Rymden + KORK CD

Since forming in 2018 RYMDEN has established itself as one of the leading piano trios to ever emerge
from the Nordic Jazz scene. All three members bring with them long-confirmed and lauded histories
as innovators in jazz: Berglund and Öström via the Esbjörn Svensson Trio and their own projects
(Tonbruket and Magnus Öström Group respectively); Wesseltoft via his New Conception of Jazz and
other projects. Now, after several albums and many concerts, they meet KORK, an orchestra capable
of responding to the trifold creative power that RYMDEN vigorously generates. KORK, for over threequarters
of a century has followed its own musical curiosity across genres, from "standard"
orchestral repertoire, both classical and contemporary, to jazz, rock, and pop. Through close
association with NRK, KORK has been heard across the world through its participation in the annual
Nobel Peace Prize concert and the Eurovision Song Contests in 1986 and 1996.
The combination of RYMDEN and KORK brings even greater contrast to music that already had its fair
share of light and shade and brings a broader textural palette that enriches and defamiliarizes the
compositions. These new arrangements expand on their source material, creating a different musical
world without sacrifice of its original spirit. The compositions, already filled with drama or meditative
passages, menace or light-hearted humour, rhythmic drive or fragmentary expression, are repainted,
sometimes with the lightest of nuanced touches, other times with densely layered maximalism.
Where the collaboration of RYMDEN and KORK may have been unexpected for some, the perfect
alignment of the results suggest that it was inevitable.
Recorded at NRK Store Studio, Oslo, February 11th 2022.