Dear friends. After some considerations The Thing announces that we are taking a break. Change is in the air and change is the only certain thing in life. Right now we don’t know what the future of the band will bring but let us celebrate the past 20 years of joy and holy madness together.
Life and music will go on!

Yesterday I was awarded Buddyprisen, the highest award given to Norwegian jazz musicians. I’m extremely honored by this acknowledgment and cannot even start to express enough how much this warms me!! THANK YOU!!!!! 

Read more about it here (In Norwegian only – sorry!)

Atomic embarks on another US tour this week. Thanks to Bill Meyer and Chicago Reader for the great writeup! We’re ending the tour at Hungry Brain in Chicago on Saturday!

“Last year’s Pet Variations (Odin) is the band’s first album of tunes by outside composers, and while the choice to play pieces written by Jimmy Giuffre, Jan Garbarek, Olivier Messiaen and Brian Wilson, among others, shows their musical roots, the ways that they recast them suggest that Atomic are as good at finding hidden possibilities within someone else’s music as they are at creating their own; in 1964 Paul Bley played “Walking Woman,” which was written by his then-wife Carla Bley, as a frantic post-bebop pile-up, but Atomic eases the tempo and add just enough space to reveal the elegance of the tune’s design. The droning bass and gently insistent rhythm they add to Edgard Varèse’s “Un Grand Sommeil Noir” draws deep-blue tragedy out of an already mournful melody. And they transform the Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds” from a scrap of fey psychedelia into a brawny, swinging anthem.”

Read the full review here!

After more or less 4 months on the road, after crossing several continents, countries, back to back tours, festivals, recordings and loads of inspiring musical moments, I’m happy to say I’m on the buss from Trondheim to Oppdal to celebrate the first Christmas in about 15 years in my hometown with my dear mother and sister, feeling a bit like STOMPERUD if you know what I mean?

But before the holidays set in with full force I am going to play ONE more concert, my last chance to play music in front of a crowd in 2018! This will be going down at the Oppdal Church on Thursday night together with a small group of amazing local musicians where we will be interpreting hymns and folk songs. Many of these hymns were coming out from our village and I arranged and collected them on an album last year called Village Songs ‘Den Signede Dag’, it’s been one of my dearest projects over the last years, and a release I’m very proud of!

Thanks to Gunvor Fagerhaug for being the main inspiration and voice behind this and for again putting us together to pay some respect to this enormously rich tradition coming from the place I was born and raised.

OSLO! Dette er ikke hverdagskost, kom på Blå i kveld og hør Starlite Motel!! Første gig på Europaturne, og med orgel maestro Jamie Saft (kjent fra John Zorn, Beastie Boys, Bad Brains, Iggy Pop + en haug andre), backet opp av selveste Gard Nilssen, Kristoffer Alberts og meg selv kommer dette til å bli stor stas! Ta fri fra julebordet og ta turen da, vi trenger dere OG DERE TRENGER DEFFINITIVT OSS!!!!!!

Some live footage from last nights show after two most inspiring days with Krokofant and the incredible Ståle Storløkken in Kongsberg and Oslo!!

Oslo folk, Atomic spiller på Blå i morra kveld. Ny plate og turne start, kom og fest med oss!!!!!!

Tonite at Nato in Leipzig, a first time duo with John Edwards and a quintet performance with Elan Pauer, John Dikeman, Christian Lillinger, John Edwards and myself!!!

Coming soon! Atomic Pet Variations on ODIN and European tour!

Starting off a European tour with The Thing today!!

19 Oct – Le Vecteur, Charleroi, BE
20 Oct – Het Bos/Oorstof, Antwerp, BE
21 Oct – Ronnie Scott’s, London, UK
25 Oct – Blå, Oslo, NO (with Cato Salsa and Joe McPhee)
26 Oct – Nødutgangfestivalen, Bodø, NO
27 Oct – Jazz and Wine Festival, Vila Vipolźe, Dobrovo, SL
28 Oct – Belgrade Jazz Festival, Belgrade, Serbia

Har vært så heldig å få være vikar med fantastiske Gard Nilssen’s Acoustic Unity på en liten norges turne denne uka, det har vært veldig veldig morro, vi har spilt på Union Scene i Drammen og Gjøvik Jazzforum, og i kveld spiller vi siste jobb på Spor 5/Stavanger jazzforum!! Topp stemning!!

So proud of this album that just got released on Moserobie!!!

“Magnus Broo comes out as completely genuine” – Dagens Nyheter/SE 

“The three musicians have really found each other in this trio, and the result is a wonderful recording of three real professionals within the jazz, as “Rules” goes a completely different way than we had imagined. Masterful!” – Salt Peanuts  

“This is really fun, but also restrained music, and they are able to add to these elaborate classic songs just exactly the spark they need! It makes us wanna eat meat and drink booze! Herring and Snaps! All of life’s delights. Perfectly portioned!” – Jazz i Norge  

“Broo’s always had a depth of tone that’s really classic – and his approach here is wonderful, as he doesn’t just echo familiar modes with the songs, but instead uses them as these compelling showcases for his unusual phrasing – thanks to a trio setting that features the great Ingebrigt Haker Flaten on bass and Hakon Mjaset Johanson on drums. If you’re just expecting a set of ballads and easygoing jazz, then think again” – Dusty Groove