CnRd337
Circulatione Totale Orchestra
Gjeddene i Sivet
Artist: Circulatione Totale Orchestra
Album title: Gjeddene i Sivet
Label: ConradSound
Catalog number: CnRd337
Release: 15th January 2026
Formats and pricing:
- CD digipak from €6
Shipping:
- From Norway to Norway
- From Slovenia to EU and rest of the world
Press
Frode Gjerstad is maybe the most prominent of all Norwegian free improvising musicians. Frode made his way through the 70s, 80s and 90s the hard way by himself. Initiating almost every project himself, touring, recording and promoting his own music in a time that seemed like a swamp between the Garbarek/ECM-era and the new age of young jazz starting in the mid nineties. Frode did not win the awards, he carved out his own career. In Stavanger he became the legend, the inspirator and the proof that great minds can achieve.
Circulasione Totale Orchestra started in 1984 when Gjerstad got the idé to play with young local musicians, so that he could try out his ideas and bring people interested in improvised music together. Gjerstad was back then playing with Johnny Mbizo Dyani og John Stevens in the group "DETAIL" ,and felt that there was a lot of knowledge to be passed on to the younger generation. The band name suggests that musicians would come and go, and rumours says the band name is a combination of late night red wine and quasi italian language ideas.
Todays version is far from young, but has the eclectic combination of the long time colleague and super drummer, Paal Nilssen-Love, with the two newcomers on electric guitars (Kleppen & Skaset). The electric bass and guitar brings Gjerstad and his Orchestra into a new direction filled with blues, sludge, folk and African influences.
This edition of Circulasione Totale Orchestra seeks to blend the absurdities and blues elements from Captain Beefheart to the freedom and energy of Ornate Colemans Prime Time area.
Artist bio
This version of Circulasione Totale Orchestra consists of Frode Gjerstad: Alto saxofon & clarinet, Håvard Skaset: Electric guitar, Mattis Kleppen: Electric bass, Paal Nilssen-Love: Drums
Credits
Frode Gjerstad - alto saxophone & clarinet
Håvard Skaset - electric guitar
Mattis Kleppen - electric bass
Paal Nilssen-Love - drums and percussion
Recording - Roger Berntzen & Guro Moe
Mix and mastering - Frode Gjerstad
Cover design - Christian Meaas Svendsen
Mattis/ Paal / Frode / Håvard
