What began in 2010 as a commission for the Norwegian National Opera, a rhythmic score by drummer and composer Thomas Strønen, completed in collaboration with pianist and composer Maria Kannegaard, has, more than a decade later, crystallised into something unexpected.
The original work lay dormant for years, until Maria and Thomas, almost by accident, heard the recordings again. What followed was not nostalgia but transformation: new sessions, new guests, new textures. Producer Håkon Brunborg brought both craft and instruments; Tuva Syvertsen and Kristin Maagerø Johannesenlent their voices. The music was given back its pulse, and given more besides.
The resulting album, Time to Crystallize, refuses containment. It is at once kinetic and spacious: hypnotic rhythms entwined with melodic synthscapes, sudden islands of calm surfacing in turbulent waters. This is music that insists on movement: feet stirred, ears unsettled, a resting pulse that never quite rests.
For Strønen and Kannegaard, this is no casual partnership. Since their days at Trondheim’s Jazz Program, they have known each other musically inside out, alternately collaborators and critical mirrors. Their combined range extends from contemporary composition to improvisation, pop, and electronics. With Time to Crystallize, they unveil a dimension of that shared language which has, until now, remained unseen.
Call it art-pop, call it new wave, call it radiant groove. Whatever the label, the album is a world of sound that opens its door onto unfamiliar rooms, rooms lit by the rare interplay of two musicians whose dialogue runs deeper than genre.

Jazzland Recordings is proud to present Maria Kannegaard trio "Live at Dokkhuset", recorded on May 9th 2020 at the Trondheim Jazzfestival.

"Synergy" is a word often applied to musical groups of all kinds, but rarely is it more applicable than to the Maria Kannegaard trio. From the opening improvisation, "Dokking", the concept that three individuals - and three distinctive and highly talented individuals, no less - can operate as a single organism is firmly cemented, and all the listener need do is listen - no need for analysis, theories or any form of recalibration: the music brings you into its world, and it is warm and welcoming.

Three quarters of this recording are made up of performances of tracks from the award-winning "Sand i en vik" - "Min Ingen", "Bortimot" and "Dere" - and each is familiar, yet changed. A touch more swing here, a dash of abstraction there; a hint more urgency and drive, or a newfound minimalism and meditative reflection; evolution, growth, change.

Anyone familiar with Maria's work, and the trio's work in particular, is already aware that perfect balance is the order or the day: neither excessive nor lacking, the music emerges exactly as it needs to be: silences are as perfectly measured as the moments where the playing reaches a crescendo of near-critical mass. Throughout, Maria's playing remains expressive, poignant, graceful and wise, while Ole Morten Vågan's bass playing creates statements and counterstatements that harmoniously resonate with it. Thomas Strønen's drumming becomes a living demonstration of the possibilities that lie within a drumkit, seamlessly moving between expressive textures, driving rhythms, controlled chaos, and governed by a clarity of artistic purpose.

No note is wasted, no silence squandered: somehow, the art of perfect moderation creates more than we could ever hope for.

Maria Kannegaard presents "Sand i en vik", a rapid follow-up to the album "Nådeslås". Where that latter album was an experimental and expressive affair, the former sees her return to more familiar musical pastures, although with a different viewpoint and attitude. Kannegaard's piano playing remains immaculate, never cluttered or wasteful, always conveying the right mood or emotion, the perfectly balanced response to both the composition and the development of it.

The album opening - "1-2-3" - literally crashes in, and then we are met by strong melody, quick-change artistry in time and tempo, extended playing techniques, expressionistic soloing, complex minimalism (but not minimal complexity) and a full array of compositional trickery and sleights of hand across the album's 13 tracks. The other two thirds of her trio, Ole Morten Vågan and Thomas Stronen operate as though sharing a single mind. They are capable of casual looseness or tense inch-perfect interplay, each laden with an armory of techniques they sparingly pepper their playing with, often fulfilling the listener's expectations, but just as frequently defying them with unexpected but always welcome results.

The compositions carry their own moods and unique characteristics, their own internal tensions, sometimes haunting, sometimes exuberant, sometimes seeming stretched to a breaking point. Plantive ballads sit alongside riff-driven stompers, moments of abstract expressionism interweave with stop-start angular motifs, unexpected harmonizations, and moments that seem to be formless before revealing themselves to be details within a larger, clearer picture.

Frequently sounding like much more than a trio, the album is mixed and mastered by the award-winning Stefano Amerio at Artesuono recording studios.

Maria Kannegaard's musical personality has always been multifaceted, catching and reflecting the light, even through shadows. "Sand i en vik" is the work of an artist who has taken difficulty and adversity and transmuted it into lavish creativity.

