HEDVIG MOLLESTAD TRIO

For hvert album Hedvig Mollestad Trio gir ut, prøver kritikerne å finne opp en passende sjanger for den trollbindende, kompromissløse og «rett-i-mellomgølvet-musikken» trioen spiller. - Jazz eller rock? Stonerswing? Eller kanskje doomjazz? Classic Rock kom nærmest: Jazz Sabbath. Hedvig Mollestad Trio er kjærlighetsbarnet til Mahavishnu og Black Sabbath! Eller var det Terje Rypdal og King Crimson? Spiller ingen rolle – dette er musikk som skal få deg til å strekke henda i været og glise fra øre til øre, ev. smile i skjegget mens du nipper til en kald øl og føler at livet er på sitt beste! MOJO, Wire, Classic Rock og Downbeat hyller alle den joviale og in-your-face-loude trioen, og deres siste utgivelse Smells Funny ga dem velfortjent oppmerksomhet langt ut over landets grenser. I mars 2021, 10 år etter sitt første album Shoot!, slipper de sitt 7. album, med tittelen Ding dong. Your Dead. Som alltid er det skyhøye forventninger til hva de bringer til bordet.

Bandet ble startet i 2009 etter at Mollestad ble «årets unge jazztalent» under Moldejazz og trioen ble signert til Rune Grammofon påfølgende år. Etter fire studioalbum og ett dobbelt konsertalbum kommer nå et nytt studioalbum den 30. november 2018.

Om hjertet ditt ligger nært det jazzy og frie eller om du foretrekker den tunge beaten og den pumpende bassen har bandet blitt en live-favoritt. De har spilt på alt fra skitne små buler rundt i verden til de store, classy konsertsalene og jazzfestivalene. Trioen har varmet opp for John McLaughlin på London Jazzfestival og spilt på store musikkfestivaler som Roadburn, SXSW, Tons of Rock, Vancouver Jazzfestival, Ottawa Jazzfestival, Berlin Jazz Festival, London Jazz festival, Tampere Jazz Happening og Øyafestivalen for å nevne noen.

The album, in any case, gives you dark-churning Tony Iommi riffs, a touch of Sonny Sharrock wildness, and traces of doom metal and stoner rock, without ever sounding retro. (…). The guitar playing is explosive but focused, and the cohesion within the band is unshakable. However dense or spaced out this music gets, there’s no question that it sounds alive. 
- Nate Chinen, New York Times

Hedvig Mollestad - gitar, Ellen Brekken - bass, Ivar Loe Bjørnstad - trommer 

Foto: Julia Marie Naglestad

Norsk presse om Smells Funny:

iTromsø 5/6 - På «Smells Funny» beviser Hedvig Mollestad Trio hvor stor kraft musikk kan ha. Om man i en drøy halvtime kan drømme seg langt av sted, og glemme absolutt alt av forstyrrelser som forpester hverdagen – da er musikk på sitt mest verdifulle. Helge Skog

Dagsavisen 5/6 - Tøffere blir det ikke! HM3 nærmer seg rockens flytende magmakjerne. Mode Steinkjer

Aftenposten 5/6 - Et bunnsolid helhetsinntrykk! Robert Hoftun Gjestad 

Dagens Næringsliv - Hedvig Mollestad burde egentlig kunne headline Tons of Rock på Ekebergsletta til sommeren, men la deg ikke lure, dette er langt mer enn «bare» blytung, rå kraft. Audun Vinger

Klassekampen 5/6 - Dette er nemlig ikke bare en særdeles god gitarist, men en som spiller på de andres fremste strenger, og sammen løfter de i særdeles bred flokk. Aslaug Olette Klausen

Og fra releasekonserten: Jazznytt: Energiladet instrumentalrock med jazz i hjørnene, de er virkelig et band, og det lar seg høre. Den gleden de viser, smitter, og tilropene fra publikum er utvetydige! Arild R. Andersen

