Bendik Giske(NO)
On his self-titled third album, Norwegian saxophone virtuoso Bendik Giske has finally laid himself bare. Over the last decade, he's stripped away the excess from his sound, centering the idiosyncratic technique that made 2019's "Surrender" and 2021's "Cracks" so arresting and concentrating completely on rhythm, tension and vulnerable tonality. Inspired by Jack Halberstam’s "The Queer Art of Failure", Giske sees his music as a way to explore the boundary between high and low culture, removing himself completely from heteronormative competition and risking beautiful transgression at every point.
