Kjølvatn Nils Økland Band

• 1 Mali 04:06
• 2 Undergrunn 06:19
• 3 Drev 04:21
• 4 Kjølvatn 05:17
• 5 Puls 08:17
• 6 Fivreld 05:14
• 7 Start 03:06
• 8 Skugge 03:47
• 9 Blå harding 04:48
• 10 Amstel 04:07
• Total Runtime 49:22

Info for Kjølvatn

Hard on the heels of his critically-lauded - and distortion-saturated - collaboration with rock players in ‘lumen drones’ comes the next fine album from norway’s hardanger fiddle master.

The idiosyncratic Norwegian musician Nils Økland (fiddle / violin / viola d'amore) has had a diverse career. On this sixth album 'Kjølvatn' he has put together a brand new band consisting of some of the leading musicians in Norway: Rolf-Erik Nystrom (saxophone), Sigbjørn Apeland (harmonium), Håkon Mørch Stene (percussion), Mats Eilertsen (double bass).

Økland has played as a solist with several major orchestras, written music for London Sinfonietta, film, ballet and theater and played on records with Christian Wallumrød, Arve Henriksen, Åsne Valland Nordli and Bjørnar Andresen, to mention a few. He has previously published solo album 'Monograph' and the duo 'Lysøen' along with Sigbjørn Apeland on ECM. Before this he released the albums 'Bris' and 'Straum' on Rune Grammofon and the self published debut 'Blå Harding'. Nils plays in rock trio Lumen Drones (ECM), who released a critically acclaimed debut album last October and in the improvisation band 1982. Both as a performer and composer he has built bridges between folk, Jazz and improvised music.

Økland himself describes the music on 'Kjølvatn' this way: 'In my work as a professional violinist in the last 30 years, I have moved between a wide wide range of genres from classical violin to Balkan folk, rock and punk, jazz and free improvisation, to Norwegian folk music. I've always composed my own material inspired by all these expressions; a hybrid between folk music poetry and punk energy. In early baroque music - another musical style I let myself be inspired by - it was common to have sketches as the basis for making music. In this band we work with methods that are inspired by this.'

Nils Økland, viola d'amore, hardanger fiddle, violin
Rolf-Erik Nylstrøm, saxophone
Sigbjørn Apeland, harmonium
Håkon Mørch Stene, percussion, vibraphone
Mats Eilertsen, double bass

Nils Økland
is a renowned master of Norway’s national instrument the Hardanger fiddle. However, his musical outlook is far wider than just traditional music and his contributions diverse. Both as an instrumentalist and as a composer he interlaces elements of classical and contemporary music as well as jazz with traditional Norwegian expressions, finding common traits and not least common expressive mindsets across genres and time periods. Økland belongs to the category of musicians who have come to represent an individual sound and a musical sensibility that is completely their own.

Nils Økland er en av Norges fremste felespillere, en fornyer av tradisjonell folkemusikk, også kjent for å bygge broer til klassisk og moderne musikk. Nils Økland komponerer det meste av musikken selv, fra vakre melodiske ballader og atmosfæriske eksperimenter, til de mørkere lydbilder.

“Lysøen: Homage à Ole Bull”, the brand-new album by Norwegian violinist and Hardanger fiddler Nils Økland and countryman Sigbjørn Apeland (piano, harmonium) is off to a flying start with a major review in Germany’s leading weekly Die Zeit, where writer Volker Hagedorn praises the duo’s sensitive tribute to Norway’s iconic violinist-composer, Ole Bull (1810-1880). Økland and Apeland are the first musicians to have recorded at Bull’s home on the island of Lysøen. Nils uses, amongst other instruments, Bull’s old Guarneri; Sigbjørn employs, among other keyboards, the harmonium once played by Bull’s young American wife, as the old violinist lay dying in the music room of his villa.

“Once, someone was happy here. Anyone who hears these pieces understands that there can be no happiness untouched by melancholy. As Franz Liszt said about Bull, ‘His playing moved me. It’s a long time since that last happened.’” ECM.

Booklet for Kjølvatn