NILS PETTER MOLVAER – KHMER

Nils Petter Molvær (trumpet). Eivind Aarset (guitar), Jan Bang (live sampling), DJ Strangefruit (DJ), Audun Erlien (bass), Rune Arnesen (drums), Per Lindvall (drums), Sven Persson (sound design), Tord Knudsen (lighting design)

A key figure in contemporary European Jazz, Nils Petter Molvær has been weaving a language of his own since the 1990s; a language in which the trumpet can breathe without difficulty between electronic, improvisation and sound exploration. At this 61st edition of Jazzaldia, he will offer up his wonderful reinterpretation of his debut album: Khmer (1998).

He has worked regularly with the big names of Scandinavian Jazz, and is also one of the most sought-after artists internationally. His music has broadened the horizons of Jazz in recent decades and left its mark on an entire generation. 2023 was the year of the 25th anniversary of Khmer, a revolutionary album that was a definite milestone, opening up new territory, where Jazz could freely converse with trip-hop, drum’n’bass, ambient, techno, industrial music and electronic. Powerful rhythms, pulsating grooves and an unmistakable trumpet, loaded with intensity and warmth, were the main ingredients of an album that remains a seminal work of contemporary Norwegian Jazz.

To commemorate that anniversary, Molvaer and his exceptional musicians decided to bring that album back to the stage, revisiting and boning up what was recorded 25 years earlier, to bring new light to it from the present. One of those concerts was recorded and released in 2025: Khemer (Live in Bergen).

Khmer remains, today, as daring and magnetic as it was in its original form, a hypnotic journey through intensity, beauty and electronic vibration. A bridge between generations and genres, a magical work that continues to inspire, always alive, and always new. A Norwegian Jazz gem that will take us into unexplored territories, beautiful and vibrant.