Nytt artistslipp til årets festival!

In their unique world, the Norwegian tune tradition intersects with experimental drone rock.

The trio Lumen Drones garners fantastic reviews for their groundbreaking and evocative music.

That they have played at the Bergen Festival, the Berlin Jazz Festival and that last year they should have played at the canceled Roskilde Festival says something about their music appealing to many different camps, and far across national borders.

The trio makes new musical paths through what have previously been dense bushes, and when you hear the result, you will think that these paths have been there since time immemorial.

Lumen Drones consists of Nils Økland on fiddles, Per Steinar Lie on guitar and Ørjan Haaland on drums. The latter two have for decades played together in bands such as important bands such as Undergrünnen and The Low Frequency in Stereo. Renewal and harding fiddle master Nils Økland have been musically active for a lifetime and can look back on a long list of projects and records with artists such as Bjørnar Andresen, Løver og Tigre, Arild Andersen, Christian Wallumrød, Kari Bremnes, Alf Cranner, Åsne Valland Nordli and Tord Gustavsen.

The trio's debut album was produced by legend Manfred Eicher and released by the German prestigious company ECM. When they released their long-awaited second album on HUBRO in 2019, Aftenposten rolled some dice on the dice and wrote: "Lumen Drones sets a completely new standard".

With her unique band, LILJA takes the audience around the world!

The music is inspired by travels where Oddrun Lilja has collaborated with local traditional musicians from all over the world.

During her travels, Lilja has played with raga musicians in India, gnawa musicians in Morocco, circus artists in Ethiopia and Palestinians in a refugee camp in Lebanon. With inspiration from these meetings, she has composed new music, where the songs are named after ten of the cities she has visited.

Oddrun Lilja, known as guitarist in Bugge Wesseltoft's "New Conception of Jazz", Frode Haltli's "Avant folk" and "Moksha", has released her debut album in his own name: "LILJA: Marble". The album received a dice roll of 6 in Dagsavisen, and was the list of this year's best Norwegian album in Klassekampen's music magazine in 2020. The album was also nominated for this year's release in Subjekt, which claims that "Marble" is an album that will remain in Norwegian jazz history.

Oddrun Lilja: guitar and vocals, Beate Lech: main vocals, Jo Skaansar: bass and vocals, Bafana Nhlapo: vocals and percussion, Jakop Janssønn: percussion

The award winning Jazz talent Lauritz Skeidsvoll with music inspired by life in the sea

As children, they played in the same band, but after high school Lauritz went to Oslo-and Isach to Bergen to study music.

In 2019, Lauritz established the band "Quite a View". It is the first project where he writes and plays his own compositions. To perform this, Skeidsvoll has picked out five fantastic musicians - all with their distinctive artistic voice. The music draws a lot of inspiration from the world of film music, and composers such as Thomas Newman, the Icelandic band ADHD and Ola Kvernberg.

In the composition process, Lauritz has been conscious of his passion for life below the sea surface; wildlife, colors and landscapes, and tries to recreate the moods he gets by seeing and studying this. He has always been fascinated by marine life, and is concerned about the condition of animals, plants and other organisms that live there.

In the music Lauritz has specially written for this concert on Moldejazz 'opening day, meditative drones and powerful, expressive melodies meet in open and sonorous landscapes.

Lauritz Skeidsvoll, saxophone, Torstein Slåen, guitar, Peder Skeidsvoll, trumpet, Frida Nøstdahl Hjelle, piano, Henrik Sandstad Dalen, bass, Steinar Mossige, drums.

Isach Skeidsvoll is grateful for the award with "General Post Office"

As children, they played in the same band, but after high school Lauritz went to Oslo-and Isach to Bergen to study music. In Bergen, Isach quickly became a young man who was noticed. The Grieg academy student became active in many different groups in the city's vibrant young jazz community.

Among the groups that attracted the most attention is the quartet General Post Office, a band that is described as uniting inspiration from blues to free jazz in a separate concept. Inspired by free jazz heroes such as Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler, Art Ensemble of Chicago, GPO has in common with other bands. More unusual is that forms, melodies and energy from old blues stars such as Howlin 'Wolf, Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson are placed in such a context, where they can be deconstructed on the spot when the musicians follow their own impulses.

