BUGGE WESSELTOFT

Nu Jazz / Post-Fusion Contemporary / Pop/Art Song/Folk / Jazz Related Electronica/Hip-Hop / World Fusion / Third Stream • Norway
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BUGGE WESSELTOFT picture
Jens Christian Bugge Wesseltoft was born February 1st, 1964 in Porsgrunn and raised in the neighbouring city of Skien, around 100km south-west of Oslo. Jazz music filled Bugges world from an early age by virtue of his Jazz guitarist father, Erik Wesseltoft.

Bugge started practicing on the piano at age 3, and by the age of 7, he had begun taking lessons, but after a short time he stopped these, instead choosing to learn by himself. Bugge played tuba and the bass drum in his schools marching band, where he met Audun Kleive who gave him further insights into the world of jazz.

Beginning with a punk band, Bugge has played in bands from around the age of 16. At that time he was also meeting with friends to jam at home in the basement, playing different kinds of material. Through his fascination with electronic sounds, Bugge soon bought his first synthesizer
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BUGGE WESSELTOFT Discography

BUGGE WESSELTOFT albums / top albums

BUGGE WESSELTOFT New Conception of Jazz album cover 3.57 | 4 ratings
New Conception of Jazz
Nu Jazz 1997
BUGGE WESSELTOFT It's Snowing on My Piano album cover 3.00 | 1 ratings
It's Snowing on My Piano
Pop/Art Song/Folk 1997
BUGGE WESSELTOFT Bugge Wesseltoft's New Conception of Jazz : Sharing album cover 3.50 | 2 ratings
Bugge Wesseltoft's New Conception of Jazz : Sharing
Nu Jazz 1998
BUGGE WESSELTOFT New Conception of Jazz: Moving album cover 4.57 | 6 ratings
New Conception of Jazz: Moving
Nu Jazz 2001
BUGGE WESSELTOFT New Conception of Jazz: FiLM iNG album cover 4.82 | 5 ratings
New Conception of Jazz: FiLM iNG
Nu Jazz 2004
BUGGE WESSELTOFT IM album cover 3.50 | 1 ratings
IM
Nu Jazz 2007
BUGGE WESSELTOFT Playing album cover 4.00 | 1 ratings
Playing
Nu Jazz 2009
BUGGE WESSELTOFT Songs album cover 4.00 | 1 ratings
Songs
Post-Fusion Contemporary 2011
BUGGE WESSELTOFT Duo (with Henrik Schwarz) album cover 3.80 | 6 ratings
Duo (with Henrik Schwarz)
Jazz Related Electronica/Hip-Hop 2011
BUGGE WESSELTOFT Last Spring (with Henning Kraggerud) album cover 3.00 | 1 ratings
Last Spring (with Henning Kraggerud)
Third Stream 2012
BUGGE WESSELTOFT OK World album cover 3.50 | 1 ratings
OK World
World Fusion 2014
BUGGE WESSELTOFT Bugge Wesseltoft, Henrik Schwarz & Dan Berglund : Trialogue album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Bugge Wesseltoft, Henrik Schwarz & Dan Berglund : Trialogue
Jazz Related Electronica/Hip-Hop 2014
BUGGE WESSELTOFT Bugge & Friends album cover 3.75 | 2 ratings
Bugge & Friends
Nu Jazz 2015
BUGGE WESSELTOFT Everybody Loves Angels album cover 3.50 | 1 ratings
Everybody Loves Angels
Post-Fusion Contemporary 2017
BUGGE WESSELTOFT Bugge Wesseltoft & Prins Thomas album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Bugge Wesseltoft & Prins Thomas
Jazz Related Electronica/Hip-Hop 2018
BUGGE WESSELTOFT Bertine Zetlitz & Bugge Wesseltoft : Closer album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Bertine Zetlitz & Bugge Wesseltoft : Closer
Pop/Art Song/Folk 2020
BUGGE WESSELTOFT Be Am album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Be Am
Post-Fusion Contemporary 2022
BUGGE WESSELTOFT Bugge Wesseltoft & Henrik Schwarz : Duo II album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Bugge Wesseltoft & Henrik Schwarz : Duo II
Nu Jazz 2022
BUGGE WESSELTOFT Mari Boine & Bugge Wesseltoft : Amame album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Mari Boine & Bugge Wesseltoft : Amame
Pop/Art Song/Folk 2023
BUGGE WESSELTOFT Am Are album cover 4.00 | 1 ratings
Am Are
Nu Jazz 2025

