Prins Thomas and Norwegian jazz innovator Bugge Wesseltoft collaborate for new album

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  • The ECM-influenced LP will come via Smalltown Supersound next month.
  • Prins Thomas and Norwegian jazz innovator Bugge Wesseltoft collaborate for new album image
  • A collaborative LP from Norwegian musicians Prins Thomas and Bugge Wesseltoft is on the way via Smalltown Supersound. The press release introduces keyboardist Bugge Wesseltoft as an innovator whose "cosmopolitan blend of jazz, hip-hop and techno beats was pretty much the coolest music coming out of Norway at that moment [the late '90s]." Prins Thomas, a lynchpin of the subsequent Norwegian "space disco" wave, found common ground with Wesseltoft over a shared appreciation of ECM Records, and they booked time at Rainbow Studio in Oslo, where many of the label's classic '70s jazz albums were recorded. The two musicians "improvised some tunes in the style and spirit of some of their favourite ECM moments, like the fresh, open sounds of Codona, Egberto Gismonti, Oregon and Kenny Wheeler," the press release says. Bugge Wesseltoft & Prins Thomas is their first realtime collaboration following Wesseltoft's 2015 remix of Thomas's "Bobletekno." The five tracks, which "fuse programmed rhythms, live synths and percussion," also feature Norwegian jazz drummer Jon Christensen, a staple on recordings by the likes of Jan Garbarek, Terje Rypdal, Keith Jarrett. Thomas had a hand in three full-lengths last year—a solo LP, 5, a collaborative album with Bjørn Torske, Square One, and a Dungen remix album. Listen to Bugge Wesseltoft and Prins Thomas's "Furuberget."
    Tracklist 01. Furuberget 02. Norte Do Brasil 03. Sin Tempo 04. Bar Asfalt 05. Epilog Smalltown Supersound will release Bugge Wesseltoft & Prins Thomas July 20th, 2018.
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