Quotes from reviews of the album “The Cave” with Marilyn Crispell, Thommy Andersson and Michala Østergaard-Nielsen (2025):

  • ★★★★ – All About Jazz (US): “One of the most beautiful expanses of eleven minutes ever recorded.” - by Mike Jurkovic

  • ★★★★ – MOJO (UK): “A highly attuned communion.” - by Andy Cowan

  • Jazz Views (UK): "For listeners willing to slow down and really listen, THE CAVE offers something increasingly rare – music that doesn’t announce its intentions but reveals them gradually, rewarding attention rather than demanding it.”(…) "Østergaard-Nielsen cites influences like Paul Motian and Jon Christensen, and that lineage is audible in her approach - not in imitation, but in philosophy.” - by Tim Larsen

  • The Free Jazz Blog (US): "Pieces like ‘My Spirit Heart’, ‘Into the Light’, and ‘A Smile of a Butterfly’ testify to the profound, immersive beauty of The Cave.” - by Eyal Hareuveni

  • Jazz Trail (US):“The group’s sound converges into something relaxingly prayerful in the spiritual line of Alice Coltrane, and the theme carries intricate lyricism beneath the trio’s artful chamber-improv stylings.” - by Filipe Freitas

  • Jazzhalo (BL): “They immediately redraw the codes of the piano trio.” (…) "An ILK release, and as is often the case, not easily categorized - except under the label "original". "Magnetic" would be another fitting description." - by Georges Tonla Briquet

  • Kali Music (CZ): "... the result is a fantastic album. The Cave is a miraculously raw and energetic album." - Jiri Kalemba

  • ♪♪♪♪ - Jazz’n’More (CH): “The final piece, in which Østergaard plays the vibraphone, shows once again how silence is just as justified as sound.” - Florian Bissig

  • Esensja (PL): “The Cave is a fascinating musical journey through the world of improvised and avant-garde jazz.” - Sebastian Chosinski

  • There Stands the Glass (US): “The Cave” featured on their list of "Best albums of April 2025".

  • Bandcamp (US): “The Cave” featured on their list of “The Best Jazz on Bandcamp, April 2025”: "… a sublime and, at times, almost solemn trio session."(...)“The music is both conventional and unconventional, like one season sweeping out all memory of the one before. Some pieces possess both the rigid structure and tone of icicles at the height of winter, whereas others celebrate the freedom given to melt and become airborne.” - Dave Sumner

  • Halfway into 2025, All About Jazz (US) published their “Best Jazz Albums of 2025" so far - an All-Star Break Edition: "The Cave" is featured on that list.

  • La Habitación del Jazz (ES): "Silence plays a vital role throughout Østergaard-Nielsen’s musical language (...) Her compositions are simply magnificent."

  • JazzMania (BE): "The Cave was conceived as a personal musical journey into the unknown – a space where sound and silence are equal elements." - Eric Therer

  • Salt Peanuts (NO/DK): “…an atmosphere that is both beautiful and a little wistful. A subtlety that you just can't let go of”. - Allan Sommer

  • ★★★★ – Jazzthetik (DE): “Sparse tones and chords that almost evoke the mood of church music rather than jazz.” - Christoph Wagner

  • Europe Jazz Media Chart - June 2025 presents some of the hottest new music: "The Cave" is among them:“Astonishing is how Østergaard, Crispell and Andersson created a tension arc via eight pieces from the loose architecture of the opening piece “The Cave” to the dynamically flowing and pupating piece “Smile of a Butterfly” in the end with its radiating inner magic that takes piano trio to a higher level.” - Henning Bolte

  • Blue in Green Radio (UK): "The Cave’ doesn’t just explore the tension between organisation and fluidity — it transforms that very tension into sound, with each track becoming its own conversation where composition lays the groundwork and improvisation brings it to life." - Imran Mirza

  • Jazzwise (UK) :“...the music compels you to listen to it on its own terms, in its own unique context - a rewarding, and in fact, instructive experience. Its controlled freedom draws you in and speaks to you, not as a performance but as a self-contained entity - a rare achievement in these celebrity-obsessed times.” - Victoria Kingham

Most grateful for being mentioned on a “drummers-list” by the great and inspiring drummer Ra kalam Bob Moses (2020): “As a child I grew up in the same building as Max Roach, Art Blakey and Elvin Jones. I also heard up close Roy Haynes, Edgar Bateman, Rashied Ali, Pete La Roca, Milford Graves, Billy Higgins, Tony Williams, Ed Blackwell and many other greats. So I don't use the term great drummer too loosely. Here is a very partial list of some great, extraordinarily creative, visionary drummer/percussionists from all over the globe, that inspire me to keep evolving and go deeper on my instrument.  I encourage you to check these people out and show them some appreciation and respect while they are still here: Billy Elgart, James Zitro ,Tony Oxley ,Franklin Kiermyer ,Francisco Mela ,Sadhu Bhav Tony Falco ,Peter Bruun ,Ahued Audra Menconi ,Simon Barker ,Peter Zeldman ,Chris Cutler ,Pedro Melo Alves ,Vladamir Tarasov ,Thomas Praestegaard ,Tupac Mantilla ,Christopher Garcia ,Michala Ostergaard-Nielsen ,Billy Drummond ,Michel Lambert
Apologies to those I've forgotten.  Love Always    Hu  Ra Kalam”

Johannes Cornell in “Dagens Nyheter”(SE), listing the Østergaard Art Quartet album “More Stories from the Village” among the top 5 jazz releases of 2016: “The heaviest band on the improv scene right now stretches out even when everything seems to stand still.”

By Hrayr Attarian for “All About Jazz” about the Østergaard Art Quartet album “More Stories from the Village” (2016): “With each release Østergaard-Nielsen delivers a gem. Much like the precious stones her albums are small, compact and brilliant. Having put together a band that shares her artistic vision she puts forth thematically unified sublime works that crackle with free flowing originality and imagination.”

By Eyal Hareuveni in “The Free Jazz Collective” about the Østergaard Art Quartet album “More Stories from the Village”, also listed on his Top Ten jazz releases of 2016:“One of the best-kept secrets of the vibrant Danish jazz scene is drummer Michala Østergaard-Nielsen. A unique musician that can shape the course or the mood of any musical texture with her unique, serene and economic touch. She can blend organically with the vocal jazz quartet David’s Angels, the art-rock trio Nuaia (both with Swedish vocalist Sofie Norling), or the electronics meets free-improvisation of the Swedish Midaricondo duo. Her second album with her own quartet, the Østergaard Art Quartet, follows the acclaimed debut Stories from the Village (BoogiePost Recordings, 2011), and highlights her other talents, that of being a leader of strong-minded musicians and a master improviser.”

Lars Böhlin on Østergaard Art Quartet’s live concert at Umeå Jazz Festival, Sweden (2014): “Music on the verge of something new.”

Quote on Østergaard Art Quartet’s live concert at Vossa Jazz, Norway (2012): “The concert stands out as one of the most interesting this writer has heard in a very long time. The four appear as a completely unique organism.”

By Niels Overgård in “Jazznytt”(DK) about the Østergaard Art Quartet album “Stories from the Village” (2011): “This is an utterly uncompromising project led by Østergaard-Nielsen. Admirable and refreshingly healthy when musicians are able to free themselves from conventions to such a degree and, together, create European avant-garde art music in 2011. It is an intense experience, where both melody and chaos are present.”