Jonas Cambien

Jonas Cambien (b.1985) is a Belgian/Norwegian pianist, composer and improviser active in jazz, improvised and contemporary music. With a sollid background in classical and contemporary music, but as much a child of Oslo's freejazz and improvised music scene, his style passes seamlessly from Cecil Taylor to Ligeti, creating his own language on the way.

Most noted for leading his own trio, featuring André Roligheten on reeds, and Andreas Wildhagen on drums, Cambien has performed on major stages and jazzfestivals in Norway and abroad, and has released three albums with this trio on the Portuguese label Clean Feed: ‘A Zoology of the Future’ (2016) and ‘We Must Mustn’t We’ (2018) and ‘Nature Hath Painted the Body’, all to critical acclaim. The American jazz critic John Sharpe picked ‘A Zoology of the Future’ as one of the 10 best jazz albums of 2016, and said about ‘We Must Mustn’t We’: ‘They sound like no-one else.’ As a band leader he also performs with his band 'Maca Conu', featuring Norwegian bass player Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Danish saxophone player Signe Emmeluth, and drummer Andreas Wildhagen.

Cambien has performed with players such as Paal Nilssen-Love, Xavier Charles, Hanne De Backer, Mars Williams and Frode Gjerstad. He plays in a trio with Belgian bass player Farida Amadou and Chicago saxophonist Dave Rempis. The latter trio released the album 'On the Blink' on the label Aerophonic records. Cambien has also released albums with the improvising collective Platform (Vafongool 2015, Clean Feed 2017) and the alternative rock band Karokh (Loyal Label 2015, No Forevers 2016). The album ‘Simiskina’ with bass player Adrian Myhr (Clean Feed in 2017) was named ‘some of the best you will find in Norwegian improvised and free music’ by the Norwegian Jazz magazine Jazznytt.

Cambien has performed with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra&Marianna Sangita Røe. He is a founding member of Aksiom, an Oslo-based ensemble for contemporary music, and has guested other ensembles for contemporary music such as Assamissimasa, ensemble neoN and Lemur.

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