Maridalen [Audio CD]

The name Maridalen comes from the scenic valley that lies just north of Oslo city center. The trio's eponymous debut was recorded in the wooden Maridalen church, just a short distance from the old stone ruins of St Margaretakirken and the shores of Maridalsvannet. All original material, it will be released on Jazzland Recordings in March 2021. What initially started as an opportunity to practice together gradually evolved into the Maridalen project. The three members found their tone in the warm harmony of double bass, trumpet and woodwind, completely without chordal instruments. In addition, they also discovered a common predilection for Swedish jazz, minimalist film music and French Impressionism. From there, the trio has developed their own musical space that both captures different mood moments and creates small stories. The music is original and moves between different genres through an intimate and acoustic soundscape, a melodic and sonorous focus. Together they see the beauty in the patinated and unpolished, where the creaking of the wood and the clinking of old metal become part of the expression. It was therefore only natural that their first album was recorded in an old wooden church. The album contains ten compositions where the listener is taken into different moods; from the melancholy of a possible rainy day, to the silence of a night suddenly broken by a passing subway car. In some places, the trio has included new sound elements, such as in the song "Urverket" where the sound has been processed through an old Tandberg tape recorder from the 50's. The moods in each song are led by melodies that are told and processed through collective improvisation and sonic exploration.