Hello everyone. My name is Kjetil Mulelid. I'm from Norway, currently living in Oslo. Since my graduation from the "Jazzlinja" in Trondheim back in 2014 I've toured the world's nooks and crannies with my own projects and worked and collaborated with jazz musicians such as Arve Henriksen, Mathias Eick, Trygve Seim, Sissel Vera Pettersen, Mats Eilertsen and Rob Waring. The last couple of years I've released a duo album with vocalist Siril Malmedal Hauge and toured China, South Korea, and the Nordics.

The third album by my own Kjetil Mulelid trio was released on Rune Grammofon back in 2022 which took us touring around the world including at five different Canadian jazz festivals in June. Also the quartet Wako was nominated for a Norwegian grammy back in 2023 and we have since then continued with what we have been doing for more than 10 years, playing our own jazz music around in Europe, including a 6 concert UK-tour in February 2024. Great fun!

The last four years I've been doing a lot of solo stuff as well. My first solo album, "Piano" was released back in 2021 on Rune Grammofon and took me on a 40 concert journey with the music. I love to play solo piano. I can play my own songs in a very open-minded way, where I can form the music and comositions intuitively through my improvisational and spontaneous way of playing without bothering about anyone else that needs to be taken care of. Great fun to explore the full range of the instrument.

My latest project has been my "Agoja" album. I invited a lot of great musicians to take part in my music, and we made an album. The album was named by Jazzwise named “a modern Nordic Masterpiece”, and HIFI+ magazine named it “a vision of truth and beauty”. Too many good words if you ask me, but I'm very thankful. I just performed it as a live premiere at the Oslo Jazz Festival where the line up was me on piano, Arve Henriksen on trumpet, Trygve Seim and Sissel Vera Pettersen on saxophones, Lars Horntveth on pedal steel, Bárður Reinert Poulsen on bass and Andreas Winther on drums.

My biggest piano inspiration through my career has always been Jarrett and his way to enter music fearlessly. I love his playing. However, the last few years I've been more into modern pianists such as Jason Moran and Craig Taborn who seek a more rough and experimental way to play the piano. I'm also very much a fan of singer/songwriters, as f.ex. Nick Drake, Judee Sill etc.. Besides music, I love to be outdoors and go for a hike in the mountains, as well as playing tennis and table tennis - I recently joined a table tennis club where I go every week.

I love an experience especially if it contains music and nature, and as I see it, this festival will do exactly this. I am really looking forward to seeing the Scottish nature and seeing the iconic whisky distilleries in Islay. I love when music takes me to unexpected places - that counts also in music and improvisation itself. This visit reminds me of the time I went for a week to the Azores to make music with two local musicians I did not know. We were making music for a specific path by the cliffs and the sea, and when we were done, people could walk the path with the spectacular view while listening on headphones to the music we had made. Truly a thing I did not expect to do in life, and here we are again. On the way to Islay to make music with some amazing musicians from Scotland, inspired by bird watching and unique nature.


Spotify, solo: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1RBwhYR07uefS25DqynAMy?si=toeVRQAuRJaos-cbELdLdg
Spotify, Kjetil Mulelid Trio: https://open.spotify.com/artist/474vK8QpU3WL9RxRCmo5cX?si=TagDVA4oSsiS76q0x0fLxw 


Webpage: https://kjetilmulelid.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kjetilmulelid/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kjetilmulelid