Erlend Apneseth Trio

Erlend Apneseth Trio and writer Erlend O. Nødtvedt collaborate on Black Hauge, an album that expertly fuses experimental Norwegian folk with the poetry of Olav H. Hauge. Using samples of the poet reciting his own work, the music employs techniques from plunderphonics and musique concrète to create stunningly original and often uncanny tracks. It’s an exploratory, free-folk journey. A stunningly original album that combines elements rarely seen together.

Erlend Apneseth has spoken of his wish ‘to compose more for musical personalities than for instruments’, and this absolutely shines through on Song over Støv, where every element exists as a unique voice, worthy of its own space but always serving the collaborative whole. It’s an album without a hint of excess, masterfully crafted and brilliantly performed.

With Collage, Erlend Apneseth Trio move further into experimental territory. Joined by singer Maja Ratkje, Collage is a masterful, almost mesmeric achievement. Their never dull attitude to recording seems to recognise music as a kind of palpable measure of deep time.

Erlend Apneseth’s Nova never shies away from the exploratory spirit that has defined his career. It is an album of colour and contrast, of human intimacy and wild natural grandeur.

It’s rare to hear a band creating genuinely new music with a basis in traditional forms, but Erlend Apneseth Trio have managed it on more than one occasion. Lokk is their most vivid and satisfying reinvention yet.

Erlend Apneseth Trio share title track of new album Lokk – venturing further into a fascinating rhythmic and danceable landscape, integrating their music with electronic beats and treated textures that leave you wanting more.

This is an album that owes everything to the interconnectedness of things and is well aware of that fact… It is elemental and challenging music, but such is the skill of Apneseth and his band it feels beautifully simple.

Watch Erlend Apneseth Trio performing Magma live at Bergen Kjøtt in 2017. Taken from their 2016 debut album Det Andre Rommet. “One of my greatest sources of inspiration has been exploring my own instrument, finding new sounds, discords, really anything that can evoke a new mood or association.”

Erlend Apneseth Trio demonstrate that wildness is still possible in folk music, as is a democratic, inclusive form of experimentalism. You are unlikely to hear a more innovative album all year, or one more in touch with its roots. Salika, Molika is an avant-folk marvel.