Biography
Hailing from Norway, Mungolian Jet Set pair an obscure and whimsical worldview as odd and impenetrable as their rule-breaking prog-disco productions with visual influences rooted in aliens, shamanic rites, and medieval Eurasian conquerors, while their sounds reach toward experimental jazz, kitschy world exotica, simplistic atmospheric trance, Mediterranean-tinged electronica, and additional territories.
The project essentially stems from the eccentric vision of Pål "Strangefruit" Nyhus, a DJ and turntablist active in the Norwegian jazz and experimental scenes across the 1990s and early 2000s, alongside electronic producer Knut Sævik; it began as an informal techno-jazz fusion group before settling into a steadier electronic production duo.
Jazzland labelhead Bugge Wesseltoft commissioned Nyhus, collaborating with Sævik and various Oslo avant-garde instrumentalists, to lead an effort modeled on electric-period Miles Davis; several years later they completed the 2006 release Beauty Came to Us in Stone, an arcane collaborative "future jazz" work that folded in club elements alongside the fantastical conceptual framework that would define the Mungolian approach.
In the ensuing years the duo crafted an array of sprawling, unconventional remixes, initially for jazz-leaning artists such as Nils Petter Molvær and Jaga Jazzist, then expanding to neo-disco travelers including Lindstrøm, Ost & Kjex, and LSB, plus an international range of vocalists from Bebel Gilberto to Dame Shirley Bassey to the Sámi folk/jazz singer Mari Boine on a 12" issued via Nyhus' Luna Flicks label, which also handled their rework for Japanese producer Altz.
These remixes, routinely extending well past six minutes, frequently functioned as complete reinventions or effectively new multi-part compositions that loosely referenced the original tracks while introducing intricate layered percussion-driven grooves, fresh vocals typically supplied by Nyhus, and an erratic array of interpolated musical fragments drawn from virtually any conceivable source.
That singular, exaggeratedly over-the-top yet compellingly inventive remixing approach, together with ties to the rising Norwegian "cosmic disco" movement, brought them growing visibility in the global electronica sphere, reaching a peak with the 2009 double-album We Gave It Away All Away, Now We Are Taking It Back on Smalltown Supersound, which gathered highlights of their remix output plus several original pieces.
A more streamlined and pop-oriented album, Schlungs, appeared in 2011. Mungodelics, issued in 2012, mixed further remixes with original material and included contributions from Jaga Jazzist and Unni Wilhelmsen. While preparing their subsequent full-length, Mungolian Jet Set put out the four-song EP A City So Convenient in 2016.
The project essentially stems from the eccentric vision of Pål "Strangefruit" Nyhus, a DJ and turntablist active in the Norwegian jazz and experimental scenes across the 1990s and early 2000s, alongside electronic producer Knut Sævik; it began as an informal techno-jazz fusion group before settling into a steadier electronic production duo.
Jazzland labelhead Bugge Wesseltoft commissioned Nyhus, collaborating with Sævik and various Oslo avant-garde instrumentalists, to lead an effort modeled on electric-period Miles Davis; several years later they completed the 2006 release Beauty Came to Us in Stone, an arcane collaborative "future jazz" work that folded in club elements alongside the fantastical conceptual framework that would define the Mungolian approach.
In the ensuing years the duo crafted an array of sprawling, unconventional remixes, initially for jazz-leaning artists such as Nils Petter Molvær and Jaga Jazzist, then expanding to neo-disco travelers including Lindstrøm, Ost & Kjex, and LSB, plus an international range of vocalists from Bebel Gilberto to Dame Shirley Bassey to the Sámi folk/jazz singer Mari Boine on a 12" issued via Nyhus' Luna Flicks label, which also handled their rework for Japanese producer Altz.
These remixes, routinely extending well past six minutes, frequently functioned as complete reinventions or effectively new multi-part compositions that loosely referenced the original tracks while introducing intricate layered percussion-driven grooves, fresh vocals typically supplied by Nyhus, and an erratic array of interpolated musical fragments drawn from virtually any conceivable source.
That singular, exaggeratedly over-the-top yet compellingly inventive remixing approach, together with ties to the rising Norwegian "cosmic disco" movement, brought them growing visibility in the global electronica sphere, reaching a peak with the 2009 double-album We Gave It Away All Away, Now We Are Taking It Back on Smalltown Supersound, which gathered highlights of their remix output plus several original pieces.
A more streamlined and pop-oriented album, Schlungs, appeared in 2011. Mungodelics, issued in 2012, mixed further remixes with original material and included contributions from Jaga Jazzist and Unni Wilhelmsen. While preparing their subsequent full-length, Mungolian Jet Set put out the four-song EP A City So Convenient in 2016.
Albums
