Conditions for a Piece of Music

This is the third full-length release by Norway's Ultralyd. This all-star quartet formed in 2004 when legendary saxophonist Frode Gjerstad suggested that the trio Gjerstad/Olsen/Hana needed a distinct bass player. The very first rehearsal with Kjetil D. Brandsdal (also of Noxagt) was released as the self-titled album Ultralyd on the English label FMR in 2004. After a UK tour the same year, the band established the sound captured on the album Chromosome Gun, which was released in 2005 on the American avant-rock label Load Records. Frode Gjerstad decided to leave later in the year and for a short while the band operated as a trio before recruiting new sax player Kjetil Moster, winner of the Young International Jazz Talent award in New York in 2006. During two extensive European tours and several studio sessions, Ultralyd's direction slowly changed from a rather chaotic free rock approach towards composition and more structured forms of improvisation, experimenting with different layers and altered roles of the instruments, integrating elements from contemporary music, electronic music, funk and doom metal and ending up with something that might be classified as chamber rock. However contradictory that might sound. Ultralyd is part of the N-Collective, an international conglomerate of musicians, composers, improvisors and artists.