{"id":11228,"date":"2025-09-04T22:30:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T03:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=11228"},"modified":"2025-09-04T22:30:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T03:30:05","slug":"khmer-bergen-petter-molvaer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/khmer-bergen-petter-molvaer\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Deep Space: A Conversation with Nils Petter Molv\u00e6r"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Although instruments like the Teleharmonium plugged in as early as the late Nineteenth Century, it was not until the 1970s that electronic sounds would meet the depths of human improvisation-based music by the name of jazz. At the height of fusion, synthesizers added to the works of Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Weather Report, and others. But, even here, new technology primarily provided additional colors to add to otherwise complex surroundings. It would not be for another two decades that jazz and electronic music would truly form a cohesive whole in the form of \u201cjazztronica.\u201d Also called \u201cnu jazz\u201d or \u201cfuture jazz,\u201d the nascent style of the 1990s came out of Europe as a fully realized form that took the beats, loops, and samples of electronic music and married them with improvisational prowess. Of this school of artists, two -both Norwegian- stood out for their skills in maintaining the free ethos of jazz while embracing new technological developments: Bugge Wesseltoft and Nils Petter Molv\u00e6r. The latter\u2019s debut recording, Khmer<\/em> (ECM, 1997), is particularly noted as a seminal work in the area. Given this status, any revisitation of the work by the trumpeter, as on KHMER (Live in Bergen)<\/em> (Edition, 2025), his first live album in twenty years, is worth a listen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Captured at a 2023 concert in Norway\u2019s second most populous city, Live in Bergen<\/em> is in some ways a continuation of Petter Molv\u00e6r\u2019s original Khmer<\/em>. The songs and instrumentation –  the leader\u2019s horn with a bass, two percussionists, and sampling – of both records are largely the same. Two musicians – guitarist Eivind Aarset and drummer Rune Arnesen – even join Petter Molv\u00e6r on both outings. Perhaps partly due to the shared instrumentation, both records also mine similar terrain at times. Both make judicious use of silence and heavy beats to propel the ensemble forward. The leader\u2019s icily haunting trumpet remains. Hues of the record that broke new ground in an era of dial-up internet and pagers still sound wildly modern – futuristic, even. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it would be a mistake to call Live in Bergen<\/em> an attempt at recapturing old glory. Just as he was back in the 1990s, Petter Molv\u00e6r has spent the last two and a half decades keeping his eye towards the future and new ways of creating music. Those experiences invariably emerge in the Bergen performance, often giving a more dramatic rendition of songs than they were originally conceived. Throughout, Live in Bergen<\/em> creates soundscapes richer and more developed than anything conceived on the original Khmer. It is essentially a soundtrack for navigators as they discover new lands.  The opening \u201cSong of Sand\u201d throws the listener into an arid desert with the low dub-influenced bass and manipulated trumpet evoking a band of camels crossing through the barren terrain and encountering unpredictable dust clouds – formed by Aarset\u2019s treacherous electric guitar – as they endure onward. The wild whirls at the beginning of \u201cSolid Ether\u201d give way to Audun Erlien\u2019s funky otherworldly bassline over which trumpet gently glides. Across it all, there is a vibrancy and energy not easily replicable in a studio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even with some of the same artists, same approaches, and same songs, Live in Bergen<\/em> is a record wholly unto its own that shows that even decades after Petter Molv\u00e6r\u2019s Khmer<\/em> broke new ground, he continues to expand the possibilities of where improvisation and electronics collide. We sat down with Nils Petter Molv\u00e6r to discuss the origins of the original Khmer<\/em> and how they led to the most recent incarnation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PostGenre: Going back, how did the original Khmer<\/em> come together? You had ideas for the album as far back as the late 1980s, correct?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Nils Petter Molv\u00e6r: Yeah, some of the themes and things I played with on the record I had previously worked on in a band called Masqualero. After that band, I played with some rock bands and improvised with DJs in clubs. But all of these things ended, and I wanted to make an album on my own. I decided that I wanted make something that organically integrated the things that I liked and have been doing musically into one expression. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>