Although the year in jazz belong to the Los Angeles saxophonist/composer Kamasi Washington, whose triple-album ‘The Epic’ satisfyingly re-invented spacey, spiritual jazz for a new generation, the album I keep returning to after discovering it late in the day is the extraordinary ‘Mette Henriette’ by Washington’s Norwegian female counterpart, Mette Henriette Martedatter Rølvåg. A double album featuring the eponymous sax-playing leader in a trio with piano and cello for the first disc, and with an ensemble of 13 for the second, on both the music veers from quiet as a mouse murmurs to scare-the-neighbours-screams. In short, it’s amazing, and not at all inimical to Washington, despite opposing stereotypes.
Phil Johnson, Independent on Sunday
The scale of the music isn’t really important. What matters is that it makes an immediate impact, albeit a subtle and sometimes oblique one. Mette Henriette Martedatter Rølvåg — to use her full name — manipulates space and texture like a watercolourist, allowing tones to blend and separate with a sure touch, hinting at melody, harmony and rhythm without getting too explicit about anything. […] All in all, it’s one of the best things I’ve heard this year — and, as you might have surmised, it’s difficult to describe. So let’s simplify the task with a clumsy but not inaccurate analogy. If Wayne Shorter had been born a woman in Norway around 25 years ago, this is the music he (or rather she) might be making today.
Richard Williams, The Blue Moment
Er gaat een betoverende werking uit van Mette Henriettes spel. Ze blaast lange dunne lijnen als glinsterende spinnenwebben. Net als je haar denkt te doorgronden, kiest ze voor een onverwachte wending. (There's a mesmerizing effect in Mette Henriettes playing. She blows long thin lines like glistening cobwebs. Just when you think you understand her, she makes an unexpected move.)
Gijsbert Kramer, De Volkskrant
U fille rare qui joue les John Coltrane du froid.
T. J., Elle
The details are fascinating: sounds not unlike an insect buzzing in the sun (the first disc features her saxophone accompanied only by pianist Johan Lindvall and the sonically resourceful cellist Katrine Schiøtt), gong-like piano repetitions that draw the saxophonist out of hiding, plaintive Jan Garbarek-like sweeps. The second disc features a 13-piece band, and often sounds more composed and upfront, and thematically inviting. […] Mette Henriette is a contemporary-music star on the rise.
John Fordham, The Guardian
Over two CDs, the first with her trio and the second with her 13-piece ‘Sinfonietta’, Mette Henriette expounds a fragile and slow-moving acoustic aesthetic, a sort of steam-punk minimalism, in which single ideas or motifs are drawn out over tectonic time periods. The music is rarely hummable, but there is a conviction here, perhaps the utter certainty of youth, that gives this surprising debut album its own electrical charge.
Cormac Larkin, Irish Times
Young Norwegian saxophonist and composer Mette Henriette debuts on ECM with what may just be the year’s quintessential Scandinavian music album and one that cuts across a variety of genres. […] The double CD offers two contrasting sides to her music. The first is more intimate and features Henriette’s trio while the second is an expanded larger collective affair. Together, they serve to showcase the different facets to this immensely talented musician and what this demonstrates beyond doubt is that form and freedom can co-exist in a harmonious relationship [… ] One of the most intriguing new releases of the year and it just may find its way on to the best newcomer of the year list.
Tim Stenhouse, UK Vibe
This is an auspicious, provocative debut. For all the restraint and space on disc one, the second is remarkably diverse, providing excellent contrast. ECM's considerable faith in this young musician is well founded.
Thom Jurek, Allmusic.com
This captivating and thoughtful record marks an auspicious start for Henriette's career as a leader and composer. It is evident that Henriette, still in her 20s, has developed a unique creative approach and a singular musical voice. Hopefully, this is only the first installment of a future exciting and splendid oeuvre.
Hrayr Attarian, AllAboutJazz.com
Young female saxophonists have made startling, original contributions to the Great Jazz Tradition of late: Mette Henriette from Norway is the latest, with her brilliantly ambitious debut on ECM.
