Der norwegische Gitarrist Terje Rypdal hat sich im Spannungsfeld zwischen atmosphärischem Jazz, eruptivem Rock und nordischer Melancholie eine unnachahmliche Ausdrucksweise erarbeitet. ... Das 2003 aufgenommene Live-Album ist zwar eine Hommage an Miles Davis, einen ähnlichen Freigeist, doch halten sich die erklärten Bezüge zu „Bitches Brew“ in engen Grenzen. Terje Rypdal schafft mit alten Mitstreitern wie dem Schlagzeuger Jon Christensen und dem Trompeter Palle Mikkelborg sowie jungen Nachfolgern wie dem Keyboarder Bugge Wesseltoft wieder seine unverkennbaren Klanglandschaften.
Markus Ganz, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
This is no facile nod to the past. Rypdal’s own son is at hand to lay down crackling electronic interludes, so that we suddenly hand brake turn through drum’n’bass textures, while Rypdal himself, for all his love of McLaughlin, is very much his own man. It’s increasingly rare to hear him on record playing in this kind of ‘jazz’ context … so the looser forms of Vossabrygg are a welcome space to stretch out in his sky-soaring style. A welcome run out from the great guitar man, but this is one brew he’s particularly whipped up for Mikkelborg whose haunting trumpet is the key sound throughout.
Andy Robson, Jazzwise
Rypdal has been guesting with Norwegian nu-fusionists Supersilent, and the group’s keyboardist joins Jazzland’s Bugge Wesseltoft here, along with the brilliant Miles-inspired trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg. The keys and drumming make the long Ghost-dancing gripping, even without Mikkelborg’s ghostly horn sound and Rypdal’s violin-like guitar. Old Rypdal classical samples act as the bridging passages, drum loops thunder inexorably under choir-sounds, and Mikkelborg sometimes reprises early-Miles ballad-playing. … The playing is great – notably in the way Rypdal’s and Mikkelborg’s Miles-phrasing make guitar and horn almost inseparable, and in the sharply contrasting drumming of Paolo Vinaccia and Jon Christensen.
John Fordham, The Guardian
Der nordische Klangzauberer mischt Jazz, Rock und Electronica auf eine Weise zusammen, die an Miles Davis “Bitches Brew” erinnert und doch unverkennbar die Soundsignatur der Gegenwart trägt.
Bert Noglik, Jazz Zeitung
Vossabrygg, a hypnotic fusion concerto recorded live in 2003, is determinedly modern in its dark magic and angel song. Hectic dance-floor electronics put the gas in “Incognito Traveller”; sampled choir and strings warm the melancholy of “Hidden Chapter” like rays of winter sun. It is also a jolt and joy to hear Rypdal … explode with heavy manners in “You’re Making It Personal”, slicing the air with his guitar like it’s an ice sword.
David Fricke, Rolling Stone
Rypdal, never one to pay homage and leave it at that, embraces the advances in technology with the inclusion of keyboards wizard Ståle Storløkken… But the biggest development is the inclusion of Rypdal’s son, Marius, handling the electronics and samples … Rypdal compositions are poised but lyrical, using silences to create an other worldly sense of mystery. On the evidence of Vossabrygg, Rypdal is at the top of his game.
Hugh Gregory, Jazz Review
Recorded live at Vossa Jazz Festival in 2003, … Vossabrygg is an unmitigated triumph. Opener “Ghostdancing” is a dark, brooding eighteen-minute epic. Drummer Jon Christensen and Paolo Vinaccia merge with the electronica of Terje’s son, Marius, who has sampled several of his father’s recordings to create a platform over which Rypdal and trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg soar. One of my favourite albums of 2006.
Don Zulaica, Drummer
What Rypdal has done is composed a jazz set that pays tribute to that classic Miles album, yet sounds fresh and new, which is not an easy feat. … What this music does accomplish in to recreate the way Miles’s band would establish a pulse – not just a beat, not just a rhythm, but a living pulse – and build everything up from that. … If you were ever a fan of Bitches Brew, you really must audition Vossabrygg. … An amazing, intoxicating, and satisfying brew it is.
Kevin East, The Sensible Sound
