Jazz

Losen Records · 29 May 2026

“I en drøm jeg øyner mine fedres land” opens the album with Ulf Krupka’s piano alone, then Tine Asmundsen’s bowed bass, and last of all Line Falkenberg’s saxophone, which is what finally lays out the hymn tune. That order of entry recurs across much of the programme and it is what the trio does best: with no drums, every instrument has to be heard arriving.

These are twelve arrangements of Norwegian hymns, all by Krupka, recorded on 1 September 2025 at the Musikkloftet in Asker. The trio has played together since 2010 and this is the third volume of the series, after a first album in 2014 and “Vol 2” in 2018. The three of them come from different places: Krupka from church music, Asmundsen from jazz and Falkenberg from a classical training.

“Kristus kom med vann og blod” begins with the hymn played on a church organ before the piano sets a lively rhythm against it, and it is the track where the church organ and the jazz piano can be heard pulling at each other. “Du Herre, som er sterk og stor” moves on a slightly mournful lilt, and on “Din herlegdom, Frelsar, me undrande ser” the saxophone holds above a walking bass. “Interludium” is a piano solo and works as a hinge in the middle of the twelve.

In the more decisive tempos, with no drums, the swing has to come from the bass on its own and the trio sounds four-square; the solos stay inside the hymn’s harmony and never pull it apart. And there is one obstacle that is not the trio’s: outside Norway these hymns are unknown, and with them goes the pleasure of hearing the tune under the variation.

Losen Records, 29 May 2026 on digital and 31 July on CD. Twelve tracks, 56:50.

Rating: 6.8/10

Text by Aina Torrents