Department of Virtuosity writes: The trio plays a kind of experimental, ambient, avantgarde, electronic music blended with nu-jazz. It's also odd, weird, twisted, unorthodox, unconventional and simply freaky. Tellef's ingenuity is staggering, that's why the stuff is flooded with experiments on tones. In other words, here are many sonic pranks and a tonal disharmony. It can place enormous stress on unpractised listeners' brains, but all open-minded human beings should understand this crazy music offered by Tellef and his company. "Wagon 8" surely reflects his instrumental aptitude and personality in a sense. It is really a good alternative against the mainstream. (complete review here)
The French magazine Improjazz writes: The album title Wagon 8 is a good choice. It gives an impression of being on track, but soon you find that the tracks are far from parallel. Only rarely do the 3 musicians let us feel that we move in a familiar landscape. Throughout the adventure is playful and risky the way this sort of music is meant to be.
Wrote editor Philippe Renaud in Improjazz nov-des 07 (http://pagesperso-orange.fr/improjazz/)
The bimonthly Greek music magazine Apopsy writes: .....an unusual set of originals that continually oscillate between structured sound and completely free improvisation....exploits the micro tonalities sliding from note to note and spread an idiosyncratic, sometimes weird mosaic....demanding and not easily accessible album, where there is much to be discovered and explored...
Full article (in Greek) here.
The greatest jazz site on earth, All About Jazz writes "Blending improvisation with electronics-based music, Wagon 8 is a strong debut for Øgrim's less-than-conventional instrument and collective". complete review here.
Nordlys, Tromsø
"...the music carries a lot of personality, from time to time almost pleasant and beautiful, but just as often distant an experimental."
Dagsavisen, Oslo
the most notable norwegian jazz reviewer Roald Helgheim reviews my new album "Wagon 8" in "Dagsavisen" on the 22nd. of April. I am very honored that he did, and very, very pleased that he seems to like what he hears. He dislikes our attempts to label the music in the press release, but goes on to write that the music itself surprises him in a positive way and that this goes to show that there was nothing wrong with just plain jazz. He writes: "With Wagon 8 Tellef Ogrim is back in jazz land, but i think it is a complicated detour to describe the music as electro-acoustic nu-jazz as the press text does. To me this is simply jazz. It all depends on the result....Therefore I am surprised in a positive way by the music Ogrim jokingly calls reclaiming Polish Free Jazz. It only goes to show that there is nothing wrong with that jazz either."
Unfretted.com writes:
"Tellef Øgrim's new cd "Wagon 8" is truly a piece of art-
it deserves a place within Norway's top "jazz" albums.
For the record, Norway is, in my view, among the greatest nations when it comes to producing high quality, improvised music."
Hamar Arbeiderblad writes:
".....surely a fantastic record for all free jazz enthusiasts, but for those of us who never got a grip of this genre listening to this record is hard work....the only thing that makes me understand that a new song has started is the space of a few seconds between the tracks...it was very hard to stay concentrated throughout an hour of this."
complete review written by Marit Elise Lyngstad here.
(A short but honest piece. Not least since the reviewer does nothing to conceal the fact that she never liked any music from the genre she is about to evaluate.)
www.nettavisen.no writes:
"....ogrim's fretless guitar takes center stage in the rough sound picture....the music is open and free, some times structured, melodic and groovy.. together with trombone player Dag Einar Eilertsen and the polish drummer and live electro player Jacek Kochan, and with guest appearances by singer Anne Danielsen and composer of contemporary music Henrik Hellstenius, Ogrim takes us to places few of us have been.
«Wagon 8» is not "light" music. It is demanding to play and demanding to enter into - but it feels very good. If you allow yourself to be challenged there is a lot of beautiful, exciting and unique music waiting for you in Wagon 8."
tor hammerø's complete review here.
(this first review of the cd "wagon 8" appeared in "nettavisen.no", one of norway's top seven online news sources)
