Hedvig Mollestad Trio – Bees In The Bonnet

With their eighth album, Hedvig Mollestad Trio are back, and then some! After a few highly appealing diversions under her own name, Hedvig is back firing out her nonconformist guitar shapes while leading her esteemed Trio further down their highly individual path towards a progressive psychedelic free-jazz sonic nirvana, where anything goes, as long as it ROCKS!

You don’t have that many albums and tours under your belt without achieving a state of maturity, and the Trio’s sound is now finely honed, with each player weaving in and around each other’s ebullient expressiveness with an ease that can only come after years together.

The bee in the bonnet here is essentially the essence of Hedvig Mollestad Trio, and this new album encapsulates everything this fine and unique band are about. As ever, you will find THE RIFF taking charge, tossing the listener about on storm-churned seas in search of new lands to conquer. See See Bop, the album opener makes a statement of intent as good as any first track on any rifftastic album you care to mention, but it does so in a manner that is slightly left of the norm, the time signature going beyond a straight blues-based headbanger that it could have been in lesser hands. One is put in mind of ZZ Top arm-wrestling with Motorpsycho over several jazz-infused beers, but have no fear, you can headbang to it to your heart’s content, if that’s yer bag!

Next up is Golden Griffin, referred to in the blurb as a “single”? As I have often wondered on these pages, what does that even mean anymore? Anyway, it romps along, I’m told in a Rush-like manner, not that I would know! The syncopated bass and drums of Ellen Brekken and Ivar Loe Bjørnstad keep up a fast rhythm over which Hedvig weaves her magic, at one point sounding akin to a UFO on lift off. Marvellous!

All bases are covered here. From the dramatic lurch of Itta, to the by now traditional contemplative ballad, Lamament, the three musicians will transport you outside and away from your woes for 36 or so minutes. I wish it were longer, but then again time loses meaning while one is immersed in the aural flotation tank that is this alternate existence.

Bob’s Your Giddy Aunt is track title of the day, and he sure is. Seemingly beamed down from another planet, Bob is staggering around on the tundra trying to make sense of this strange world he’s pitched up on. Slowly he gains confidence, rising to his full and mighty height, laying waste to all before him. Like an Escher staircase this tune just keeps on climbing even as it folds in on itself. Is this jazz? Who cares, and once again it rocks in the most unexpected of ways!

The travails come to a brief rest on the now familiar album ballad. Lamament is almost bluesy, always sepulchral, but somehow optimistic, too. We end with an eight-minute blast furnace of a tune entitled Apocalypse Slow (it isn’t!) that will loosen those impacted vertebrae to such an extent that your spine will turn to jelly and have you bopping around your listening station in paroxysms of delight. Yay!

Hedvig Mollestad Trio – Quality assured!

TRACKLIST
01. See See Bop (4:32)
02. Golden Griffin (6:02)
03. Itta (5:57)
04. Bob’s Your Giddy Aunt (6:04)
05. Lamament (4:50)
06. Apocalypse Slow (8:14)

Total Time – 35:40

MUSICIANS
Hedvig Mollestad – Guitar
Ellen Brekken – Bass
Ivar Loe Bjørnstad – Drums

ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Rune Grammofon
Country of Origin: Norway
Date of Release: 9^th May 2025