I’m very glad to be able to play with this magical orchestra one more time. On Friday February 15th we will invade Dokkhuset in Trondheim, and play as a part of the international Pop Jazz Platform conference program. This version of Trondheim Jazz Orchestra is my Norwegian dream team: It features 14 amazing and highly profiled soloists, playing more like an enormous and tightly woven band rather than an orchestra.
An international jury has selected Espen Berg Trio to play at this year’s jazzahead! in Bremen (DE). Norwegian jazz is highlighted in 2019, with its own showcase evening called the Norwegian Night. This evening will feature eight of the most prominent bands from the cold north, and among them EBT.
Espen Berg Trio will play at 11.30 PM on Thursday April 25th. Attending jazzahead!? Be there!
Stay tuned for the release of a new and exciting collaboration project. I recently visited Oslo to record video and shoot press photos, spending the whole day in the beautiful main hall at Oslo Konserthus with an amazing team!
Espen Berg Trio’s third album, “Free to play”, will be released exclusively in Japan on the Japanese label Blue Gleam on March 27th 2019. The recording was done in Nilento Studio, Gothenburg, Nov 25-26 2018, by Lars Nilsson and Michael Dahlvid. The international release will be in September 2019 on the Norwegian label Odin Records.
The album features eight new compositions, freely improvised music, and fresh arrangements done in collaboration with Bárdur and Simon. We can’t wait to share it with the world!
I just started a collaboration with the fantastic sax player and composer Seamus Blake. Here’s a recording from Rainbow Studio of us playing freely improvised. This is from a session with the quintet BRIDGES together with Hayden Powell, Jesper Bodilsen and Anders Thorén. The following day we headed to Trondheim and played a duo concert at Antikvariatet, and recorded more in Øra Studio. Expect to hear more soon!
My newest album, “Bølge”, will finally be available in the whole wild world Friday March 16 on Odin Records! It will be released both as CD and 2LP, and also on all digital platforms. The CD has arrived already and will be available on our imminent concerts, and the LP will be available later this month.
We’re releasing our latest album “Bølge” on Odin Records, March 16. It will be available both as CD and LP. This release will be followed by 12 concerts in Norway, Greece and Estonia. We’re really looking forward to this tour and our album release!
Big thanks to the Norwegian Embassy in Athens, Arts Council Norway, Musikkprofil AS, and Juu Jääb Festival for helping us out with the tour. Also thanks to Rainbow Studios, Odin Records and Propeller Mastering for superior sound and support with our new album.
Summer 2017, we flew to Lofoten together with video artist André Løyning to create a few spectacular live videos. These are made entirely on site, with actual sound recording (6 channels only), piano tuning at location (a bit short on time, bare with me on that), and with some amazing drone footage as well.
We only had ONE SHOT, one take, before the sun set. The weather on this side of Lofoten was perfect – no wind and totally clear. A long working day had come to an end, and we were really happy with the recording outside Henningsvær, but I had this location in mind for days and it would be silly to drive just past it on the way back to Leknes. I’m very happy we went there!
The sun was hanging low, shining directly into the valley nearby Unstad. We went up on this old carriage road, high above the tunnel leading to the beach further down. The clock was well beyond 11 PM and we only had a few minutes until darkness. In only a couple of minutes we were ready to roll. We had to hold back when playing this quite mellow tune, because the kick of doing this upon a mountain in Lofoten, in near-midnight-sun, amongst sheep was nearly overwhelming. After this one take happening, André Løyning managed to get some nice drone footage as well, and we could call it a day. BIG THANKS to Arts Council Norway for making this possible, and to Åse Andreassen and Knut Abrahamsen for helping us out big time.
ENJOY our new video from Ballstad, Lofoten. Big thanks to one-man-movie-maker André Løyning. This song, “MAETRIX”, is originally a part of my commissioned work to the fabulous Trondheim Jazz Orchestra – which will be touring Norway next week!
ESPEN BERG 