About the Artist
From Oslo, Norway, drummer and composer Knut Kvifte Nesheim is reshaping experimental jazz. Drawing on his roots in Norwegian folk, he blurs the lines between tradition and contemporary jazz. His style is playful yet precise, built on his love for improvisation and his curiosity about how rhythm can tell a story. His work with OJKOS, a collective of jazz composers, has been a defining force in his career. Together, they constantly explore new sonic ground while preserving a shared identity. That ongoing exchange led to Graosido, their most compelling project yet.
The album takes its name from Graosido, a mountain near Nesheim’s family farm by Lake Løna in western Norway. The mountain’s image appears on the album cover. Its reflection in the lake often looks closer than it really is, and that illusion of distance and closeness inspired the music. With OJKOS adding layered arrangements to Nesheim’s drumming, the tracks shift between calm and intensity, much like the changing weather around the mountain.
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The Album
The first track, Lønahorgi, bursts open with punchy drums and slides into smooth piano and bold trumpets. It feels like a blazing sunny day showing off, yet a cool breeze keeps the heat at bay. In the midsection, all the instruments melt together into a melody that feels almost heavenly. As the song builds, it turns into a full‑blown jazz set. Toward the end, the trumpets gradually fade, like a sunset sliding in and painting everything gold.
Grøvona begins with a somber flute, soon joined by a muted trumpet, keeping the mood heavy and gray. Midway, two horns trade lines like distant thunder rumbling back and forth. The tension mounts until the ending crashes in, everything swirling together in deliberate chaos.
Tjørni opens with soft trumpet and steady piano, calm and reflective, while subtle drums and flutes weave through. It swells briefly, then settles again—mirroring the still ponds its title refers to.
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Taoe starts with trumpet, piano, and the sharp clash of cymbals. It jumps quickly from instrument to instrument, never settling into a single rhythm. Midway, the mood shifts to softer piano and shimmering cymbals before building back into layered chaos that finally tapers off. The title hints at bare, snowless landscapes, and that feeling of seasonal change runs through the piece.
Kave begins with a melancholic piano line, cut by sharp flute notes. A heavy bass swells in the middle, then fades, while the flutes turn lighter and more playful. Short pauses break the flow, like brief lulls in rainfall, before the music picks up again, evoking shifting skies and the feel of rain.
Fela‑ver is turbulent from the start, crackling like a broken radio signal. Soft drums rumble underneath while distorted tones mimic wind roaring down a phone line, channeling the chaos and weight of a storm.
Vadlasletta blends instruments with earthy sounds, like what you heard when you pressed your ear to the ground as a child. A steady piano and melodic flute evoke open meadows, while triangles and static creep in midway. Heavy bass rises toward the end before fading, leaving the track open and endless, like the land it’s named for.
Across its seven tracks, Graosido flows like the landscape that inspired it, shifting from calm to chaos, sunlight to storm, yet always anchored by the mountain.
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Figuring out my path while actively plotting ten others. Serious about my dreams with somewhat chaotic ambition. Will do anything for cats.
