Young Norwegian drummer Andreas Wildhagen is a highly versatile musician with an investigative instinct. He is less than 30 years old but already has played with the  free-improvisation Lana Trio, modern jazz groups Mopti and Jonas Cambian Trio, fellow drummer Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit and the experimental Nakama quartet.

«No Right No Left» is Wildhagen debut solo album, recorded in his private practice room on late July 2016. The seven improvised pieces explores different sonic and rhythmic expressions and levels of energy. As on other releases of Nakama, Wildhagen too asks the listener to dismiss its judgemental approach and attempt to «imagine a view which is not rooted in a subject or object», one that is beyond right and left, right and wrong.

Wildhagen improvisations does not attempt to gain the listener’s attention with commanding technique or boundless energy, but to offer diverse perspectives-visualizations that are the basis for his improvisations. Obviously, «Close Up» focuses on straight ahead and dense energy while «Bird’s Eye» is more sparse and suggestive with its story-like atmosphere. «Not in any Place in Particular and thus in All Places at Once» is more trickier, as it moves intuitively between rhythmic fragments and fractured pulses. The brief «Grasshopper» is playful and inventive while the powerful «No Left» sound as Wildhagen homage to mentor Nilssen-Love. Wildhagen masterful versatility and investigative-inventive instincts are best captured on the last two improvisations, «Rivers in My Arms» and «South-North», both navigate freely in exotic and colorful sonic sceneries.

Eyal Hareuveni
Andreas Wildhagen (dr)