Internasjonal presse om Smells Funny

Most fusion guitarists take the stage in sober monotones and little glam, groomed for serious business. In performance, Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen, the electrifying leader of this Norwegian instrumental trio, dresses to celebrate: alive in a red, spangled cocktail dress and heels, her long, blonde hair spinning in hairpin time to the music; commanding in her conjuring of Blow by Blow-era Jeff Beck and Mahavishnu-prime John McLaughlin with more death-metal in the riffing and spiritual Coltrane in the improvising. On Smells Funny, the Trio’s sixth album since 2013 and a certain breakthrough once it crosses the Atlantic, Thomassen, bassist Ellen Brekken and drummer Ivar Loe Bjørnstad take new chances with their ritual ascension. “Beastie, Beastie” is irresistibly coherent, even radio-friendly, in its fluid roll and fuzz-meat theme; the rainy-day elegy of “Jurásek” suggests Neil Young passing through Jimi Hendrix’s “Cherokee Mist.” And in the finale, “Lucidness,” Thomassen hangs across Brekken and Bjørnstad’s droning storm in a pure light of high-treble peals and staccato ecstasy. The Hedvig Mollestad Trio delivers avant-guitar adventure with an exuberant sense of occasion, live and on record. Feel free to come as you are.
Rolling Stone (US)

The sixth album by this Norwegian power trio is, like each of its predecessors, a fierce demonstration of their strengths as individuals and as a collective. The trio may be named for their guitarist, but this is a unit, three working as one toward a common goal. Bassist Ellen Brekken and drummer Ivar Bjornstad are a supple and powerful team. Brekken is often a co-lead voice, her massive electric bass sound dominating the mix, while Bjornstad lays down complex but never overly busy rhythmic patterns that possess a relentless drive and a loose, bouncing feel that rocks a little and swings a little without ever falling too far in one direction or the other. And when the band digs into the blues, as they do on "Jurasek", his ability to make a shuffle simultaneously patient and twitchy is something to hear. On that track, Brekken switches from bass guitar to upright, and her sound transforms from an almost Lemmy-esque roar to an underwater boom. Mollestad's own performance has been strongly influenced by her participation in the Sky Music project, a 2017 Rune Grammofon tribute to Norwegian fusion guitar legend Terje Rypdal. While her tone remains identifiable in an instant — it's a thick, distorted but organic sound that comes straight from early 1970s blues rock like Free and Humble Pie — here and on the Trio's last studio album, 2016's Black Stabat Mater, she's been embracing noise and skronk more than on earlier releases like 2011's Shoot! and 2013's All Of Them Witches. This album's penultimate track, "Bewitched, Dwarfed And Defeathered", is built around a jackhammering doom-blues riff, but eventually Bjornstad doubles the tempo and Brekken and Mollestad fly away on simultaneous but unrelated solo journeys, the guitarist making a positively unholy screeching sound. On the closing "Lucidness", she sounds like a cross between Neil Young and Keiji Haino, her earth-shaking leads ultimately heading into a vortex of manic shredding as Brekken and Bjornstad create a sustained explosion behind her. The louder you play this impeccably mixed and mastered record, the better it sounds, so for best results, wait until the neighbours leave town and go nuts.
The Wire (UK)

Norway's metal/free jazz crossover monsters embrace a new - relative subtlety. Smells Funny opens with Beastie, Beastie. A circular, ominous bass riff is underpinned by unrelenting drums. Spiralling, sustain-heavy guitar spikily recasting Third Stone From The Sun Hendrix tops it off. Six tracks on, with the innate chemistry of Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen (guitar), Ellen Brekken (acoustic and electric bass) and Ivar Loe Bjornstad's (drums) established, album closer Lucidness uses these elements to instantly dive into seven-plus minutes of a juddering, free-form vortex. On their previous four studio albums, Norway's Hedvig Mollestad Trio have seamlessly and uniquely fused heavy rock riffing, free jazz reaching out, and full-on drive. Smells Funny, the follow-up to the 2016 live set Evil In Oslo, pushes forward. Instead of building riff upon riff, Mollestad Thomassen's adoption of free flowing soloing brings a sound less claustrophobic than before. Extraordinarily, in so doing, no power is lost. Herewlth, the hammer of the gods. 4/5.
Mojo (UK)

