Åsne Fossmark

Åsne Fossmark, born 2002, is a tenor saxophonist and composer out of Trondheim, in the Trøndelag region of Norway. She picked up jazz around 2019 and splits her time across several active groups.

She plays in When I Return, a septet that came together in the early 2020s inside NTNU Trondheim's jazz program. Their debut record, The Weight of Bloom (Jazzland Recordings, 2026), builds open melodic lines that give way to tightly wound improvised counterpoint.

She also holds down the saxophone chair in Moon Inhabitants, a quintet rounded out by Mikkel Dahl Amundsen on trumpet, Sondre Moshagen on piano, Johannes Lykkås on bass, and Jørgen Fiske on drums. The band leans on 1960s free jazz but plays fast and loose with it; their label calls the results "an energy bomb with unpredictable cosmic improvisations and down-to-earth naivety." Canned Luna, the band's debut, also came out in 2026 (Sauajazz).

She is also part of Dypdykk, a quintet she's played in since it formed in spring 2022, drawing players from both the NTNU jazz program and Bergen's Griegakademiet. She's been described as bringing "tasteful solos and a lyrical tone" to a band that swings between groove-heavy riffs and freer, more choral passages. Dypdykk cut a debut album in autumn 2024 and has played Moldejazz and the Oslo Jazz Talent festival.

Fossmark also fronts her own project, Blister Pearl, an electronic jazz quartet where she plays sax, sings, and writes the material. It draws on a different set of influences than her other bands: hip-hop and free improvisation folded into art pop, inspired by Berlin's underground scene, described as "hypnotic neon clouds of melodic saxophone, wry retro synths, and drum 'n' bass." Blister Pearl was one of the acts selected for Jazzintro 2026, Norway's main showcase for emerging jazz talent.

She grew up in Trøndelag, a region she has said has "many good jazz and folk musicians." One thread running through her early years there was a tribute concert for the late Asmund Bjørken, a local jazz pioneer known for blending jazz and Norwegian folk — his son remarked afterward that she had "the fiddler's gift" in her. In 2026 she hosted a jam session at Jazzfest Trondheim.

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