Rune Grammofon

The final Burning Ambulance podcast of 2018 is a very special episode. Back in May, I went to Norway for the Nutshell jazz showcase and interviewed several Norwegian jazz artists – that was in episode 19. And just a couple of weeks ago, at the end of November, I went back to Norway, for the 20th anniversary of the Rune Grammofon label.

Rune Grammofon is a fantastic label that has put out albums by Motorpsycho, Supersilent, Arve Henriksen, Bushman’s Revenge, Elephant9, Fire!, Maja Ratkje, the Espen Eriksen Trio, the Hedvig Mollestad Trio and many, many others. To celebrate their 20th anniversary, the founder and label owner, Rune Kristoffersen, booked two nights of shows at National Jazz scene, a club in Oslo. The first night featured Maja Ratkje and Motorpsycho, and the second night featured Fire! and the Hedvig Mollestad Trio. And I was one of the foreign journalists invited to come over and see the shows, because I’ve been a supporter of the label for a long time – I’ve reviewed their releases for The Wire and for Burning Ambulance, I interviewed Arve Henriksen for a cover story back when BA had a print magazine, et cetera, et cetera. I wrote a review of the concerts for Down Beat, which you can read on their website, and while I was in Oslo I interviewed Rune, Maja, Bent Saether from Motorpsycho, Mats Gustafsson from Fire!, and Hedvig Mollestad, and you’ll hear all of those conversations, as well as music from each of them, in this episode.

Here's a list of the music you'll hear in this episode:

Motorpsycho, "Ship of Fools" (The Tower)

Fire!, "The Hands" (The Hands)

Maja Ratkje, "Trio" (Voice)

Motorpsycho, "Manmower" (Roadwork Vol. 5)

Fire!, "Up and Down" (The Hands)

Hedvig Mollestad Trio, "First Thing to Pop is the Eye" (Smells Funny)

Sky Music, "Chaser" (A Tribute to Terje Rypdal)