Christian Meaas Svendsen

Christian Meaas Svendsen was born and raised in Kongsberg, Norway. He studied jazz/improvisation for 4 years together with Bjørn Kjellemyr at The Norwegian Academy of Music, and another 2 years of classical training together with Dan Styffe at the same institution. He also did one exchange year to Cologne, and studied under Dieter Manderscheid, Sebastian Gramss and Dietmar Fuhr. Among his main projects we find his very own Nakama, the duo Duplex together with Harald Lassen on saxophone, and the jazz quintet Mopti. The latter one won the Norwegian jazz competition JazzIntro in 2012. As a sideman he is active in a wide variety of bands and genres such as the 11-piece monster band Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit, together with drummer Per Oddvar Johansen and Japanese piano player Ayumi Tanaka in Ayumi Tanaka Trio, in the power trio Momentum together with saxophone player Jørgen Mathisen and drummer Andreas Wildhagen or as member of the contemporary music ensemble Aksiom. He is also exploring the solo format, and the bass, bow(s) and body is the basis for his work, as he tries to further develop traditional and some extended techniques on his instrument. Christian also runs his own record label «Nakama records» established in 2015. He writes and arranges music for most of his groups. As a bass player he is always on the search, challenging, innovative, and is aiming towards becoming distinctive musician, and connect the classical, contemporary and the free, rhythmic music tradition.