Allaboutjazz, Gene Thackara, July 2021:
Runar Nørsett and friends basically stay in jazz territory, but pack it with the energy of a catchy-rocking jam band. To take in the wild tumbling of “West Goes East” or the stomping precision of the perversely titled “Stumbling and Fumbling,” it’s no surprise to hear that Tobias Øymo Solbakk also has experience drumming in metal bands. This affair is full of infectiously punchy sound and catchy hooks to match. A good part of the sound is down to Fredrik Sahlander’s warm bouncy electric bass tone as well, and the rest comes from pounding the piano and drums in gleeful defiance of the mostly-analogue setup.
While Nørsett’s pieces have a share of that thrash attitude built in, they’re infused even more with melody and fun. Among the musical descendants of Esbjorn Svensson, we can list this gang alongside the Maciej Tubis Trio and label-mates LRK Trio as another fresh creative outfit that deserves to be better known—the mix is one accessible to listeners with rock (or perhaps even punk) sensibilities as much as those looking for modern jazz. If the title and cover imply a quiet or lonely affair as a result of 2020’s social isolation, please banish the thought. My Funny Quarantine acknowledges the uncertainty of the times, then blasts through the worry with sheer carpe-diem abandon.

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SKjazz, Patrick Španko, June 2021:
«If you think that the piano jazz trio no longer has you and cannot be surprised by anything, contact the Norwegian label Losen Records! This is guaranteed to help you. The album is coming, behind which is a strong story of the main protagonist, which is the composer and pianist Runar Nørsett. He started playing the piano at the age of six, and as a teenager he had a dream to study classical music and become a professional pianist. Somehow it didn’t work out and he started studying medicine instead. He still works as a doctor in Kristiansand, Norway, but has never stopped playing and writing music. His interests gradually changed from classical music to improvised music and jazz, and for many years he played the piano in various environments and with various musicians, but he still lacked something. Since the 1990s, he has dreamed of putting together his own trio and playing his own songs, but for many years nothing has happened. It wasn’t until 2017 that he stopped having fun listening to “just dreaming” about the trio of Runar’s very good friend and excellent bassist Fredrik Sahlander, who said he had found a young, hugely talented drummer from Harstad who was now studying at Kristiansand University called Tobias Øymo Solbakk. And that he would like to join Fredrik and Runar. The Runar Nørsett Trio was formed in the spring of 2017 and the debut album From the ashes came two years later. Runar Nørsett is still working as a doctor and is still writing compositions, which the trio recorded on early October 2020 for their second album called My Funny Quarantine. The album contains nine Runar songs, strongly melodic and apart from the title, they have nothing to do with a pandemic and a bad mood, I believe it has nothing to do! On the contrary! As Runar Nørsett himself said, “I try to write music that appeals to the heart and brain, music that can make you laugh and cry, and music that stimulates your imagination. I have something to tell you, but I don’t know exactly what it is. By listening to my music you may understand. ” With this album and its listening, he gets into a world where musicality, collegial spontaneity as well as charm and joy of play and life are clear and dominant! Complete catharsis in today’s world!»

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Diskoryxeion.blogspot.com, Phontas Troussas, May 2021:
Norwegian pianist Runar Nørsett plays with our pain in the title of the CD of “My Funny Quarantine”, but let it be. What “quarantine” means for everyone, in each country, is definitely something completely personal and different – and for Nørsett, the “My funny quarantine” track, as we read in the liner notes of his new CD, is written (in 2020 of course) as he thought about the covid-19 virus with fear, but also with optimism and hope. Human, in any case, feelings … and beyond that an album, a piano trio, which would be completed with the contribution of Fredrik Sahlander bass (known to us from the bands SAH !, Johnsen / Sahlander / Moen and Dualistic , for entries for which there are reviews on the blog) and Tobias Øymo Solbakk drums.
Of course, most of the tracks were composed last year, while they were recorded last October, when the conditions in the country were not completely aggravated, with strange titles (“No exit!”, “Song for a summer night”, “Where the songs have no name ”etc.), which, however, and as Nørsett writes, are not related to covid-19 (except for“ My funny quarantine ”, as we said before).
You can find different types of pieces here. And nice, narrative, gentle, technical, with a very special use of the rhythm part, with melodic patterns I wish, that stick immediately in your memory (“Where the songs have no name”) and others that release a force up to cruelty we would say ( if we are talking about piano-trio), with sharp fills from the drums and at the same time rhythmic patterns from the piano (“No exit!”).
With Sahlander bombarding the bass guitar, with a variety of bass lines, keeping a nice balance between contrasts (slow-fast, dynamic-gentle, west-east, swing-lyrical, etc.) and Nørsett flying with enjoyable solos ( “West goes east”), “My Funny Quarantine” is a jazz album, which has many moments and phases of enjoyment.

