All Ice Records

All Ice Records is a Norwegian record label associated with percussionist, composer, and ice-music innovator Terje Isungset. The label operates within an unusually specialized artistic field: experimental jazz, Scandinavian folk-influenced music, sound art, and recordings built around instruments made from ice or other non-traditional natural materials. Public reference material identifies Isungset as the label's founding manager, but does not establish a precise incorporation date, corporate ownership structure, current staff, financial performance, or present operating status. The label's identity is closely linked to Isungset's broader artistic practice. After developing a career in jazz and Scandinavian traditional music, he began designing instruments from materials including ice, granite, slate, Arctic birch, and bells. His interest in ice music intensified after a 1999 commission to compose and perform in a frozen waterfall at a winter festival in Lillehammer. He later developed indoor ice concerts for conventional concert venues and became internationally associated with the concept of ice music. All Ice Records provides a natural publishing and recording platform for this work, documenting performances and collaborations that would otherwise be difficult to preserve because the instruments are temporary, temperature-sensitive, and often site-specific. The label's documented catalogue includes Isungset's solo and collaborative projects. Among the best-known releases are Iceman Is, made with trumpeter Arve Henriksen; Igloo, made with Sidsel Endresen; Two Moons, with Per Jørgensen; Ice Concerts; Hibernation; Winter Songs; World of Glass, with Arve Henriksen; Meditations; Isslottet; and Oase, with Sissel Vera Pettersen. The catalogue also includes collaborations involving Stian Westerhus, the Swedish folk group Groupa, and other musicians connected with Isungset's network. The releases are not presented as conventional mainstream recordings: their appeal lies in the relationship between unusual timbres, improvisation, Nordic landscapes, ritual-like performance settings, and the visual or material character of the instruments. All Ice Records should therefore be understood less as a mass-market music company than as an artist-led imprint and cultural documentation platform. Its repertoire reflects the overlap between contemporary jazz, experimental music, folk traditions, live performance, and environmental sound. The label's releases also support the international circulation of Isungset's work, which has included concerts, commissioned compositions, dance and theatre projects, and collaborations with artists from several countries. Some releases associated with Isungset were issued through other labels, so the available discography should not be treated as a complete account of his career or as proof that every related project belongs to All Ice Records. The public record does not provide enough information to describe All Ice Records' current distribution arrangements, catalogue size, staffing, financial condition, or ongoing release schedule. Its historical profile is nevertheless clear: it is a Norwegian specialist imprint built around an artist whose work expands the boundaries of percussion, jazz, traditional Nordic music, and sound-based performance.

All Ice Records emerged from the work of Norwegian percussionist and composer Terje Isungset, who is identified in public biographical material as the label's founding manager. The available sources do not state the label's exact founding year or describe a separate corporate founding team. Its development is best understood in the context of Isungset's long engagement with jazz, Scandinavian traditional music, improvisation, and instrument building. Isungset grew up in Geilo and moved to Bergen in 1984. During the 1980s he performed with a range of Bergen-based groups and made his recording debut with Kenneth Sivertsen. His subsequent career combined jazz with Nordic traditional forms and increasingly experimental approaches to percussion. He became known for creating instruments from unusual materials, including Arctic birch, granite, slate, sheep bells, and ice. This material experimentation eventually became the central creative premise associated with All Ice Records. A major turning point came in 1999, when a winter-festival commission at Lillehammer asked Isungset to compose and perform in a frozen waterfall. The experience developed into a sustained practice of ice music. He devised instruments from frozen water and developed ways to present ice-music performances indoors, where temperature, acoustics, and instrument durability had to be managed in ordinary concert halls. His work subsequently included numerous indoor concerts and international appearances. The Ice Music Festival at Geilo was initiated in 2006, with organization attributed in the source material to Pål Knutsson Medhus. Although the festival and the label are distinct entities, the festival helped establish the cultural setting in which Isungset's recordings and performances were understood. The label's documented catalogue began to take shape around Isungset's own projects. Iceman Is appeared in 2002 and was made with Arve Henriksen. Igloo followed in 2006, with Sidsel Endresen, and was nominated for a Norwegian Spellemann award in jazz. Later releases included Two Moons with Per Jørgensen, Ice Concerts, Hibernation, and Winter Songs. These recordings connected the label with improvisational music, unusual percussion, and the fragile sonic qualities of ice instruments. All Ice Records also served as a home for collaborative projects. World of Glass, released in 2014 with Henriksen, extended Isungset's interest in non-conventional instruments from ice to glass. The project was recorded substantially before a live audience in Tallinn, and its instruments were made by students at the Estonian Academy of Arts. In 2015 the label documented further collaborations and solo work, including Meditations, a project with guitarist Stian Westerhus, and Isslottet. In 2016 the catalogue included Oase with Sissel Vera Pettersen and a Groupa-related release. A 2019 release, Sildrande, brought Isungset together with Henriksen and a larger ensemble of Nordic musicians. The label's history is consequently inseparable from Isungset's artistic network. His collaborations have included musicians such as Per Jørgensen, Arve Henriksen, Sissel Vera Pettersen, Didier Petit, Jorma Tapio, Stian Westerhus, and members of Groupa, Utla, and Isglem. Not every project in his wider discography was released by All Ice Records; other documented labels include NorCD, Via Music, Jazzland, Virgin, Odin Records, Footprint, and others. All Ice Records represents the portion of his output most closely tied to his own experimental and ice-music identity. There is insufficient public information to establish the label's current ownership, distribution structure, financial position, or whether it remains actively releasing music. Its documented historical importance lies in giving an artist-led platform to music that is difficult to classify within conventional jazz or record-industry categories. The imprint preserves recordings connected to temporary instruments, live environments, Nordic landscapes, and collaborations between contemporary improvisation and traditional musical ideas.

