Nils Petter Molvaer

Born in 1960 on Norway’s diminutive island of Sula, avant-garde jazz trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær absorbed formative lessons through performances with hometown ensembles before relocating in 1979 to pursue studies at the conservatory in Trondheim. His tenure with the nu jazz collective Masqualero linked him to the ECM imprint, which subsequently issued his initial solo recordings. Khmer appeared in 1998, fusing ambient, house, and electronic textures with his trumpet work, and was followed in 2000 by Solid Ether, an album whose remixes surfaced the next year as Recoloured. NP3 arrived in 2002; three years later, ER granted greater prominence to programmers such as DJ Strangefruit and Reidar Skår. In 2006 Thirsty Ear released An American Compilation, a collection assembled to acquaint U.S. listeners with the experimental and genre-bending musician. The same label issued the studio albums Hamada in 2009 and Baboon Moon in 2011, after which Molvær moved to OKeh and delivered Switch in 2014; Buoyancy followed in 2016.