ØKSE’s eponymous debut album is a daring experimental Jazz project that features contributions from some of hip-hop’s most unique voices. The band itself is an international all-star team of avant-garde musicians; NYC based drummer Savannah Harris, Danish saxophonist Mette Rasmussen, Haitian electronic musician Val Jeanty, and Swede Petter Eldh on bass, synths and sampler. Each already established as solo artists, as ØKSE they collectively mine new ground, pushing and pulling at the edges of genre. Four rappers come along for the ride, each more than capable of bending these tracks to their will; ELUCID and billy woods (aka Armand Hammer), and fellow Brooklynites Maassai, and Cavalier.

ØKSE means AXE in Danish. The Axe has a lot of connotations, being one of humankind’s oldest tools. Axe is also Ashe; the life-force that runs through all things, living and inanimate. Ashe is a current or flow, a groove that initiates can channel so that it carries them along their road in life. These are the energies that flow through ØKSE, and animate this ambitious record.