Norwegian guitarist Thomas Dahl's primary project is the Skydive Trio with bassist Mats Eilertsen and drummer Olavi Louhivuouri. The trio is an off-shoot of a quintet of the same name that includes tenor saxophonist Tore Brunborg and pianist Alexi Tuomarila. Sun Sparkle is the second release from the smaller group whose sound, like the album title, reflects ideas from both familiar and eclectic musical worlds…

Things are looking up for Bergen-based Stein Urheim, a musician who, on the basis of Stein Urheim—his second release on Hubro after the vinyl/download-only Kosmolodi (2012) and third as a leader following his 2009 debut, Three Sets of Music—seems interested in just about anything with strings…and a few without…

‘Utopian Tales’ offers strange yet beautiful soundscapes inspired by microtonality – the little gaps between the notes. Just as the rigid divisions of the well-tempered scale in Western music mirrored hierarchical structures in society at large, so microtonal music, which uses intervals smaller than a semi-tone, can be reflective of a freer and more fluid social order…

Although their music sounds entirely original, The Erlend Apneseth Trio represents a close to perfect improvisational update on that very contemporary format of the post-modern string trio, like a Nordic riposte to Tin Hat or Trio Taksim…

The opening track of ‘Avant Folk’ is like a dream of what contemporary experimental folk-meets-jazz-meets-chamber-music might be…