Tellef Ogrim - Wagon 8 (2007)Curling Legs

A Norwegian fretless guitarist, Tellef Ogrim has played in rock and jazz bands so far. He also wrote the music for theatres. In the eighties, he started cooperation with a contemporary art music composer, Henrik Hellstenius and recorded together with him "Libido" CD in 1987. His first solo MCD "Some Dodos Never Die" was released only in 2004. "Wagon 8" is his first official full-length solo album. Tellef recorded "Wagon 8" along with a Polish musician, Jacek Kochan, who handled drums and electronics, and also with Dag Einar Eilertsen (trombones). Jacek Kochan was taught by Jaco Pastorius among others and cooperated with the likes of John Abercrombie, Tomasz Stanko etc. Dag is a jazz trombonist famous for his music composed for theatres and film. As a digression, I also can mention Music Conspiracy Project that is made up of aforementioned Tellef Ogrim and Jacek Kochan, a bassist Joe Fonda and a trumpet player Franz Hautzinger. As far as "Wagon 8" is concerned, I'd like to add that there are also two guests. Anne Danielsen was responsible for voice and audio edit on the last track and her name is known from Duck Spin. Privately, she is a wife of Tellef Ogrim and a music researcher at the University of Oslo (Norway). However, Henrik Hellstenius handled the electronics on one track and collaborated with Tellef in the band Libido over 20 years ago.

The trio plays a kind of experimental, ambient, avantgarde, electronic music blended with nu-jazz. It's also odd, weird, twisted, unorthodox, unconventional and simply freaky. Tellef's ingenuity is staggering, that's why the stuff is flooded with experiments on tones. In other words, here are many sonic pranks and a tonal disharmony. It can place enormous stress on unpractised listeners' brains, but all open-minded human beings should understand this crazy music offered by Tellef and his company. "Wagon 8" surely reflects his instrumental aptitude and personality in a sense. It is really a good alternative against the mainstream.