Mette Henriette

Mette Henriette

2-CD23,90 add to cart
LP24,90 out of print
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The untitled 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.
Das unbetitelte ECM-Doppelalben-Debüt der jungen norwegischen Saxophonistin, Komponistin und Improvisatorin Mette-Henriette Martedatter Rølvåg ist ein atemberaubendes musikalisches Statement. In ihren Ensembles treffen ‚Jazzmusiker‘ auf ‚Klassikmusiker‘ – doch die dabei entstehende Musik erschafft ihre eigenen Welten, außerhalb der Genre-Definitionen. Mette-Henriette verknüpft hier Form und Freiheit auf ungewöhnliche Art, während ihr intensives und fokussiertes Tenorsaxophonspiel sich durch Kompositionen von mitunter entwaffnender Fragilität bewegt. In dieser Musik kann Verletzlichkeit so wirkungsmächtig sein wie mit voller Kraft geblasene Passagen, aber es besteht Raum für beides. Das Ausdrucks- und Emotionsspektrum dieser Aufnahme ist enorm. Disc eins enthält Trio-Stücke mit Mette Henriette, dem Pianisten Johan Lindvall und der Cellistin Katrine Schiøtt. Auf Disc zwei ist Mettes dreizehnköpfige „Sinfonietta“ zu hören. Zur Besetzung dieser größeren Gruppe gehören einige Namen, die ECM-Hörern bereits vertraut sind: Trompeter Eivind Lønning, Schlagzeuger Per Oddvar Johansen, und die Mitglieder des Cikada Quartetts, die ihre kreativen Energien im Dienst von Mettes Musik vereinen. Das Album wurde im Mai und August 2014 in Oslo aufgenommen und von Manfred Eicher produziert.
Featured Artists Recorded

May-August 2014, Rainbow Studio, Oslo

Original Release Date

16.10.2015

  • CD 1
  • 1so
    (Mette Henriette)
    01:41
  • 2.oOo.
    (Johan Lindvall)
    03:47
  • 3the taboo
    (Mette Henriette)
    01:55
  • 4all ears
    (Mette Henriette)
    03:56
  • 5but careful
    (Mette Henriette)
    01:01
  • 6beneath you
    (Mette Henriette)
    03:10
  • 7once
    (Mette Henriette)
    03:53
  • 8we were to
    (Mette Henriette)
    00:54
  • 93 - 4 - 5
    (Johan Lindvall)
    01:59
  • 10hi dive
    (Mette Henriette)
    02:52
  • 11a void
    (Mette Henriette)
    04:27
  • 12the lost one
    (Mette Henriette)
    01:10
  • 13in circles
    (Mette Henriette)
    03:41
  • 14I do
    (Mette Henriette)
    03:48
  • 15O
    (Johan Lindvall)
    03:18
  • CD 2
  • 1passé
    (Mette Henriette)
    05:00
  • 2pearl rafter
    (Mette Henriette)
    01:04
  • 3veils ever after
    (Mette Henriette)
    01:54
  • 4unfold
    (Mette Henriette)
    00:40
  • 5wildheart
    (Mette Henriette)
    05:44
  • 6strangers by midday
    (Mette Henriette)
    02:51
  • 7late à la carte
    (Mette Henriette)
    04:10
  • 8so it is
    (Mette Henriette)
    01:38
  • 9?
    (Mette Henriette)
    03:32
  • 10true
    (Mette Henriette)
    00:47
  • 11this will pass too
    (Mette Henriette)
    00:58
  • 12but we did
    (Mette Henriette)
    03:48
  • 13I
    (Mette Henriette)
    08:09
  • 14breathe
    (Mette Henriette)
    03:59
  • 15off the beat
    (Mette Henriette)
    01:51
  • 16wind on rocks
    (Mette Henriette)
    06:34
  • 17bare blacker rum
    (Mette Henriette)
    01:50
  • 18& the silver fox
    (Mette Henriette)
    01:41
  • 19behold
    (Mette Henriette)
    00:59
  • 20better unheard (yet to be hold)
    (Mette Henriette)
    01:12
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
 “The details are fascinating.  Mette Henriette is a contemporary music star on the rise.”
(The Guardian).  “[She] expounds a fragile and slow-moving acoustic aesthetic, a sort of steam-punk minimalism.  But there is a conviction here, perhaps the utter certainty of youth, that gives this surprising debut its electrical edge.”(Irish Times). “Veers from quiet as a mouse murmurs to scare-the-neighbours screams.  In short, it’s amazing.” (The Independent)
 
