Atomic comes this close to being a Scandinavian free jazz supergroup. It allies the top line of Fire House and the Fredrik Noren Band (trumpeter
Magnus Broo and saxophonist
Fredrik Ljungkvist) and the rhythm section from Element (pianist
Håvard Wiik), bassist
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, and drummer
Paal Nilssen-Love. Formed in reaction to the
ECM-style of modern jazz that came to equal "Scandinavian jazz" in the minds of music fans worldwide, the group proposes a modernized take on power jazz, drawing from American Fire Music (
Archie Shepp,
Albert Ayler,
Ornette Coleman) and '60s European free improv (
Peter Brötzmann's
Machine Gun).
Broo and
Ljungkvist had been performing together in Stockholm (Sweden) since the mid-'90s. Based in Oslo (Norway),
Wiik,
Håker Flaten, and
Nilssen-Love all frequented the Trondheim Music Conservatory in 1994-1995 and performed in the
John Coltrane-inspired group Element. By 1999, all these musicians regularly worked on the Scandinavian club and jazz festival circuits.
Ljungkvist,
Håker Flaten, and
Nilssen-Love also played in
Per "Texas" Johansson's group, so they all knew each other well when they decided to form
Atomic. By harnessing
Brötzmann-like energy with torrid heads and flexible compositional structures, they quickly established their group identity and began touring right away. Early appearances at the Oslo Jazz Festival and the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival attracted some attention and soon the label Jazzland secured the release of their first album
Feet Music (the title coming from a
Coleman tune).
–
François Couture, Rovi