Name: Andreas Røysum
Nationality: Norwegian
Occupation: Clarinetist, composer, improviser
Current release: The Andreas Røysum Ensemble's Mysterier is scheduled for release October 27th 2023 via Motvind Records. Another project, Music Improvised On September 23rd, 2021, involving Andreas Hoem Røysum, Christian Meaas Svendsen, and Kresten Osgood is out via Astral Tapes.

[Read our Kresten Osgood interview]
[Read our Christian Meaas Svendsen interview]

Over the course of his career, Andreas Røysum has worked with a wide range of artists, including Hans P. Kjorstad, Alexander Zethson, Egil Kalman, Christian Meaas, and members of Akmee.

[Read our Hans P. Kjorstad interview]
[Read our Alexander Zethson interview]
[Read our Egil Kalman interview about the Synthi 100]
[Read our Akmee interview]

If you enjoyed this Andreas Røysum interview, and would like to find out more about his music, visit his Ensemble on bandcamp.



When did you first start getting interested in musical improvisation?  

Probably before developing self-consciousness.

Improvisation (within different frameworks / “compositions“) is what we're doing all the time. I was very lucky to be brought up in a family that didn't isolate music / art from life in general, so it was natural from the get-go to experience music, its different expressions and methods of creation, as one big chunk of curiosity-inducing cosmic love unfolding.

Which artists, approaches, albums or performances involving prominent use of improvisation captured your imagination in the beginning?

My older siblings were very much into music. When I was growing up, my big brother was working in record stores, and my brother in law was playing in kickass bands. So I was showered in records (everything from punk rock and gangsta rap to country and jazz), and was also able to tag along to a lot of concerts. My dad was working with computer programming, and could always help me out with technical issues. These factors combined to create a young monster of music consumption! I was just listening listening listening …

I loved my records, but my curiosity and apetite was so big, so I also constantly downloaded music from the (at least then) great Soulseek. If someone I thought was cool mentioned some band or artist, I would be on it. Again I found myself in a big funky bath of different musics. In retrospect I am so happy that I was a bit of a contrarian kid. It was out of the question to have some boring people tell me how to play whilst parading around in a uniform; indoctrinating me into their way of percieving. I'm happy that music opened up for me as something precious, free of constraints.

I should also mention that my mother sang in choirs, and I remember being very intrigued by the mysteries of the modal improvisations she was singing around the house whilst doing chores.

I should also mention that, even though a whole bunch of different musics and musicians left strong marks in me, there's one experience that relatively early highlighted the healing qualities of music for me. My first teenage sweetheart dumped me, and I was almost parodically devastated. “How shall I persist?!“.

I'd just been starting to get into Albert Ayler. I brought along my MP3-player and headphones, and went for a long walk in the snowy woods where I was living. I think I was marching, sometimes in snow up to my knees, for 5-6 hours. All the time having Spiritual Unity on repeat. Needless to say; when I returned, the blues had gone away.



What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to improvisation? Do you see yourself as part of a tradition or historic lineage?

I see myself as part of the historical lineage of mankind, where improvisation is one of the main methods for navigating in life.

I don't think it's such a good idea to construct binary divides. They seldomly express anything that feels remotely close to truth. I know that it's very popular to discuss “can improvisation and composition interact?!” and so forth in contemporary music circles and in PHD-programmes, but they are just lagging tens or hundreds or thousands of years behind. Compositional processes are naturally also informed by improvisatory methods, and vice versa.

I guess I'm quite pragmatic when it comes to music making. It's not primarily about the method. It's about organizing information, setting forces in motion, manipulating our physical reality to affect, inspire, uplift.

Tell me about your instrument and/or tools, please. How would you describe the relationship with it? What are its most important qualities and how do they influence the musical results and your own performance?  

I spend most of my time playing clarinets in different sizes. I really like the clarinet family! I got my first clarinet (and other instruments) from my father. On his side of the family, the dudes have often been musicians. Thanks to them for influencing him, and thanks to papa for influencing me!

The clarinet is faithful and fruitful as long as you respect that it's a high maintenance diva that needs a lot of attention. It's kinda sassy! If I'm there for my clarinet everyday, showing it dedication and good times, it's oh so generous. If you become blasé and think you know all there is to know about it, it will smear the arrogance right back in yo face.

[Read our feature on the clarinet]

For me it's very good that I have to spend time with it on a daily basis. I have to, to be able to play the way I want to. And I think it's very good for everyone who comes to listen as well.