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Jazzviews.net, Chris Baber, May 2021 (extract):
All the tunes have a vibrancy and charm that the recording captures perfectly, with Sahlander’s deeply sonorous bass as warm partner to Nørsett’s bouncing melodic style, and Solbakk buoying up the tunes with a shuffling groove. … Many of the tunes slip nonchalantly between tempos and rhythms, with the three musicians riding across the changes with ease and camaraderie.

Windout (Facebook), May 2021:
Shades of noir, a music that is abstract, and with harmonic structures that embrace African-American tonal language, with detours to Scandinavian folk music and pure, untainted jazz. Runar Nørsett is one of the best European pianists with a great expressive talent, he takes up elements from classical music to improvisation and jazz. The Norwegian has characterized jazz in recent years with his at the same time firm and soft solos. A strict swing style, with moderate sonority and an intellectual finesse, places him among the most brilliant soloists ever. Everywhere oases of inspiration can be heard from Jarrett (No exit). The new album contains tension-filled harmonies which he wisely manages, with moods from Ecm (Stumbling and Fumbling), and which lifts Nordic jazz into a world of art, literature and dreams! I studio Fredrik Sahlander bass and Tobias Øymo Solbakk drums.

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Nettavisen, Tor Hammerø, August 2021:
We should all have a swinging GP. Those who have Runar Nørsett as their chosen one have definitily that. As you know, there are many roads to Rome. Certainly also to Kristiansand. That is where the pianist, composer, bandleader and GP Runar Nørsett (48) comes from, lives and works – both as a doctor and as a musician. And the path Nørsett has taken to launch his second record release has by no means been traditional. The latest generations of jazz musicians in this country “all” have several years of education from one of the many brilliant “jazz universities” around the kingdom. This is not the case with Nørsett, even though he has played the piano since he was 6 years old. The detour has been via medical school and permanent work as a doctor, but with the proof in hand, and not least in the ears and the rest of the sensory apparatus, there is relatively much that suggests that Nørsett has never skipped a practice session at the keyboard. The dream was to study classical music and become a professional pianist. This is not how it ended; it became medicine and jazz instead. Now I have little idea of Nørsett’s standing as a doctor, but if it is close to what he delivers at the keyboard, then it is of the very solid type. Together with Swedish Fredrik Sahlander on electric bass and Tobias Øymo Solbakk from Harstad on drums, both living in Kristiansand , Nørsett has created an empathetic, groovy and melodic small cohort where the often singable melody is at the centre. Ahmad Jamal has been mentioned as a source of inspiration, and I see no reason to doubt that Nørsett has listened to the legend for an hour or two. This is beautiful, intimate and heartfelt jazz music created by three gentlemen who obviously like each other and what they do. If it sounds like someone who has music as a hobby? Far from it – it’s super professional in every way. Wonderfully refreshing and surprising. If, contrary to presumption, I were to head for Kristiansand and thus have to change my GP, I know in any case who I would go for.

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(Jazz Journal, Michael Tucker, October 2021, extract)
«Here’s something I hadn’t seen coming: a Nordic piano trio release with plenty attitude, featuring healthy dollops of tough and assertive piano, strong albeit “breathing” shuffle grooves and backbeats and funky, in-the-pocket bass figures (Super Mario?, Stumbling And Fumbling, No Exit!) as well as some deliciously sprung swing (Fooling Around, Where The Songs Have No Name). The whole is delivered with a capacity to shift and switch matters of attack, rhythm and dynamic register that’s redolent of Ahmad Jamal.»

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Jazzjournal, Michael Tucker, November 2024:
«Two sharp and intricate, funky and flowing workouts, the second (and title track piece) with Randy Brecker (t) and Ada Rovatti (ts) on board, kick off an album of diverse Nørsett originals, all enjoyable and at times a touch reminiscent of Jarrett’s Belonging quartet of the 1970s. The core trio features Nørsett (p) with Fredrik Sahlander (elb) and Tobias Øymo Solbakk (d) while Brecker and Rovatti appear on a couple or so more tracks. Lyrical flugelhorn distinguishes Summer Is Coming, as does similarly pitched tenor from the impressive Rovatti on the following Leaving Shore. Slick, sliding and popping bass and a propulsive drums and piano duet mark Hurry Up! before a further range of diversely caressed and kicked lyrical accents and overtones colour the final She Didn’t Love Me, Most Of The Night and Until The Nearness Ends, the beautiful, slow-tempo and spaced-out last featuring more affecting flugelhorn from Brecker.»

