[TR24][OF] Ketil Bjornstad - La Notte - 2013 (ECM, Post-Bop)

Described as “a cultural prodigy” by The Guardian’s John Fordham, Ketil Bjørnstad studied piano in Oslo, London and Paris, and was set for a career in classical music before exposure to jazz changed his priorities. Although he did not come to ECM until 1993 with “Water Stories” he was involved with the label’s musicians from the early 1970s; his 1973 debut album featuring Arild Andersen and Jon Christensen as rhythm section. From the outset he was also active as journalist and author. From 1972-1998, he was music and literature critic for Norwegian daily newspaper Aftenposten. He published his first book of poems in 1972 and his first novel in 1974. Many books have followed since then and translations have appeared in Danish, Swedish, German, Dutch, Finnish, English, French, Czech, Polish, Korean, Russian, Bengali, Greek and Turkish.

Commissioned by the Molde International Jazz Festival and recorded live at the Norwegian festival in 2010, “La notte” is a salute to Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni, whom Ketil Bjørnstad counts amongst his formative influences. “At the same time that I discovered what jazz could be, after listening to Miles Davis’ In A Silent Way, I also saw the films by Godard, Bresson and Antonioni. Perhaps it was the slow, rhythmic authority in the films by Michelangelo Antonioni that made me think of music... As long as visual art creates music in our minds, and music creates pictures and visual expressions with the same intensity, the two are deeply and profoundly interdependent”. This album, then, can be considered “the soundtrack to an inner film”, in which Antonioni’s images and atmospheres are translated and transformed through personal moods and memories. For the Molde concert, Bjørnstad convened a special Norwegian-Danish-German-British band of musicians, old and new friends closely associated with ECM. The concert was rapturously received by the media, and described as an “absolutely stunning performance” by All About Jazz.

Andy Sheppard - tenor and soprano saxophones
Anja Lechner - violoncello
Eivind Aarset - guitars, electronics
Arild Andersen - double bass
Marilyn Mazur - percussion and drums
Ketil Bjørnstad - piano