Trail of Souls Solveig Slettahjell

• 1Borrowed Time04:39
• 2Grandma's Hands04:59
• 3Mercy Street05:32
• 4Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child03:43
• 5Come Healing05:05
• 6Is My Living in Vain05:49
• 7Holy Joe04:18
• 8Trouble in Mind03:12
• 9His Eye Is on the Sparrow04:29
• 10I Don't Feel Noways Tired03:21
• 11Soul of a Man06:07
• Total Runtime51:14

Info for Trail of Souls

“Connecting the unexpected” is the motto of Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic, a concert series curated and produced by ACT label boss Siggi Loch, which began in December 2012. A carefully selected unifying theme runs through each programme, alongside imaginative juxtapositions of musicians brought together specifically for the occasion, in some cases for the first time. This formula has not just proved a hit with audiences; musicians have also taken to it with a particular zeal. The artists and the spectators who attended the ‘Norwegian Woods’ edition of the series in March 2014 experienced an amazing evening. Loch had assembled the A-team of Norwegian jazz, and created the unexpected by combining them with a guest artist from a different musical realm:

Solveig Slettahjell was one such artist welcomed back into the fold. The ACT label released her early albums, establishing her international reputation as one of Europe’s leading jazz vocalists. Here she was partnered up with In The Country, the piano trio involving her close friend Morton Qvenild, pianist, sonic explorer and also a member of Solveig Slettahjell‘s Slow Motion ensembles. The real surprise that evening, however, came from adding the blues guitarist Knut Reiersrud. He had been on Siggi Loch's radar for quite some time, and on this occasion was having his first ever meeting with Slettahjell and her crew. It turned out to be an ideal combination. The evening was a celebration of everything that had made the Nordic sound so attractive and successful for many decades. On the one hand there was the elegiac, bluesy side, inspired by the spirit of indigenous folk music; on the other the electronic, the rhythmically daring and the experimental.

The participants in ‘Norwegian Woods’ were certain that, somehow, they needed to continue and develop what they had started. Above all, the earthy blues guitar of Reiersrud, with its ethnic influence, had been a revelation all round. Solveig Slettahjell, although signed to Universal, came up spontaneously with the wish to record a studio album with these musicians. Loch already had a suitable idea and concept in his mind's ear, and suggested that they might link the American gospel and spiritual traditions with the Norwegian sound aesthetic under the banner of “Trail of Souls.”

Then followed a huge amount of careful preparation and several rehearsals in Morten Qvenild's private studio, after which all the musicians ended up in the celebrated Rainbow Studio in Oslo to give the original idea a definitive shape. All eleven tracks, with the exception of the final number, a song composed by Reiersrud, are blues and gospel classics in the broadest sense. There are three from stars of pop and soul music - Bill Withers “Grandma's Hand”, Peter Gabriel's “Mercy Street” and Leonard Cohen's “Come Healing” - but beyond those the others are the kind of tunes only familiar to initiates such as Reiersrud. “We did all rummage through our record collections and chose a few old work songs and spirituals together,” says Slettahjell, “but Knut is the really knowledgeable one among us.”

This is something Reiersrud has already proved completely convincingly on his debut album on ACT, “Tears Of The World,” which he made with the amazing blues singer Mighty Sam McClain. Sadly, McClain passed away on 16th June 2015, at the age of just 72, shortly before the album was released. The procession of songs on “Trail of Souls” takes in, for example, the emotional traditional song “Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child,” and that staple of gospel church services, “His Eye Is On The Sparrow,” and the memorable “Don’t Feel Noways Tired” by the King of Gospel, the Reverend James Cleveland. From older pieces by Blind Willie Johnson, James Anderson and Richard M. Jones – with the evergreen song “Trouble in Mind” - the selection comes up to date with the song “Is My Living In Vain?” by Elbernita ‘Twinkie’ Clark, a gospel star and two-time Grammy winner.

