Gaute Storsve Trio - El Gran Gotzilla (2022) Hi Res

Gaute Storsve Trio is merging Nordic jazz with Latin American music. The music on this album has been inspired by a plethora of different genres expanding from Cuban son and old Mexican boleros to 70s jazz rock and prog.

Storsve lived and worked in Havana, Cuba, where he befriended The Cuban percussionist Angel Terry Domech. Terry has played with a multitude of Cuban musicians like Buena Vista Social Club with whom he toured and recorded for several years. On this album he is playing the traditional West African drums batá on the tracks “¿Nada? ¡Nunca!” and “Beta Batá Beat”.

The album title, “El Gran Gotzilla”, is borrowed from vintage Guatemalan fireworks (cohetería). The title track expresses this explosive intensiveness musically. The opening track “las dos Fridas” is inspired by Frida Kahlo’s painting with the same name and expresses pain and beauty simultaneously. “Lucha Libre” is written as a traditional well-choreographed Mexican wrestling match. Different instruments, tonalities and time signatures are fighting for the glory. “Einar” is about the sadness you experience when you are gradually losing someone to dementia.

Two other guest musicians are brought along: the amazing improvisation musician Jørgen Mathisen, best known from Krokofant, and the very talented violinist Ingrid Berg Mehus, best known as a session musician with several Norwegian artists.