BUGGE WESSELTOFT EPs & splits

BUGGE WESSELTOFT Bugge Wesseltoft, Henrik Schwarz : Oh! album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Bugge Wesseltoft, Henrik Schwarz : Oh!
Nu Jazz 2025

BUGGE WESSELTOFT live albums

BUGGE WESSELTOFT New Conception of Jazz Live album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
New Conception of Jazz Live
Nu Jazz 2003

BUGGE WESSELTOFT demos, promos, fans club and other releases (no bootlegs)

BUGGE WESSELTOFT Verve Now (with Vinicius Cantuária) album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Verve Now (with Vinicius Cantuária)
Nu Jazz 1999
BUGGE WESSELTOFT New Jazz From The Chrysler Group album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
New Jazz From The Chrysler Group
Nu Jazz 2001

BUGGE WESSELTOFT re-issues & compilations

BUGGE WESSELTOFT New Conceptions of Jazz: Box album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
New Conceptions of Jazz: Box
Nu Jazz 2008
BUGGE WESSELTOFT Somewhere In Between album cover 3.00 | 1 ratings
Somewhere In Between
Nu Jazz 2016

BUGGE WESSELTOFT singles (0)

BUGGE WESSELTOFT movies (DVD, Blu-Ray or VHS)

BUGGE WESSELTOFT Reviews

BUGGE WESSELTOFT Am Are

Album · 2025 · Nu Jazz
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snobb
Pianist/keyboardist Bugge Wesseltoft, who was born half a century ago in a small town on the Norwegian southern shore, is one of the key people responsible for one of the significant modern trends in jazz, combining aerial Nordic folk-influenced grooveless piano jazz with contemporary electronics (often post-rock influenced), ie: so-called nu jazz or "future jazz".

On his newest album, "Am Are", Bugge continues developing his usual sound, offering a great collection of different formats (predominantly trios) in collaborations with some Nordic stars, as well as lesser-known musicians.

The album's opener, "How?",(the review is based on the digital album's version, the vinyl edition contains a different tracklist) is a rare Bugge piano/synth solo song, sounding very much like Chopin-like melancholic ballade, just adapted for the New Millenium. "ReiN" is a duet of Bugge, switching from Yamaha Synth to piano and back, and drummer Elias Tafjord. The piece is energetic and recalls synth-based space-themed jazz fusion compositions from the late 70s. "Is Anyone Listening?" is a different song - a piano/sax trio with r'n'b-influenced Norwegian singer Rohey Taalah. It's a bluesy ballad with a jazzy feel.

"BAG" is played by a more conventional trio with legendary acoustic bassist Arild Andersen and drummer Gard Nilssen on board. The song sounds very much like a traditional jazz fusion piece from 70-80s. The same trio is responsible for the next track, "Reel", which is a bit lazy and moody atmospheric ballad with a lot of deep acoustic bass soloing.

"Render" and "Vender" come from a different trio, with Bugge dominating heavily on electric keyboards (Fender Rhodes and Korg) and another Nordic jazz legend, drummer Jon Christensen, (plus electric bassist Sveinung Hovensjø) on support. Early Weather Report fans will be really happy with the sound of this one.

"JazzBasill" and the title track both come from the fourth different trio - Bugge plays piano with acoustic/electric bassist Jens Mikkel Madsen and drummer Øyunn. These two songs sound closest to the conventional modern jazz piano trio. The closer, "ThinkaHeaD", is the most unusual composition with feelable Indian rhythms from tabla player Sanskriti Shrestha. Other trio members on this track are Bugge (who plays organ besides piano here) and guitarist Oddrun Lilja. Still very much an atmospheric and ambient piece.

"Am Are" is another of Bugge's masterpieces, not deeply searching for new ground but trying to absorb all the best that has been done by him during the last decades, and present it in fresh and attractive form.

BUGGE WESSELTOFT IM

Album · 2007 · Nu Jazz
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idlero
Pianist Bugge Wesseltoft is well known as one of the pioneers of the nu-jazz especially in the 90's with his "New Conception Of Jazz" series releases in which he mixes jazz with dance club. But his album IM dedicated to tragic events in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (and to one particular victim, Zawadi Mongane who Bugge heard interviewed on BBC Radio) is different. In this album BW focuses on solo acustic piano( although it includes the Sami singing and percussion of Mari Boine on ‘YOYK’, and the voice of Rwandan survivor Zawadi Mongane telling her story in ‘WY’ ). The music is slow, gentle, reflective, reminding of Keith Jarrett or Satie, probably the most meditative music he wrote. Maybe not everyone's cup of tea, and for sure not every BW fan's cup of tea but as "still water runs deep' , this music can touch you deeply if you give it enough time.

