Helén Eriksen (born 19 October 1971 in Dale,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

) is a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

Jazz musician (saxophone and vocals), songwriter and music arranger.

Career

In the period 1993 to 1995 she was a member of the Bergen-based pop group Animal Farm. In 1996 she released her first solo album ''Standards'' on the jazz record label

Blue Note Records Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it derived its name from the blue notes of jazz and the blues. Or ...

. The album was produced by hip-hop producer

Tommy Tee Tommy Flåten (born 18 December 1971), best known by his stage name Tommy Tee, is a Norwegian record producer, rapper, broadcaster, record executive, concert promoter and magazine publisher. He is known as the godfather of Norwegian hip hop. Tee ...

and gave her the award as newcomer at

Spellemannprisen Spellemannprisen, often referred to as the Norwegian Grammy Awards in English, is a Norwegian music award presented to Norwegian musicians. The award was established by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), an organizati ...

1996. Also her next album was released on Blue Note and produced by Tommy Tee, until in 2000 she released the album ''City Dust'' on the Norwegian label

Curling Legs __NOTOC__ Curling Legs Productions A/S (established 1992 in Oslo, Norway) is a Norwegian record label with a catalogue encompassing all styles of jazz and improvised music. It was started by Knut Værnes and Morten Halle to release their own mus ...

. ''City Dust'' was recorded with

Jørgen Træen Jørgen Træen also known by his stage name Sir Dupermann (born 15 April 1973) is a Norwegians, Norwegian record producer, musician (guitar, keyboards and bass guitar) and electronica artist from Bergen. He is best known for his work as a music p ...

as producer and was a cleaner jazz album than her first and second. Her fourth album, ''Small Hall Classic'', was released in 2006 with produced by Kato Ådland and Hans Petter Gundersen as producers, also known as "The Sensible Twins". She is the first and only Norwegian artist that have released two albums on

. Eriksen has created her own distinctive style, and has participated as a guest artist on numerous albums, for artists like

DumDum Boys DumDum Boys are a Norwegian rock band from Trondheim. They are one of the most successful Norwegian rock acts of all time, and are considered one of the "four great" bands who popularized modern rock with Norwegian lyrics in the mid-to-late 1980s ...

Pogo Pops Pogo Pops (established in 1987 under the name of The Doomsville Boys) is a pop rock band from Bergen, Norway. The band split up in 1996 after four albums, but reformed in 2006. Biography The Doomsville Boys were a trio and released an EP in 19 ...

Sondre Lerche Sondre Lerche (; born 5 September 1982) is a Norwegian singer, songwriter and guitarist, now based in Los Angeles, California. He has released nine studio albums. Early life Growing up in a suburb of Bergen, Lerche was heavily influenced by 1980s ...

, Son of Light, and

BLee {{Wiktionary, blee Blee may refer to: Chromatics * Color * Colorfulness * Hue * Complexion Form * Visual Appearance * Shape * Configuration (geometry) A surname * Francis J. Blee (a.k.a. Francis J. "Frank" Blee), an American Republican Pa ...

. She collaborated in 1999 with jazz legend and saxophonist

Alf Kjellman Alf Erling Kjellman (17 January 1938 in Tromsø - 14 September 2010) was a Norwegian jazz musician (tenor, baritone and alto saxophones), organizer and composer. Biography Kjellman led his own revue orchestra in Tromsø (1955 and 56), was membe ...

Honors

*1996:

in the class Newcomer for the album ''Standards''

Discography (in selection)

Solo albums

*1996: ''Standards'' (

Blue Note In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note that—for expressive purposes—is sung or played at a slightly different pitch from standard. Typically the alteration is between a quartertone and a semitone, but this varies depending on the musical co ...

) *1998: ''Lovevirgin'' (Blue Note) *2000: ''City Dust'' (

) *2006: ''Small Hall Classic'' (New Records)

Collaborations

;Within Disorient *1996: ''Terra Morte'' (Shrike Records) ;With

, *1998: ''Totem'' (Oh Yeah!) ;With

*2001: ''

Faces Down ''Faces Down'' is the first album released by Norwegian singer-songwriter Sondre Lerche, in 2001. It was released in 2002 in the United States, and in 2003 in Japan. All songs on the album were written by Lerche. The track "Modern Nature" feat ...

'' (

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwid ...

) ;Within The Brimstone Solar Radiation Band *2009: ''Smorgasbord'' (Tinnitus Recordings)

References

External links

Helén Eriksen Biography
on the Norwegian pop and rock lexicon
New Voices, New Directions
on Discogs.com
Helén Eriksen Discography
on Discogs.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Eriksen, Helen Norwegian women jazz singers Norwegian jazz saxophonists Norwegian composers Spellemannprisen winners Musicians from Dale, Vaksdal 1971 births Living people 20th-century saxophonists 21st-century saxophonists 20th-century Norwegian women singers 20th-century Norwegian singers Women jazz saxophonists 21st-century Norwegian women singers 21st-century Norwegian singers