Nils Petter Molvær
Nils Petter Molvær is a Norwegian composer, trumpeter, and producer. His music crosses multiple styles and genres including jazz, ambient, house, EDM, hip hop, rock and pop that he melds into diverse, often intense soundscapes. He spent most of the 1980s as a session musician, and in European jazz supergroup Masqualero between 1983 and 1991. They recorded three albums for ECM. The label also released his globally acclaimed debut Khmer in 1997. 2000's Solid Ether showcased a cast that included guitarist Eivind Aarset and vocalist Sidsel Endresen. 2005's Er was a jazz exercise in experimental textures and electronics. 2008's Re-Vision offered duos and trios, while 2009's Hamada was in duo with either Jan Bang or Aarset. He joined Food, another allstar outfit for their 2010 debut Quiet Inlet. The following year he issued the electronic jazz album Baboon Moon, and followed with the abstract electronica of Switch in 2014. 2016's Buoyancy was its polar opposite, a contemplative exercise in modal music, electronica and jazz. In 2018 he assisted Sly & Robbie on Nordub along with Aarset and Vladislav Delay. Molvær led a quartet on the electro jazz set Stitches in 2021, while Certainty Of Tides was recorded with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra. In 2025, Molvaer released his original score and soundtrack to Roland Calla's Charlotte, One of Us, and in September saw Edition release Khmer Live In Bergen, performing the entire album in a 2023 concert.
Nils Petter Molvær was born on the small Norwegian island of Sula in 1960, and though he learned a lot playing in local bands, in 1979 he chose to leave his hometown to study at the conservatory in Trondheim. As a member of the nu jazz group Masqualero (the lineup included saxophonist Tore Brunborg, drummer Jon Christensen, bassist Arild Andersen) he released their eponymous 1983 debut album, before following with three more for ECM. The label signed Molvær to a solo deal and he issued his debut longplayer Khmer in 1998. It offered sampled and artificially generated sounds, backed by beats from house music and drum'n'bass. Internationally acclaimed, the set won several awards.
He followed two years later with Solid Ether, an album that included guitarist Eivind Aarset and vocalist Sidsel Endresen. It also saw a remix version titled Recoloured in 2001. In 2002 NP3 saw release from EmArcy, a downtempo future jazz outing, it included an eclectic cast that featured Aarset. Streamer was issued in 2004; it was produced and mixed by DJ Strangefruit. A year later, his score for director Stéphan Guérin-Tillié's Edy was released by Wagram Music.
Over the next couple of years, Molvær played sessions. He appeared in trio with Lars Danielsson and Bugge Wesseltoft on Mélange Bleu, as well as the star-studded Northern Lights (Strings Of Fire III) alongside Caecilie Norby, Danielsson, Aarset, Bobo Stenson, Christensen, Jan Bang, and Roberto Di Gioia. He returned in 2005 with Er, with programmers including DJ Strangefruit and Reidar Skår. In 2006 Thirsty Ear released Molvær's An American Compilation, to introduce him to North American audience.
The trumpeter released Re-Vision in 2008, a collection of duos and trios with Aarset and Jan Bang, while Thirsty Ear released the studio albums Hamada (2009), a second set of duos, trios and quartets. In 2010, he was the founding member of Food with Thomas Stronen, Iain Ballamy and Christian Fennesz. Their debut, Quiet Inlet was released by ECM, and acclaimed in North America, Europe and Asia. Two years later Baboon Moon with guitarist Stian Westerhus and drummer Erland Dahlen appeared from Columbia.
Molvær and Moritz von Oswald released 1/1 for EmArcy before signing to OKeh for 2014's Switch with Dahlen, pedal steel guitarist Geir Sundstøl, and pianist/keyboardist Morten Qvenild. He joined Mapping Oceans on their Høst Autumn Fall for Grappa. Buoyancy followed in 2016 using the same band as on Switch save for Qvenild, who was replaced by bassist Jo Berger Myhre. A more direct kind of electric fusion set, it won critical notice in Northern Europe, Japan and Canada.
The trumpeter also branched into contemporary classical music as a featured, co-billed soloist on composer Bjørn Bolstad Skjelbred's The Bee Madrigals (2017).
Best tracks
Khmer
Nearly Invisible Stitches
Solid Ether
Vilderness 1
Discography
Back