The jazz world is not short on piano trios, but it ́s not every day one comes across a new trio with a personal musical language. The Norwegian Espen Eriksen Trio plays highly melodical and lyrical instrumentals with elements from Scandinavian folk and melancholia and shades of the deep woods. It’s definitely jazz, but their "less is more" approach is in contrast to most of their contemporaries, with structures almost like pop songs and with a strong focus on melodies and short solos. The trio has released two records, both critically acclaimed by publications like BBC, The Independent and KulturSpiegel.
Although Espen Eriksen Trio can be seen in a continuum with other melodic piano trios, already their first release, “You Had Me At Goodbye” (2010) marked a band with “its own superb reevaluation and reinvention of the piano trio tradition” (All About Jazz). The Milk Factory puts it this way: “Espen Eriksen’s ensemble has been compared to Tord Gustavsen and the late Esbjörn Svensson’s EST, but there is on "You Had Me At Goodbye" a level of clarity and versatility that makes the trio totally unique.” With their second album, “What Took You So Long” (2012), the trio fortified their idiom, “quickly vanquished all thoughts of being just another European trio distilling soft melodic story lines” (JazzWrap). “What Took You So Long” is in BBC’s words “a wonderfully plaintive jazz record, abandoned to the lost art of melodic minimalism, stripped back and beautifully near bare.”
Espen Eriksen Trio has played at most important festivals and venues in Norway and have also toured in Germany, Switzerland, England and Malaysia. In August 2012, they had great success at the Pizza Express in London, three nights in a row. The trio’s music has been played on radio worldwide, and was recommended by Jamie Cullum on his BBC2 show “Best of Jazz.” Both their albums have been included by the American jazz magazine “Jazziz” annual “Critics Choice” -CDs.