CnRd342
Frode Gjerstad/Karl Bjorå/Håvard Skaset
Artist: Frode Gjerstad/Karl Bjorå/Håvard Skaset
Album title: Evangelium
Label: ConradSound
Catalog number: CnRd342
Release: 15th October 2026
Formats and pricing:
- CD digipak from €6
Shipping:
-From Norway to Norway
- From Slovenia to EU and rest of the world
Press
Aesthetic Collision: Free Jazz Pioneer Frode Gjerstad Unites Avant-Guitarists Karl Bjorå and Håvard Skaset in Radical New Trio, EVANGELIUM
TANGEN, NORWAY — A raw studio session in Tangen spawned a bold new sonic experiment, initiated far outside the bounds of institutional hype. In the summer of 2025, Frode Gjerstad, the 78-year-old architect of European free jazz, bypassed traditional structures to test a volatile new hypothesis: an asymmetric trio architecture weaponizing two electric guitars and a single saxophone. To manifest this sonic friction, he drafted two distinct forces from the contemporary Norwegian underground: avant-jazz guitarist Karl Bjorå (Signe Emmeluth’s Amoeba) and noise-rock guitarist Håvard Skaset (MoE). The resulting collective is Evangelium.
For the listener of this record, the album defies the expectations of free music by delivering a series of shorter, punchy, tune-like tracks rather than standard long-form improvisation. Meeting at Skaset’s newly established studio facility, the three practitioners engaged in a concentrated sonic collision. No rehearsals, no safety nets—what you hear is exactly what they played the moment they first met. After a quick break for a pizza and a drink, the album was done, validating Gjerstad’s lifelong intuition for capturing volatile musical chemistry in sharp, focused bursts.
Gjerstad occupies a singular, fiercely independent position within the sociology of Norwegian creative music. Operating continuously since the 1970s, his practice has deliberately eschewed mainstream accolades, grants, and conventional talent categorization that are common in today's jazz. Guided entirely by a relentless flow of kinetic energy, his commitment to total creative autonomy has also driven him to become a passionate, lifelong recording engineer and mixer. For this project, his decades of deep sonic knowledge and studio guidance helped shape the raw, uncompromised fidelity of the performance, tracked and mixed at Skaset's studio.
While Gjerstad’s extensive curriculum vitae includes collaborations with global free-music titans, Evangelium disrupts established networks. Gjerstad had previously performed with both musicians independently—collaborating with Bjorå alongside Danish percussionist Kresten Osgood, and engaging Skaset within the historic Circulasione Totale framework. However, Bjorå and Skaset had never previously shared a physical or musical space.
Evangelium serves as a bridge between historical free jazz lineages and the heavy, angular grit of contemporary post-rock and noise-art. Listeners will find an album that explores the latent tensions and dense feedback possibilities unique to a double-guitar lineup. The guitar work hits on a vast spectrum of iconic reference points, directly name-dropping the sonic lineages of Jimi Hendrix, Allan Holdsworth, Fred Frith, Derek Bailey, Sonny Sharrock, and Nels Cline. Through these colliding influences, Evangelium completely redefines the parameters of the modern improvising ensemble through sharp, bite-sized compositions.
Artist bio
Credits
Frode Gjerstad (alto saxophone/clarinet)
Karl Bjorå (electric guitar)
Håvard Skaset (electric guitar)
and Signe Emmeluth (saxophone)
Recorded by Håvard Skaset
Mixed by Skaset
Mastered by Skaset
Artwork by Christian Meaas Svendsen