BUGGE WESSELTOFT Duo (with Henrik Schwarz)

Album · 2011 · Jazz Related Electronica/Hip-Hop
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js
Nu jazz meets ambient techno and the sum is greater than the parts in the hands of these two excellent craftsmen. Good ambient techno is hard to come by these days. With the rise of cheap music making software any Joe with a computer can create endless amounts of new age sounding drivel, but ambient techno was never supposed to be that saccharine sweet, nor that easy to produce. Henrik Schwarz gets it right on here with that perfect blend of barely audible ambience and dry airy textures that are never sentimental. Add to that Bugge Wesseltoft’s very tasty and never overbearing treated piano and electric piano you have one very nice modern jazz CD.

Bugge’s playing on here is what you would expect from a modern electronica/jazz keyboardist, sort of a minimal Herbie Hancock-lite approach that mirrors Herbie’s own work mixing jazz and electronics back in the 70s. The fact that Bugge chooses to stick with real piano and Fender Rhodes is a great choice as it keeps the CD from sounding like the ambient techno generica herd. There is a very warm sense of play on here that verges on outright humorous satire on ‘Leave my Head Alone Brain’. On this one Wesseltoft plays piano clichés from the very early days of Chicago acid house while Schwarz brings the thump thump house beat as well as cliché slow moving high pass filter sweeps that were all the rage in 90s electro-dance music. Fortunately the two don’t get so carried away with their humor that this cut becomes a sore thumb, instead it blends with all the others as the whole CD becomes one big ambient electro-jazz soundscape where individual songs don’t matter much.

If you like a modern mixture of jazz and electronics along the lines of Spacetime Contiuum’s ‘Double Fine Zone’, then I doubt you will be disappointed in the careful thought and sensitive musicianship that went into constructing this very subtle gem.

BUGGE WESSELTOFT Duo (with Henrik Schwarz)

Album · 2011 · Jazz Related Electronica/Hip-Hop
Cover art Buy this album from MMA partners
The Truth
A graceful little album of skillfully manipulated piano (which was well played to begin with).

This is my first delve into either of these two artists but it looked like a good way to quell my recent thirst for nu jazz. I definitely wasn't dissappointed, the album is a great one indeed, Wesseltoft definitely is an excellent jazz pianist and his playing is the main highlight but Schwarz really takes the piano to a new (or nu) level of beauty with his tech skills. Each track starts excellent but it only gains excellence when it is mutated with computerized elegance.

In short, this sounds like robotic lounge piano music. Isn't that enough said?

BUGGE WESSELTOFT Duo (with Henrik Schwarz)

Album · 2011 · Jazz Related Electronica/Hip-Hop
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snobb
Norwegian pianist Bugge Wesseltoft is often mentioned as one of the godfathers of nu jazz. At least, his early releases are nu jazz classics for sure. I never was a big fan of him, his music often sounded too "lightweight" or too dance-able /clubbing oriented for me.

This Bugges album is his duo with a musician not related to jazz at all. German Henrik Schwarz made his name on the Detroit/Berlin techno scene and is a respected figure in club electronic music. Possibly, it was a big risk that this album would be even more "clubbing" music or radical electronics, but fortunately this didn't happen.

Even more - this album represents a very rare great balance between jazz roots and modern electronic music possibilities. Being almost minimalist, it contains live and studio recorded compositions - both of which are stylish and tasteful. I was really surprised at how well balanced this music is - it looks like both musicians didn't demonstrate their abilities separately, but just moved one towards the other in their music.

Most interesting is how Henrik uses his electronic devices - it's a great example of how samples and electronics can be used as a source for improvs! In all, the music on here is not too extravagant, more normal than one would expect. Also, it's a great side of this release - the listener won't be shocked or attracted by some tricks, this album contains real music, and you will like it or hate it because of that.

BUGGE WESSELTOFT Movies Reviews

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BUGGE WESSELTOFT Shouts

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snobb wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Unfortunately no - but added manually
idlero wrote:
more than 2 years ago
there's a new release(2012) -'Songs' released by Jazzlands Recordngs.Shouldn't be an automatic update?

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