Robert Shore, Jazzwise
The album convinces fully as a whole, thanks to a prevailing mood of imaginative and occasionally playful experimentation under the leader’s incisively analytical direction. The Mette Henriette website carries a strapline quote: ‘I always loved adventure and challenges’. She’s certainly met the challenge of her own-name debut impressively with this multifaceted offering. Now, what will she do next?
Tim Owen, Dalston Sound
Es scheint, als habe Eicher hier einen ungeschliffenen Rohdiamanten entdeckt. Und er verkneift sich jede glatte Politur. Unterliegt auch nicht der Versuchung, Mette zu einem neuen weiblichen Jan Garbarek zu modellieren. Zwar spannt sie immer wieder langsam atmende, elegische Spannungsbögen, die zweifelsfrei den nordischen Kontext spiegeln. Bricht diese aber mit blubbernden und heiseren Anblasgeräuschen, die bisweilen an den Sound eines Didgeridoos und an die Heroen des schwarzen Freejazz erinnern. […] Die Begegnung der klassisch geprägten Streicher mit der anarchischen Energie der jungen Norwegerin macht einen wesentlichen Reiz dieser außergewöhnlichen Produktion aus.
Reiner H. Nitschke, Fono Forum
Voici donc une vraie révélation, doublée, emotion oblige, d’un choc. D’emblé, le beau portrait noir et blanc de la demoiselle interpelle. Le regard est perçant, le saxophone ficelé dans le dos. Cette jeune Norvégienne native de Trondheim a l’air d’avoir du caractére.
Frédéric Goaty, Jazz Magazine
Ihre Musik beeindruckt durch Konzentration, Intensität und Eigensinn. Die teilweise sehr kurzen Stücke – mitunter ist nur ein Atmen oder das Berühren des Mundstück zu hören – scheinen referenzlos zu schweben, schaffen Stimmungen, wie man sie vielleicht von Pärt oder Feldman kennt, und überraschen dann wieder durch einen rauen Primitivismus, der die Kritik an Albert Ayler oder Evan Parker denken lässt.
Ulrich Kriest, Stuttgarter Zeitung
There are no echoes of John Coltrane (or Jan Garbarek) in her playing. Her compositions are diffuse vignettes, often extremely short, focused more on harmony than melody, and she essays her lines with caution and focus, using the horn not like a battering ram, but rather like a small flashlight jabbing into an unlit room. […] The breadth and scope of the music on Mette Henriette marks it as an exhilarating debut from a highly assured performer and composer. Her work is beyond category—it contains elements of jazz and classical, but explores pure sound with just as much avidity and depth. It’s a remarkable album, well worth any open-minded listener’s attention.
Phil Freeman, BurningAmbulance.com
Mette Henriette schafft etwas Originäres mit ihrem ‚Partner fürs Leben‘, dem Saxofon, und als Regisseurin unverbrauchter und weiter Klanglandschaften, die sich aus mehr speisen als einer simplen Fusion von Jazz und Neuer Musik. Als die weit ausholende Einladung ‚Komm! Ins Offene, Freund!‘ sollte man ihre Musik begreifen.
Ulrich Steinmetzger, Leipziger Volkszeitung
The compositions rendered by the two formations are perfectly compatible with each other and there is a natural flow from trio to ensemble. Her compositions are geared toward the musicianship of the overall group rather than providing a showcase for her own considerable skills as a musician and there is little to suggest that the composer is heavily influence by outside forces. Mette Henriette is original and unique and should generate much anticipation around her future projects.
Karl Ackermann, All About Jazz
A remarkable release with some very fresh ideas contained within it and above all an atmosphere that sets Henriette’s free jazz-inclined playing apart from anything you’re likely to hear anywhere at the moment.
Stephen Graham, Marlbank
Die kurzen Stücke auf ihrer Doppel-CD sind auf wundervoll poetische Weise unvollkommen. Da geht es weder um Virtuosität noch um ein ausgeklügeltes Formbewusstsein, sondern einzig darum, einen Anfang zu finden. Oder einen Mittelpunkt in sich selbst. Diese Haltung ist so selten im Jazz und doch so wunderschön, dass viele der Stücke in ihrer verträumten Klarheit überwältigen.
Wolf Kampmann, Eclipsed
