Espen Berg Trio release first single from Entropies: “Rue Saint-Michel”

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The piece originates from a working residency in Southern France in the autumn of 2024, where Espen Berg composed several of the works for the new album. The title is taken from a street in the town, Rue Saint-Michel, which served as a direct inspiration for the music.

As Berg explains:

“In the autumn of 2024, I went on a residency at NOPA’s artist residence in Vence, France. There, I wrote several of the pieces for Espen Berg Trio’s new album, Entropies. This also gave the name to ‘Rue Saint-Michel’, a street in the town that inspired me to write this particular piece. The melody draws inspiration from both France and South America, and presents the trio in a more understated elegance.”

“Rue Saint-Michel” offers a first glimpse into a more nuanced and sonically expanded universe for the trio. Joining them on the track are cellist Joakim Munkner and flautist Flavia Huarachi, who add a distinctive texture and depth. Munkner’s cello lends the melody a warm, almost vocal quality, while Huarachi’s flute, arranged in eleven layered parts, creates a floating and richly detailed soundscape.

Four years after their previous release, Entropies emerges as the trio’s most concise and fully realized album to date. Since their debut in 2014, Espen Berg (piano), Bárður Reinert Poulsen (bass), and Simon Albertsen (drums) have established themselves as one of the most distinctive piano trios in European jazz. They have toured internationally and have been described by the UK’s Jazz Journal as “one of the best trios in existence today.”

On Entropies, the trio explores the tension between order and dissolution, the planned and the spontaneous. Strong melodies are combined with spontaneously composed passages and complex rhythmic structures, in a musical language where precision and freedom coexist.

“For me, the most important aspect of the album format is that it tells a story,” says Berg. “Entropies, a scientific term describing states of disorder and unpredictability, unfolds within the music itself, but also reflects the world we are living in.”

With Entropies, Espen Berg Trio reaffirms their position as one of the most vital and forward-thinking voices in Norwegian jazz today.