ABOUT ESP CYMBALS

Espen Aalberg is a Norwegian drummer and percussionist, and is trained as both a classical and jazz drummer. Since 2000, he has made a living as a musician, greatly benefiting from his versatile musical background. Espen still regularly plays with jazz bands such as The Core and Basement Sessions, and contemporary music with SiTron, where he also serves as a producer. He also hold a position at the music department at NTNU - university in Trondheim.

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Espen's great passion as a drummer is cymbals, and due to this interest, he began studying the craft of cymbal making in 2019. After conducting his own studies of available materials, he started hammering and lathing cymbal blanks. It was a long period of trial and error which gave a lot of information what to do and not.

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As a self-taught cymbalsmith, his craftsmanship is based on the Turkish tradition. To deepen his knowledge of the field, Espen visited artisans at Pergamon Cymbal in Turkey, which provided new inspiration and knowledge.

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Espen is inspired by "vintage" cymbals, particularly the old Istanbul K and Zildjian A from 1940-1970, early American Zildjian K (EAK) from the 1980s, but also modern cymbals. ESP Cymbals draw inspiration from all these sources to create his own cymbal sound, which will hopefully contribute to the creative expression of today's drummers.