KARL SEGLEM – Ei aning grønt (a sense of green)

Er wird als „Nationaler Musikschatz“ bezeichnet. Inspiriert von Menschen, Leben und Natur in Skandinavien schafft er einzigartige Klanglandschaften, und sein neues Album ‚EI ANING GRØNT‘ (A Sense of Green) ist eine Sammlung neuer Aufnahmen, die im Zeitraum von 2017 bis 2022 entstanden sind. Besonders wichtig ist, dass er auf seinem Album „back to basic“ geht und eine neue Klangreise zusammengestellt hat, auf der er nur sein Hauptinstrument spielt: Das Tenor-Saxophon.

Ein Album, das auf den nordischen Jazz-Sound verweist und dennoch mit Karl Seglems unverwechselbaren neuen Ansätzen aus Folk- und World-Expositionen verwoben ist – frisch, neu, kraftvoll und zeitgemäß lebendig.

This album is a collections of compositions for tenor sax, recorded with different musicians I have been so lucky to work with over both short and long periods. It´s not a best of album, but it points out some new directions in my music. Even if songs like „Rit again“ goes way back, the time frame of recording this material is 2017-2022. I felt the time was ripe to focus on my main instrument and make an album. The goat horn adventures has without doubt inspired my way of playing the tenorsax – and opposite. The keywords for me are breath and klang. Music takes time and you have to be patient. Breathing through this piece of metal for so many years has given me a signature. I often get the question: Is it jazz? I often answer: I don´t know. It is KarlSeglemMusic and I improvise too. My inspirations are many and diverted. Nature, people, art, food, cities, wine – to mention a few. And maybe my main inspiration is to be on stage and play concerts with fellow musicians that also love what we do? Live music is still the highest (and healing) force for me.

But my breath, and music, can not heal the earth. My latest poetry collection „Deep fear. Deep tranquility“(2022) has a red line pointing on climate change and loss of nature. It is most important that we speak, read, write, play, compose, tell and focus more that we want to and must change our way of living. Minimize our consume and agree on new directions, find new ways of thinking about the future for our children and for our holy beautiful mother earth. I am lucky who have the skills to create. My way. I feel very privileged. I feel rich in so many ways. This is an instrumental album, but the last track, Jordtjuv, (Earth Thief) points further and is a written and read poem. During summer 2023 I will finalize a diverted and conceptional album also including poetry and goat horns: Mytevegar (myth-path-hope). I hope you will find some hope in my music. In my creations. Thank you for reading this, and most of all, thank you for listening to my music.

Karl Seglem, Oslo in February 2023

Karl Seglem, tenorsax

Andreas Ulvo, piano, synth

Håkon Høgemo, hardanger fiddle

Erlend Viken, hardanger fiddle

Kenneth Lien, mouth harp, Norwegian droned zither

Ketil Thorbjørnsen, guitars

Reidar Skår, electronics

Hallvard Gaardløs, bass

Odd Einar Nordheim, vocals

Svein Schultz, bass

Kåre Opheim, drums