The trio Kvelvane – Østvang – Vermeulen is composed of three musicians who freely navigate the multiple aesthetic currents flowing through today’s musical creation, innovating with their own personal styles in languages that, although increasingly consolidated by the pressure of time, remain in constant mutation. A project still in its early steps of establishing itself within the improvisation and jazz circuit, this saxophone/double bass and drums trio stems from the spontaneous meeting of three instrumentalists interested in the disruption of genres and the projective pursuit of new idioms adapted to a contemporary world in flux—one in which geographical and musical boundaries have long ceased to be obstacles to creation and are now the very axes that keep the musical platform in perpetual rotation.

Heidi Kvelvane is a young Norwegian saxophonist with a jazz education from the Grieg Academy in Bergen. Her work in recent years within Norway’s improvisation circuit—one of the most dynamic in Europe—alongside acclaimed names such as Per Zanussi and Paal Nilssen-Love, has garnered attention and led to other internationally oriented collaborations, including a trio with the legendary drummer Han Bennink and guitarist Terrie Ex. Beyond her collaborative activity, Kvelvane leads her own trio and the project Bankvelv, while also being a regular member of the Bergen Big Band.

Drummer, improviser, and composer trained at the Conservatories of Paris and Amsterdam, Tollef Østvang is currently one of the central figures in the music scene of Trondheim, Norway, the result of intense and wide-ranging work in the fields of jazz and improvisation. Østvang leads several of his own projects and has been involved over time in collaborations with prominent figures of contemporary jazz such as Joe McPhee, Trevor Watts, and Tomeka Reid (who will also perform in this edition of the festival), while also curating festivals and alternative music concerts.

Nils Vermeulen is a double bassist with a multifaceted activity that includes, beyond strictly musical creation, research in acoustics and the construction of non-conventional instruments. A member of the Troika <3 collective and of several ensembles active in the territories of free jazz, improvisation, and contemporary classical music, Vermeulen has collaborated throughout his career with numerous prominent names in jazz, such as Paul Lytton and William Parker, as well as with emerging musicians from the European improvisation scene of the last two decades, among them Portuguese trumpeter Luís Vicente and violinist Elisabeth Klinck.