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Salt and peantus, Jan Granlie, September 2024:
«Plateselskapet Losen Records, som holder til i Oslo, gjør en formidabel jobb for å fremme relativt ukjente musikere og deres musikk. Det kommer jevnlig ut plater på selskapet med artister som, så godt som aldri, er å finne på klubb- eller festivalprogrammene rundt om. Men lenge platedirektør Odd Gjelsnes beholder sin «nese» for god jazz, og han får det til å «gå rundt», så vil det komme mye jazz fra selskapet som, kanskje, får sine første «steg ut i offentligheten» via platene Losen utgir.
Fire år har gått siden forrige album med Runar Nørsett Trio kom ut, med tittelen My Funny Quarantine, passet den godt til den situasjonen vi alle var i på den tiden. Nå er det krigene i Ukraina, Midt-Østen og flere steder i Afrika som opptar oss. Overskrifter om økonomisk ustabilitet, korrupsjon og økende sosial ulikhet roper til oss i nyhetsbildet, og demokratiet står overfor sine største utfordringer i moderne tid. «Hvor er verden på vei?», spør pianisten Runar Nørsett i coverteksten til sin nye plate. «Jeg vet ikke, og ingen kan vite det sikkert. Jeg vet at vi hele tiden er på vei, uansett retning. Med dette albumet har jeg prøvd å lage musikk som ikke gir seg ut for å være noe annet enn bare musikk. Musikk med lidenskap, humor, energi og forhåpentligvis en følelse av å flykte fra noen av våre bekymringer på denne endeløse reisen inn i fremtiden».
Med seg i trioen har han bassisten Fredrik Sahlander og trommeslageren Tobias Øymo Solbakk, pluss at han har fått med seg trompeteren og flygelhornisten Randy Brecker (på to låter) og tenorsaksofonisten Ada Rovatti på to. De åtte komposisjonene av Nørsett er innspilt i Studio A ved Universitetet i Agder i oktober 2023.
De starter med den drivende «Funky Goes To Hollywood», hvor Sahlanders el.bass driver fint sammen med trommer og Nørsetts fine pianospill. Og som tittelen sier, så er dette en funky låt so, ja, kan ha noe med Hollywood å gjøre. I alle fall ligger den adskillig nærmere Hollywood enn det norske landskapet. Og det følges godt opp i andresporet, «Endless Journey», med Randy Brecker og Ada Rovatti som gjester.
I tredjesporet, «Summer is Coming» tar de det ned, og Breckers flygelhornspill fungerer fint inn i det hele. Og det er nok adskillig mer sørlandsidyll over sommeren som kommer, enn den vi har på Voss, hvor regnet har vært toneangivende helt siden sommeren startet. I denne låten er det mye skjærgårdsidyll, og man kan nesten kjenne bølgeskvulpene og solnedgangen i solgangsbrisen, før vi får «Leaving Shore», som beveger seg litt i samme landskap, og med fint tenorsaksofonspill av Rovatti. Spillet hennes passer inn i denne typen jazz, og med fint komp, særlig fra Sahlander, blir dette helt ok. Og Nørsetts pianospill svinger fint og ubesværet.
«Hurry Up!» er en fin triolåt hvor det virkelig går unna i svingene, mens «She Didn’t Love Me» er mer melankolsk, selv om erkjennelsen av at hun ikke elsker budbringeren, har lysere øyeblikk, som gjerne dukker opp i slike situasjoner, før vi får «Most of the Night», en fin sak som passer til sommernattens siste glass. Så avslutter de med «Until the Nearless Ends», en ballade med fint flygelhornspill fra Brecker.
Hele veien er det pianospillet til Nørsett som fører an på låtene. Han er en drivende god pianist som trives i det svingende og funky landskapet, like godt som i de rolige låtene og balladene. Og begge gjestene bidrar fint på de låtene de er involvert. Kanskje spesielt Brecker som i mange år har vært vant til å oppholde seg i disse musikalske omgivelsene helt siden Brecker Brothers dager.
Og det er mye Brecker Brothers over uttrykket på platen, særlig i første delen. Riktignok ikke med like overbevisende tenorsaksofonspill, men det skal også noe til. Men jeg synes italienske Rovatti, som for øvrig er gift med Brecker, gjør en helt ok jobb.
Dette er en plate som gjerne kan plasseres under rubrikken «jazzrock». Men ikke bare det. I tillegg til jazzrocken serverer de også fine komposisjoner man enten kan kalle norske eller danske. Og i disse låtene befinner man seg i nærheten av havet, hvor horisonten er det eneste man ser annet enn et rolig hav.»

