TERJE RYPDAL

Terje Rypdal's second album is filled with inventive soundscapes which are often eerie in nature.I usually say that if it's a rainy day it's time to put on some Rypdal,but this album is best listened to at night. A beat comes in before a minute on "Keep It Like That-Tight" as guitar sounds come and go.Horns join in at 6 minutes and Jan Garbarek is outstanding here. It settles with piano before 9 minutes.Abrasive guitar follows as piano continues.Terje is lighting it up here. What a way to start ! "Rainbow" is a funny title for such a spooky track.An eerie atmosphere falls on this soundscape and it doesn't leave.Different sounds come and go including flute on this 7 minute ride into darkness. "Electric Fantasy" opens with atmosphere.Drums,bass and haunting female vocal melodies after a minute.The vocals are repeated over and over.Very cool sounding.Guitar,bass and keys before 9 minutes then Terje starts to rip it up 10 1/2 minutes in.Vocal melodies are back 13 1/2 minutes in. "Lontano II" is dark with creepy sounds coming and going. "Tough Enough" has this guitar melody that is repeated on and off until the guitar starts to solo after 2 minutes.The bass is prominant too.It then settles back 3 1/2 minutes in.This is my least favourite track. A better finish and this would probably have gotten 5 stars from me.This is so good but i'm settling with 4.5 stars for this dark beauty from 1971.

4.5 stars. "Vossabrygg" is a live album commissioned by Vossa Jazz as a tribute to Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew". This album sounds different from most of Rypdal's albums mainly because he isn't the dominant force here.You certainly can't mistake his style and sound for anyone else but he's just not as prominant as usual.Probably because this is a tribute to Miles Davis i suppose but this sounds more like a band effort with two keyboardists,two drummers,a trumpet player,bass player and Terje's son on electronics,samples and turntables giving it quite the modern sound at times.So yeah it sounds a little different from the usual Rypdal offering,but different in a good way. "Ghostdancing" is the 18 1/2 minute opener.What a way to start ! Organ,cymbals and other sounds come and go.Bass and a more jazzy vibe after 2 minutes.An outburst a minute later.It settles back with the trumpet and organ standing out.Things get intense 7 minutes in then settles back again.Contrasts continue.Guitar to the fore 10 1/2 minutes in.Nice.A calm with organ 13 minutes in.Piano after 15 minutes as it picks up.Nice drumwork too.It settles again as trumpet takes over. "Hidden Chapter" opens with voices and atmosphere.A beat comes in and guitar follows.It ends like it began.A very cool tune. "Waltz For Broken Hearts/Makes You Wonder" is the only song that i'm not that thrilled with.Well lets just say the beginning and ending don't do a lot for me the middle section is great. "Incognito Traveller" is such a surprise wih the electronics and female vocals.It has to be heard to be believed.The guitar after 2 1/2 minutes is great.Trumpet lights it up too.Amazing tune. "Key Witness" is a short experimental piece with keys and other sounds. "That's More Like It" is jazzy with drums and bass.Piano joins in.An outburst before 4 minutes.It settles back then organ joins in.Guitar before 5 1/2 minutes.A powerful outburst with guitar after 7 minutes then it settles again. "De Slagferdige" opens with drums and atmosphere.A sample from the movie Pinnochio comes in too. "Jungeltelegrafen" opens with experimental sounds that build.Trumpet after a minute with a loud beat. "You're Making It Personal" opens with lazy trumpet melodies that turn passionate.A beat comes in.Nice bass.Guitar and a fuller sound around 4 minutes.The guitar is killer here. "Quiet World" is mellow with trumpet and piano.trumpet outbursts follow. Very close to 5 stars.This is such a treat to listen to.Highly recommended to you Jazz fans out there.

Almost classic Terje Rypdal early album, influenced by jazz (from bop till free-jazz), soundtrack music, some exotic rhythms and some rock elements. With usual very atmospheric down tempo clear sound and some cool Nordic vibrations in space all around.

