With three releases over the last four years, Norwegian trumpet player Nils Petter Molvaer and his group have developed a unique hybrid sound that has proved to be an underground success not only in Europe, but also in the United States and Japan.
"Khmer," the first, which featured a mix of jazz and club music, was picked up by the esteemed European jazz label ECM. It was an important mark of approval: The label is notoriously finicky in its selection of artists, and Molvaer's inclusion of DJ mixes would seem to clash with the acoustic values it is famous for.
The group made further progress with its next two releases, "Solid Ether" and this year's "NP3," with Molvaer distilling his straight jazz background into a minimalist trumpeting style that blends easily with user-friendly DJ club mixes and a non-jazz beat.