Terje Rypdal Odissey

Despite the title, this is some very warm and friendly early jazz-rock work from the brilliant Norwegian guitarist/composer. (This album originates from prior to Rypdal joining ECM, and is on Polydor Norway.) Recorded in 1968 with longtime collaborator Jan Garberek on sax & flute, this music features a large horn section, excellent bass work, and lots of rich/tasteful Hammond playing. Though only 21 at the time, Rypdal was already making incredibly mature, smooth and sophisticated music which - though sounding very 60's - still plays well today. Light-Latin and blues influences are heard; along with big-band arrangements that are by turns tightly arranged and charmingly loose.

Skywards is a return to jazz proper for Rypdal. He surrounds himself with familiar faces for this date, including cellist David Darling, bassist Palle Mikkelborg, Jon Christensen on drums, and Terje Tonnesen on violin. Also employed are Christian Eggen on piano and electronic keyboards and the additional drumming and percussion talents of Paolo Vinaccia. Rypdal's signature guitar sound, present in every moment of his solo breaks, has a soaring, piercing kind of emotional reach.

Essentially a continuation of Rypdal Vitous DeJohnette, this album somewhat lacks the atmospheric keyboards of its predecessor. It is nonetheless quite compelling, particularly in DeJohnette's propulsive drumming on the title track, and his phantasmic piano and voice on "Uncomposed Appendix." This album also features one of Rypdal's best-loved works, the gorgeously stark and stately "Topplue, Votter & Skjerf" — Norwegian for "Hat, gloves, and scarf," an idiomatic phrase implying the onset of their long and cold winter.

An exciting departure for ECM veteran Rypdal, this extended work, commissioned for the 2009 Bergen Festival, begins with a sound of swirling massed horns likely to bring Coltrane to mind. There is more than a hint of “Ascension” in the opening moments of “Crime Scene”, a work paced like a mystery thriller. The music surrounds the Rypdal quartet with Mikkelborg, Storlokken and Vinnaccia (all of whom recently appeared on the critically-acclaimed “Vossabrygg”) with a 17-piece jazz big band and keeps the action moving at a fast pace.

This is a collaboration between Rypdal (on electric guitar & synth), and David Darling (cello). If you think electric guitar & cello is an odd combination for a band, you're right! If you think it couldn't possibly work, you're wrong!! Moody and compelling, and definitely not for everyone.Worth it just for the track "Mirage", which lives up to its title sonically. The track "Laser" does the same also… a blistering solo electric guitar kills any semblance of peace and silence, and after it's over, sets up the hot-summer-day-let-me-lay-and-listen mood for the rest of the CD. All are well worth the listening effort.

With an incendiary initiation on Jan Garbarek’s Afric Pepperbird, and after successfully leading far-reaching experiments like his first self-titled project and the plush Whenever I Seem To Be Far Away, Terje Rypdal opened a new door for ECM when he stepped into the studio to record perhaps his most intimate statement to date. In spite of their brevity, the ten tracks on After The Rain flow in a single 38-minute ode to the almost painful depths of life’s greatest joys. Rypdal overdubs every instrument himself, with his former wife, vocalist Inger Lise, providing the occasional organic touch. Shielded by a holy trinity of intimacy, sincerity, and fearlessness, Rypdal plunges with open eyes into the darkest eddies of his emotional waters.

Long before ECM released its first remix album (for Nils Petter Molvær’s Khmer), it put out this, its first singles collection. Or so it’s nice to think: the title actually has nothing to do with the content. For their third album, Terje Rypdal & the Chasers instead spit out one of the most transcendent rock albums this side of the Milky Way. So much of that transcendence lies in the bandleader’s characteristic sere. When spurred on by the keyboard stylings of Allan Dangerfield and Audun Kleive’s clear-and-present drumming, he simply can’t go wrong.

An otherworldly soundscape of aching beauty, this album is a must-have for aficionados of any member of this trio. Rypdal's guitar is hauntingly reverbed and distant throughout, though occasionally on "Seasons" he becomes too fond of caterwauling guitar synth. But this is truly an effort of trio fusion, with ineffable pieces like "Den Forste Sne" ( "The First Snow" ) appearing and melting away without any tangible solos or structure. From the opening cymbal strikes of "Sunrise," this album is marked by DeJohnette's best drumming on record; his cymbal sound, pushed to the front and recorded with mikes both above and below the cymbal's bell – "because that's how the drummer hears it" – is nothing short of revelatory. Vitous' bass steadies Rypdal's flights of fancy, while his subtle electric piano lines float above.