Rik Harald Lassen

• 1 Ambisiøs Luft (D.s.) 08:48
• 2 Venner i N 02:52
• 3 Risset i Meg 05:04
• 4 Lite Sted 03:18
• 5 No Aent 08:55
• 6 Trist Arpeggio 05:16
• 7 Romantikk & Rytme 02:32
• Total Runtime 36:45

Info zu Rik

Norwegian saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Harald Lassen returns with RIK, a vibrant and exploratory new album that picks up the threads of his acclaimed Balans - the album that earned him a Spellemannprisen (Norwegian Grammy) - and weaves them into something stranger, softer, and more surprising. “It’s the little brother,” Lassen says. “Same blood, same environment, but making different choices.”

Across seven tracks, RIK builds a world that is both cinematic and deeply intimate. The title, taken from the Norwegian word for “rich,” gestures toward multiple forms of wealth: personal, musical, emotional, ecological. Each track title points to this too, whether it's “Lite Sted” (Small Place), “Risset i meg” (Etched Into Me), or “No Aent” (Something Else).

These aren’t just poetic abstractions; they’re coordinates on a personal map of meaning.

Lassen performs on saxophone, piano, flute, synth, melodica, glockenspiel, vocals and percussion. He’s joined by a versatile ensemble: Solveig Wang (synths, clarinet), Sander Eriksen Nordahl (guitars), Stian Andersen (bass, acoustic guitar), and Tore Flatjord (drums, percussion). Together they create a sonic landscape that moves fluidly between composed passages and open improvisation, always alive with possibility.

Album opener “Ambisiøs Luft (D.S.)”(Ambitious Air) is a sweeping, nine-minute statement, at once introspective and commanding, heavily influenced by Dmitri Shostakovich (the “D.S.” of the title). It’s a fanfare, a soliloquy, a storm. The contrasting track “Venner i N” (Friends in N) - inspired by Lassen’s Arne Næss-influenced philosophy of “N,” a space of improvisation, connection, and Nature - offers melodic complexity underpinned by subtle tension. “No Aent” (Something Else) was improvised entirely in studio, including the sax solo part which emerged in deep interplay with synthist Solveig Wang: “It was a magical moment,” Lassen recalls. “It felt like something completely different - ‘no aent’ - and to dare to do, be, or live something different ... that’s a kind of richness.”

Elsewhere, “Trist Arpeggio” (Sad Arpeggio) offers a modernist lament that unfolds in motion, while “Lite Sted” is all pastoral charm and mischief, a meandering jazz caprice that recalls Scandi-folk and childhood daydreams in equal measure.

Romantikk & Rytme” (Romance & Rhythm) begins as if it might blossom into a 60s groove but blooms instead into something more delicate—a piece of baroque jazz with a twist of the surreal.

There’s a cinematic feel throughout, reminiscent of 60s European soundtracks, but it ́is not nostalgic. This is an album about the present, layered with a Norwegian sense of place and pace. Jazz here is not only a genre but a grammar for expressing both freedom and form.

Adding another layer of texture to the release are liner notes by Ivan Ave, the internationally acclaimed Norwegian rapper and lyricist. His contribution stands on its own as a miniature literary work: part reflection, part sensory essay, part mythmaking. His writing deepens the experience of RIK, articulating what the music implies: that richness isn’t about resolution or clarity, but the air between the leaves, the tension in not quite knowing.

Harald Lassen, saxophone, piano, flute, synth, melodica, glockenspiel, vocals and percussion
Solveig Wang, synths, clarinet
Sander Eriksen Nordahl, guitars
Stian Andersen, electric bass
Tore Flatjord, drums, percussion

Recorded in Paradiso Studio, Oslo. June 2024
Recorded & mixed by: Marcus Forsgren
Mastering by George Tanderø

Harald Lassen
is a child of the highly creative and constantly blooming music scene in Oslo. His growing acclaim and reputation as a unique creative force within Norwegian jazz and other creative music is not only justified but plain for all to hear. «Harald´s music is jazz, but jazz of a different shape and colour. Such music can only come from a free and open mind» wrote international music press after his third and latest album «Human Samling» was released in 2020. The album was nominated for best jazz album of the year in the Norwegian Grammy Awards. Together with his lively and soulful band Lassen centers his music around inviting tunes from his catalogue and brings the listener on a liberating adventure. Grounded and soaring at the same time. A good place to be in!

Harald Lassen was in an early aged picked up by jazz legends like Jon Christensen and Arild Andersen and has gradually staked out his own course through a huge amounts of bands, collabs and artistic directions, from the underground techno scene in Oslo to church music to commercial pop music. His international career started with the trendsetting indie jazz band Pixel(2010-2017) and toured in the same period with the award winning band Mopti and the ”must see” costume orchestra Dr. Kay and His Interstellar Tone Scientists. Beside his own band Harald is currently playing with the popular Norwegian pop band No. 4 and in a new duo with singer Susanna Wallumrød.

Back in 2016 Harald Lassen released his first solo album ”Rainbow Session” in collaboration with Belgian LABtrio which is just one of many national and international artist he has worked with along his musical path; Jon Christensen, Bendik Baksaas, Ellen Andrea Wang, Corrie Dick, Rob Luft, Cassandra Jenkins, Anja Lauvdal, Sondre Lerche, Mohammed Matona and so on.

"Lassen makes you feel you´re part of something spontanious and real – here and now you are very lucky” - JazziNorge

"Remarkably beautiful and pleasant sounding music for our times" - Dagens Næringsliv

Dieses Album enthält kein Booklet