Trondheim Jazz Orchestra & Ole Morten Vågan.
Jazzland Recordings: After 11 years of concerts all over Europe, TJO & OMV are releasing the live album “THIS IS WUPPERTAL!” on Jazzland Records!
This is the band’s third release so far, and it shows an ensemble armed to the teeth with a deep understanding of Vågan’s music and an interplay developed over a decade. The line-up reads like a who’s who of European jazz in 2025, and where the two previous albums “Happy Endlings” and “Plastic Wave” established their own musical world around themes such as the end times and climate change, TJO on “THIS IS WUPPERTAL!” are more interested in tearing down what exists, sinking their teeth firmly into the wallpaper, and breaking apart whatever lies in front of them.
Much of the music was recorded at the club Loch in Wuppertal, with a band that had just been through a night of impromptu karate duels, a train journey during which a third of the band disappeared, and with the classic touring dish “pønkegryte” as their only source of energy. At Loch, the audience consists of regulars and drifters, free-jazz fans, and the trio of Caspar Brötzmann, Mats Gustafsson and John Corbett, who are in Wuppertal to settle the estate after the death of the legend Peter Brötzmann. The atmosphere gradually becomes euphoric both on stage and in the hall, and to explain this euphoria a woman in the third row shouts the words “THIS IS WUPPERTAL!” between two tunes, in a tone that can only be described as a “declaration of war.”
The album then takes us on to Europe’s oldest concert venue De Bijloke in Belgium, and to Moldejazz 2025, where TJO appeared as Artist in Residence
Produced by Ole Morten Vågan for TJO and Jazzland Records.
credits
released December 5, 2025
Sofia Jernberg – vocals
Maja Ratkje – Vocals
Thea Ellingsen Grant – Vocals
Signe Emmeluth – alto saxophone
Eirik Hegdal – saxophone, clarinet
Åsne Fossmark – Tenor Sax
Kjetil Møster – saxophone, clarinet
Espen Reinertsen – saxophone, bass clarinet
Eivind Lønning – trumpet
Øyvind Brække – trombone
Emil Bø – Trombone
Guro Kvåle – Trombone
Josefin Runsteen – violin
Ola Kvernberg – violin
Marianne B. Lie – cello
Amuns Storløkken Åse – vibraphone
Kit Downes – organ
Oscar Grönberg – piano
Marta Warelis – piano
Anja Lauvdal – piano
Gard Nilssen – drums
Veselmøy Narvesen – drums
Håkon Mjåset Johansen – drums
Ole Morten Vågan – bass, compositions