VILNIUS MAMA JAZZ 2025 | Eivind Aarset Group (NO)

EIVIND AARSET GROUP (NO)

Eivind Aarset – g
Audun Erlien – b
Wetle Holte – dr, perc
Erland Dahlen – dr, perc
Sven Persson – sound 

One of the most interesting representatives of so-called Nordic jazz, Eivind Aarset, from Norway, returns to Vilnius Mama Jazz after 15 years. The musician, who keeps expanding sonic spectrum of the guitar, is renowned for his riveting musical textures and daring escapades. This time he and his band will present their latest album Phantasmagoria, or A Different Kind of Journey, and some unreleased compositions.

Aarset is technically capable of producing soaring guitar pyrotechnics in order to squeeze as many notes in a few seconds as possible. He is also wise enough not to flaunt it. His weapon is non-standard compositions, focus on melody, rhythm and improvisation. Perhaps that is why, in the context of the computer game Guitar Hero, this musician is sometimes called the guitar anti-hero.

Aarset’s performance at the Vilnius Mama Jazz festival back in 2010 impressed the audience in Lithuania. His live performance was praised for its hypnotic energy and genre-bending fusion of jazz, ambient and electronic music. Critics and fans alike described it as a transcendental experience, where time seemed to dissolve into a wall of echoes, subtle loops and guitar waves.

During the past 15 years, Aarset has delved deeper into changing soundscapes and has recorded twenty albums with various musicians. Since the release of his groundbreaking solo debut album Électronique Noire in 1998, described by The New York Times as “One of the best post-Miles electric jazz albums”, Aarset has explored new jazz territories, collaborating with such Nordic scene pioneers as Nils Petter Molvær, Bugge Wesseltoft, Jan Bang and Vladislav Delay.

Aarset first picked up a guitar at the age of 12, when he heard a Jimi Hendrix record.

The teenage boy dived into rock music making his neighbours shudder at the loud sounds of Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, before his brother introduced him to the music of Miles Davis, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report and Return to Forever.

Soon, Aarset became known as one of Norway’s most in-demand guitarists, working with the stars of all music styles. If you wanted to buy all albums where Eivind has appeared, you would have to part with a lot of money as there are over 300 of them.

Aarset has also collaborated with other prominent artists, including Django Bates, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Bill Laswell, Jan Garbarek, Lars Danielsson, Mari Boine, Marilyn Mazur, and Sidsel Endresen. His instrument features in the solo work by Morten Harket, lead singer of A-ha, on the albums of Ray Charles, Cher, and the British pop stars S Club 7.

Each Aarset’s solo album (eight of them so far) is a marvel to behold. The guitarist explores ever broader soundscapes from drum'n'bass to ambient.

“His music moves from a whisper to a roar in a matter of seconds. He is a guitarist with a unique musical vision, his music features changing atmospheres and has been influenced by electronic music. Eivind experiments in a wide range of different expressive moods – from quiet intimacy to searing intensity,” music critics wrote.

Jazz professionals, who find it difficult to pigeonhole Eivind’s music, agree that his creative work is like an empty field in which the musician chooses any direction he fancies without even trying to guess where it will take him.

The guitarist with such a veneer of calm, who by his mere touching the strings hypnotises, offers a musical journey which is far from any everyday experience. Phantasmagoria, or A Different Kind of Journey, released in 2021, is Aarset’s latest solo album, also featuring Wetle Holte, Erland Dahlen and Audun Erlien. The album is no departure in terms of its compositional quality, as it remains gold standard. This album features more traditional guitar sounds and techniques than can be found on almost all of his previous albums taken together, while still incorporating his signature tonal manipulations that render the guitar sound into almost unrecognizable forms. The album traverses the full gamut of the instrument’s tonal possibilities, from Joe Pass tones to ambient textural soundbeds, from blistering shredding to controlled noise.

This album delivers a multifaceted experience: it is a soundtrack to an inner journey of remembered or imaginary landscapes and spaces; a travelogue of musical styles, sounds and eras; a simulacrum of the live touring experience. This album, perhaps more than any of his previous releases, is one that proudly and confidently wears Aarset's influences on its sleeve – a bold move, but one that serves to underline how he is infinitely more than the sum of those influences.

Aarset’s return to the Vilnius Mama Jazz festival offers an encounter with a musician whose work has shaped the sound of contemporary jazz. Whether you are a long-time fan or discovering his music for the first time, the concert of Eivind Aarset Group promises a “phantasmagorical” journey to the fringes and margins of the guitar sound, where you will also have the opportunity to hear their latest, unreleased creative work.

Portale AllEvents visada galite nusipirkti bilietai į renginiai Vilniuje, Kaune, Klaipėda, Palanga, Šiauliai ir visoje Lietuvoje: Festivaliai VILNIUS MAMA JAZZ 2025 | Eivind Aarset Group (NO), Vilnius, Lietuvos nacionalinis dramos teatras Gegužė 23

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