PER ZANUSSI - Liminal Beings (LP) PRE-ORDER

RELEASE DATE: DEC 4, 2026

Liminal Beings explores what is in between: The threshold between the composed and the improvised, between genres and between states of being. The title references anthropology, where "liminal" describes the phase in a rite of passage where you are neither who you were, but still not who you are becoming.

The music started as a commissioned work for Kongsberg Jazz Festival 2024, written by Per Zanussi after receiving the DNB award in 2023. The work was performed as a sextet at the festival, with Susana Santos Silva and Lotte Anker in addition to the quartet on this album, which Zanussi worked with in preparation for the debut performance. The album consists of parts of the commissioned work, alongside pieces written before and after - still following the shape of an imaginary rite of passage.

The compositions are inspired by traditions that themselves work with thresholds. Like Indian raga in connection to dusk and dawn, Korean shamanistic music, African music traditions and Western classical music. Through Zanussi's compositions and the quartet's input the result is both melodic and rhythmic, pulsating jazz, with a free and strong interaction between the four musicians.

Karl Hjalmar Nyberg – tenor sax
Jonas Cambien – organ, piano
Per Zanussi – double bass
Hans Hulbækmo – drums

All compositions by Per Zanussi
Recorded in Athletic Sound by Dag Erik Johansen
Mixed by Kyrre Laastad
Mastered by Inge Engelsvold
Produced by Per Zanussi
Executive production for Sauajazz by Terje Ekrene Vik
Cover and band photo by Leon Mathisen
Design by Terje Ekrene Vik
Label profile by Espen Friberg