprisen" awards...
) - 1990: Nonsentration (Jon BalkeJon BalkeJon Balke is a Norwegian jazz pianist and composer currently known for his Magnetic North Orchestra.He began with classical piano, but switched to blues at 12, though today he performs within several genres. At the age of 18 he joined Arild Andersen's quartet. By the mid-1980s he worked on his own...
) - 1993: Exile (Sidsel EndresenSidsel EndresenSidsel Endresen is a Norwegian jazz singer.She was part of the Jon Eberson Group from 1981 to 1987, resulting in five CDs and two "Spellemannprisen" awards...
) - 1994: Small Labyrinths (Marilyn MazurMarilyn MazurMarilyn Mazur is a percussionist, drummer, composer, vocalist, pianist, dancer and bandleader. She was born in New York and has lived in Denmark from age six. She is of Polish and African-American descent. Since 1975, she has worked as a percussionist with various groups, among them Six Winds with...
) - 1995: Hastening Westward (Robyn Schulkowsky and Nils Petter Molvær)
- 2001: Radioaxiom – A Dub Transmission (Bill LaswellBill LaswellBill Laswell is an American bassist, producer and record label owner....
and Jah WobbleJah WobbleJah Wobble is an English bass guitarist, singer, poet and composer. He became known to a wider audience as the original bass player in Public Image Ltd in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but left the band after two albums...
) - 2003: Electra (Arild AndersenArild AndersenArild Andersen is a Norwegian bass player.Born in Lillestrøm, Norway, he started out as a member of the Jan Garbarek Quartet , with Terje Rypdal and Jon Christensen...
) - 2004: Seafarer's Song (Ketil BjørnstadKetil BjørnstadKetil Bjørnstad is a Norwegian pianist and composer. Initially trained as a classical pianist, Bjørnstad discovered jazz at an early age and has embraced the emergence of "European jazz"....
) - 2007: A Pure Land (SiennaSiennaSienna is a form of limonite clay most famous in the production of oil paint pigments. Its yellow-brown colour comes from ferric oxides contained within...
) - 2007: Ataraxis (DeeyahDeeyahDeeyah , born August 7, 1977 in Oslo, Norway, is a Norwegian singer,music producer, composer, film maker and human rights activist of Punjabi/Pashtun descent. She adopted the name Deeyah in 2002...
) - 2008: Dome (Johannes Enders)
- 2008: Corps Electriques (Hector ZazouHector ZazouHector Zazou was a prolific French composer and record producer who worked with, produced, and collaborated with an international array of recording artists...
)
External links
- Nils Petter Molvær at NilsPetterMolvaer.info (official website)
- Nils Petter Molvær at Hopper Management (bio, sounds, reviews)
- Nils Petter Molvær live in Salzburg, Austria 2005 (photos, JavaScriptJavaScriptJavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
and Flash required) - *Flowd - artist channel on *Flowd network.