Terje plays with more or less his regular team, including great trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg, whose participation on this album is very important. For late 70-s, this album contains some innovative technologies in jazz, combining very light drum machine rhythms with live drummer's work on some African rhythm structures. Another interesting thing - Mikkelborg's trumpet soloing. Being one of greatest names in Norways's trumpet school, and for years connected with German ECM label at the same time, it is not strange how his trumpet sounds on this recordings.

Very aerial, dreamy, cool - as from Nordic saga, but at the same time with light, but always presented Miles Davis legacy in sound. And - there I can clearly hear the roots of another generation's great Norwegian trumpeter - Nils Petter Molvaer, one of the greatest name in progressive nu.jazz.

Possibly one of most jazziest Terje album, it is one of his greatest works ever as well. With slight doze of melodic neo-classic ( or soundtracks sound from 60-s) sound, it stays very accessible, but complex and multilayered listening at the same time. Very recommended!

Really 4,5!

Possibly, one of unique Terje ability is to mix quite complex elements in his music with easy accessible ones, and as a result full product is easy to listen but with complexities deep under the skin.

This album is one of most free-jazz based his work, with free-form compositions and very free-jazzy drumming. Terje's regular collaborator trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg builds great trumpet aerial figures in musical space, its sometimes reminds Miles Davis softer moments. Keyboards are very important in that mix, and gave some melancholic scent to quite experimental sound.

Terje's guitar is thing in itself, slow, atmospheric, very electric , but not heavy, more soundscapes-maker, than axe. There it sounds more jazzy than often ( in fact very often Terje plays jazzy compositions using quite rock-like guitar sounds).

Cool, clear as Nordic air, music with such a complex, but never aggressive, brew inside is excellent work from Rypdal and his collaborators, one of the best between his albums from 70-s.

— First review of this album —

Terje Rypdal is well known by his very personal guitar techniques and characteristic sound. And by his quality albums as well. So - even if Skywards is far not his best work, this album is worth listening for sure.

With a team of his most usual collaborators (including great Norwegian trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg), Terje recorded one of the most eclectic album for years. Mixing neo-classical music with some vintage jazz , heavy rocking guitar and plenty of pleasant, a bit new-age-like soundscapes, he produced quite easy listening album, but with high quality standard for all music on it.

To be honest in some moments listening to this album I caught myself that possibly Terje's excurses to easy listening zones are too deep there, but every time the taste with he is doing such excurses saved me from even a traces of disappointment. At best moments, album contains great neoclassical melodies, Mikkelberg's crystal trumpet sound and some free form modern music elements. With few jazzy pieces and aerial ECM label sound.

Not the best place to start, but still good album for Rypdal fans and all tasteful instrumental music lovers.

— First review of this album —

When I will say that this Norwegian musician album contains just two compositions, each around 20 minutes long, it could attract many progressive music fans. But - everything is not so easy.

First of all, Terje doesn't participate on album as musician at all ( ok, possibly not such a problem, John Zorn does it regularly). Then - these two Rypdal's compositions are musical pieces for Orchestra! So, first one is performed by London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (and Terje Tonnesen - solo violin), and the second one - by Rainbow Chamber Orchestra and choir.

And - all music has no relation with progressive rock at all. Its are just neo-classical pieces, with some modern orchestral music elements. Nothing else. What doesn't mean it is bad music. Just it is absolutely different one.

So, if you're expecting jazz fusion or instrumental rock, characteristic for many Rypdal's works, just forget about this album. But for everyone, interested in modern neo-classical compositions this album could be quite interesting listening.

Terje Rypdal had build a musical world of his own. With jazz fusion, almost rock electric guitar, classic music, free jazz, etc. And he lives in this land - clear, cool, relaxed, and - such far from us all...

"If Mountains Could Sing" is very poetic, lyrical and romantic album, but in Nordic manner: with some cool sentimental tunes, chamber strings, electric rock guitar, ambient space and violin . I believe, that almost every listener could enjoy this music, but to get it in full you must love it.

