hubro

On ‘Minnesota’, Trond Kallevåg is joined by a crack Norwegian trio: violinist Tuva Halse, drummer Gard Nilssen and double bassist Mats Eilertson. The album expertly balances jazz, folk, and ambient sounds, drawing inspiration from the Norwegian coast and the American Midwest. It’s a deft, creative, and playful recording, marked by mesmerising violin, intuitive interplay, and wonderfully dynamic soundscapes performed at the highest level. It’s also a joy to listen to.

Norwegian Hardanger fiddler, composer and writer Benedicte Maurseth has released “Simleflokk under månen,” the new single from her upcoming album Mirra. The hypnotic track evokes a herd of female reindeer journeying beneath the moonlight across the vast Hardangervidda plateau. Maurseth’s distinctive fiddle blends with folk traditions, minimalism, and wildlife sounds, continuing the immersive, ecosophical themes of her Nordic Music Prize-winning previous work.

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.

The abiding characteristic of Speilstillevariasjoner is its sense of wholeness. This is music that constantly has its eyes wide open, both in wonder and in anticipation of the next new and interesting path. Stein Urheim has again proved himself to be Norway’s premier musical explorer.

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.

Norwegian record label Hubro is dedicated to jazz and folk-based music that is immersive, improvisational, and uncompromising. Benedicte Maurseth ticks all those boxes, and Hárr swells with a quiet beauty and bites with a keen experimental edge.

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.

Downhill Uplift is the sort of album that will sound different every time you listen to it, and while it takes inspiration from a cluster of well-worn genres, the way those genres are meshed together seems entirely novel. The work of an extremely proficient musician and his band.

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.