Hailing from Norway, Eivind Aarset has recorded on over 150 albums with artists such as Ray Charles, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Mike Mainieri, Ute Lemper, Ketil Bjornstad, Arild Andersen and Abraham Laboriel. This resume, along with three critically acclaimed solo albums, establishes Aarset as one of the pioneering spirits of modern jazz guitar. Let’s take it a step even further and call him an innovator ahead of his time, rethinking the ways of utilizing guitar to create some wild soundscapes.

Dubbing his music “Nu-Jazz,” Aarset is a leading voice in instrumentalist-driven electronica, where melody and form come from jazz touchstones but rhythm is inspired by “the club.” Hunting for new sounds and rhythmic inspiration, Aarset has turned to Ableton Live both for sound design and the ability to transport loops and recordings to new dimensions.

The final product of all this manipulation reflects the joy of guitar re-imagined. Though you will hear Aarset employ traditional tones from surf to metal, you will also hear sounds that have been digitized until they are only dimly recognizable as guitar—if at all. But the best part is that, like Les Paul, Jimi Hendrix, and Robert Fripp, Aarset has not let the technology diminish the instrument’s humanity. Instead, he has found the spirit in the machine.

Sign of Seven clip

“I think the way I work with electronics is like an extension of what all musicians do when they phrase or shape their sound,” he says. “It’s the combination of the traditional music building components—chords, structure, etc.—and a sound that makes the emotional impact I want. I like to go from something abstract—such as noise-oriented playing—merge that into more obvious musical structures, and then go back again. Sometimes, I take things the other way around, as well.”

“I started on the guitar as soon as I heard him [Jimi Hendrix],” he recalls with a smile. “I bought a second hand Hendrix record and that was it. Then I started getting into rock bands like Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Santana and Pink Floyd before my brother introduced me to the music of Miles Davis, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report and Return to Forever. After a while I got into the ECM sound of Jan Garbarek, and Terje Rypdal who was a big influence. Then I went on the road with a fulltime heavy metal band, a fantastic experience, until I got tired of being angry every night! Then I quit and became a session musician.”

Light Extracts, the latest installment of Eivind Aarset’s musical odyssey, has now arrived, crossing the warp from the tried and tested sounds of yesteryear to create an inner cinema of musical symbols spinning their own evolution of perpetual transformation. The sonic possibilities of the future begin here, music of the new future jazz and a journey to an unquantifiable musical eternity with no solidarity, no limits, no inception and no conclusion.

Check out this interesting interview by Jazzdimensions.com to learn more about this freshly unique guitarist.

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