Terje Rypdal

Rypdal’s journey as a composer of works for ensembles and orchestras began in the late 1960s. Already established in Norway as a rock and pop guitarist, he was beginning to explore jazz improvisation in the company of George Russell and Jan Garbarek, when exposure to the music of Ligeti and Penderecki opened up new and compelling sound-worlds. From 1969 he studied composition under Finn Mortensen and in 1971 premiered his first big piece, Eternal Circulation, with the Oslo Philharmonic and the Jan Garbarek Group. 1973’s Whenever I Seem To Be Far Away, with members of the Südfunk Symphony Orchestra, was an early recorded instance of Terje’s combining of improvised and notated elements in a strikingly original – and influential – chamber music outside the genres. Rypdal’s work Undisonus was voted Composition of the Year by the Norwegian Society of Composers in 1984 and subsequently recorded with Terje Tønnesen and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London for release on ECM. Since then, other Rypdal ECM recordings with large instrumental forces include “Q.E.D.” (recorded 1991) with the Borealis Ensemble, “Double Concerto/5th Symphony” (1998) with the Riga Festival Orchestra, “Lux Aeterna” (2000) with the Bergen Chamber Ensemble and “Crime Scene” (2009) with the Bergen Big Band. But this is just the iceberg’s tip. Rypdal is a highly-prolific writer, and the great bulk of his compositional output is undocumented on disc. His work-list can be explored at Norway’s Music Information Centre: http://mic.bibits.no/