Firstly, this is a shout-out to Norwegian record label Rune Grammofon, who just turned 20 and have been a home to myriad excellent left-of-the-dial acts in jazz and rock such as Bushman's Revenge, Elephant9, Shining, Susanna, Jenny Hval and this writer's beloved Motorpsycho. Award-winning guitarist Hedvig Mollestad appeared on their roster in 2011 with the superb Shoot!, stamping her stiletto-heeled way through jazz-prog expositions that owed as much to Guns N' Roses and Melvins as to John McLaughlin and Coltrane. Smells Funny, her trio's sixth album, doesn't hold back (except on the dreamy Jurasek). Opener Beastie, Beastie channels Sabotage by the Beastie Boys before things go metallically Zep for First Thing To Pop Is The Eye and jazz Sabbath on Bewitched, Dwarfed And Defeathered with bassist Ellen Brekken burning frets and drummer Ivar Loe Bjornstad almost levitating his kit. Lucidness is the incendiary cherry on this Kvæfjordkake - if you want to know what Hendrix might have done beyond 27, listen to this. 8/10.
Classic Rock (UK)

Our chums at Classic Rock dubbed this trio 'Sabbath Jazz'. And if you stopped reading there, woe betide you tin-eared heathens. This is jazz as thoroughbred, soul-fuelled and technically adroit as Davis, Dolphy or indeed Jim Hall, whom Mollestad names as a profound influence. Luckily enough, Mollestad (and the no less astonishing Brekken and Bjornstad) have the musical firepower to adventure forth regardless of labels. This is the band's sixth album in seven years; all are brief in time, but massive in stature. Smells Funny, as you may guess, riffs around Zappa's apothegm that jazz may be mortally wounded but the bugger ain't kicked the bucket yet. Indeed, the energy and intensity of the songs, from the opening lommi-charged 'Beastie, Beastie', to the closing wall-of-sound turned song of ecstasy 'Lucidness' are enough to raise the dead and undead alike, let alone long suffering jazz. But this isn't just about volume and distortion (though they are valid tools). Mollestad plays with precision, surety of phrasing and a scalpel-sharp tone that means that, though she employs more pedals than the Tour de France, there is always a bear trap musical logic to everything she plays, with nary an extraneous note. If you need a compass heading, try Jim Hall lensed through Terje Rypdal (Chaser period). But you've all got great ears: find your own direction: c'mon feel the noise. 4/5.
Jazzwise (UK)

When a power trio can share the stage comfortably with the the likes of John McLaughlin and Black Sabbath, you know two things: They rock hard, yet provide enough harmonic content and improvisational daring to make it interesting. Norway's Hedvig Mollestad Trio does precisely that on its sixth album. Recorded live in the studio, Smells Funny is a metal-jazz excursion that often tips into the Sonny Sharrock zone, fueled by Ellen Brekken's rumbling bass, Ivar Loe Bjornstad's insistent pulse and Mollestad's hellacious chops and fertile imagination. From the crunching opener "Beastie, Beastie" to the odd-metered, Mahavishnu-esque "First Thing To Pop Is The Eye," the trio is remarkably tight, unapologetically loud and surging with energy. The lone ballad here, the delicate "Jurasek,” features Brekken on upright bass and has Bjornstad underscoring with a loosely swinging, interactive touch on the kit. "Sugar Rush Mountain," which opens like Mollestad's answer to The Allman Brothers anthemic "Whipping Post," eventually heads into full-blown Hendrixian territory. A free-jazz interlude, ”Bewitched, Dwarfed And Defeathered” provides a kinetic platform for Mollestad to launch into some of her skronkiest fusillades of the set. And the raucous closer, ”Lucidness” is a rubato noise-jazz romp that might draw its inspiration from Hendrix's "Third Stone From The Sun," while building to the "shards of splintered glass" approach of Sharrock and Pete Cosey. When Frank Zappa famously said ”Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny”, he was referring to a moldering of the music. The Hedvig Mollestad Trio aims at providing an antidote with this audacious outing.
Downbeat (US)

Norway's guitar heroine delivers another musical thunderbolt. For a country with a population smaller than London, Norway seems to produce an almost alarmingly high number of amazing bands. On their sixth album, the Hedvig Mollestad Trio continue to explore the fertile ground where jazz meets rock, then they get drunk together and jam until the neighbours call the police about the noise. The main riff of Beastie, Beastie seems inspired by the Beastie Boys' Sabotage, and features an outstanding guitar solo from bandleader Mollestad. Bewitched, Dwarfed And Defeathered is pure sonic malevolence, while in First Thing To Pop Is The Eye, Mollestad's guitar breaks up into feedback, allowing bassist Ellen Brekken to launch an adventurous solo as Ivar Loe Bjornstad fearlessly keeps pace on the drums. There's a moment of relative calm in Jurasek, but Lucidness is a freewheeling, volatile jazz-rock exploration akin to the Mahavishnu Orchestra or Tony Williams' Lifetime at their most volcanic. Smells Funny provides the antithesis of the sanitised, elevator fusion of the 80s and 90s. This is not an album to play quietly in the background, but one to blast at a level somewhere between 'obnoxious' and 'likely to cause brain damage'.
Prog (UK)

