In 2011, I was invited to chair the Young Nordic Jazz Comets competition, held annually in Scandinavia to identify the brightest young jazz talent under the age of 27 from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the Faroe Islands and Iceland. The winners enjoy a substantial bursary. JazzKamikaze, based in Denmark, seemed to me to be the obvious winner that year, with a line-up that included Morten Schantz, Anton Eger and Marius Neset. My fellow judges did not concur, but for me the one young musician who stood out in the competition was Marius Neset.

Subsequent events have not proved me wrong, although his career on records rather than define his musical personality, has dissipated it in a way that begs the question, ‘Who is the real Marius Neset?’ We are no closer to any answers with this album since it brings Neset together with the acclaimed young(ish) classical pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, who is not an improviser, with Neset's sister Ingrid, principal flautist with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and Louisa Tuck, principal cellist of the Oslo Philharmonic.

They combine in quartets and duos, and as the liner notes point out, “Apart from a few improvised sax solos, all the music on Who We Are has been composed and is played as written. What you think is improvised is mostly written notation. What you swear is improvisation is probably also written.”

Thoughtfully conceived, some may consider some of these contemporary chamber music pieces could benefit from judicious editing. But overall, they are an interesting addition to the modern chamber music repertoire that musicians, arts directors and theatre managers might well consider to broaden the self referential classicism of the traditional chamber music repertoire by offering this refreshing wind of musical change.