Maria Kannegaard releases her first album in 6 years, "Nådeslås" is the title of this vinyl.

The music was written and recorded in a difficult period in Maria's life and tells of her struggle with life while maintaining this musical process.

Maria: "During this time I bought many different instruments from around the world and formed an orchestra where I myself was the orchestra. When I played, I moved into new musical landscapes with a different character than before. This is music from the inside and out of how I felt it was to be there every now and then. I usually started with a musical idea, and then I developed it further using various instrument combinations. Music is, and also more especially during this period, essential to me. "Nådeslås" is a personal musical imprint of a time that fortunately is over, but it is very important to me that I created this music".

Maria Kannegaard is one of the most musical people I know. She has an indomitable belief in love as energy through music. Maria is now working with her amazing trio again. The band performed newly written music with great success at Trondheim Jazzfest recently. It's joyful!

Bugge Wesseltoft

Maria Kannegaard returns to Jazzland with a brand new double live album! Two separate concerts recorded 2 years apart with two different line-ups that expand her usual trio format, the result is a perfect diptych that shows Kannegaard's compositional skills are on a permanent upward trajectory.

"Tomorrow and The Porch" is the title of the first set, recorded at the Kongsberg Jazz Festival in July, 2011, and features vocalist Siri Gjære (who also provided the lyrics) in perfect form. Kannegaard's standard rhythm section of Ole Morten Vågan (Bass) and Thomas Strönen (Drums) is given additional expansion to include Jazzland regular Ola Kvernberg (violin), and the resulting sound is something utterly different from anything Kannegaard has released before. Where her previous albums for Jazzland ("Quiet Joy" and "Camel Walk") hinted at a composer who was clearly more than capable of creating arrangements with song-like qualities, here we are given irrefutable proof that she has a well-defined and important contribution to make to songwriting. At the same time, her penchant for mixing generic tropes in new ways remains joyfully intact, her further use of electronics adds greater textural colouring, and the structural and textural variations - as well as the improvisational passages - come to the fore at just the right moments.

The second set, entitled "Før eller siden er det nå" was recorded at the Trondheim Jazz Festival in May, 2013. This set further develops the musical explorations found on "Tomorrow and The Porch", refining some, expanding most, and venturing into new territory. The Kongsberg line-up is also expanded to include Per Jørgensen (Trumpet, vocals, and percussion) and Ståle Storløkken (Synthesizer). This set is an abstract journey of a kind, riddled with both earthly and cosmic qualities. Moments of naïve or childlike piano leap into complex textural explorations, post-minimalist rhythmic mazes are woven like Belle Époque radio towers, erratic whimsical moments launch into headlong dives towards unexpectedly serene landings. Melodies come and go like beloved guests, each treated with warmth in what would be – in lesser hands – a hostile environment. Kannegaard and her ensemble show exactly what taste and refinement, in musical terms, actually means.

Camel Walk (Jazzland, 2008) is pianist Maria Kannegaard's third album, recorded as a trio together with Ole Morten Vågan on contra bass, and Thomas Strønen on drums. After her initial releases of 2000s "Breaking the Surface" (Act), and her second studio album of 2005, "Quiet Joy" (Jazzland), we are again warmly welcomed into Kannegaard's exquisite style.

Consisting of ten songs composed by Kannegaard, we are taken on something of a musical journey. "Drifting Down the Nile" opens the album, followed by the irking "Haunted". You may notice that this time, Kannegaard's usually developed soloing is on this album is placed within the context of a collective sound. We pause briefly to reflect over "A Cup of Coffee and Some Danish Pastries" before we embark on the title track, "Camel Walk". You may also notice the cross-cultural pollination of jazz, singer/songwriter style, avant garde and indie rock flavorings. Further on, we are introduced to Kannegaard's impeccable technique and expressiveness, as well as through "Sliding Doors", "Traveling Pass" and finally, "We Interrupt for a Short Commercial". It is the welcoming tone of the album overall which places it firmly in one of the most intriguing chamber jazz recordings of the year.

We can hear touches of Kannegaard's influences, such as the music of Keith Jarret and Bill Evans in her improvisational skills, and in the disjointed melodic structures of Geri Allen and Herbie Nichols, two composers and performers very near to her heart. However, it is her own style that breaks through, and fused with Thomas Strønen's always perceptive percussion and Ole Morten Vågan's artfully syncopated bass, it all comes together as an organic whole, a true hallmark of Norwegian jazz.

The piano trio never sounded so modern, yet respectfully pays tribute to the traditions of the past, however enveloping them in Kannegaard's forward-looking style. Produced by the trio themselves, Camel Walk places them firmly in a new direction, more immediate and powerful, and marks Maria Kannegaard as a vibrant force within the jazz arena.