Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø
acoustic and amplified trombone
Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø is a trombonist and sound artist exploring the physicality of sound through long-term processes and immersive collaborations. Based in Trondheim (NO) and Berlin (DE), he has toured extensively across five continents and released a wide range of records — from solo works to large groups. His projects include duos with Audrey Chen (BEAM SPLITTER), Daniel Lercher and JD Zazie, new music ensemble Aksiom and a myriad of collaborations with a wide range of musicians, dancers and visual artists from around the world.
His solo setup combines heavily amplified trombone, analogue electronics and selected sound files, and undulates between claustrophobic tension and moments of ecstatic release. Nørstebø utilizes a compressor-like use of lungs, nuanced microphone technique and gain adjustments in order to unearth the intense physicality of inherent low volume sounds, interwoven with a full range of acoustic material. Nørstebø's forthcoming fourth solo release Faint Light Blackens was developed for the resonant acoustics of Oslo’s Vigeland Mausoleum - a seven-part piece exploring pulse, natural harmonics, and monumental subwoofer feedback.
Henrik's main collaboration is BEAM SPLITTER, a hyper-extended duo with vocalist Audrey Chen that dives into the extremes of breath and amplification. Formed in 2015, the two have toured widely, presenting their raw and highly amplified dialog in a vast variety of spaces and contexts. Since 2020, the pair have been organizing DEDICATED PLAY, an artistic and curatorial platform fostering community building and genre-breaking intersections of experimental musicians and artists from a diversity of social, cultural, and musical backgrounds. The project has taken shape as a concert series in collaboration with Morphine Raum (Berlin), an online album presentation, a festival in Berlin and London co-curated with Hyunhye Angela Seo (Xiu Xiu), and select satellite events.
He has performed at clubs and festivals throughout Europe, as well as in Taiwan, China, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Russia, Mexico, Canada, the United States, Brazil, and Argentina. Festival performances include a.o. : Huddersfield contemporary music festival (UK), A l’arme! festival (Berlin/DE), Gogolfest (Kiev/UA), Fete quaqua (London/UK), Nattjazz (Bergen/NO), Jazzfest Berlin (DE), Kongsberg jazzfestival (NO), Festival Akouphene (Geneva/CH), Maerzmusik (Berlin/DE), Citadelic festival (Ghent/BE), Angelica festival (Bologna/IT), V:NM festival (Graz/AT), Joyful noise (Biel/CH), Music Unlimited (Wels/AT), Borealis (Bergen/NO), Brand! festival (Mechelen/BE), CTM festival (Berlin/DE), Zoom in festival (Bern/CH), Avant art festival (Warsaw/PL), Simultan festival (Timisoara/RO), Umeå jazzfestival (Umeå/SE), Météo festival (Mulhouse/FR), Gothenburg art sounds (SE), SoundOut (Canberra/AU), Send+receive (Winnipeg/CA) and Ultima contemporary music festival (Oslo,NO).
Nørstebø is also an experienced ensemble player, having performed live and on recordings spanning from the fairest pop to the strangest noise. He is a founding member of the Oslo-based new music ensemble Aksiom, and has released three albums with the 12-piece freejazzpop band Skadedyr on Hubro. He has also appeared with Johan Lindvall’s Torg (Jazzland), Mette Henriette Ø (ECM), Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, Nate Wooley’s Seven Storey Mountain V, Camille Norment Ensemble, and Cat Lamb’s Interspatia. Educated in improvised music and jazz at the music academies in Gothenburg (BA) and Oslo (MA), he is based in Berlin and Trondheim.
” (...) On both pieces, Nørstebø keeps his compositional structures clear through a balanced use of filled and empty space. The silences he allows between passages of sound tend to act as boundaries separating sections into disjunctive events defined by dramatic changes in timbre as well as in organization and dynamics. And despite his deliberate distorting and dismantling of the trombone’s conventional voice, he allows a fundamental warmth to pervade both performances.” - Avant music news, Daniel Barbiero (USA)