The Hedvig Mollestad Trio is made up of Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen on guitar, Ellen Brekken on bass and Ivar Loe Bjornstad on drums, and they deftly meld rock and jazz music from the most complex fusion to the heaviest of metal, with hints of free music and psychedelia. This is their sixth album, and the music has been gaining confidence and complexity all the way, especially on this album which is very successful and should be accessible for both fans of open eared jazz and rock 'n' roll. "Beatsie, Beatsie" opens the album with raw rocking feedback, physical bass and tight drums, where riffs gradually build, almost architecturally, with guitar solos sparking off of them and taking flight, soaring over the powerful rhythm section, leaving streaks of neon colors in the sky. They really blast off near the end, driving the music hard and embodying the powers of nature, before returning to the original theme. Slashing guitar and percussion hit hard right from the opening, giving "First Thing To Pop Is The Eye" a foundation in violent sweeping movements, which propel the music around a fulcrum of taut bass. Tight repetitive themes build momentum, allowing them to explore at length, percolating bass and drums supporting long lines of bold electric guitar, which can still lash like a whip when necessary. They build to a blistering collective improvisation, playing as a full bore power trio, ripping apart the musical firmament with force and finesse, with a crushing drum led finale. On "Sugar Rush Mountain" there is a full and robust sound with excellent bass playing allowing the drums and guitar to really stretch out and go for it, with the leader's guitar emitting sparks of fire and electricity in a spellbinding solo over elastic bass and insistent drumming. The trio improvisation is excellent, the band knows each other well and this lends to a thrill ride of powerhouse playing at terrific volume and speed. "Bewitched, Dwarfed And Defeathered" combines grinding remorseless guitar and drums in a thick sludge, oozing forward, with binding bass, and massive riffs like mountains to be scaled. Guitar snakes out with long sustaining snarls, and a much earned bass solo that is a powerful force in its own right. The guitar soon returns with over the top power and speed, shredding at a phenomenal pace, before gliding back into the heavy riffs that return the tune to the primordial soup from whence it came. "Lucidness" is the longest track, free sounding and spontaneous, building upon smears of guitar, nervous drums and bass, gradually gathering volume and pacing, with excellent interplay between the musicians as the complexity of the improvisation grows. The music takes on an exploratory bent, and the trio challenges themselves to dig deeper and push harder, reaching for a performance of transformative metamorphosis, where tags like jazz and rock fall to the wayside and all becomes one.
Jazzandblues (US)

Norwegian jazz guitarist flirts with the hard sluff in style: Since they formed seven years ago, this Oslo trio have shared stages with Black Sabbath and John McLaughlin, which might indicate the twin directions they are coming from. On this sixth album, there's a deft combination of denseness and groove that is never easy to master, but also a freestyle improvisational quality. Tracks like the relatively spritely "Beastie, Beastie" and "Sugar Rush Mountain" feature a pummelling rhythm section, over which Mollestad sprinkles her electrifying solos, while "Lucidness" and "First Thing To Pop Is The Eye" are extended jams that move seamlessly between heavy rock and discordant jazz. 8/10.
Uncut (UK)

Speaking of heavy-gauge trios composed of guitar, bass and drums: Hedvig Mollestad, a psychedelic jazz-rock wonder from Oslo, Norway, just announced a new album, Smells Funny, due out Jan. 18 on Rune Grammofon. Here is the album's playfully gnarly lead single, "Beastie, Beastie." Mollestad hasn't been shy about naming her guitar influences, at least two of which — John McLaughlin and Jimi Hendrix — surface at times during this track. But the nimble muscularity of her trio, with bassist Ellen Brekken and drummer Ivar Loe Bjørnstad, warrants judgment on its own ecstatic terms.
Nate Chinen, WBGO (US)