Afrobass is a Norwegian six-piece ensemble where West African musical traditions meet afrobeat, desert blues, jazz, funk and rock. Led by bassist and composer Lars Martin Vik, the band builds its music around deep grooves, repetition and collective improvisation – creating rhythmic frameworks that are tight enough to drive the music forward and open enough to let it change from night to night.

The story of Afrobass began with Vik’s desire to take his own compositions into a different rhythmic landscape. Having studied jazz at the Conservatory of Music in Trondheim, where he first met drummer Kenneth Kapstad, Vik later found an important musical connection with Ivorian-Norwegian musician Kouame Sereba. Their collaboration became a starting point for exploring how Vik’s background in jazz and groove-based composition could meet Sereba’s West African musical traditions, voice, kalimba and percussion. Today, these ideas are also part of Vik’s artistic research at the University of Stavanger, exploring groove as an organising principle for musical interplay and improvisation.

Around this core, Afrobass has developed into a meeting place for musicians with strong individual voices. The current line-up features Kenneth Kapstad, known from Motorpsycho and Spidergawd; internationally active guitarist and composer Oddrun Lilja; saxophonist and flautist Heidi Kvelvane from Norway’s improvising music scene; and trumpeter and electronic musician Vegard Holum, alongside Vik and Sereba. Together, the six musicians move between tightly interlocking rhythms and open improvisation, drawing on musical backgrounds that range from West African traditions and jazz to progressive rock, experimental music and electronics.

Afrobass first toured in 2025 with guitarist Hedvig Mollestad and saxophonist Elisabeth Lid Trøen in the line-up, playing to full houses and establishing the project as a live band. Mollestad and Trøen also feature on Jamal, released by the Norwegian independent label NYE NOR in September 2026. A new line-up featuring Lilja and Kvelvane took the music further on a successful 2026 tour through Bergen, Trondheim, Molde, Vestnes, Ålesund and Oslo.

Straight from the road, Afrobass entered Ocean Sound Recordings on the island of Giske to record a new album. The sessions capture a band and a repertoire shaped through live performance, with the interaction and energy of the six-piece ensemble at the centre of the recording.

Now signed to NYE NOR, Afrobass is preparing the new album for release in 2027, alongside new live dates in Norway and beyond.

Deep grooves. Open music. Afrobass.

Listen to the music, explore the latest live material, or get in touch for booking and further information.