Espen 2

Espen Berg Trio is an award-winning piano trio from Norway. Outselling concert halls in Tokyo, Guangzhou, Kyoto and Hong Kong, the trio is already making a mark way outside their home country and was declared an important new voice in the crowded field of post-E.S.T. trios by Jazz Journal (UK) in 2019. Their music might bring associations to Brad Mehldau, Keith Jarrett, Shai Maestro or Tigran Hamasyan, but is primarily a personal addition to the legacy of the piano trio and the evolution of the Nordic jazzscene, lead by a combination of strong melodies, rhythmic complexity, immense technical abilities and a playful interaction.

After the highly successful "Perfectly Unhappy" (2018) album with Andy Sheppard, the trio is back with a new album featuring seven brand new songs from the pianist. Captivating and lyrical, always melodic and often melancholic and uplifting at the same time, these are all real tunes.

After five successful studio albums in 12 years, here is their first live album, by popular demand we should add. A very popular international concert attraction on several continents, the trio have constantly been asked when they will release a concert recording. And here it finally is, an hour's worth of melodic, melancholy magic. Five of the seven tracks were recorded live in concert at Oslo´s Nasjonal Jazzscene in 2018 and 2020, one at a special one-off intimate concert at Propeller Music Division in Oslo in 2020 and one in Poznan, Poland, in 2021. Six of the seven tracks are extended versions of Eriksen originals from four of the studio albums, adding instrumental vividness as well as dramatic and moving elements to the event. The seventh is a splendid cover of Krzysztof Komeda´s iconic Rosemary´s Baby. Andy Sheppard is guesting on three of the tracks, and another welcome twist is that only one of these are from the “Perfectly Unhappy” album he did with the trio, while the version of the title track from that album is featured here without Andy Sheppard.