Trygve Seim is educated at the jazz conservatory in Trondheim. Since 1992 he has worked full time as a musician, composer and arranger. Trygve Seim has released over 20 albums on the prestigious German record label ECM Records as a composer, band-leader or co-band-leader. Trygve Seim’s debut album “Different Rivers” won the german records critics prize in 2001 “Jahrespreis – Presi der Deuchten Schallplattenkritik”.

Trygve Seim Large Ensemble (available on request 2023 & 2024).
is described by Manfred Eicher (whom has produced and released two CD’s with the ensemble) as «the most unique jazz ensemble in Europe»! The ensemble performs instrumental music composed by Trygve Seim. The line up of Trygve Seim Large Ensemble is:

Trygve Seim – saxophone/compositions
Arve henriksen – trumpet
Håvard Lund – clarinets
Øyvind Brække – trombone
Torben Snekkestad – saxophones and clarinets
Embrik Snerte – bassoon and contraforte
Lars Andreas Haug – tuba
Svante Henrysson – cello and double bass
Frode Haltli – accordeon
Per Oddvar Johansen – trommer
Sven Persson – sound

HELSINKI SONGS

Trygve Seim has always looked to the east in many ways. From the nineties to Edward Vesala’s Finland through his collaboration with Edward and all the musicians around him, later as far as Rumi’s old Persia, or to the Indian, Armenian and Arab music heritage, but sometimes no more than Finnskogen through his collaboration with Sinikka Langeland. With the band Helsinki Songs, Seim is somewhere in the middle. Most of the songs of Helsinki Songs (including the title song Helsinki Song) were composed during Seim’s many writing stays in the Finnish composers’ association’s Helsinki apartment. In addition, the addresses of the Quartet members form a geographical axis with Helsinki as a centerpiece, and Seim has been playing with a number of Finnish musicians for over 20 years – it began with Edward Vesala in 1996, and after his passing a few years later Vesala’s former fellow musician and wife, Iro Haarla, collaborated with Seim, and in addition Seim has played with many other Finnish musicians, including Samuli Mikkonen and Markku Ounaskari.

With its overt lyricism, strong themes and a sense of perpetual melodic invention, Norwegian saxophonist Trygve Seim’s new album quickly identifies itself as a classic-in-the-making. Themes of dedication run through Seim’s Helsinki Songs album, a set of tunes composed – for the most part – in the Finnish capital, and radiating tributes in many directions. Here are songs referencing Igor Stravinsky and Jimmy Webb, pieces dedicated to each of Seim’s gifted bandmates, and tunes that tip the hat, obliquely, to Ornette Coleman and Bill Evans.