Nils Petter Molvær

Highly respected amongst his peers within the vibrant Nordic jazz community, Nils Petter Molvaer is an accomplished trumpet player, composer and arranger. Molvaer's playing is heavily influenced by the early 1980s Miles Davis school but is refreshingly updated. His unusual style, often featuring electronic treatments on a muted trumpet, contains elements of jazz, rock and electronic influences against a back drop of hip-hop beats. Molvaer began his career as a jazz musician playing in the acclaimed Norwegian jazz quintet Masquelero alongside bassist Arild Andersen, drummer John Christensen, keyboard player John Balke and saxophonist Tore Brunborg. The band released four albums before splitting up in 1991. A frequent collaborator with fellow Norseman and pioneering jazz/electronic guitarist Eivind Aarset, Molvaer has also performed with legendary US bassist Bill Laswell and Indian tabla maestro Zakir Hussain in their Tabla Beat Science project. As well as his work as a composer of film and theatre scores, Molvaer is a prolific recording artist with 17 solo albums to his credit and a further 15 albums as a sideman.