About

— 2LP pressed on limited edition black vinyl.
— Housed in gatefold sleeve.

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Norwegian innovator, trumpeter and producer Nils Petter Molvær presents Be Quiet – a duo collaborative album built across nine tracks with nine distinct artists including Imogen Heap, John Paul Jones and Alva Noto, recorded in cities spanning Bangkok, Rome, Berlin and London. Across landscapes of electronica, ambient textures and jazz improvisation, Be Quiet unfolds as an intimate, spatial set of recordings – built on proximity and contrast, where different cultures, disciplines and sonic identities meeting Molvær’s unmistakable trumpet voice.

The album is accompanied by a documentary film directed by celebrated Norwegian filmmaker Per Maning, capturing the process, environments and relationships behind the music, and informing the project’s visual world. Be Quiet unfolds as Molvær steps into each collaborator’s space, responding in real time and shaping a body of work that remains fluid, intimate and constantly in motion. — (via Label)

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Molvær is no stranger to bold concepts. Since first attracting attention through his work with Arild Andersen in Masqualero, his brand of Nordic restraint has carried him across musical boundaries, gaining acclaim in electronica, club music and jazz improvisation. His landmark album Khmer (ECM Music, 1997) set his distinctive trumpet alongside beats and electronic walls of sound to open up the way for genre-fluid instrumental music to evolve.

Drawing together such a varied mix of artists, cities and recording studios was always going to present a challenge. Fortunately, Norwegian musician and producer Jan Bang brings his sound design skills to bear alongside Molvær's on seven of the tracks, creating a series of intimate soundscapes with great spatial depth. On "London-Hackney," Bang adds his own samples and keyboards to Imogen Heap's voice and electronics as Molvær's trumpet phrases drift slowly through the piece, dissolving into gentle waves of brooding electronics. Everything is hushed, nothing is hurried, yet a distinct sense of movement is always present. — (via All About Jazz)

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In that respect, Be Quiet is a complete success for Nils Petter Molvær – at least from the perspective of this listener and writer. For years his dominant musical language has been associated with small combo ensembles, often more energetic and forward-moving than introspective in the way we usually associate with ambient Scandinavian jazz. Now, not only do we hear Molvær in a series of different duo formations (and one trio), but the individual pieces themselves are remarkably restrained – minimalist not in the conventional sense of repetition, but rather through the small number of notes played and the interplay between those notes, intervals of silence, and atmospheric soundscapes. — (via Euro Jazzist)

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Label: Edition Records
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition
Released: 2026
Genre: Electronic, Jazz
Style: Avant-garde Jazz, Contemporary Jazz, Experimental

File under: Ambient / Experimental / IDM
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