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Mette Henriette

Mette Henriette's self titled ECM double-album debut of young Norwegian saxophonist, composer and improviser Mette Henriette Martedatter Rølvåg is an arrestingly original musical statement. ‘Jazz’ players and ‘classical’ players are drawn together in her ensembles, but the music shapes its own world, outside genre definitions. Mette Henriette is interlacing form and freedom in fresh ways here, as her intense and focused tenor saxophone sound moves inside compositions of sometimes disarming fragility. In this music, vulnerability can be as potent a force as full-tilt blowing, but there is a place for both. The recording’s expressive and emotional range is wide. Disc one here features trio music with Mette Henriette, pianist Johan Lindvall and cellist Katrine Schiøtt. Disc two has Mette’s “sinfonietta” with thirteen players. Line-up of the larger group includes some names familiar to ECM listeners – trumpeter Eivind Lønning, drummer Per Oddvar Johansen, and the members of the Cikada Quartet ­–, all pooling creative energies to serve Mette’s music. The album was recorded at sessions in Oslo in May and August 2014, and produced by Manfred Eicher.

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9
Album Review

Mette Henriette: Drifting

Read "Drifting" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Dreamlike in construction and execution, Norwegian saxophonist Mette Henriette's second distinctive statement for ECM exudes a warm, innate ability to imbue the everyday and the invisible with a sense of calm that neither sedates nor fatigues. A quiet triumph, Drifting fashions fifteen soft, safe places for her wandering kin to take their rest. Akin in lineage to her wide ranging, two disc debut, Mette Henriette, (ECM, 2009), Drifting takes the concept from thirteen players to a trio and ...

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Album Review

Mette Henriette: Drifting

Read "Drifting" reviewed by David Bruggink


With her self-titled double album debut in 2015, Norwegian saxophonist Mette Henriette arrived on ECM Records, and the international jazz scene, with an impressively assured artistic statement. On it she introduced her versatile technical skills, running the gamut from untamed skronk to near-silent breathing, all presented with her wintry perspective--a perfect fit for the chilly atmospheres that have become a trademark of ECM Records.  Beyond the stock-in-trade chill of Nordic jazz, Henriette has a particular interest in the textures ...

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Album Review

Mette Henriette: Drifting

Read "Drifting" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


Norwegian saxophonist and composer Mette Henriette established herself as a major talent while in her teens, becoming a vital member of the country's creative music community. She was in the Aello trio and the Torg ensemble and worked with a broad array of artists including Sidsel Endresen, Karin Krog and Tim Berne. In 2015 Henriette released her self-titled debut on the ECM label. The highly praised double album featured a trio on one disc and a large orchestra on the ...

Album Review

Mette Henriette: Mette Henriette

Read "Mette Henriette" reviewed by Neri Pollastri


Mette Henriette Martedatter Rølvåg, classe 1990, nata a Trondheim, nel centro della Norvegia, ma di origini sami, improvvisatrice, compositrice, sax tenore, cresciuta artisticamente in modo precoce e “selvaggio," cioè con una formazione musicale plurale e disorganica: tali i cenni biografici dell'autrice di questo doppio CD, da molti salutato come sorpresa dell'anno e annuncio di una nuova stella. Anche il suo approdo alla ECM ha qualcosa di leggendario: dopo il suo primo lavoro, con il trio Aella, Mette si ...

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Album Review

Mette Henriette: Mette Henriette

Read "Mette Henriette" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


Norwegian saxophonist Mette Henriette's (full name Mette Henriette Martedatter Rølvåg) eponymous debut on ECM is a bold artistic statement. A mosaic of shimmering tonal hues, provocative ideas and sublime moods the music is spread out over two CDs. On each one Henriette is in the company of a different ensemble but the thematic unity is maintained throughout. Starting with a sparse trio setting, Henriette creates short and powerful sonic poems that have the intelligence and the spirituality of ...

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Album Review

Mette Henriette Martedatter Rølvåg: Mette Henriette

Read "Mette Henriette" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


In her debut recording with the large Norwegian ensemble Torg on Kost/Elak/Gnäll (Jazzland Recordings, 2015), the playing of saxophonist Mette Henriette Martedatter Rølvåg may well have been lost in the pack. That Bugge Wesseltoft produced album was an unrestrained mashup of genres, styles and techniques in an octet that didn't easily lend itself to individual performance analysis. Not surprisingly, it was ECM's Manfred Eicher who recognized Rølvåg's extraordinary talent and paved the the way to this two-disc, self-titled leader debut. ...

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