The band was started in 2017 when Isach started at the Grieg Academy, and has played at festivals in Scotland, Estonia in addition to clubs and festivals in Norway. During this time, the musicians have developed a solid group identity with understanding and security, where the freedom to be able to turn and turn ideas and surprise both bandmates and the audience is an important element. General Post Office is a democratic quartet where it is important that everyone gets to express themselves fully and completely - most often through Skeidsvoll's compositions, which the band arranges together.

Aksel Øvereås Røed, saxophones flutes, percussion, Isach Skeidsvoll, piano, melodies, Torkil Hjelle, bass, Sigurd Steinkopf, drums.

Sax solo with Marius Neset - the wizard from Os!

The recent years, Marius Neset has emerged as Norway's leading exporter of masterful saxophones, with enormous international success, in collaboration with both compatriots and many foreign musicians and ensembles. With closed borders and other animosity, Neset suddenly found himself quite alone with his instrument.

This is one of the reasons why he made an album with a solo saxophone, which made the audience go off the rails and concert organizers throw themselves over the phone. Terje Mosnes writes about the solo album «New Dawn» that it seems as if «Neset can make the instrument do everything, possibly except vacuuming carpets, without this technical bravado getting in the way of the content of the tone story. Sometimes it seems completely unlikely that Neset can really play both bass accompaniment and light phrases simultaneously without using ordering technique ».

Mosnes concludes the review by saying that this is simply a revelation of a musical inquiry. Adrian Pallant in APReview is just as excited when he writes that Neset “solo celebrates those extraordinary (dare it be said, unique) capabilities which naturally, over time, have been developed and honed into the bewildering wonder heard across these nine self-composed tracks.It's an engaging display of melodic, rhythmic and chordal prowess »

Marius Neset has done a few festival jobs with this concept, and the reception has been almost ecstatic. We welcome him to Moldejazz, where there will probably be a rift over a corona-reduced number of seats in the hall.

Moldejazz has always lifted the local music scene, but the local music scene also lifts the festival.

Pianist Arne Torvik from Skåla has been essential in the music scene in our city but is also a name that is known on the international stage.

So far, he has two critically acclaimed records behind him with the trio consisting of bassist Bjørnar Kaldefoss Tveite and the creative drummer Øystein Aarnes Vik.

About this year's recent release "Nortwestern Songs", the Canadian magazine Textura wrote: "His playing throughout this satisfying album can neither be described as hard bop nor traditional swing. Nor is it dissonant or chaotic. "Northwestern Songs" is, simply put, anything but cool. "

There is a special warmth that flows out of Torvik's music and the trio's music. This is available piano trio jazz, with a clear lyrical vein and strong communication joy.

New Orleans music and traditional jazz have been a common thread in Moldejazz since its inception 60 years ago.

For almost 50 years, Ytre Suløens Jass Ensemble has been one of the country's most important bands in their genre. Naturally we present the band in the festival's anniversary year.

The band was started at home in Einar Aarø's living room in Langevåg in 1973. Already the following year, in 1974, they were booked for Moldejazz for the first time, which led to the first record recording made in the autumn the same year.

After Einar Aarø played his last concerts with Ytre Suløen during Moldejazz 2020, there is none of the original crew left in the band, but the band still appears just as vital. Svein Tore Anderson, son of former drummer Ottar Anderson, is now a new member whit his banjo and guitar.

Ytre Suløen is known for drawing impulses from other styles, and often material from living composers to his repertoire. This is also how it will be during this year's concert during Moldejazz. Of course, there are well-known gems from traditional gospel music, interspersed with songs from Duke Ellington's "Sacred Concerts" and music from Wynton Marsalis.

Former band member Askjell Molvær guests the concert on church organ and alto sax.

There is guaranteed to be a great atmosphere in the cathedral, and the joy of reunion between the band and the audience.

Get ready for a team completely out of the ordinary!

Frode Haltli's project "Avant Folk" is a collective of improvising soloists across generations and genres.

The project is a continuation of Haltli's work somewhere in the middle of the sacred triangle jazz, contemporary music and folk music.

