Henriette Eilertsen - Poems for Flute (LP)

The jazz flute, then. This slightly shy, rather rare wind instrument in the jazz fauna, which sticks out only here and there. Maybe a saxophonist got an old flute for Christmas and wanted to try something new, or another found interest in folk music and wanted to get down to the roots of her expression. But the pure jazz flutist, one that only belongs to this oldest of the woodwind instruments, yes there it is rather ragged in the ranks.

But there is one that has kept true for a long time. Henriette Eilertsen (b. 1993) was the first in Norway to get a bachelor's degree in jazz flute, at the Norwegian Academy of Music. She herself says that:

Although the much more dominant big brother the saxophone has previously tried to lure me away from the pure flute path, I have insisted on conveying the very brightest frequencies among the jazz wind instruments.

Many have noticed that, and many are glad that she did. When Eilertsen now makes her debut with the album Poems for Flute, she fully shows that she has found a direction. Even though she has her flute heroes - like Joe Farrell, Eric Dolphy and Elena Pinderhughes, she stakes out a path on her own when she shows what she wants the jazz flute to be in 2021.

Eilertsen has for years been involved in a handful of bands on the Norwegian jazz scene, including the space jazz band Billy Meier, Andreas Røysum Ensemble and Slow Is The New Fast. In addition, she participated in establishing the active composer’s collective OJKOS.

Poems for Flute consists of short pieces, which Eilertsen thinks of as small musical poems. Some of the songs operate with a clear musical direction, while others have a rather abstract agenda - the album is based on free improvisations. The listener is served the flute in solo format, in duo with both violin and computer, and in a live recording in collaboration with parts of OJKOS.

The first track, Flute and Compute, is recorded live at Victoria Nasjonal Jazzscene in Oslo, with the composer collective OJKOS as a backing band. This is also the most crowded song on the album. Here the close-up of the flute and electronics, treated by Mike McCormick, is handed total freedom while a steady framework consisting of Tina Lægreid Olsen on baritone sax, Kristoffer Håvik on piano and Ivar Myrset Asheim on saw floats by. OJKOS is a composer’s collective and performing jazz orchestra where the artistic responsibility rotates between the members. Flute and Compute was part of a larger commissioned piece Eilertsen wrote for OJKOS in 2019.

Track 2, Proletaren, 5, Fola, fola, 9, Construction and 10, Edens Hage was recorded in duo with violinist Hans P. Kjorstad at his local octagonal church in Sør-Fron. In Proletaren, the sounds from the flute flaps and microtonal tones are in focus. Fola, fola gets both the tones and the noise from the many flaps and strings that are in turn, and maybe it can give associations to a galloping horse. Construction is in contrast more cold and noisy, like the noise from a big city. But out from the urban, the listener is dragged into a sonic oasis in Edens Hage. Waves between the violin and the flute fill the left and right channels with an organic sound.

Some of the beauty of the flute and fiddle in duo is the natural balance in the instruments' volume, says Eilertsen. No matter how much one of them goes for it, it fails to completely drown out the other. This equal level gives a freedom that is good to play on! Kjorstad and Eilertsen have collaborated in a number of projects over the past ten years, from the duo Kakapoi, the band Billy Meier, Andreas Røysum Ensemble, Sanskriti Shrestha Avatar and more.

Track 3, Den Rennande Bekkjen, track 8, ASMR and 12, Space Invaders was recorded in a studio in Oslo, OLYP, in a duet with Mike McCormick on computer using the program SuperCollider. In Den Rennande Bekkjen, the flute melts into the electronic rows as the acoustic meets the digital. The flute here takes on a new and more abstract life, like it’s on the inside of a machine. ASMR got its name because of the “tickling” expression, which is reminiscent of the internet trend with the same name. Space Invaders ends the album by sneaking almost unnoticed into space.

Mike McCormick (b. 1989) is a guitarist, laptop performer and composer and has collaborated with Eilertsen in several projects in recent years. Among others OJKOS.

Track 4, The Sabbatical, as well as 6, Pastorale and 11, Greta was recorded in Emmanuel Vigeland's Mausoleum. The room is known for its beautiful frescoes, and not least its long and cool reverberation of 21 seconds(!). On The Sabbatical, the lower register of the alto flute is explored. The starting point for this track was to create chords with the monophonic flute – a rare pleasure for a wind instrumentalist. Furthermore, we hear Pastorale, a more lively variant. Maybe even a little dancing? In Greta we encounter a more dystopian expression, and the title is a nod to the important young lady, who works to prevent us from having a dystopic future. Track 7, Birth of the Flute, is the only track made together with producer Andreas Rotevatn. Three close-up microphones are used, which capture the percussive impact of the flaps on the flute. With the help of extensive processing, Rotevatn has been able to retrieve as much bass from the flute as possible - otherwise an instrument that is rather bass-poor. The result seems to Eilertsen as a flute that pushes itself out and forward – like a musical birth!

Rotevatn is a jazz trombonist in addition to being a producer. In 2021 he was nominated to a Norwegian grammy in the composer category for the album Alea iacta est, which Eilertsen also plays on.

From Motvind Records' side, we just want to thank Henriette Eilertsen for this contribution to the catalogue. It is very meaningful continuing to present young and serious musicians to record listeners. Eilertsen has for a long time shown that she has a lot to express, so that she now makes her debut as a soloist is right on. She is a technically brilliant flutist with clear aesthetic visions. She dwells on the edges, whether acoustic or digital, moving from urban to rural spaces and from extremely fast sequences to slow movements. We always hear the whole flute, as when the sound of the flaps has as important a function as the ordinary tones.

With 12 brand new flute poems, we think that this album manages to present the jazz flute in a new and personal way.

MOT14LP
Release date: 17 September 2021

DETAILS
Henriette Eilertsen –flute
Hans P. Kjorstad – violin (tracks 2, 5, 9 and 10)
Mike McCormick – electronics (tracks 1, 3, 8 and 12)
Kristoffer Håvik – piano (track 1)
Tina Lægreid Olsen – baritone saxophone (track1)
Ivar Myrset Asheim - saw (track 1)

Produced and mixed by Andreas Rotevatn
Recorded in Vigelandsmausoleet, Sør-Fron church and OLYP by Andreas Rotevatn
Flute and Compute was recorded on the Victoria Nasjonal Jazzscene by Louise Lavoll
Mastered by Audun Strype
Cover art and graphic design by Bjørnar Sira