Can you talk about a work, event or performance in your career that's particularly dear to you? Why does it feel special to you? When, why and how did you start working on it, what were some of the motivations and ideas behind it?

What's particularly dear to me is the friendships and bonds that have been formed. I've been very lucky to both have had:

1) A close group of contemporaries that have developed independently and together. People like Hans Kjorstad, Egil Kalman, Marthe Lea, Christian Meaas Svendsen, Andreas Wildhagen, Kalle Moberg. There are too many to name really …

But it's been amazing to share so much time and energy exploring music and life with these people. We are all quite different and do well at minding our own business, but at the same time we've developed a very rich and flexible collective understanding of music making, which is one of the more precious “things” in my life.

2) Older maestros and maestras taking interest in spending time and playing music with me. I still can't wrap my head around how lucky I've been to play with so many great artists with incredibly much more experience than myself.

There's so much to learn from “the elders”. Tristan Honsinger opened my world up, and still is!

How do you feel your sense of identity influences your collaborations? Do you feel as though you are able to express yourself more fully in solo mode or, conversely, through the interaction with other musicians? Are you “gaining” or “sacrificing” something in a collaboration?

I can't work with people I don't vibe with. My sense of resonance / vibe can be explained by digging into my “identity”, so it's clear that my sense of identity influences my collaborations to a large extent. I consider myself very lucky to work and live with so many great people, who all contribute to my continual re-birth.

I don't care too much about “expressing myself”, whether it's playing solo, in a smaller group or a bigger ensemble. The self is expressed in all we do, either alone or in groups, whether we like it or not. My focus is a bit more orientated towards a kind of historical collectivity. I try to study as many fields of interest as possible, and work on enabling myself to do whatever could be deemed as necessary on my instruments (which could be everything, which luckily makes it a life long study).

History, including the present, runs through us. As a musician I feel it's my responsibility to acknowledge it, to be able to respond constructively to the vibrational fields we operate in now.

“History” could also be read as “Spirit”. The spirits of the past to a large extent form our surroundings. We build on the knowledge and experience of our ancestors (not MY ancestors, but OUR). We also naturally tap into the same sources of insight and inspiration as our ancestors. A historical-spiritual focus enables me to look at myself as a part of history; manifesting universal principles that could not have been articulated by anyone else at any other time.

This of course applies to all musicians who have been able to steer clear of the fetishism of unfettered individualism. And this is part of what makes it so amazing when great musicians gather and do their best to create something meaningful; it's not about a bunch of people trying to express themselves; it's about transcending, to make something beautiful together!

It's of course a question of balance, but for me it seems like we were created to work together. I even think of my solo playing as being part of a big togetherness.

Derek Bailey defined improvising as the search for material which is endlessly transformable. Regardless of whether or not you agree with his perspective, what kind of materials have turned to be particularly transformable and stimulating for you?

I choose to quote the masterful trombonist and poet Øyvind Brække; “the individual has to do what works!”.

In music “what works” can be whatever, given the situation. Which is why the improviser never should consider oneself as fully schooled. The ones who do tend to have found a few situations where they know perfectly well what works.

The most interesting ones know that there will always be millions of hitherto unknown situations, where “making it work” would require one to always stay sharp and curious.

When you're improvising, does it actually feel like you're inventing something on the spot – or are you inventively re-arranging patterns from preparations, practise or previous performances?

On a good day it feels like taking part in the constant re-invention / re-organization of everything!

I think all music has always existed as potential. When improvising one can find oneself in the lucky position of being able to co-present heavenly nuggets that not necessarily have been presented in earthly form yet.

To you, are there rules in improvisation? If so, what kind of rules are these?

There are loads of improvisatory languages / syntaxes / modes of expression that I don't fancy at all, but it feels important not to draw rigid rule-making conclusions out of it.

I think that all people are special and have a unique perspective. Therefore I find it really weird and suspicious when I hear so many “improvisers” who all sound the same. Many people who are technically good at talking, but have got nothing to say. It might have something to do with the institutionalization of so-called “jazz” music.

Maybe the only rule is to try one's best to contribute with something you feel is necessary and positive? If you don't HAVE to do it, well then don't.

In a way, improvisations remind us of the transitory nature of life. What, do you feel, can music and improvisation express and reveal about life and death?

Everything can express and reveal almost anything; that's the beauty of poetry!