Mette Henriette’s ECM debut was one of the most widely-reviewed releases of 2015, praised across the board – from international newspapers to jazz magazines and pop blogs - for its striking originality and its imaginative reconsideration of the nature of musical freedom.  Now, four years later, the Sámi-Norwegian saxophonist-improviser-composer has compiled a single vinyl disc drawn from the double CD set, a concentrated, boiled-down version, emphasizing pieces that continue to resonate subtly and persuasively. As she sums it up: “The same scenes with a different structure, a different narrative, a different journey.
 
“It’s in the nature of the industry, with its high frequency of turnover, to be always waiting for
the next new thing,” Mette Henriette reflects. “For me, that’s an interesting and sometimes frustrating aspect of reality. But, meanwhile, I felt that the music had grown along with the context for it, so I wanted to present again the pieces that really linger, from my perspective.” Tangentially, the release in LP format is also a gesture toward MH’s peers, young musicians and listeners of the post-CD generation…
 
Music on the original release was divided into two sections, for trio and ensemble performances, headed o and Ø, respectively; the cryptic subtitling has a symbolic meaning for Mette Henriette, who says she has “always had an intuitive circular way of understanding my surroundings, always felt this circular energy.”  The saxophonist is now exploring new avenues that the radiating influence of the album has opened up.
 
“I became a nomad in the same moment as the album was issued and I have been floating around the world with my saxophone since then.  It was such a release to feel the wind in my hair, to be challenged in new ways, and expand my craft.  Whenever I was not touring corners of the world,  most of my time was spent in Paris,  London,  New York,  Los Angeles,  Torino,  Sápmi,  Svalbard and Oslo.  It allowed me to go deeper in both music and other disciplines including architecture, design, visual art, film, scenography and performing arts.”  
 
Commissions brought Mette Henriette and her music to some far-flung places and contexts. From JazzFest Berlin with large ensemble, to the Atlanta Jazz Festival with trio, to solo performance at multi-arts festival documenta14 in Athens.  As an artist of Sámi heritage, she was intensely involved with work generated by the 100th anniversary of the Sámi Assembly, and premiered her piece Sáivu at the indigenous festival Riddu Riddu in Norway’s Far North. “Sáivu is a word referring to sacred lakes with double bottoms hiding a parallel universe where everything is upside-down. In Sámi culture people believe in these untouchable places existing alongside us. The first thing I did was to build a sculptural scenography resembling the silver jewellery that Sámi nomads traded with the Norwegians.  This was even a way to shed light on the cultural togetherness and mutual dependence - and I have both cultures in my blood, as many do.”
 
With US group CocoRosie and Icelandic composer Valgeir Sigurðsson, Mette Henriette also recorded music for Robert Wilson’s theatre performance Edda based on Old Norse mythology.  She “experimented with audio-visual productions with haze and fog” at London’s Southbank Centre, explored compositional methods during a residency at Edvard Munch’s Ekely studio, worked on scores, graphics and a sound installation at Artica Svalbard, and performed at the opening of an underwater restaurant designed by Snøhetta.   Collaborations with orchestras and ensembles have included work with the Trondheim Symphony as well ongoing work with Cikada and the Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra.  Mette Henriette is currently touring with Chilean-American electronic composer Nicolas Jaar’s new band, and also preparing new music of her own.
 
In September 2019, she appeared with pianist Johan Lindvall at the ECM50 concert series at Oslo’s Victoria Nasjonal Jazzscene, on a bill shared with Carla Bley’s trio with Andy Sheppard and Steve Swallow.