• 2019

  Sildrande is released

  [1]Terje Isungseten.wikipedia.org

  Sildrande was credited to Isungset with Arve Henriksen and a larger group of Nordic collaborators.

• 2014

  World of Glass extends the material-instrument concept

  [1]Terje Isungseten.wikipedia.org

  World of Glass with Arve Henriksen explored instruments made from glass rather than ice and was substantially recorded before a live audience in Tallinn.

• 2008

  Ice Concerts is released

  [1]Terje Isungseten.wikipedia.org

  The label documented Isungset's ice-concert practice in a dedicated release.

• 2006

  Ice Music Festival is initiated at Geilo

  [1]Terje Isungseten.wikipedia.org

  Isungset developed the idea for an ice-music festival in Geilo, creating a recurring cultural context for the performances and recordings linked to his artistic practice.

• 2006

  Igloo is released

  [1]Terje Isungseten.wikipedia.org

  Igloo, made with Sidsel Endresen, became a prominent All Ice Records release and received a Spellemannprisen nomination in the jazz class.

• 2002

  Iceman Is is released

  [1]Terje Isungseten.wikipedia.org

  All Ice Records issued Isungset's Iceman Is, a collaboration with Arve Henriksen and one of the label's early documented releases.

• 1999

  Frozen-water performance becomes a creative turning point

  [1]Terje Isungseten.wikipedia.org

  A Lillehammer winter-festival commission led Isungset to deepen his work with ice instruments and develop the ice-music concept associated with his later label catalogue.

An artist-led Norwegian imprint focused on experimental jazz, Nordic musical traditions, ice music, and recordings that preserve unconventional, site-specific performance practices.

• Experimental jazz and ice music · 2002

  Iceman Is

  A 2002 collaboration between Terje Isungset and Arve Henriksen. The release is associated with Isungset's early recorded exploration of ice-based instruments and the boundary between improvised jazz, sound art, and Nordic environmental imagery.

• Experimental jazz · 2006

  Igloo

  A 2006 album made by Isungset with Sidsel Endresen. It became one of the label's most visible releases and was nominated for the Spellemannprisen in the jazz category.

• Live and ice-music recording · 2008

  Ice Concerts

  A 2008 release documenting the performance format for which Isungset became internationally recognized: concerts using instruments made from ice and shaped by the acoustics and conditions of the performance venue.

• Experimental collaboration · 2014

  World of Glass

  A 2014 project by Isungset and Arve Henriksen that transferred the artist's material-based instrument concept from ice to glass. The instruments were made by students from the Estonian Academy of Arts, and much of the recording took place before a live audience in Tallinn.

• Experimental music · 2015

  Meditations

  A 2015 Isungset release within the label's series of atmospheric and exploratory recordings. Public reference material identifies the title and year but provides limited additional production detail.

• Soundtrack and performance music · 2015

  Isslottet

  A 2015 All Ice Records release connected with Isungset's ice-themed performance work. The title also refers to an earlier project presented at the Oslo Opera and Ballet.

• Experimental collaboration · 2016

  Oase

  A 2016 collaboration between Terje Isungset and Sissel Vera Pettersen, reflecting the label's interest in intimate, improvisational, and texturally unusual Nordic music.

• Nordic ensemble collaboration · 2019

  Sildrande

  A 2019 release credited to Isungset with Arve Henriksen and a broad group of associated Nordic musicians, including Mats Eilertsen, Nils Økland, Morten Qvenild, and Sissel Vera Pettersen.

1. 1Terje Isungseten.wikipedia.org
2. 2All Ice Records official websiteall-ice.no