Inner Earth

After a hectic summer, touring the festivals with artists such as R+yksopp/Robyn, Lars Vaular, Datarock and Bushman's Revenge, saxophonist and bandleader Kjetil Muster now releases album number two with Muster!, his favorite project. Inner Earth is an acerbic and inquisitive masterpiece that is in many ways a clear contrast to the band's critically-acclaimed first album. This time he is joined by the legendary Hans Magnus Snah Ryan, guitarist/vocalist in Motorpsycho; Nikolai Hangsle Eilertsen, bass player in Elephant9 and Big Bang; and the ubiquitous drummer Kenneth Kapstad, also from Motorpsycho and Grand General. The band was formed in connection with a commission for the Kongsberg Jazz Festival in 2010, and released their first album, Edvard Lygre Muster (HUBRO 2527 CD/LP), in March 2013 to unanimously glowing reviews. The album was listed among the top five debut albums as well as among the top 10 albums in New York City Jazz Records in 2013, and also achieved an impressive sixth place among the year's albums in Prog Magazine. The debut album Edvard Lygre Muster was a powerful, ecstasy-inducing live album, and according to Kjetil Muster this was the sound of a band that found itself on stage in front of an audience. It was a lucky break that we could record it properly, he says. With this follow-up the band are moving in another direction. Inner Earth was recorded with Jurgen Traen at Duper Studio in Bergen, a few stories away from Kjetil Muster's rehearsal room in the creative melting pot of Bergen Kjutt. As the title indicates, we've taken a major step over to the prog camp on the new album, says Kjetil, although the jazz influence is not particularly difficult to identify this time, either. Where the debut album was extremely spontaneous, direct and fierce, this follow-up is a more searching, prog-influenced, psychedelic and slow-moving voyage, like riding on lava flowing to the earth's core. Kjetil Muster (saxophone); Hans Magnus Ryan (electric guitar); Kenneth Kapstad (drums); Nikolai Hangsle Eilertsen (bass guitar).