The splendid music made by this trio is simply a result of the great pleasure these three kindred spirits have from playing and exploring the music. They prefer to use the term open minded to explain how they work together, to create the free acoustic music that has become their own particular trademark. Their way of approaching music and evolving soundscapes is extremely open-minded. They create sounds and musical moods that shift from pure improvised voyages, energy power jazz, catchy, gentle melodic lines, fragile ballads - the saxophone softly in the background or dominating in front, lyrical percussive solos, soft bass lines - a well known Ornette Coleman composition followed by the trio's own music, or simply pure freestyling - yet the red thread, the wholeness and musical logic is fully present.

Hakon Kornstad is a full-time explorer of his saxophones, searching for new languages and alternative ways to make sound. He plays more than one tone at the time, experiments with broken messages, distortion-like tones, and percussive bangs. All done without any technical help, since, according to him - everything's right there, inside the saxophone. Yet, he actually has a definite weakness for the divinely melodic. Smart.

Mats Eilertsen is the perfect glue of this trio, bringing it all together with the warm and lyrical way he treats his bass. Both steady and experimental at the same time, showing openness, willingness, and constantly searching for new sounds.

Paal Nilssen-Love, who according to Pat Metheny should be the next president of Norway, is well known for his high talent for understanding music and moods, and for how to supply dynamics in each and every sound variation, and how to, by intuition, portion out the energy.

The Kornstad Trio welcome a busy summer and autumn in 2003. On July 2. they are to perform at the Kongsberg Jazz Festival in Norway, giving a concert in return for the festival prize they won last year. A new CD release will be due in early autumn (Jazzland Acoustic/Universal), and three weeks touring in Norway organized by Rikskonsertene takes place in October. They will also perform at festivals and clubs home and abroad.

Visit Kornstad at http://www.kornstad.com!