Eivind Aarset

Since issuing his debut full-length as a bandleader via 1998's Électronique Noire, Norway's Eivind Aarset has positioned himself as an adventurous guitarist, composer, producer, and sound designer whose distinctive outlook draws upon and refracts elements across numerous genres and methods. Meticulous focus on nuance and construction enabled him to reshape the guitar's function in contemporary exploratory music, a development clear on 2007's Sonic Codex and 2012's Dream Logic. The 2015 release I.E. illustrated his broad textural range and dynamic reach by uniting a conventional rock quartet with brass and woodwinds. In 2019 Aarset joined percussionist Michele Rabbia and trombonist Gianluca Petrella for the freely improvised Lost River. The next year, working alongside Jan Bang, he delivered the densely layered ambient album Snow Catches on Her Eyelashes. Aarset shifted back toward more traditional guitar timbres on 2021's Phantasmagoria, Or a Different Kind of Journey, fronting his own quartet with invited guests that included trumpeter Arve Henriksen.

Born in Kolbotn, Oppegård, Norway in 1961, Aarset began playing guitar near age 12 after developing a strong interest in the music of Jimi Hendrix. He then gravitated toward rock-oriented bands such as Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, and Santana before discovering jazz and studying the work of Miles Davis, Weather Report, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and others. Saxophonist Jan Garbarek and guitarist Terje Rypdal counted among his early influences as well. Following stints in several heavy metal groups, Aarset built a prosperous session career during the 1980s, appearing on albums with Marie Boine Persen, Valgeir Gudjonsson, Morten Harket, and additional artists. He also performed with his wife, vocalist Anne-Marie Giørtz, in the progressive ensemble Ab und Zu and belonged to saxophonist Bendik Hofseth's band. Further expansion of his musical viewpoint came through associations with forward-thinking pianist Bugge Wesseltoft and the Oslo Jazz Underground. In 1998 he launched his solo career with Électronique Noire on the Jazzland label. Several further acclaimed projects appeared on that imprint, among them 2001's Light Extracts, 2004's Connected, and 2007's Sonic Codex. Aarset moved to ECM in 2012 and issued his fifth full-length album, Dream Logic. I.E. arrived in 2016. Two years afterward he collaborated with trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer and reggae duo Sly & Robbie on Nordub.

Aarset's sound-design work proved advantageous to other musicians. He partnered again with drummer/percussionist Michele Rabbia and trombonist Gianluca Petrella in 2019 on the wholly improvised Lost River for ECM, where electronics featured as prominently as guitar. During 2020 he worked with singer/composer Cristina Zavalloni, Quartetto Mirus, and others on the avant-classical recording For the Living for Italy's Encore Classical Music & Jazz label. That same year he and Bang released their collaborative ambient album Snow Catches on Her Eyelashes on Jazzland. In September 2021 the Eivind Aarset 4tet, comprising drummer Wetle Holte, percussionist Erland Dahlen, and bassist, guitarist, and electronicist Audun Erlien, released Phantasmagoria, Or a Different Kind of Journey on Jazzland. The recording featured guest contributions from Bang, trumpeter/electronicist Arve Henriksen, and electronics producer John Derek Bishop. The set reflected a shift for Aarset, who, while continuing to compose, also demonstrated heightened sound-design abilities and employed the guitar in a conventional manner for the first time in more than a decade.