Giants of Jazz

POING "Giants of Jazz" reissued

POING's debut album from 2003 is once again available. The vinyl edition has been remastered by Lasse Marhaug, who has also done an updated cover design, with a separate photo collage page of POING's happy days around the turn of the millennium.

"Giants of Jazz" captures the spirit of a very exciting time in Norwegian contemporary music: The trio's members were in their mid-20s, and the music was prepared in close collaboration with the composers Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje, Øyvind Torvund, Eivind Buene and Knut Olaf Sunde, all well-known names in today's music scene and lifelong musical partners of POING.

Øyvind Torvund's work "Giants of Jazz" was his first example of music in a non-existent surrealist folk music tradition – the title refers to a long saxophone solo where the names of several jazz masters are spelled out phonetically through alternative saxophone techniques. Maja S.K. Ratkje's "essential extensions" from 1999, the first piece written for the trio, has become a classic that POING has performed regularly and on several continents for more than 25 years – a work that twists and turns musical material by Olivier Messiaen, but in a distinctive sound world characterised by electronic-like sounds and energetic free jazz. Eivind Buene's work shamelessly refers to both swinging hard-bop and classic European modernism in complementary movements, while Knut Olaf Sunde's large scale work in six movements is an insistent, original and uncompromising piece that shows the full range of the trio's expressive register.

Also included on Bandcamp is a music video by Lars Petter Hagen (under the pseudonym Nora Wjech) and Bjørn Esben Almaas, filmed at the 1930s functionalist seaside gem Ingierstrand Bad outside Oslo, the very first time the trio members played together! The digital version of the album also includes the improvisation "Fisk i kjerka".

POING is Rolf-Erik Nystrøm on saxophones, Frode Haltli on accordion and Håkon Thelin on double bass. Audun Strype made the recording in Sofienberg Church in the spring of 2001, then mix and master. The cover design was by Lasse Marhaug, who has updated the cover and mastered the new vinyl edition.

Both the original and reissue are released on The Legendary Royal Records, and distributed by Diger Distro. The album will be available on Bandcamp and other digital platforms, at the record store Tiger Records in Oslo, and other selected record

The Legendary Royal Records, RR 90 210 (2003/2026)