ØKSE (INT)

In ØKSE’s music, the freedom of free jazz, the heavy pulse of hip-hop, the spiritual energy of Haitian Vodou, and Nordic musical traditions meet. The members of this international formation are, individually, key figures of contemporary improvised music: Savannah Harris, a New York-based drummer; Mette Rasmussen, a Danish saxophonist; Val Jeanty, a Haitian electronic musician; and Petter Eldh, a Swedish bass guitarist, producer, and sampler player. Together, however, they create a sound that is difficult to classify under any familiar genre category.

The band’s self-titled debut album, released in 2024, is a bold attempt to erase the boundaries between jazz and hip-hop. Their music is at once freely improvisational and irresistibly groovy: it preserves the spontaneity of jazz while also carrying that hypnotic, head-nodding pulse that is one of hip-hop’s most important driving forces.

In Danish, ØKSE means “axe,” but the name also alludes to the concept of “ashe”: the life force and flow that permeates everything, both living and non-living. This energy also fuels the band’s concerts, where electronics, drums, bass, and saxophone merge into a continuously shifting, elemental stream of sound.

ØKSE’s debut album won the 2025 German Jazzpreis for Best International Album, as well as the Danish Music Awards Jazz recognition for Best Alternative Album. Their concert is unmissable for anyone who seeks not the rules of genre in jazz, but freedom, risk, and the power of new sounds.