Those believing the Norwegian scene is all about Nordic Cool and electro-centric improv might change their minds after hearing The Core's Office Essentials. Owing as much to John Coltrane's classic mid-1960s quartet as it does the closer-to-home Jan Garbarek/Bobo Stenson Quartet of the 1970s, The Core is as far from cool as you can get; delivering some of the hottest music to come out of Norway since early Garbarek albums like Afric Pepperbird (ECM, 1970) and Sart (ECM, 1971). But make no mistake: The Core may reference things past, but its sound is unequivocally contemporary.

Perhaps surprisingly, three of Office Essentials' six tunes are written by drummer Espen Aalberg, but it's saxophonist Kjetil Moster's "Bolero" which opens the disc with a folkloric melody reminiscent of Garbarek/Stenson's Dansere (ECM, 1976). But equally, this simple, repeated melody is nothing but a set-up for Moster's full-out assault, a combination of Garbarek's ascerbic tone, Coltrane's spirituality and Pharoah Sanders visceral screams. But unlike Saunders and Coltrane, one of Moster's greatest strengths is how, whatever extremes he reaches for, the song's spare theme is never too far from the surface. Similar to Bill Frisell but ...

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