Nils Petter Molvaer Khmer

The music of Norwegian trumpeter/Nu Jazz progenitor, Nils Petter Molvaer, has always been cinematic. Call it music for a non-existent movie or a film of the mind, Molvaer's albums, beginning with the groundbreaking Khmer (ECM, 1997), have always been about aural landscapes evocative of highly personal imagery and plenty of club-ready grooves. Even in performance, the lighting provided by Tord "Prince of Darkness" Knudsen is intended to provoke the imagination rather than focus attention on the musicians. It's no surprise, then, that Molvaer has been recruited to provide music for film. His score for the 2005 French film Edy already saw limited release on Molvaer's Sula imprint the same year. Re-Vision culls four pieces from Edy and, by combining them with music from two other films—the 2007 German film Hoppet and 1999 Norwegian documentary Frozen Heart—and one non-soundtrack piece, fashions a continuous 46-minute suite that stands independently as yet another highly visual piece, incorporating Molvaer's ever-expanding frames of reference. Re-Vision is also Molvaer's first release in years to not primarily feature members of his touring band, but guitarist Eivind Aarset remains a fundamental part of its overall soundscape.

Khmer is surely the most unusual album ever released by ECM — unusual because the label, which is best known for elevated chamber jazz, presents the solo debut of trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer as a production that plays with modern electronica methods while not eschewing the well-known ECM aesthetic. Molvaer's music is somewhere between scary and majestic, and changes between ominous ambient sounds and hard breakbeats, along which atonal screeching guitars combined with melancholic melodies, create a fascinating melange.

Like 1998's Khmer, Solid Ether is an unusual addition to the ECM catalog, reflecting the Norwegian trumpeter's continued fascination with drum'n'bass, jungle, and other underground club genres. Molvaer's work in this idiom is indicative of a new wave sweeping Europe and Scandinavia, where boundaries between jazz and electronica are being creatively blurred by a growing number of forward-thinking artists.

French trumpeter Erik Truffaz has been a mover and shaker on the European creative improvisational scene since the mid-'90s. With the release of The Mask (a compilation of three previously released recordings: Out of a Dream, The Dawn, and Bending New Corners), Revisité (a DJ dance remix of The Mask), and 2002's forward-sounding Mantis, Truffaz became one of the most popular electronic jazz trumpeters to hit North America since Norwegian trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer charged forth with Khmer and Solid Ether. With the release of The Walk of the Giant Turtle, Truffaz and his quartet continue to make their mark as an improvisationally rich, high-energy groove experience. The two-part dance track "Scody" features the trumpeter coolly blowing around fluid trance grooves that flow as a mellow confluence of drum'n'bass rhythms and muted electric trumpet.