Hanne Hukkelberg

A Norwegian singer and songwriter with links compared to that country’s jazz, electronic, and experimental music moments, Hanne Hukkelberg makes intimate, idiosyncratic music that’s not easily categorized, merging a broad stylistic selection of folk, pop, and jazz using a predilection for uncommon sounds, frequently culled from everyday items, and a sensational, versatile voice which has garnered evaluations to Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell, and Björk, amongst others. Delivered in Kongsberg in 1979, Hukkelberg started performing and playing at age three — finding in early stages the musical potential of kitchen items — and it has hardly stopped since, picking right up the piano, electric guitar, and drums, alongside countless noisemaking oddities; their studies at the Country wide Academy of Music in Oslo (where she graduated in 2003); and executing with a number of steel, prog rock and roll, and free of charge jazz ensembles up through her early twenties (including a high-school doom steel band known as Funeral). In 2004 she caused manufacturer Kåre Vestrheim, most widely known for his use jazz-metal fusionists Glowing, in addition to music artists from that group, experimental jazz ensemble Jaga Jazzist, playful digital duo Exploding Plastix, and eclectic manufacturer Kaada, to generate her debut record, Small Issues, a sweetly whimsical, subtly digital affair. Issued domestically on Vestrheim’s Propellor imprint, the record was fittingly certified towards the genre-bending Leaf Label, which released both Small Things as well as the four-song Ensemble Anchor EP internationally in 2005. Hukkelberg shifted to Berlin for half a year while focusing on her follow-up, the relatively darker, more psychologically fraught Rykestraße 68, which highlighted lots of the same music artists (and Vestrheim coming back as manufacturer) and included a cover from the Pixies’ “Break MY OWN BODY,” a staple of her live models. Upon its discharge in 2006, the record earned a Spellemannsprisen (Norwegian Grammy) within the catchall “open up course” category. Rykestraße 68 premiered by Nettwerk in European countries in 2007 and THE UNITED STATES in 2008, using a matching circular of touring to aid each release time.