Quick Facts
Biography
Mette Henriette Martedatter Rølvåg (born 27 November 1990 in Northern Norway) is an independent musician, improviser and autodidact composer from Norway.
Career
Rølvåg was raised in Trondheim, Norway and started to play saxophone at an early age. She is a sought-after saxophonist across Europe and the United States. She started writing music at the age of 14 and has been initiating projects and toured with her bands since 2008. Over the years she has appeared on live national TV and radio (NRK), performed solo at The Royal Palace of Norway, delivered an audiovisual production on commission to a desert island (Vibrandsøy) and composed music on commission for Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival, Oslo Sinfonietta and Rikskonsertene.
On October 30 2015, with the album Mette Henriette, she was the first artist to release a double debut album on the renowned jazz record label ECM Records. The album consists of 90 minutes of music for trio and large ensemble, where 'jazz' players and 'classical' players are drawn together, but the music shapes its own world outside genre definitions. It was composed by Rølvåg, produced by Manfred Eicher and recorded in Oslo with sound engineer Jan Erik Kongshaug. The album photo series was photographed by Anton Corbijn. The release was praised by critics worldwide and topped the Norwegian iTunes charts, The Independent announced it Jazz Record of the Year 2015 and The Guardian referred to her as a contemporary music star on the rise.
In 2013 she appeared in Marina Abramovic's performance video "Scream" and the year after the two of them collaborated on a duo performance at The Hole Gallery in Manhattan curated by Antony Hegarty, CocoRosie and Kembra Pfahler. She has also been observed on stage with Darkside (band) (Nicolas Jaar), CocoRosie, and a handful of underground hip hop acts.
Studies
In addition to her saxophone studies at Sund Folkehøgskole, the Norwegian Academy of Music and School for Improvised Music in New York City, her interest in indigenous cultures brought her all the way to the Silk Road, Sápmi and West Africa to explore traditional music and dance with locals.
Honors
- 2015: Norwegian representative at Young Nordic Jazz Comets
- 2014: Sparebank 1 SMN TÆL-Stipend
- 2010: School for Improvised Music Scholarship
Discography
Solo albums
- 2015: Mette Henriette (ECM Records)