Biography

Nils Petter Molvær (born September 18 1960 in Sula, Norway) is a Norwegian trumpet player, composer and producer, who connects multiple music styles - jazz, ambient, house, electronic and break beats, as well as elements from hip hop, rock and pop music - and melts them into convincing soundscapes of deep intensity. Often eclectic, Molvær’s style is similar to avant-garde trumpeter Toshinori Kondo. His interest in both acoustic and electric music shows the ease with which he handles the conventions of pop, rock and funk, alongside those of modern jazz.

Molvær completed his debut album as a leader in 1997, Khmer, which focuses on a previously unknown blend of improvisation and hypnotically spinning beats, receiving extraordinary public and media response, and was honoured with the German Record Critics Award and a Norwegian Grammy.

The follow-up to Khmer, released in May 2000 entitled Solid Ether, intensified Molvær’s dialogue with club culture. The idea behind the Solid Ether concept is that a piece of music is never really finished and that composing and producing are an ever-evolving process. “‘Ether’ does not exist, so how can it be solid? It’s a paradox - like life”.

Molvær’s album NP3, released in 2002, sees him continuing the concepts that were developed through Khmer and Solid Ether by putting significant differing elements together to combine contrasting structures. A strong presence on NP3 is Molvær’s soulful and creative use of new music manufacturing technology.

Molvær’s latest studio album (2005) is named er. The record contains a wide spectre of music expressions from the soft and downbeat productions to the strong and powerful ones. Molvær has taken a new direction with er even if the soundscapes will be recognised from his previous releases. This time he has given more creative space to programmers like Knut Sævik, DJ Strangefruit, Reidar Skaar and Jan Bang.

Official website:

http://www.nilspettermolvaer.info/

Discography:

With Masqualero:
1985 - Bande À Part
1987 - Aero
1990 - Re-Enter

Solo:
1998 - Khmer
2000 - Solid Ether
2001 - Recoloured: The Remix Album (remixes)
2002 - NP3
2004 - Streamer (live)
2005 - Remakes (remixes)
2005 - er
2005 - Edy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Other/Guest:
1990 - So I Write (Sidsel Endresen)
1990 - Nonsentration (Jon Balke)
1993 - Exile (Sidsel Endresen)
1994 - Small Labyrinths (Marilyn Mazur)
1995 - Hastening Westward (Robyn Schulkowsky & Nils Petter Molvær)
2003 - Electra (Arild Andersen)
2007 - Ataraxis (Deeyah)