Shining (NO)

Born in Oslo in the late 1990s around Jørgen Munkeby, Shining, also designated SHINING (NOR) to avoid confusion with the homonymous Swedish group, initially took the form of an acoustic jazz quartet nourished by free jazz and fusion. The first albums Where the Ragged People Go in 2001 and Sweet Shanghai Devil in 2003 are part of this Norwegian scene while already hinting at a taste for moving structures and contrasts. With In the Kingdom of Kitsch You Will Be a Monster in 2005, Shining shifts toward a more electric writing where jazz blends with progressive rock, the experimental and with harsher textures, a development extended on Grindstone in 2007. The following decade sees the band further tighten its language at the crossroads of avant-garde metal, jazz fusion, industrial and noise, particularly pronounced on Blackjazz in 2010, then One One One in 2013 and International Blackjazz Society in 2015. Through lineup changes, Jørgen Munkeby remains the center of the project as saxophonist, guitarist, singer and composer. Shining has also shared the stage with formations from progressive metal, notably Enslaved, with whom the group developed the project Nine Nights in Nothingness. More recently, Animal, released in 2018, continues this trajectory with a more direct rock and metal orientation.