Tuva Halse: Reconnection

Tuva Halse was born in Molde, Norway, in August, 1999. She studied at the Bekkevoll Junior High School and then at the Molde High School, simultaneously following the music programme of the Molde Kulturskole. She has composed music since childhood. She turned to jazz violin when her piano teacher from the age of 13 introduced her to jazz and encouraged her to play it on violin. One of her first experiences with a jazz orchestra was with the Lærlingan, a big band of Molde High School students with which she played, for instance, at Moldejazz in 2017. Halse claims a musical lineage with Polish violinist Adam Baldych, citing him as the musician who motivated her to become a musician. She has defined herself as a melancholic musician, playing "mountain jazz," and says she feels "at home" in the complex Nordic jazz.

Halse's first album release was Boxed, released in September 2022 on Fjordgata Records, the independent label with which she had become one of the founding members when she was just 22. On that album, she was joined in a trio by Benjamín Gísli Einarsson on grand piano and Øyvind Leite on drums, both of whom would join her in Tuva Halse Quintet alongside Gard Kronborg on bass and vocals, and Oscar Andreas Haug on trumpet and vocals, the line-up which recorded Two (Jazzland Recordings, 2023) and Reconnection in April and December 2024 with Vidar Lunden, who also mixed and mastered the album. Although the quintet has issued occasional singles, no further albums preceded Reconnection.


The album features 11 tracks ranging from 1 minute, 10 seconds to 7 minutes, 21 seconds for a total playing time of 46 minutes, 46 seconds. Straight from its opening notes, it is obvious that the album will be beautiful from start to finish with all five players contributing equally and respecting each other's playing so that it is a delight to listen to. The end result is not the head-solo-reprise formula of some jazz but music that all five players contribute to equally without any of them dominating or hogging the limelight. Throughout, all five players are a joy...