Wibutee - Newborn Thing (1999)

In 1996, Hakon Kornstad, Wetle Holte and Per Zanussi, as students of the jazz department of the Trondheim Conservatory, formed the acoustic-electronic jazz trio Wibutee. By the time of their first serious performance (Nattjazz Festival in Bergen, May 1998), they were joined by Erlend Skomsvoll and Life Maria Roggen (Live Maria Roggen). Having signed a contract with the new Jazzland label, created by the keyboard guru Buggy Wesseltoft, in 1999, with the production support of Buggy, they released their first album Newborn Thing. In 2000 – 2001, Wibutee also included ex-bassist of The September When Gulleiv Wee. In 2000, Roggen and Skomsvoll left the band. In 2001, shortly before the release of the second album Eight Domestic Challenges, produced by Wibutee themselves, Norwegian electronic music pioneer Rune "Sternklang" Brøndbo joined the band. As the name suggests, Eight Domestic Challenges is almost entirely recorded at home. The main material consists of excerpts of live performances and musical fragments recorded during a tour of Germany and France in 2000 – 2001, and then processed in Wesseltoft's studio. The members of the group built, destroyed, created compositions and, eventually, came to a new free style of jazz improvisation. "One of the pitfalls of creating your own music is the destruction of the effect of spontaneity, because you have listened to every melody a thousand times, and your own ideas can bore you. We tried to keep as many actual forms and melodies as possible, concentrating on the rhythm section, programming and sampling," the band members say. The album demonstrates the progress of the band: it can trace the many influences of musicians who have worked with the band over the past period of time.
The collaboration with Rooney continued in 2004, including the recording of the album Playmachine, released in June of the same year. Per Zanussi left Wibutee in October 2004. Then Marius Reksjø (Marius Reksjø), and later Tor Egil Kreken (Tor Egil Kreken) was accepted to replace the bass player. Now the music of Wibutee, with Kornstad's leading tenor saxophone, has become more melodic than before. In January 2006, the band created the label Sonne Disk, on the basis of which they recorded their fourth album Sweet Mental. The band currently consists of: Håkon Kornstad (vocals, melodica, programming, saxophone, flutes, electronics); Wetle Holte (programming, drums, electronics); Rune Brøndbo (keyboards, programming, electronics). Tor Egil Kreken (electric and other guitars) and Eyvind Andreas Skeie (guitars, keyboards, electronics) are involved for live performances.