Rozel Point, the follow-up to Norwegian band BMX's epic debut album Bergen Open (NORCD, 2010) is here! Having honed and experimented with mostly composed material since the band's start in 2006, Rozel Point is a departure into the unknown. Consisting of mainly pure improvisations, the band has left its song book, and opted for the moment to show the way. Not that free improvisation is anything new to these guys. Even BMX's composed material was heading this way, with concerts becomming more and more open, often using the written music only as an occasional guide line, always alterning the themes into the unrecognizable, often abandoning the songs all together, using maybe only a fragment as a springboard to some new place far ahead. So what do you get, when you take four highly skilled world-class improvisors, who has spent the last 8 years investigating the ins and outs of communicative, personal, inventive, emotional, unsually diverse, often very intricate, music together? You get 9 pieces of varied length, created live in the studio, that sound as if they might as well have been composed. Here are no dogmas of so-called non-idiomatic playing. No obligation to follow in any particular tradition of improvisation, styles that themselves have become very conservative. Here are no fears of evocative melodies or steady, hypnotic rhythms. No, on Rozel Point, BMX gathers the very building blocks of music, and assemble them back together in a highly personal way, only achieveable because of their long history playing together, only possible because of these exact four players, and only obtainable because of this exact studio, with this exact engineer, on that particular day. The studio and engineer, of course, isn't just anyone. Heading into the world famous Rainbow Studios in Oslo early 2013, BMX utilized the ears and experience of studio legend Jan Erik Kongshaug. Recording for one day just with the quartet in the spacious room, and the second day with a small selected audience, Kongshaug was able to capture different aspects of the group's interplay. Not excluding compositions entirely, BMX has included two pieces that have been mainstays with the band for years; Jesus Maria, a ballad by Carla Bley, and the Ølnes original Joey's Spring, which is loosely based on Vingt Regards Sur L'enfant Jesus: XII, by Olivier Messiaen. These pieces round out BMX's approach to music: Any method is valid, as long as the goal is to create some good sounding music. On Rozel Point, BMX does just that. Good sounding music, their own way. Per Jørgensen is one of the most respected musicians in Norway, let alone the world. Singer/bass player superstar Esperanza Spalding put Per at the top of her list in an interview a few years ago, and she is not alone. Whether playing trumpet, singing, drumming or even playing guitar, he is one of those few souls that can get music out of anything. Always curious, always searching. After a ten-year break, Per is now busy again with the trio Jøkleba, scheduled to record an album for ECM next year. This won't be his first encounter with ECM, as he has recorded for them several times with various Jon Balke projects as well as the Norwegian-Finnish trio Kuará. Per is also busy perfoming with the group Per Jørgensen & Friends, playing his music. Being an eternal child himself, it should come as no surprise that he is one of the most popular musicans perfoming in schools all over Norway. Njål Ølnes, tenor saxophone, is one of the main reasons Norway flourishes with young talented jazz musicians. Everyone has heard of the Trondheim Jazz Conservatory, which is the most famous institution for educating jazz performers (although there are several other schools). But few has heard of Sund folkehøgskule, a small school with a one-year jazz program, an hour north of Trondheim. While only taking on less than 20 students a year, this school pours talents into the jazz education system in Norway, every single year. Although not a teacher at Sund anymore, Njål built up the jazz course for more than 10 years, making it the place to be if you're considering a career within improvised music. Having moved to Oslo a few years ago, he is now busy doing his PhD at the National School of Music, researching different methologies to practice improvisation. Njål used to be in the band Dingobats together with Thomas, and apart from his extensive studies enjoys playing locally in Oslo with various musicians. Thomas T. Dahl is one of the most versatile and talented guitar players, ever. He can, and does, play all styles of music - always bringing his personal touch to it. Having come to prominence with the trio Krøyt, with whom he received a Norwegian Grammy award, he continued performing with a long range of artists including Ephemera, Odd Børretzen, Dingobats, Skomsork and Lill Lindfors. Currently he teaches and holds a main position at the Jazz department at the Grieg Academy in Bergen, as well as perfoming with Mats Eilertsen's different groups, as well as perfoming every Monday evening with the immensely popular Voksne Herrers Orkester. Øyvind Skarbø, drummer, is the youngest of the bunch but also the person who created BMX. Only wishing to play with two of his teachers (he studied with Njål at Sund folkehøgskule and later with Thomas at the Grieg Academy), he had no idea this would turn into an eight year long collaboration. When not perfoming with BMX, Øyvind is busy running his two trios 1982 (with Nils Økland and Sigbjørn Apeland) and Bly de Blyant (with Hilmar Jensson and Shahzad Ismaily), as well as performing with Håkon Kornstad's new band Tenor Battle. He is also an organizer of the festival Øyvind Jazzforum, and sometimes release records under the same name, like the one in question. He has therefore written the text you are reading now, and finds it very awkward to write about himself in third-person.