Ivar Grydeland

Ivar Grydeland belongs to a young generation of Norwegian jazzmen that quickly took Scandinavia and Europe by storm starting in 2000. A co-founder of the avant-garde jazz/free improv label Sofa, this guitarist has performed in one of <a href="spotify:artist:38hAXjCbg6MlaUqFpdNB03">Tony Oxley</a>'s trios and is a core member of <a href="spotify:artist:0jCZZzKsIM0le4R4SGTnPb">No Spaghetti Edition</a>.

Grydeland was born in 1976. From 1996 to 2000 he studied at the music academy in his hometown Trondheim, an institution also frequented in those years by <a href="spotify:artist:0sVfiWcqQsFEIlhm9LrkGf">Paal Nilssen-Love</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5VhZ9FeiUCJn4CdxSYUkcE">Ingebrigt Håker Flaten</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:3XJpZZfND3iyyp2MFjETSL">Ingar Zach</a>, and a number of other young players eager to take Norwegian avant-garde jazz away from the quiet pastures of the ECM label sound and into something more raw and powerful. A scene got organized in the late '90s, and fresh out of school, Grydeland gave the wheel a good push by co-founding Sofa with musical partners <a href="spotify:artist:3XJpZZfND3iyyp2MFjETSL">Ingar Zach</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:0byRdidl3crTKAt9Kj4iuS">Karl Seglem</a>. The label's first released was <a href="spotify:artist:38hAXjCbg6MlaUqFpdNB03">Tony Oxley</a>'s Triangular Screen, recorded following a short Norwegian tour where the famous British free improviser played in a trio with bassist Tonny Kluften and Grydeland. A session with <a href="spotify:artist:3XJpZZfND3iyyp2MFjETSL">Zach</a> followed. In 2001, the guitarist co-founded the large-scale improv group <a href="spotify:artist:0jCZZzKsIM0le4R4SGTnPb">No Spaghetti Edition</a>. Grydeland toured Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia in September 2001 with <a href="spotify:artist:3XJpZZfND3iyyp2MFjETSL">Zach</a>, and England a few months later with <a href="spotify:artist:0jCZZzKsIM0le4R4SGTnPb">No Spaghetti Edition</a>. He also performs free jazz with drummer <a href="spotify:artist:5Li0fvh4kEJOWbLYWfNrPr">Jon Christensen</a> and noise-based improv with guitarist <a href="spotify:artist:0o75h6sKFb09ZnvX6wdMWW">Øyvind Torvund</a>. A quartet session with <a href="spotify:artist:3XJpZZfND3iyyp2MFjETSL">Zach</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2P3Jy8LBtOtMLESHQqQIje">Phil Wachsmann</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:7rKJLzsdm9KfZ8eYy9StRe">Charlotte Hug</a> came out in November 2002. ~ François Couture, Rovi