Møster! - When You Cut Into the Present (2015)

On their third album release in as many years, Kjetil Møster’s band Møster! have taken yet another seven-league leap forward. Here we encounter a band that is, if possible, even closer, more unified and better synchronised than on the previous two albums. It is not difficult to hear that the band has been active on the concert circuit since their last album was released. This new album was recorded during a break in an extensive tour on a shared bill with the Norwegian-American band Young Mothers. The energy level in the studio was so intense that you can expect your loudspeakers to start sweating.

Møster!’s previous album, “Inner Earth”, had the reviewers hunting for both superlatives and comparisons with viscously-flowing lava and volcanic eruptions. The British magazine Rock-A-Rolla described the album’s finale in these words: “The devastation finally hits with the double hammering of Tearatorn and Underworld Risk and the full unleashing of Møster!’s infernal potential into an obliterating lava flow blasting through every available blowhole.”

On that album the band took a step in the direction of prog rock, and slowly and very patiently built up to an enormous climax. On “When You Cut Into the Present” this gradual build-up has been replaced with a more direct and confrontationally effective style. Prog rock, psychedelia and John Coltrane’s jazz are obviously still sources of inspiration for the band, but this time they share the honours with everyone from King Crimson in their Red period to Alice Coltrane and the krautrock masters of Can. Their music has also incorporated references from the originators of the Nordic jazz sound of the 1960s and 70s such as Garbarek/Rypdal/Andersen/Christensen. From the very beginning of the album the musicians hit the floor running, propelling themselves towards ecstasy with constant sonic excesses and grooving with marathon-like stamina. The result is a catchy, addictive and consistently creative eruption of an album that will get the pulses of many music lovers racing, and will glue grins to their faces.

Saxophonist Kjetil Møster is apparently everywhere – all the time. He plays in a number of jazz and improvisational bands, but also performs regularly with Röyksopp & Robyn, Datarock, King Midas and Lars Vaular. Since recording the previous album with the Møster! band he has also released an album with the Hungarian trio Jü, and has launched a concert collaboration with the Chicago musicians Jeff Parker and John Herndon (Tortoise) and Joshua Abrahams (Town & Country). But there is no doubt that it is Møster! which is his main project and which lies closest to his heart.

In addition to Kjetil Møster himself, the band consists of the same musicians as on the previous album: the legendary Hans Magnus “Snah” Ryan, guitarist/vocalist in Motorpsycho; Nikolai Hængsle Eilertsen, bass player in Elephan9 and BigBang; and the ubiquitous drummer Kenneth Kapstad, also from Motorpsycho and Monolithic.

“When You Cut Into the Present” was recorded at Øra Studio in Trondheim with technician Jo Ranheim. It was mixed by Christian Engfelt, Kjetil Møster and Nikolai Hængsle Eilertsen at Engfelt & Forsgren Studio in Oslo, and mastered by Jørgen Træen at Grotten in the Bergen Kjøtt building.