Jazz Articles about Hilmar Jensson

About Hilmar Jensson

Album Review

Freysteinn Gíslason is an Icelandic double bassist and composer whose musical path started at home before taking him to the Royal Conservatorium in Den Haag. That background clearly shapes his playing, yet what truly sets him apart is his restraint. He has little interest in turning every track into a showcase of virtuosity. Instead, he hunts for atmosphere, tension, and emotional clarity, preferring to let the music emerge through patience rather than brute force. The quartet he gathered ...

Album Review

Ingi Bjarni Skúlason: Hope

by Tyran Grillo
February 22, 2026

On Hope, Icelandic pianist and composer Ingi Bjarni Skulason opens a quiet interior, one shaped by listening as much as by sound. Joined by bassist Anders Jormin, guitarist Hilmar Jensson, and drummer Magnus Trygvason Eliassen, he presents a quartet steeped in introspection, where each note seems to arrive after careful consideration, as if feeling its way forward. The album gathers itself around loss, tracing the many chambers of grief that followed the death of his mother, yet it never settles ...

Album Review

Ingi Bjarni Skúlason: Hope

by Glenn Astarita
July 22, 2025

Ingi Bjarni Skúlason's seventh album, Hope, released on January 17, 2025, is a poignant exploration of grief and resilience, exquisitely woven into a Nordic jazz tapestry. This Icelandic pianist and composer, joined by truly estimable artists--Anders Jormin on double bass, Hilmar Jensson on guitar and Magnús Trygvason Eliassen on drums--crafts a soundscape that is both introspective and expansively beautiful. The quartet's synergy, finely honed at the Reykjavik Jazz Festival, shines across nine tracks, each a quiet meditation on loss and ...

Album Review

Freysteinn Gíslason: Að einhverju / To somewhere

Read "Að einhverju / To somewhere" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
December 9, 2024

Emerging from Iceland's volcanic landscape--a land where glaciers and geysers conspire to create heavenly magic--Freysteinn arrives with their third sonic missive, Að einhverju/To somewhere. This is not your grandmother's jazz album; it is a musical expedition that pirouettes between traditional Icelandic folk whispers, rock and a progressive jazz swagger. Along with the melodic complexities of prominent guitarist Hilmar Jensson, the band crafts a soundscape that's equal parts cerebral and visceral. The title track “Að einhverju/To Somewhere" unfurls like ...

Album Review

Hilmar Jensson: Transparence

Read "Transparence" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
May 1, 2021

Given that not one of the eight tracks definingTransparence, the darkly compelling debut from Norway's Hitra, runs longer than six minutes, the quartet covers a lot of ground. Like a ticket out of isolation, Transparence transports your homebound head to the grey expanse of Northern Atlantic skies. Billowing by design, their clouds of music make you feel like you're floating above rain shadows and fjords. Bonding together at Oslo's Norwegian Academy of Music, Hitra pairs Italian pianist Alessandro ...

Album Review

Hitra: Transparence

Read "Transparence" reviewed by Emmanuel Di Tommaso

by Emmanuel Di Tommaso
February 22, 2021

Immaginiamo un'isola chiamata Hitra, circondata da infinite altre isole e scogliere, e percossa dai gelidi venti del Mar di Norvegia, che si insinuano fra le barche e nelle case dei pescatori, tagliano i volti dei pochi vecchi abitanti del luogo, fino a infrangersi contro i monumentali fiordi secolari. “Isola," dal latino “terra insula," a sua volta composto dalla particella “in" ("dentro," “in") e dal termine “salum" ("alto mare"), quindi letteralmente “terra in mezzo al mare," da cui “isolamento," la condizione ...

Album Review

Tyft: Smell the Difference

by AAJ Italy Staff
January 14, 2010

A dispetto dell'apparente vena rock non lontana da contenuti espressamente metal, le composizioni del chitarrista islandese Hilmar Jensson non si limitano a mere costruzioni matematiche, dalle distorsioni granitiche e dalle ritmiche squadrate. Due forze infatti lottano e si contrappongono in questo terzo album della band: batteria, chitarra da una parte, e trio di fiati dall'altra. La musica contenuta in questo Smell the Difference propone diverse soluzioni, ed ha solo il sapore del jazz, in quanto le intuzioni sonore vengono costantemente ...