Norwegian prog/jazz guitaruist Hedvig Mollestad has announced she will release her new album, Ekhidna, through Rune Grammafon on July 3.
The new album, whose title is taken from the half woman, half snake creature of Greek mythology, sees Mollestad abandon her traditional Trio format for a three-woman, three-man line-up, featuring Elephant9 drummer Torstein Lofthus, percussionist Ole Mofjell, keyboard players Erland Slettevoll (The Core) and Marte Eberson (Highasakite) and trumpet player Susan Santos Silva (Mats Gustafsson ́s NU-ensemble).
The music for Ekhidna came from Mollestad being invited to perform at Vossajazz, the annual Norwegian festival and to write the commission work for 2019. The full festival version was edited, sharpened and recorded from scratch in a studio.
Mollestad is keen to stress that Ekhidna "is not a concept album as such, but loosely tied to themes of human struggle and being a mother in times when our increasing inability to live in harmony with nature paints a bleak picture."
Hedvig Mollestad: Ekhidna
1. No Friends But The Mountains
2. A Stone's Throw
3. Antilone
4. Slightly Lighter
5. Ekhidna
6. One Leaf Left