Usual ECM clear and airy sound, but warmer, with more emotions. Possibly, the reason is very warm violin inclusion. Very tasteful music, relaxed and full of internal energy at the same time.

Stylistically it is a mix of everything: you will easy find there chamber music, jazz rock, free jazz, strings-filled post-rock and even new age elements. But all them are used in very tasteful, minimalistic portions, and never mixed in one chaotic brew. Compositions remind the work of good jeweller, when each ring includes tasteful precious stones and metal work.

Nice, interesting and never boring album. Very recommended.

Terje Rypdal is known as Nordic guitar jazz and fusion original musician and innovator for some decades. He has ability to play cool and aerial music in very his own techniques and style. In fact, no weak album was released during this long time, but for some listeners he probably sounded a bit repetitious in moments. (If you know his works deeper, you will easy agree that it is not true).

But in new millennium Terje played and recorded few very different and unusual albums, "Vossabrygg" is most fresh in line between them. Vossabrygg means "Vossa Brew" and you from the very first sounds easy realize, that this work is tribute to great Miles Davis and his "Bitches Brew" album. But not too much here is taken from great Davis legacy - his work is more basis for inspiration to Terje Rypdal and team. Even if opening track "Ghostdancing" quotes directly from "Pharoah's Dance," by Miles Davis from the Bitches Brew .

All this album is monumental work, kind of "Bitches Brew" for nu.jazz era. Terje Rypdal supported there by his regular collaborator trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg and one of biggest name in world of nu.jazz - keyboardist Bugge Wesseltoft between others.

You can find all forms of jazz legacy besides its most modern trends - from almost be-bop sounds, through electric heavy guitar fusion to Nordic cool nu.jazz and electronic loops, with rare hip-hop and cool jazz inclusions. All these components are mixed in very colourful, but aerial, cool and Nordic-ascetic brew. Excellent music - new jazz for XXI century.

Very recommended for everyone with interest to best modern jazz fusion, as well as to just lovers of great instrumental music.

No way less than 4,5!

Very interesting and unusual live album: recorded during celebration opening new church organ installation ( in Norwegian town of Molde). Besides Terje Rypdal on guitar, there participate excellent jazz trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg , Iver Kleive on church organ, Ashild Stubo Gundersen ( soprano) and Bergen Chamber Ensemble.

Composition played is originally classical piece, so you can easily expect music there is mostly contemporary classic. Electric Terje guitar gave some jazz fusion feeling as well as Palle's jazzy trumpet. But Chamber Ensemble is main sound on recording, with some fantastic ,very powerful organ passages. I like big church organ's sound still from my very teens, when I listened JS Bach played in Catholic Cathedral. Very impressionable feeling, and there on this recording this sound is such great!

Music ,as often with Norwegian jazz musicians, is clear, a bit cool, airy and very well balanced emotionally. And nice, catching you, and energizing with light energy at the same time.

Hardly the album for jazz-rock lovers or jazz/jazz fusion purists. But very attractive work for modern classic listeners ( with open ears).

Trio of great jazz musicians plays aerial, very liquid, down-tempo electric jazz fusion there. Rypdal's guitar technique is very specific, he plays electric guitar as built air castles in the sky early autumn's still warm night. His sound is not far from you, but he always has a distance. Slightly melancholic, but mature and very philosophic.

Miroslav Vitous brings his Eastern European soft-warm bass vibrations, when DeJohnette is master of atmospheric jazz drumming - minimalistic, but always presented. Possibly, one of the best Rypdal albums, highly influenced by unique combination of musicians temperaments.

Album's music is similar to ambient soundscapes, but with light rhythm section presented in sound. It helps to have better frame and structure, but didn't destroy dreamy and clear characteristic ECM-sound .Whenever high quality music, this album could attract ambient, new age, jazz and fusion lovers. Very good entrance to Rypdal discography as well.