NILS PETTER MOLVAER “Khmer Live in Bergen”

ARTIST

Nils Petter Molvaer

ALBUM TITLE

“Khmer Live in Bergen”

LABEL

Edition

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Khmer (ECM, 1997) was undoubtedly a seminal album, capable of redefining the boundaries between jazz, electronic music, ambient, and trip hop. It forged a genre of its own, influencing an entire generation of musicians in Europe and beyond. One need only think of the subsequent experiments of Tabla Beat Science with Zakir Hussain and Bill Laswell. Molvær’s trumpet emerged as a visceral and lyrical voice, able to converse with groove, dance, rock pulses, trance atmospheres, and fierce Eastern colours, while maintaining a deep sense of lyricism within an additive synthesis driven by exploratory tension.

It has often been said that the Norwegian artist has never again matched the intensity of that album’s conception and results. Nearly thirty years later, he returns to the same material with some of his former travelling partners, Aarset and Arnesen, as well as Bang, a catalyst of equal stature. Molvær seems to have rediscovered his energy in a setting that is in some ways more direct and raw, and in others more cinematic, due largely to Bang’s electronic orchestrations. The band pushes further into pop-rock and groove territories, managing the balance between tension and release with finesse. This allows Molvær to remain at the centre of the sonic mass, the deus ex machina capable of tearing it open and carving out new spaces from which further musical ideas emerge.

This return confirms the enduring relevance of the original concept, even if it does not completely reinvent it. It conveys a renewed expressive urgency and avoids the pitfalls of nostalgia. In the end, it is a strong album that affirms the vitality of a musician who remains fully relevant.

Sandro Cerini

DISTRIBUTED BY

Edition Records

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