TRYGVE SEIM
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Booking Kjell Kalleklev / +47 911 03 280 (e-post)
Reviews
- -In a list of 2018’s most beautiful new music, Helsinki Songs must surely rank very high indeed. London Jazz News
- Rumi Songs review – playful, guileless, accessible jazz. Guardian
- All About Jazz Sangam review
- BBC Sangam review
Biography
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.
Trygve Seim – saxophone/compositions
Kristjan Randalu – piano
Mats Eilertsen – bass
Markku Ounaskari – drums
Sven Persson – sound design
RUMI SONGS
Seim studied Arab music in Cairo, and got aquainted with Rumi’s work when the late soprano Anne-Lise Berntsen commissioned music to some of his poems in the mid 2000s. Rumi Songs is a continuation of this work, now being commissioned and sung by the excellent vocalist Tora Augestad. Frode Haltli plays the accordion, Svante Henryson plays the cello – and Norwegian poet Erling Kittelsen will perform some of Rumi’s poems as a spoken-word reading. Rumi Songs is an unique collaboration between leading Norwegian performers in their homage to a poet whose legacy stretches over several centuries, many borders and countless lifeworks.
The Persian Sufi poet Jalaladin Rumi has had a great influence upon music, dance, poetry and philosophy in several countries. An active theologist, mystic and poet in the 13th century, Rumi left behind a large number of written material that has been a source of inspiration for mystics, musicians and other creative souls to this day. This is manifested once again when Norwegian composer Trygve Seim and his ensemble perform their Rumi Songs – a symbiosis of Rumi’s beautiful poetry and Scandinavian contemporary music.
Trygve Seim – composer, saxophones
Tora Augestad – vocals
Frode Haltli – accordion
Svante Henryson – cello
Asle Karstad – sound design