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biography / portrait

In The Country is the jazz outfit that seems impossible to decide to which musical world it belongs. Is it jazz or is it just plain music that contains inspiration from a lot of different fantastic genres? Morten Qvenild, the pianist of the trio is already an established composer and songwriter with a strong personal signature. He is probably best known for being the orchestra in Susanna and the Magical Orchestra but has plenty more to show for. He has been a member of both Shining and Jaga Jazzist and is since long a member of Solveig Slettahjells Slow Motion Orchestra. He formed In The Country with Ballrogg- and Chrome Hill-bass player Roger Arntzen and Christer Knutsen-drummer Pål Hausken at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo in 2003. Since then they have been selected best young jazz artists in Norway, played concerts in Europe, USA and Asia and released four albums and a concert DVD on the prestigeous Rune Grammofon label ("This Was The Pace Of My Heartbeat" in 2004, "Losing Stones, Collecting Bones" in 2006 and "Whiteout" in 2008) and now "Sounds and Sights" to much critical acclaim. Downbeat called their debut album "one of the finest and most arresting albums to come out of Europe" that year, and their latest studio album "Whiteout" was voted the "best releases of 2009" by L.A.Times, All About Jazz and Turkish Undomundo, among others. (source: www.inthecountry.no)