Norwegian flutist Henriette Eilertsen is known from local bands like Billy Meier, Andreas Røysum Ensemble, Slow Is The New Fast and the composers collective OJKOS. She was the first in Norway to get a bachelor’s degree in jazz flute, at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Her debut album «Poems for Flute» proves that she chose wisely her instrument and has her own musical vision – artistic and sonic vision, one that acknowledges the seminal influences of heroes like Joe Farrell, Eric Dolphy and Elena Pinderhughes.
«Poems for Flute» consists of 12 short pieces, small musical poems, some are structured snd focused while others are free-improvised and experimental, often more abstract and intuitive. Eilertsen plays solo, in duo with both violin and electronics, and in a live setting with musicians of OJKOS. The opening piece «Flute and Compute», was captured live at Victoria Nasjonal Jazzscene in Oslo, with OJKOS as Eilertsen’s backing band, and is focused on her compositional skills, but also suggests her immediate responses to the otherworldly electronics created by Mike McCormick. McCormick also challenges Eilertsen on the last «Space Invaders» with his alien, dystopian bleeps.
The four improvised pieces were recorded with violinist Hans P. Kjorstad, who plays with Eilertsen as the duo Kakapoi for the last decade. These pieces were recorded at the local octagonal church in Sør-Fron. Both musicians explore microtonal tones at the unique acoustics of the church, search for weird, noisy sounds, and establish fragile yet elusive sonic entities.
The solo pieces were recorded in a studio in Oslo. Eilertsen investigates extended breathing techniques on the abstract «Den Rennande Bekkjen», and using the SuperCollider software to add a subtle, layer of electronics. Other solo pieces were recorded and at Emmanuel Vigeland’s Mausoleum in Oslo, known for its long reverberation of 21 seconds, where she used three close-up microphones to intensify the reverberating acoustics. On «The Sabbatical» and «Greta» she employs the lower register of the flute and creates meditative, ethereal resonant textures, and on «Pastorale» she enjoys a folky dance. «Birth of the Flute» inquires some of the radical, urgent sonic qualities of her instrument.
Eyal Hareuveni
Henriette Eilertsen (fl), Hans P. Kjorstad (vio), Mike McCormick (elec), Kristoffer Håvik (p), Tina Lægreid Olsen (bs), Ivar Myrset Asheim (saw)
