Helge Lien Trio - Beyond The Nordic Tone
Friday, May 27, 2011
The Norwegian Helge Lien Trio, with its poetic sensibility, stunning improvisational power and attractive original material, has become one of the leading European jazz groups of the last few years to push the music out into new territory.
As the trio releases its latest album Stuart Nicholson talks to Helge Lien and explains just why the group has made such an impact in jazz
If pianist Helge Lien had been a student of the Chinese Zodiac he would have known that the year 2008 was a Year of the Rat. According to the Zodiac, a Rat Year is a time of renewal, hard work and activity and a good year to make a fresh start. Ventures begun in a Rat Year may not yield fast returns, but opportunities will come for people who are well prepared and resourceful. The road to success is to be patient, let things develop and to make the most of every opportunity. Well, that’s what the ancient scriptures claim, and remarkably in Lien’s case the Zodiac was spot on. His trio, formed in 1998 while he was studying at Oslo Music Academy had, by 2008, made five albums together and while great things were predicted for it – Lien had been the recipient of the DnBNor Musician’s Award and the Hansa Award, the latter coming with a 50,000 Norwegian Kroner bursary – they remained under most critics’ and fans’ radar outside Norway. But 2008 was the year Lien made a fresh start – he changed management and changed his record company and recorded Hello Troll.
Well prepared and patient, just like the Zodiac councils, Lien made the most of every opportunity that came his way. By the end of 2009 the album had won a prestigious Norwegian Grammy, the Indie Acoustic Project Award and was Soundstage’s Best Audiophile Release of 2009. To date album sales are approaching 15,000 – a remarkable sum in this day and age for a jazz CD – and has received rave reviews from the likes of Jazzwise, Rolling Stone, Stereoplay, Jazzthing, Jazzthetik, and Jazz Podium magazines with Dagbladet hailing the group as “The best Norwegian piano trio in a long time.” “Hello Troll was definitely a breakthrough,” says Lien. “Although we had been working steadily for many years before, it led to an increasing number of concerts – the number of concerts in the last two years has very much increased and that was very important because we could develop this [musical] direction which we started.
This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #152 – to read the full article click here to subscribe and receive a FREE CD...