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About Oddgeir Berg Trio

Electroacoustic jazz with one leg in melancholy and the other in ecstasy

Jazz trios named after the piano player give certain expecations, be it Horace Silver and his tender "Que Pasa" or Esbjørn Svensson and his Northern sounds, clarity and intimacy are common to these, with a hint of tonal melancholy. 

These characteristics also present with Oddgeir Berg Trio, who are clearly familiar with a Scandinavian jazz tradition. Tunes such as "The Mermaid’s Dance" and "Springeren" summon images of bonfires by the sea lit to herald the summer solstice, and the inevitable turn of the season when Autumn arrives and buries its roots and turns with fine melodic lines into the silence of winter. 

Before Dawn: 

 The trio has some other tricks up its sleeve though, most importantly an urgency for action, pace and adventure, best heard in "A.C.M" and  "Slogro" with their rhythmic relocations and aggressive radiance.  Here the Oslo based trio has more in common with Miles Davis’ Jack Johnson than Scandinavia’s Jan Johannson. The Jimi Hendrix rock sound of the doublebass and the propulsive drum sound energetically support Berg’s playing. Berg’s curiosity in experimenting with Wurlitzer\Rhodes and synthesizer sounds sneaks into the soundscape and lends a distinctive colour to the sound panorama. 

Piano/keys / Oddgeir Berg
Doublebass /
Karl-Joakim Wisløff
Drums / Lars Berntsen

 

Live @ Alexanderplatz, Roma, Italy

 
 
 
 

“Before Dawn said this is a group to keep an ear on. In The End Of The Night says this is a piano trio to get truly excited about, a trio for the new millennium.”

-Dan McClenaghan, ALL ABOUT JAZZ

Tour dates

 
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Christmas with OBT

 
 

Christmas Came Early

This may not be the weirdest Christmas album ever recorded – but it most certainly ranks among the most radical ones.

You'll find renditions of popular favourites like “Silent Night”, and ”In Dulce Jubilo”here. But the Oddgeir Berg Trio are performing them with such passionate reticence that they at times sound like bands like Bohren & Der Club of Gore – Christmas does seem to be a bit darker in Norway.

The production creates the sonic twilight zone between night and day that they've by now established as their trademark. Which turns this into more than a collection of carrols: Christmas came early is like a little present you give yourself – no matter the season or occasion.


Review, Jazz THing

Gleich mit den ersten Tönen zieht einen das Oddgeir Berg Trio, ob man will oder nicht, in eine seltsam unwirkliche Atmosphäre, die in der Weihnachtszeit, die man ja nicht zu Unrecht die stillen Tage nennt, allgegenwärtig ist. Das liegt vor allem am langsamen Tempo, mit dem der norwegische Pianist und seine Mitstreiter Karl-Joakim Wisløff am Bass und Lars Berntsen am Schlagzeug diverse Weihnachtsklassiker geradezu zelebriert. So dehnt sich „Es ist ein Ros entsprungen“ auf acht Minuten aus, „In Dulci Jubilo“ wird mit sechs Minuten auch nicht viel kürzer. Bergs Anschlag ist delikat, Wisløffs Bass knorrig und Berntsen raschelt vornehmlich mit den Besen. Alle drei versenken sich in einen ästhetisch klaren Klang, für dessen klare Mischung Berg selbst verantwortlich zeichnet. Ein Weihnachtsalbum ohne Schnickschnack und ohne Kitsch, das seinesgleichen sucht.

Text Rolf Thomas, Jazz thing 141


Review, All about jazz

The late Paul Bley (1932-2016) once said of his ECM Records release Open, To Love (1972), that the sound he created there was his attempt to prove he was the slowest pianist in the world. He was a man with a sense of humor, and his tongue had surely wormed its way into his cheek with that observation. And the mention of Bley in a review of an Oddgeir Berg Trio album comes about for a couple of reasons. One: if jazz has an evolutionary tree, Oddgeir Berg's style of piano playing could be considered a branch off of Bley's. Both artists are known for their patient deliveries and subtle touches, and their molding of circuitous melodies from strings of notes that play out in unconventionally melodic ways. And two: both have a way of slowing time, like they are playing piano in a dimension that, as Bob Dylan once said, "Time Passes Slowly."

Or maybe Bley, and now the Oddgeir Berg Trio, simply enjoyed/enjoy the art of the slow tempo.

Which brings us to Christmas Came Early, the Norwegian trio's 2021 Holiday album and self-proclaimed "Slowest Christmas Album in the World."

Traditional Christmas songs arranged by Oddgeir Berg—some familiar ("It Came Upon A Christmas Clear," "O Come All Ye Faithful,") and others more obscure—are presented with a "passionate resonance," a syrupy-slow, determined marination in a doldrums-like world of sound. And though there is some of the Paul Bley-ish tongue in cheek humor with the CD's online pitch on the Oddgeir Berg Trio website, and the album's family Christmas-like photos---the three players grinning like your oddball uncles (who may have had a drink or two) in their Sunday bests in front of a fireplace encasing crackling flames—the music is top notch, every bit as accomplished, gorgeous, nuanced and understated as the sounds heard on their excellent previous albums, Before Dawn (2018) and In The End Of The Night (2019), both on Ozella Music.

Text Dan McClanaghan, All About Jazz

Booking or contact

 
 
 

Discography

 
 

Before Dawn (2018)

In the end of the night (2019)

Christmas came early (2021)