Ol' Burger Beats

Norwegian hip-hop producer and DJ Ole-Birger Neergård draws woozy, resonant samples from vintage soul, spiritual jazz, and ambient jazz vinyl, shaping his layered collages with intent that extends past their outwardly mellow surface.

He entered the world in 1992 and grew up in the scenic village of Vatne in western Norway, a locale marked by lush green hills and seaside vistas. His parents’ record collection supplied early fuel, filling his childhood with soul, jazz, and prog rock while he split his hours between football—reaching semi-professional ranks—and studies of jazz piano and alto sax. At age nine he became fixated on Outkast’s Stankonia and began amassing CDs by nearby rap figures including Sweden’s Petter and Timbuktu. Ultimately favoring music, he mastered piano works by Chick Corea, Oscar Peterson, and Jan Johansson, performed sax in a band interpreting Stevie Wonder and Weather Report, and took his first sampling steps using his parents’ Chet Baker LPs alongside basic computer programs.

During his teenage years Neergård turned into a dedicated collector, scooping up inexpensive Norwegian jazz pressings wherever available and building a personal vinyl library of raw material. In December 2012, shortly before moving to Oslo, he issued a Christmas EP himself under the name Ol’ Burger. Demo Tape, another EP, arrived in 2013; once settled in the capital he took a position at The Garden record store. October 2014 brought High Rhodes, his debut album under the full Ol’ Burger Beats moniker, released with help from Soul Dojo and built around Rhodes piano samples that prompted critics to liken him to Pete Rock and J Dilla. Two more EPs appeared in 2015: Unreleased Instrumentals on HHV and Hovdebygda Blues, a joint effort with his youthful idols Side Brok. Tidagersvarselet followed in September 2016 on Stundom Records alongside Kjartan Gaulfossen.

In 2017 Ol’ Burger Beats entered the Oslo collective Mutual Intentions with Fredfades, Ivan Ave, and Yogisoul; the group issued his second album, Mind Games. That year he also assembled a home studio just beyond Grünerløkka. Out of Sight, Out of Mind, his third album, surfaced self-released in 2018, which closed with his remix of Jul på Sunnmorsk’s “Det Lyser I Stille Grender.” Daybreaks arrived in 2019. The next two years centered on further teamwork, beginning with another project alongside Kjartan Gaulfossen on the Hver Gang Nar EP. All Yours, an EP with South African-born rapper Vuyo, appeared in May 2020. Their creative bond peaked with the Jakarta-released full-length Dialogue in February 2021, a politically charged set constructed on spiritual jazz samples. That May, Latin-tinged EP I Am Leaving marked the first recordings featuring his sister Née Pauline on lead vocals. Early 2022 saw the release of the heavily analog instrumental hip-hop album Loft, composed as a tribute to New York’s 1960s and 1970s free and spiritual jazz scenes. Two years later, 74: Out of Time placed him in a similarly contemplative mode, channeling the sounds and activism of 1974 at a steady 74 bpm with assistance from an array of rappers that included Philadelphia’s lojii and Berkeley’s Lil B.