Khmer: Nils Petter Molvaer

Khmer announced the arrival of trumpet player Nils Petter Molvaer on the jazz scene proper. Released in 1997 on ECM, Khmer is an album that sets out the sonic palette that was to define a new field of exploration for contemporary jazz.

Drawing on the talents of some of Norway’s younger and more experimental musical talents it marks a distinct reliance on electronics and processed sound. Yet for all that it is not simply a work of knob twiddling or bleeps and scratches, but an album of warm and searching music.

Central to its expression is the trumpet, minimalist and moving. Holding the differing elements together. Combined with the rock-influenced guitar of Eivind Aarset, the percussive work of Rune Arnesen, sampling from Ulf Holand and Reidar Skår it is a mix of influences, jazz, rock, trip-hop, ambient and drum&bass. It works backwards to the fusion experiments of the late sixties and early seventies and melds them into a unique soundscape.

Prime among its examples are the tracks, ‘Khmer,’ ‘Tlon,’ ‘Access/Song of Sand,’ and ‘Platonic Years’. Each using, at times, a heavily emphasised rhythm foundation over which treated sound or sampling sketches in colours and textures, then through which the trumpet alternates its plaintive and engaging melodic lines. The melodies are stately and insistent but sparse. A dynamic contrary to much ‘conventional jazz’ yet not without value. It is as though the aesthetic of this music is not about embellishment but about letting the austerity and beauty of the ideas stand on their own. There are no flourishes here. No lightening like splays of notes. But there is an elegance of expression. It does not have you tapping your foot but it does create an inner sense of atmosphere and feeling without being self-regarding or needlessly introspective.

Not perfect, for example, ‘On Stream’ I find falls somewhere outside the ambitions of this album, a little too rock-ish, (though pleasant), and at 42 minutes the entire recording seems bit brief, leaves you hankering for more.

However in its own uncluttered and inimitably north-European way this is a groundbreaking project.

Copyright (C) Peter Hodgins Nov 2007

Khmer: Nils Petter Molvaer. BUY