Karl Seglem FolkJazzWorld (featuring Ramesh Shotham)

Line up:

Karl Seglem — tenor saxophone, bukkehorn, poetry
Ramesh Shotham — drums, percussion
Erlend Viken — fiddle, vocals
Håkon Høgemo — Hardanger fiddle
Kenneth Lien — jaw harp, lyre, fiddle
Andreas Vold Løwe — keyboards
Hallvard Gaardløs — bass, vocals
Kåre Opheim — drums

Norway’s leading bukkehorn player and tenor saxophonist has an impressive drive to continuously explore the relationship between Hardanger fiddle traditions, improvisation and folk jazz. Karl Seglem is a pioneer constantly moving forward. It is difficult to place a label on an artist who has created his own sonic universe — his own genre. For Seglem, music is a vital and deeply personal form of expression, and throughout his career he has collaborated with musicians from countries such as Bulgaria, Portugal, Pakistan and India.

The Indian-born percussionist Ramesh Shotham, now based in Germany, has collaborated with Seglem since 2016. A highly sought-after musician, he is often compared to Trilok Gurtu. Seglem now invites him into a unique ensemble, both to honour Cosmopolite — an important venue for him when he first moved to Oslo — and to present new music alongside compositions he premiered there for the first time in the late 1990s.

The band is greatly looking forward to performing on one of Europe’s leading intimate stages for live music. Seglem’s all-star ensemble travels through sonic landscapes where mountain plateaus, urban asphalt jungles, sand dunes, flowing forests and life-giving waters can all be heard. Outward-looking, beautiful, energetic and poetic folk jazz — here also coloured by the presence of an Indian magician.