Brede Sørum is a 24-year-old Norwegian sax player-composer who just finished his jazz studies at Trondheim’s Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Sørum leads a quartet with young musicians – Danish pianist Oliver Skou-Due, and fellow Norwegians, double bass player Bendig Løvland Lundsvoll and drummer Steinar Heide Bø – that released its debut album, Spirits, featuring Sørum’s compositions.
Sørum, Skou-Due and Lundsvoll play together also in the Schemes quartet, with drummer Veslemøy Narvesen, who draws inspiration from both American and European influences, with clear references to classical impressionism and contemporary jazz scenes. Sørum hosted Bø on his debut album, Brede Sørums Fabrikkerte Virkelighet (2021), and they continued to collaborate also in the TOG trio (Megamax, Sonic Transmissions, 2023).
The album features a cover artwork designed by an established Norwegian musician-composer-imroviser-label head, bassist Christian Meaas Svendsen, referencing the iconic cover artwork of Albert Ayler’s Spirits Rejoice (Debut, 1064). Brede Sørum Quartet does not offer a revolutionary phase in jazz aesthetics as Ayler did, but it certainly suggests a strong-minded maturity and musical excess that may surprise even the most experienced jazz listeners. This quartet excels with a passionate, spiritual musical energy that breathes and boils.
Sørum Quartet honors the legacy of the 60’s innovations within free jazz and modal jazz, and Sørum’s Soundcloud page offers his own version of John Coltrane’s epic A Love Supreme (Impulse!, 1965), but Sørum insists on his own ambitious musical vision. The centerpiece is the powerful and ecstatic four-movement suite “Spirit” which unfolds from darkness to light, from fog to clarity, and, surprisingly, was recorded in one take. This suite pays homage to the lasting spiritual legacy of Coltrane as it is meant to be a catalyst for a meditative state of the quartet in the hope of reaching into the core of its musicality and allowing the four musicians to free themselves from body and mind, and be present at the moment and the music. This impressive suite is introduced and concluded by two short pieces, «Clouded Mind» and «Clarity». Sørum leads his quartet with a charismatic, commanding voice and marks himself as a promising creative force to reckon with.
Eyal Hareuveni
Brede Sørum (alto saxophone), Oliver Skou-Due (piano), Bendig Løvland Lundsvoll (double bass), Steinar Heide Bø (drums)
