Building Instrument

The trio Building Instrument began to play together in Bergen in 2008, and their original idea was to explore electronic music. This project was quickly abandoned in favour of a more acoustic and home-grown focus. The members of the trio have now found their own self-defined niche within a genre that could be described as a no-man’s-land. Their material is largely improvised and playfully invented as an ensemble. The members of the trio Building Instrument are Mari Kvien Brunvoll (vocals, sampler, zither, percussion, kazoo), Øyvind Hegg-Lunde (drums and percussion) and Åsmund Weltzien (synthesizer, electronics, melodica). Drummer Øyvind Hegg-Lunde plays in two bands that have recently released records, the Big Almost and Crab is Crap, with Ståle Storløkken, and is currently on a world tour with José Gonzalez of Sweden and his band, Junip. Åsmund Weltzien plays with Thea Næss.
Vocalist Mari Kvien Brunvoll from Molde is singing in Norwegian for the first time on this album, and is even using her local Molde dialect. She has been described as “an exceptional talent” by pianist Bugge Wesseltoft, who released her first solo album on his Jazzland label. The album was nominated for a Spellemannspris (Norwegian Grammy) in the open category. Her second album, also nominated in the same category, presented her duo collaboration with Stein Urheim, who also has a new release out on the HUBRO label.