Norwegian, Trondheim-based trio I Like to Sleep – vibes-mellotron player Amund Storløkken Åse (son of keyboard wizard Ståle Storløkken and vocal artist Tone Åse and brother of guitarist Emil Storløkken Åse), guitarist-bassist Nicolas Leirtrø and drummer  Øyvind Leite – embrace a more locally rooted approach on their fourth album, Bedmonster’s Groove. The seven pieces were written in the first months of 2023 at the trio’s beloved neighborhood Nyhavna, one of Trondheim’s pivotal areas for arts and music, and recorded in March 2023 at the local Øra Studio, a stone’s throw away from the trio’s practice space at Nyhavna. Its cover was designed by local Tore Østbø and the album is released by the local label All Good Clean Records (after two albums released by the Oslo-based Rune Grammofon label), in limited editions of 100 black-green marbled vinyl and 50 gold marbled vinyl and a download option,

Bedmonster’s Groove was conceived with sound engineer and production maestro Kyrre Laastad. The production intensified I Like to Sleep’s ambient rhythmic palette with the most raw and brutal sound to date but made Bedmonster’s Groove its most groovy album so far, farthest as possible from the Thelonious Monk quote that the trio was titled after. The sonic palette of the trio was expanded through the extensive use of the untimely, vintage sounds of the Mellotron and its vibes-samples (which were introduced on the trio’s previous album Sleeping Beauty, Rune Grammofon, 2022) and the Alice Coltrane-tinged spiritual synths. But the tight and heavy, psychedelic grooves and riffs of Bedmonster’s Groove incorporate elements of the sixties and seventies prog-rock and fusion with a dynamic range that embraces both King Crimson and Miles Davis’ electric era.

This bringing-everything-full-circle approach of I Like To Sleep pays homage to All Good Clean Records’ debut album of I Like to Sleep, Bedmonster from 2017. Judging by the infectious, heavy grooves and riffs of I Like to Sleep, Nyhavna must be one of the hottest and hippest places in chilly Norway.

Eyal Hareuveni

Amund Storløkken Åse (vibraphone, mellotron), Nicolas Leirtrø (Stavem baritone guitar, bass-VI), Øyvind Leite (drums)