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Windout (Facebook, Italy), September 2024, Chat GPT-translated:
«Simple and communicative, the new album from the Runar Nørsett Trio presents rich textures of modern jazz, electric energy throughout, and familiar funk melodies in Most of the Night and Funky Ghost to Hollywood. Fresh air sweeps through Hurry Up!, marking the latest possibilities in Scandinavian jazz. There’s no noise here, just a contagious light breeze—a magical nebula that releases into the air and then explodes into a thousand sophisticated fragments. A dance of vibrant colors.
Runar Nørsett (piano), Fredrik Sahlander (bass), and Tobias Øymo Solbakk (drums) are constantly on the move, regardless of the direction. Their album, permeated with acoustic gems, is a perfect example of compelling indie jazz with pop inlays. Pianist Runar Nørsett, a popular musician and composer from the southern Norwegian city of Kristiansand, offers pleasant and well-curated musical tastes, following in the footsteps of Trio Elf with a floating sensitivity and captivating urgency.
Special guests include Randy Brecker (trumpet) and Ada Royatti (saxophone). Contemporary jazz.»

Diskoryxeion.blogspot.com, Phontas Troussas, August 2024, Chat GPT-translated:
The Runar Nørsett Trio consists of Runar Nørsett on piano, Fredrik Sahlander on bass and Tobias Øymo Solbakk on drums. Next to them is the Brecker couple, i.e. Randy Brecker trumpet and Ada Rovatti tenor saxophone… and this is how “Endless Journey”, a very uplifting jazz CD, recorded somewhere in Norway, in October 2023. Has a note in the middle of the all paper gatefold by Nørsett, in which we read:
“It’s been three years since our last album and the world is changing. Again. The coronavirus and the lockdowns were upon us three years ago. Today, the pandemic is only a gloomy shadow in our minds. Now, there are wars on our continent and in the Middle East. Economic instability, corruption and growing social inequality make headlines, with democracy facing its most serious challenges in modern times. Where are people going? I don’t know, and no one can know for sure. I know that we are constantly on the same road, regardless of the direction. With this album, I tried to make music that doesn’t pretend to be anything other than just music. Music with passion, humor, energy and hopefully a sense of escape from some of our worries, on this never-ending journey into the future.”
Nørsett says it well, but he implements it even better on this ultra-dynamic CD, with eight of his own compositions.
If you consider that in four of the eight tracks recorded here you also hear brass or wind instruments, then the piano-trio is the only peak of “Endless Journey”, as the shape turns three times into a quartet and once into a quintet. So, here we have a tasteful jazz, with nice melodies, nicely analyzed and processed, with beauty and a feel good mood dominating. Feel good further means extroverted and danceable, like what we hear in “Hurry up!” from the piano trio or to the funky term “Endless journey” from the quintet.
In short, this is an album that wins you over immediately, I mean from the first listen, with its honesty and directness.

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SKjazz, Patrick Španko, November 2024 (google translated):
In the spring of 2017, the Runar Nørsett Trio was formed, and the debut album From the ashes came two years later.
But what story precedes the musical career of the composer-pianist Runar Nørsett himself, I wrote about this in more detail when reviewing his second album, Runar Nørsett Trio – My Funny Quarantine, which was released in 2021 as a collection of Runar’s nine compositions, …”strongly melodic and, apart from the title track, have nothing to do with the pandemic and bad mood! Quite the opposite!” – I wrote at the time. About the latest album by Runar Nørsett Trio – Endless Journey (again Losen Records, 2024), Runar himself says: “Three years have passed since our last album and the world is changing. Again. Three years ago we were faced with corona and lockdown, today the pandemic is just a gloomy shadow in our minds. Now there are wars on our continent and in the Middle East. Headlines about economic instability, corruption and growing social inequality scream at us in capital letters, and democracy faces the most serious challenges in modern times. Where is the world heading? I don’t know and no one can know for sure. But I do know that we are constantly on the road, regardless of the direction. With this album I tried to create music that doesn’t pretend to be anything other than just music. Music with passion, humor, energy and, I hope, also with a sense of escape from some of our worries on this endless journey into the future.” The trio plays again in the same composition as before: Runar Nørsett – piano, Fredrik Sahlander – bass guitar and Tobias Øymo Solbakk – drums. But two unexpected guests have joined us, even a jazz couple from behind the big puddle: Randy Brecker – trumpet and flugelhorn in two songs and Ada Rovatti – tenor saxophone also in two songs, while the title track Endless journey on the album sounds in full glory and with the appropriate tension of all participants! At the beginning of the album, the brisk and catchy Funky Ghost To Hollywood sounds, and at the end, on the contrary, the beautiful ballad Until the nearness ends speaks to us, a pity that without a female element, but with Randy on the flugelhorn and symbolizing, as it were, calming down, stopping in a hurried time, … The message of the album Endless Journey is strong and we should really think about it!

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