Frode Haltli "Avant Folk"

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. "