To claim that such and such a musician proves that jazz is not dead is just as big (if not bigger) a cliché as declaring jazz dead. That said, listening to a group that merrily goes beyond (or around) the technical difficulties of contemporary jazz so as to simply expend their youthful energies and make some noise, still evokes a special kind of pleasure. Furthermore, just because Norway is a cold country doesn't mean the music should be too. It's not for nothing that Ken Vandermark wrote in his over-excited liner notes: Chicago in the winter is probably almost as cold as Oslo.

With a name like Atomic and two albums titled Feet Music and Boom Boom, one could be pardoned for expecting electro-jazz of some brand or other. However, Atomic sports a most traditional trumpet-sax-piano-bass-drums line-up. As the Vandermark reference suggests, what makes this band a joy to listen to ...

Named after an Ornette composition, Feet Music is the debut album from Atomic , and is the exception to the Jazzland rule in that it lacks the distinctive beats and rhythms of Oslo Nu-jazz. (Maybe this is why it is released on the Jazzland Acoustic imprint.) Atomic are an acoustic quintet with a classic sax/trumpet/rhythm-section line-up and no added frills, yet their music is completely at home on Jazzland, having the energy and air of challenge that is the house style.

It is easier to define their music by what it isn't rather than by what it is. It isn't "European" if one interprets that adjective as synonymous with cool, ECM-style detachment. (Yet it is unmistakably European in its openness and willingness to question accepted norms.) It isn't free jazz, despite the nod to Ornette. (However, it exists because free jazz happened, and it draws upon it. If one were to ...