HOME Jan Gunnar Hoff

• 1 What Might Have Been 05:26
• 2 Hike 04:03
• 3 Magma 04:05
• 4 Barndomsminne fra Nordland 04:14
• 5 Kanskje 03:12
• 6 Summertime 04:21
• 7 Moon River 03:41
• 8 Bruremarsj fra Beiarn 04:23
• 9 Free Flow 04:49
• 10 Meditatus 04:50
• 11 Hope 03:31
• 12 Detour 04:28
• 13 Vaapstenjeanoe (Big River) 04:12
• 14 Survival 03:50
• Total Runtime 59:05

Info for HOME

HOME can be seen both as an homage to and as a statement of belonging to northern Norway, with its naked landscape and its Arctic location. The title can also allude to a quest for identity, both from a personal and from an artistic perspective. All these sentiments and aspirations find expression in the music on this album. Some of the pieces here are interpretations of well known themes including What Might Have Been by Mike Stern, Summertime by George Gershwin and Moon River by Henry Mancini, while others are original compositions by Hoff. Some of the pieces are completely improvisatory.

Jan Gunnar Hoff tells us the story behind the album: “In May 2021 Morten Lindberg got in touch with me and asked if I could make a solo recording in Stormen Concert Hall in Bodø. With open minds and very few pre-conceived ideas we went ahead and, broadly speaking, took things as they came – the way we felt at the time, the actual piano and the concert hall itself determining what we recorded for two days in August that year. This album does not aim to present a particular genre, with all the expectations such a commitment might carry, but rather to give each number its own shape and style. When you interpret text-based songs instrumentally it’s best to keep a sharp focus on melody, rhythm and phrasing. By freeing the phrasing of the melody from the constraints of a fixed tempo, I can put more strength and intensity into my interpretation, and broaden and embolden the melodic material.” (Jan Gunnar Hoff)

Jan Gunnar Hoff, piano

Jan Gunnar Hoff
is a Norwegian jazz pianist, arranger and composer. He was born in Bodø in 1958. His career as a jazz musician started in a piano trio in 1976. In 1992 he made his debut as a solo artist and composed a suite in four movements for the occasion. The concert was a great success and the music was recorded for his first CD Syklus, described by the press as “the vitamin injection of 1993”. Since then Hoff has made a number of albums in his own name and composed 180 works for different ensembles. He received the Edvard Prize (named after Edvard Grieg) in 2005 for his jazz mass Meditatus and was composer of the commissioned work for Vossa Jazz the same year.

Jan Gunnar Hoff has worked extensively as a bandleader and solo artist since 1992, developing his distinctive musical style. His compositions have been performed in collaborations with Mike Stern, Pat Metheny, Alex Acuña, Audun Kleive, Maria João, Mathias Eick and many others. As a sideman Hoff has contributed to numerous recordings in different genres. He was the arranger and leader of Quiet Winter Night, Grammy-nominated for best surround sound in 2013, an album where he success- fully merges elements of jazz, folk and popular music. LIVING is a solo piano journey that carries Hoff’s artistic identity further into his own musical terrain, enhanced by the crystal clear recording from Sofienberg Church in Oslo, August 2012.

Booklet for HOME