Hildegunn Øiseth

Hildegunn Øiseth studied at the Swedish Music Academy (Ingesunds musikhögskola) in Arvika. After graduation, she became a member of the Bohuslän Big Band and worked with the orchestra from 1990 to 1999. 

After this engagement, she settled in South Africa until 2001, where she played in the band Uhambo (two albums). She also performed in Malaysia, Pakistan and the Middle East. Øiseth released her debut album Hildring in 2009. For this record, she focused on the traditional Norwegian instrument Bukkehorn, made from the horn of a goat. For Hildring, she combined this rural sound with the use of electronics.

Her second album, Stillness (2011), with Mats Eilertsen, Thomas Strønen and the pianists Torbjørn Dyrud and Eyolf Dale, was praised highly by critics. Øiseth then went on to work with Tommy Kotter, Peter Janson and Anders Kjellberg, recording the album Valencia (2013) and ultimately showed, that she was to be recognized as a «striking trumpet voice of the Scandinavian jazz world». During this time she also toured with her Worldmusic project Rabalder, which brings together musicians from different parts of the world, and worked as the bandleader of the Norwegian Palestinian collective Sharaka. 

Currently, she is a member of the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra and Marilyn Mazurs Shamania. Since 2012, she has represented Norway in the Jazz Baltica Ensemble at the JazzBaltica Festival. Today Øiseth is concentrating mainly on her own Quartet, («Time is Coming», Loosen Records, 2016) and in 2019 founded the project PANDA, which was created during her work on a large composition commissioned by the Jazzfest Trondheim. In 2020 Hildegunn Øiseth released her latest work Manana on Jazzland Records with her Quartet feat. Espen Berg, Magne Thormodsæter and Per Oddvar Johansen.

Despite the two years marked by the pandemic, Hildegunn Øiseth has been busy musically on the road. This was followed by various duo and quartet concerts or guest appearances such as with the Swiss Jazz Orchestra. In early 2022 Hildegunn Øiseth recorded another album for the label CYH, on which she featured the renowned exception artists Mats Eilertsen and Bugge Wesseltoft.

The album Suite for Gaia, released in January 2022, presents exclusively compositions by Hildegunn Øiseth. Although it is not Hildegunn's first musical encounter with Bugge Wesselthoft, it is her premiere in the recording studio. Mats Eilertsen, on the other hand, can often be heard alongside her and on several of her recordings. Suite For Gaia is an intimate, deeply moving work that takes the listener on a risky journey between deep sadness and hope.

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