Grydeland plays the electric and acoustic guitar, banjo, pedal steel guitar, and various electronics. He is chiefly operating in the realm of contemporary improvised music. Grydeland’s main groups are Huntsville (Hubro and Rune Grammofon) and Dans les arbres (ECM, Hubro, SOFA)–nominees for Nordic Council Music Prize 2015. His longtime collaborators are Christian Wallumrød, Xavier Charles, Ingar Zach, and Tonny Kluften. He has also performed and/or recorded with artists like Hanne Hukkelberg, Nils Petter Molvær, David Sylvian, Henry Kaiser, Tony Buck, Tony Oxley, Paul Lovens, Thomas Lehn, Axel Dörner, Andrea Neumann, Rhodri Davies, Mazen Kerbaj, Christel Alsos, Randi Tytingvåg, Morten Qvenild/Frode Grytten. Guesting musicians with the groups Huntsville and Dans les arbres, both in concert and in the studio have been Nels Cline, Glenn Kotche, Thurston Moore, Yuka Honda, Darin Gray, Otomo Yoshihide, Jim O’Rourke, Yumiko Tanka, among others.
He has toured and performed with his main groups and other groups at festivals in Europe, Asia, Australia, North- and South America over the last 20 years. Concerts and album releases have been broadcasted in BBC, Radio France, Deutsche Rundfunk, ABC Radio Australia, Swedish Radio, Norwegian Broadcasting and more.
Grydeland has released and contributed to over 40 albums with his main groups, short-term ensembles, solo and with various artists. Several of the albums are recorded, edited and produced by Grydeland. His solo debut Bathymetric Modes (Hubro) was released in 2012 and his second solo Stop, Freeze Wait, Eat (Hubro) was released in 2015.
Grydeland also composes music for theatre and dance. His latest work was for The Norwegian National Company of Dance – Carte Blanche premiered at Bergen International Festival in 2015 and toured in Norway. He has composed music for several pieces performed at Dansens hus and National Theatre in Oslo.
In 2015 Grydeland finished his artistic research fellowship project at The Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, where he works as an Associate Professor in the field of musical improvisation and artistic research. More information here
All About Jazz on Grydeland’s Bathymetric Modes:«With the weirdly wonderful Bathymetric Modes, Grydeland has delivered an album that, in its combination of lyrical beauty, attractive sound worlds and left-of-center concerns, deserves to place him on the same international radar alongside his better-known Norwegian colleagues» Andy Hamilton, The Wire
«There’s no end to the delights of this quite magical disc. The finest composition, like improvisation, ultimately relies on intuition, and these players seem to have an innate grasp of the right combination of sounds and textures. Dans les arbres must be one of the finest ECM Improv releases – indeed, releases from any label – in recent years.»
Contact: hello (at) ivargrydeland.com