Mette Henriette

Description

The untitled ECM album debut of young Norwegian saxophonist, composer and improviser Mette Henriette Martedatter R?lv?g, an arrestingly original musical statement, was released in 2015 as a 2-CD set.

Highlights from the double disc are now issued on a single 180g vinyl album.

'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.

The first side here features trio music with Mette Henriette, pianist Johan Lindvall and cellist Katrine Schi?tt.

Side B has Mette's "sinfonietta" with thirteen players.

Line-up of the larger group includes some names familiar to ECM listeners - trumpeter Eivind L?nning, drummer Per Oddvar Johansen, and the members of the Cikada Quartet - all pooling creative energies to serve Mette's music.

"A contemporary-music star on the rise." - The Guardian

"The album I keep returning to after discovering it late in the day is the extraordinary 'Mette Henriette'.

[?] 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 (Kamasi) Washington, despite opposing stereotypes." - Independent on Sunday

"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." - UK Vibe

"One of the best things I've heard this year [?] 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." - The Blue Moment

"At all times it's atmospheric and richly detailed [?] it's abstract but tactile, with an emphasis on texture over melodic line [?] it's an ambitious and engaging introduction, with powerful compositional and improvisational chops." - Jazzwise