Jazz
Odin Records · September 2026
Thirty-six tracks, close to three hours and a seventy-nine-page booklet: 12th Set 2026 is the twelfth instalment of Jazz Out of Norway, the compilation with which Norwegian jazz introduces itself abroad and which has been working through the country’s catalogue since 1989. The opening essay is by Filip Roshauw, co-editor of the magazine Jazznytt, and places today’s Norwegian jazz on three axes: geographical, social and cultural. Two pages on each ensemble follow, which is a good deal more context than a compilation usually offers.
How the selection is made explains both what’s here and what isn’t. Norsk jazzforum produces it with support from the Norwegian foreign ministry, and the selection comes out of an open call: bands enter their own release (this year, by 20 April) and a panel picks a little over thirty tracks, one per artist. Previous editions have drawn more than a hundred entries.
The map that comes out of it is extremely useful all the same. There’s “Kong Kogong”, from Babies On Airplanes’ Music for a Noisy Environment; “Darkness”, from Entrance by Nicolas Leirtrø’s Action Now!, with Mats Gustafsson on saxophone; and “Contemplation”, from Reconnection by violinist Tuva Halse’s quintet. Amalie Dahl turns up on Treen’s “Ridenuos” — the same saxophonist as on the Kafé Hærverk live album we reviewed a few days ago — along with Henriette Eilertsen’s flute on “Kulturistisk Inngang”, Building Instrument’s “Hand/Vindfang” and the voices of Mariam Wallentin on “Basel” and Ingeborg Gravem Sollid on “The Frozen Rose”. The pianos of Kjetil Husebø (“Listening To Life”) and Kjetil Mulelid (“Memorable Stories”) provide the counterweight.
No better selection would fix what goes wrong here, because it’s structural. One track per artist across three unbroken hours means nothing in here develops: you listen to thirty-six beginnings, and the groups who work at length — and Norwegian jazz has a fair few — come off worse than those with a tidy five-minute piece. And because the selection comes from an open call, whoever is missing is missing because they didn’t apply: the holes in the map say nothing about the music that isn’t there, only about who didn’t apply. As a way in it’s unbeatable. As a portrait of the year, what it’s missing is whoever didn’t enter.
Thirty-six tracks, out on Odin Records in September 2026. The full collection and the Norwegian release calendar are open at jazzoutofnorway.no.
Rating: 7.5/10
Text by Aina Torrents