All the songs here are given a brand new identity by being taken at a much slower pace than is traditional. Solveig Slettahjell's completely individual soft voice savours every detail of phrasing. Combined with Knut Reiersrud's well-judged voicings, which glitter with their metallic sound, the whole effect is mesmerizing. Morten Qvenild and his trio produce surprising rhythmic accents and a whole panoply of sounds, all the way from wood and clay over spherical surfaces to tough drum'n'bass beats. These musicians' outstanding creativity and their sense of fantasy have shown once again that they truly are Norse Gods.

Solveig Slettahjell, vocals
Knut Reiersrud, guitars, harmonica
In The Country:
Morten Qvenild, piano, synthesizers
Roger Arntzen, bass
Pål Hausken, drums, percussion

Recorded by Jan Erik Kongshaug at Rainbow Studio, Oslo, April 8 - 10, 2015
Mixed and mastered by Jan Erik Kongshaug
Produced by Siggi Loch with the artists

Solveig Slettahjell
(pronounced: Sul-vay Shlet-I-Yell) was born in Bærum near Oslo in 1971 and grew up in the small town of Orkanger near Trondheim. As her father was a pastor, she grew up in church. She sang in choirs from the age of 7 and began accompanying various youth and gospel choirs on the piano from the age of 13. She also sang and played her own versions of hymns, negro spirituals, Norwegian religious folksongs, as well as her own compositions.

Solveig studied classical piano and singing at a secondary school for music in Trondheim, before going on to jazz studies at the Norwegian Academy of Music in 1992. Here she met Sidsel Endresen, who was her teacher from 1993 and until Solveig finished her master’s degree in 2000. Her final exam consisted of a thesis on the rhythmic aspects of phrasing and a concert, which was the beginning of the Slow motion concept.

At the Academy Solveig met the pianist Håkon Hartberg. Together they formed the Slettahjell/Hartberg Duo. The duo’s repertoire consisted of their versions of country songs, jazz standards, Norwegian folksongs, children songs, music by Prince, Tom Waits and others. The Slettahjell/Hartberg Duo was Solveig’s most important musical project until 1996.In 1995 Solveig joined a band called Squid, which worked with their own original material based on soul, acid-jazz, and funk music. They did many concerts until the group disbanded in 1999. Squid recorded one album, "Super", in 1998.

In 1997 she joined the Norwegian experimental vocal quartet Kvitretten. The group consisted of the female jazz singers Eldbjørg Raknes, Kristin Asbjørnsen, Tone Aase and Solveig. Their repertoire was mostly music written for Kvitretten by the group members and by various Norwegian contemporary jazz composers. The quartet toured Finland, Germany and Sweden as well as Norway and collaborated with various musicians, vocal groups and poets until they separated in 2002.Solveig recorded two albums with Kvitretten; "Everything turns" (1999) and "Kloden er en snurrebass som snurrer oss" (2002) with Norwegian poet Torgeir Rebbolledo Pedersen.

Vocal ensembles have played a big part in Solveig Slettahjell’s musical work. She worked in the trio vonDrei for three years. vonDrei focused on classical contemporary music and the crossover to improvised music. She also worked with a larger vocal ensemble called Trondheim Voices with, among others, Eldbjørg Raknes and Live Maria Roggen (from Come Shine).

In 2002 Solveig was part of Sidsel Endresen`s project Living Rooms, written for the Norwegian jazz festival Nattjazz. In December 2005 she will work with Sidsel Endresen again on her vocal work for four singers written for the "Norwegian Voices" concert in London.Solveig Slettahjell has also contributed to various recordings, such as Jon Balke`s "Batagraf" (ECM 2005) and Friko, "Burglar Ballads" (C+C Records 2003) with trumpet player Sjur Miljeteig (Slow motion quintet) and drummer Peder Kjellsby (who wrote six of the songs on Pixiedust).

Awards: Solveig Slettahjell’s Slow motion quintet received the Norwegian Grammy, Spellemannsprisen, for their album Silver, in February 2005. In July 2005 she received the "Vital-price" at Kongsberg jazz festival and Radka Toneff`s memory award at Molde international jazz festival one week later.

Booklet for Trail of Souls