Mathias Eick, Kristjan Randalu, Ole Morten Vågan, Hans Hulbækmo
Biography Mathias Eick, Kristjan Randalu, Ole Morten Vågan, Hans Hulbækmo
Mathias Eick
Norwegian trumpet player/composer Mathias Eick was born in 1979. He plays primarily in Europe and is not that well known in the U.S. yet. In Europe, Eick has toured and performed with jazz bands like the Erlend Skomsvolls project with Chick Corea, Motif, and the Norwegian electronica group Jaga Jazzist. He has also worked with pop and rock acts like Motorpsycho and Big Bang. His main influences are Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, Dave Douglas, and Kenny Wheeler. In addition to being and excellent trumpet player, Eick has the widest tonal palette of any trumpet player I have ever heard. He can make the horn crackle like a hard bop player and also play with the softest whisper and make the trumpet sound like a flute.
His leader-debut The Door (2008) presented the trumpeter in a quartet with Jon Balke, Audun Erlien and Audun Kleive – quite “the achievement” according to Jazztimes magazine with Eick’s “patient playing style suggesting maturity beyond his years.” Skala (2011) and Midwest (2015) followed with shifting line-ups and to great acclaim, as “modal jazz and north European folk idioms often work well together, and they certainly do here. Eick has a beautiful tone and writes attractive themes, by turns haunting and energetic” (The Observer).
Yet another configuration was revealed for Ravensburg (2018), with Mathias joined by violinist Håkon Aase, pianist Andreas Ulvo, Audun Erlien on electric bass, Rostein Lofthus on drums plus percussionist Helge Andreas – a line-up that remained unchanged for follow-up When We Leave (2021) except for the addition of Stian Carstensen on pedal steel – recalling the American folk tinges of the earlier recording Midwest. “The painterly trumpet style of Matthias Eick — whispery, murmuring, yet possessed of a clarion focus — has been a standout feature of Norwegian jazz over the last decade. ‘When we leave’, his captivating new album on ECM, reinforces his additional prowess as a bandleader, as well as an organizer of sound.” (Nate Chinen, WBGO)
