Karl Strømme

Hailing from Norway, trumpeter Karl Strømme crafts a nuanced strain of contemporary post-bop and avant-garde jazz. His delicate yet probing tone stands out, matched by an uncommon habit of layering trumpet and synth lines in tandem. After surfacing in the late '90s, he issued his first leader date with the 2019 album Dynalyd.

Strømme entered the world in Bergen in 1976, took up the trumpet during childhood, and later secured degrees from the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen. On a private basis he worked with Nordic jazz figures Arve Henriksen, Jon Eberson, and Flemming Agerskov. Early travels included a stint in the European Union Jazz Youth Orchestra, while his first recordings appeared alongside Edvard Bredok and Sandvika Storband. Additional associations have encompassed Jono El Grande, La Mascara Snake, Richard Nygaard, and further collaborators. Outside performance hours he serves on the faculty of the Norwegian Academy of Music. In 2009 he joined pianist Steinar Nickelsen and drummer Johan Nylander to record Corrupted Mirror. Several albums also document his membership in the experimental group Peloton, among them 2007’s Selected Recordings and 2011’s The Early Years. Dynalyd arrived in 2019 as the debut recording by his own quintet.