Blue

Terje Rypdal & The Chasers: Terje Rypdal (guitar, keyboards); Bjorn Kjellemyr (acoustic & electric bass); Audun Kleive (drums, percussion).
Released in 1987, this was the second album by the trio led by Norwegian guitarist Terje Rypdal. He and his young rhythm section first appeared together on the Rypdal album CHASER, from two years prior. Adopting the name of that album as their own moniker, this is another set of eight instrumentals, steeped in the sonic possibilities of jazz-rock fusion. Happily, this trio avoids many of the pitfalls of the genre. They focus on the heady atmospherics of Hendrix at his most outre, rather than the lockstep discipline of Return To Forever or others of that stripe. The composition's somewhat opened-ended structure recall some of the most engaging aspects of Jeff Beck, combined with the dark and bubbling funkiness of Miles Davis's electric ensembles in the seventies.