Jan Gunnar Hoff - HOME (2022)

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Jan Gunnar Hoff - HOME (2022)

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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.

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, 2022