Victoria Nasjonal Jazzscene, 6/09/19, Oslo, Norway
I discovered Megalodon Collective thanks to Victoria, actually. One time when I was on my shift, I was going through the shelf with a bunch of CDs that volunteers can dig into and take home if they want to. That night I found a CD with an intriguing title: “Jazz from Norway”. That’s how I became an owner of a pack with 3 CDs filled with Norwegian jazz artists – ones that I already knew and admired, but also a lot of new names. Among discoveries there was Megalodon Collective with a track called “Animals”.
That night at Victoria they have presented a lot of pieces from their latest album “The Triumph” released in may 2019, but also some new material. The music is like a fresh whiff from Scandinavia – very open and slowly building tension, but keeping the balance between the improvisation and compositions. If you thought that the scene may be too small for three saxophonists and two drummers at the same time, you couldn’t be more wrong. It’s actually quite the opposite – the performance was well structured, with a pinch of exciting free jazz parts, disturbing tones, and melodic guitar edging on the top.
When drummer, Henrik Lødøen, was presenting another song in his outstanding Norwegian dialect, a man shouted from the audience: –Are you from Sunnmøre*? –Are you? – he asked back. –No. – replied the man. Well, this short conversation shows how important dialects are in Norway.
You still have a chance to catch them playing in Norway this year in November.
*Sunnmøre is the southernmost district of the western Norwegian county of Møre og Romsdal.
Norsk
Jeg har oppdaget Megalodon Collective takket være Victoria. En gang, da jeg var på en lang kveldsvakt, gikk jeg gjennom en haug med CD-er som frivillige kan ta med hjem. Denne kvelden fant jeg en CD med en spennende tittel: “Jazz from Norway”. Slik ble jeg eier av ei pakke med 3 cd-er fylt med norske jazzartister, både de som jeg allerede kjente og beundret, men også flere nye navn. Blant annet Megalodon Collective med “Animals”.
På Victoria har de presentert materiale fra deres siste album “The Triumph” utgitt i mai 2019, men også noen nye låter. Musikken kan sammenlignes med en frisk vindpust fra Skandinavia – veldig åpen og samtidig som det bygger spenningen langsomt, men holder balansen mellom det komponerte og det improviserte. Hvis du trodde at scenen kan være for liten for tre saksofonister og to trommeslagere samtidig – ikke fortvil! Det er faktisk helt motsatt – forestillingen var godt strukturert, med en klype spennende frijazz-deler, forstyrrende toner og melodisk gitarfinpuss på toppen.
Da trommeslager, Henrik Lødøen, presenterte en sang på sin enestående dialekt, ropte en mann fra publikum: -Er du fra Sunnmøre?, -Er det ikkje du? – spurte trommeslageren. -Nei. – svarte mannen.
Vel, denne korte samtalen viser hvor viktige dialekter er i Norge.
Du får anledning til å se Megalodon Collective live enda i 2019 i Norge.
Martin Myhre Olsen – saxophone, Karl Hjalmar Nyberg – saxophone, Petter Kraft – saxophone, Karl Haugland Bjorå – guitar, Aaron Mandelmann – bass, Andreas Skår Winther – drums, Henrik Lødøen – drums
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