Everybody Loves Angels

Wesseltoft, Bugge

There can be very few musicians who are capable of making silence as audibly vivid as the Norwegian Bugge Wesseltoft, in particular in his solo piano recordings. For twenty years, the most successful of these, “It’s Snowing On My Piano”, has been treasured as a haven of wintry stillness and contemplation. It is a classic album. Listeners all over Europe have responded to it by giving it a permanent place in their lives. So now Bugge Wesseltoft and producer Siggi Loch have returned to the original concept of “Snowing” in “Everybody Loves Angels”. The title is a metaphor for the kind of weightless ease which the music conveys; and this time it's not just for winter... The success story started in 1997. Bugge Wesseltoft had just released the album “New Conception Of Jazz” on his own newly-founded label Jazzland. That album broke new ground, combining electronic sounds and grooves with his unmistakeably limpid, transparent piano playing, and the result was a timeless work of art. It left an indelible mark on subsequent generations of pianists, and established him as one of the most important innovators in jazz. ACT label boss Siggi Loch had been following Wesseltoft with interest for quite some time, and made him an offer: to bring a very different side of his musicianship to the fore, and to record a completely acoustic solo piano set “with Christmas in mind” for the fledgling ACT label. Wesseltoft is vehemently opposed the overcommercilisation of Christmas, and yet he did find himself attracted to the idea of recording music which would restore quietness to times in which everything is getting inexorably louder. So Bugge Wesseltoft and Siggi Loch met up at Oslo's Rainbow studio. With the pianist’s little daughter Maren perched on his lap, Wesseltoft started to improvise on Christmas songs and folk melodies. That first solo piano recording was to be the most successful – it achieved the highest sales in the history of ACT. As the popular German newspaper WAZ wrote at the time: “In its almost unworldly beauty, It's Snowing On My Piano is the greatest Christmas CD that jazz has ever produced.”

Price: $22.99

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