Prepared for a new surprise coming from the Norwegian front? Master Oogway is a band with a Miles Davis feeling (and particularly the one of his Sixties records), a saxophone style rooted in the heritage of Ornette Coleman and the great free jazz original soloists, applied by tenorist Lauritz Lyster Skeidsvoll, and that kind of energy and distorted sound you only find in rock, coming very specially from the hands of guitarist Håvard Nordberg Funderud. All this glued by a rhythm section (bassist Karl Erik Horndalsveen and drummer Martin Mellem) acting like a riff engine and a concept inspired in the mythology of the movie “Kung Fu Panda” – the character Oogway, an elderly tortoise, is the creator of kung fu and the keeper of the Dragon Warrior legend, who he finally meets before ascending to the Spirit Realm. Listen to “The Concert Koān” and feel free to find out any metaphors concerning the spiritual nature of jazz. The music grooves constantly, but not in a linear way: it’s full of sudden stops and changes of metrics and directions, combining composition and improvisation in such a way you can’t differentiate the written and the spontaneously created. Either the subject is a travel to Mars or the kind of gum you prefer, the songs make you stand up and jump. As Master Oogway used to say, «you must let go of the illusion of control».

All music by Håvard Nordberg Funderud, except Master Oogway Theme Song by Karl Erik E. Horndalsveen (TONO) | Arrangements by Master Oogway

Recorded in Ocean Sound Recordings, December 2017 | Mixed by Henning Svoren at Ocean Sound Recordings, December 2017 | Mastered by Henning Svoren at Ocean Sound Recordings
Produced by Master Oogway | Executive production by Pedro Costa for Trem Azul | Photography by Jan Tore Eriksen | Design by Travassos