Trygve Seim

Norwegian saxophonist and composer Trygve Seim first reaches English-speaking listeners through his ECM recordings both as leader and sideman, yet inside Norway he ranks among the country’s busiest studio artists, frequent collaborators, and programmers of sonic events. Across Europe and Asia, where his discography runs considerably deeper, festival programmers book him constantly in every role from unaccompanied soloist and bandleader to commissioned composer and ensemble member. His ongoing role in guitarist Jacob Young’s quintet has also carried his name into Britain and the United States. The 2004 album Sangam earned widespread notice for its blend of jazz, global pop, and modernist composition, while the 2010 release Purcor: Songs for Saxophone and Piano reunited him with longtime associate pianist Andreas Utnem for duets on both original material and traditional pieces. Utnem drew on his own classical and jazz background to interpret liturgical mass settings alongside newer compositions, and Seim responded with spontaneous lines that produced a widely praised fusion of classical, jazz, and folk idioms.

Seim entered the world in Norway in 1971 and first took up the saxophone in 1985 after hearing Jan Garbarek’s album Eventyr. That recording’s sonic character has remained with him across the decades, although his own tone tends to be warmer and more economical than that of his primary influence. During the early 1990s he attended the Trondheim Musikkonservatorium, where his teachers included Edward Vesala and Terje Bjørklund. In 1991 he joined fellow student Christian Wallumrød to form the quartet Airamero alongside bassist Johannes Eick and drummer Per Oddvar Johansen. The following year he entered Jon Balke’s large ensemble Oslo 13 and later assumed co-leadership duties. Airamero released its only album, a self-titled effort, in 1994. Throughout the remainder of the decade Seim appeared on sessions by Motorpsycho, Jacob Young, Squid, and Odd Nordstoga, among others, while also helping establish the continuing collective known as The Source with Johansen, Øyvind Brække, and Mats Eilertsen.

His first ECM date as leader, Different Rivers, appeared in 2001; the next year brought The Source with Different Cikadas (again with Brække and Johansen), Wallumrød’s Sofienberg Variations, and Balke’s Magnetic North Orchestra on Kyanos. Sangam followed in 2004. The Source issued its self-titled album in 2006, the same year Seim joined Sinikka Langeland’s “Starflowers” ensemble that also included Arve Henriksen and Anders Jormin. Langeland’s 2007 album of the same name documented the first recording by a group that has continued to perform and record together. Two further collaborative projects appeared in quick succession: Yeraz with accordionist Frode Haltli in 2008 and Purcor with Andreas Utnem in 2010. Over the ensuing five years Seim recorded with The Source and contributed to albums by Manu Katché and Arild Andersen, among others.

The year 2016 found him especially active, appearing on Iro Haarla’s Ante Lucem, Eilertsen’s Rubicon, and Langeland’s The Magical Forest, while also issuing his own Rumi Songs in September. That set presented his musical settings of texts by the thirteenth-century poet and mystic, performed by mezzo-soprano Tora Augestad with accompaniment from saxophonist Haltli and violin-cellist Svante Henryson. In 2017 Seim assembled his “Helsinki Quartet,” completed by Norwegian bassist Mats Eilertsen, Estonian pianist Kristjan Randalu, and Finnish drummer Markku Ounaskari. The group entered Oslo’s Rainbow Studio with producer Manfred Eicher in January 2018 to record Helsinki Songs, an album of original compositions, most written in the Finnish capital, that paid tribute to Igor Stravinsky, Jimmy Webb, Ornette Coleman, Bill Evans, and his fellow band members. The recording was released in mid-July, followed by a European tour.