Avant Folk houses a hand-picked group of creative musicians from bands such as Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, Supersilent, Musk, Völvur, Efterklang, Lilja and Poing. Here the music flows unusually freely, and no two concerts are alike.

Accordionist Frode Haltli became a world known name through his collaboration with Trygve Seim and a series of releases on ECM. Haltli has a background in contemporary music but improvises and makes music seamlessly between many imaginable and unimaginable musical expressions. He has received many awards and distinctions that it is easy to imagine that even the most solid fireplace mantel could risk succumbing to the weight alone.

Avant Folk has since its debut in February 2017 become a sought-after band and has played at festivals at home and abroad. The debut album was released on Hubro in 2018 and received rave reviews, Audun Vinger concluded in Dagens Næringsliv that this "(…) It is a knockout, on an emotional and mental level."

The sequel ‘Avant Folk II’ came out in March 2021, and the reviews were again overwhelming. Morgenbladet's reviewer wrote that “the result is (once again) striking. The music that carves its own shelf to sit on, where the old meets the new, in a whimsical, but you saw beautiful mix of genres and expressions. "

After releasing the career highlight «Patience» in the year 2020, Norway's most versatile and adaptable artist, Sondre Lerche, is now ready to meet the audience again.

And the catchy, danceable new single "King Of Letting Go", which Sondre debuted live during this year's Spellemann Award this year sets the tone for what Sondre wants to convey in the summer of 2021!

Last year, he toured Norway alone, with over 50 solo concerts, against all odds. In addition, he shared memorable concert experiences throughout the year, also from his own living room as the country closed, alone in Emanuel Vigeland Mausoleum, together with KORK in Store Studio, as well as the great performance in Patience Extravaganza, which went live from Drammens Teater just before Christmas. Lerche has spent the winter working on a new album, as well as completing the children's book "En Flue Fløy" which will be published at Cappelen in May. At the same time, he has also launched the wine Patos, a biodynamic, fresh and bright red wine, which already this spring will be accompanied by a sparkling and an orange wine in the same series.

In 2020, Sondre Lerche was named "The most important artist of the year" by Dagens Nœringsliv, and the Patience song "Why would I let you go" was named the best Norwegian song of the year by 70 Norwegian music journalists, at the same time as it is nominated as the popular musical of the year by Music publisher award. The album "Patience" was a regular on lists of Albums of the Year, and received three nominations for the Spellemann Pris, as well as the Impala European Independent Album of the Year 2020.

We look forward to a unique evening in Alexandraparken!

When Hannah Storm (22) graduated from LIMPI (Lillehammer Institute of Music Production) in 2020, she sent out demos and was quickly contacted by the Bergen-based management Made, where she is now signed.

Hannah is from Oslo but lives in Bergen where she has worked with several producers and songwriters in recent months. From Vetle Junker (Space, iris), Matias Tellez (Young Dreams, Girl In Red) & Sondre Lerche to Odd Martin Skålnes (AURORA, Sigrid). These collaborations have resulted in a magical bouquet of songs and the first will be released in the autumn of 2021. Hannah is inspired by artists such as Amy Winehouse, Susanne Sundfør and Adele, Frank Sinatra and The Beatles.

A funky red-hot energy bomb!

Red Hot is still Romsdalen's undisputed most energic and funky band, and this year they return to Alexandraparken.

The 11-man band Red Hot with star vocalist Knut Marius Djupvik in front, has for a number of years turned the temperature in Alexandraparken a few notches above the boiling point with their amazing concerts. Who can resist a waterproof comp, a dynamic and explosive string of blows topped by a one of a kind vocalist?

The group, with roots back to Molde Videregående Skole, always delivers the goods and serves perfectly grilled R&B, rockabilly and funk that really tastes of the good life.

Magnus Malmedal Drågen, Pål Gunnar Fiksdal, Runar Fiksdal, Lars Petter Bjerkeset, Knut Marius Djupvik, Jørn Inge Frostad, Øystein Flemmen, Chriss Rune Olsen Angvik, Haakon-Marius Pettersen, Marius Simonsen, Eivind Fossland.