Mathias Eick

Mathias Eick (born 26 June 1979) is a Norwegian jazz musician, and the brother of the jazz musicians Johannes Eick and Trude Eick. He is mainly known from his releases on the jazz label ECM Records. His main instrument is the trumpet, but he also plays upright bass, vibraphone, piano and guitar. He has performed with several well-known music groups and musicians, e.g. Jaga Jazzist, Manu Katché, and the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra together with Chick Corea and Pat Metheny. Besides this he is also known for his collaboration with Norwegian singer-songwriter Thomas Dybdahl, and recordings with the Norwegian bands Turboneger, DumDum Boys, Motorpsycho, D'Sound and Bigbang.

Career

After finishing high school, he started on the Music program at the Toneheim Folkehøyskole near by Hamar, followed by studies on the Jazz program at Trondheim Musikkonsevatorium.

In 2007, Eick won the International Jazz Talent, awarded to him by the International Jazz Festivals Organization situated in New York. In 2009, he won the Statoil Scholarship in Norway as he was heading for the release of his second album under influential jazz record label ECM.

In the meantime Eick keeps himself busy participating on several albums playing either trumpet, double bass, vibraphone, piano, guitar, or in his own words “anything needed.” Some of his collaborators have been, among a vast amount of others, Trondheim Jazz Orchestra and Chick Corea, Iro Haarla, Manu Katché and Jacob Young. Eick is also a member of the Norwegian genre-defying group Jaga Jazzist, a group with which he has performed for many years. In the summer of 2006 he toured with Jan Gunnar Hoff Group and Mike Stern and in October/November on European tour with Thomas Dybdahl.

Eicks band is currently a five-piece, featuring two drummers, bass, piano and Eick himself. The lineup changes invariably as all the participating musicians are amongst Norway's finest, but for the most part the band consists of Andreas Ulvo (piano), Torstein Lofthus and Gard Nilssen (drums), and Audun Erlien (bass). The music is composed by Eick and pays tribute to both the truly unique Scandinavian soundscape, as well as the lyricism and melancholy of the Canadian trumpeter Kenny Wheeler.

In 2013 Eick appeared at the North Sea Jazz Festival within his own Quintet including Andreas Ulvo (piano, Fender Rhodes, keyboards, electronics), Audun Erlien (bass), Andreas Bye & Kenneth Kapstad (drums).

Discography

Solo albums 2008: The Door (ECM) 2011: Skala (ECM) 2015: Midwest (ECM) 2018: Ravensburg (ECM) 2021: When We Leave (ECM) 2025: Lullaby (ECM)

As a Sideman

With Jaga Jazzist 2001: A Livingroom Hush (Ninja Tune) 2003: The Stix (Ninja Tune) 2005: What We Must (Ninja Tune) 2010: One-Armed Bandit (Ninja Tune) 2013: Live with Britten Sinfonia (Ninja Tune)

With Jacob Young 2004: Evening Falls (ECM) 2007: Sideways (ECM)

With Jan Gunnar Hoff 2008: Magma (Grappa Music)

With Iro Haarla 2004: Northbound (ECM) with Trygve Seim, Uffe Krokfors and Jon Christensen 2011: Vespers (ECM) with Trygve Seim, Ulf Krokfors and Jon Christensen

With Manu Katché 2007: Playground (ECM) with Trygve Seim, Marcin Wasilewski, Slawomir Kurkiewicz and David Torn

With Music for a While including Tora Augestad, Stian Carstensen, Martin Taxt and Pål Hausken 2007:: Weill Variations (Grappa Music) 2012: Graces That Refrain (Grappa Music) 2014: Canticles of Winter (Grappa Music)

With Lars Danielsson 2009: Tarantella (ACT Music) 2014: Liberetto II (ACT Music)

With Ola Kvernberg's Liarbird 2011: Liarbird (Jazzland Recordings), the commissioned work, live from Moldejazz 2010 including Bergmund Waal Skaslien (viola), Eirik Hegdal (saxophone), Håkon Kornstad (saxophone), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and Ole Morten Vågan (bass), as well as Erik Nylander and Torstein Lofthus (drums)

With Elvira Nikolaisen 2013: I Concentrate On You (Grappa)

With Eple Trio 2014: Universal Cycle (Shipwreckords)

With Vincent Peirani 2013: SWR NewJazz Meeting 2013 with Émile Parisien (Jazzhaus) 2016: Living Being Extended with Émile Parisien, Leïla Martial, Yoann Serra, Tony Paeleman and Julien Herné (SWR JazzHaus)

With Unifony (Minco Eggersman and Theodoor Borger) 2018: Unifony (Butler Records)

With Benjamin Lackner 2022 Last Decade (ECM) 2025 Spindrift (ECM)

As a Session Musician Source: 2001: Motorpsycho - Phanerothyme 2002: Motorpsycho - It's a Love Cult 2002: Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors 2003: The Gathering - Souvenirs 2003: Motorpsycho w/ Jaga Jazzist Horns - In the Fishtank 10 2004: Lars Horntveth - Pooka 2004: Janove Ottesen - Francis' Lonely Nights 2005: Turbonegro - Party Animals 2006: Kinny & Horne - Forgetting to Remember 2007: Ulver - Shadows of the Sun 2008: Jan Gunnar Hoff - Magma 2009: Youn Sun Nah - Voyage 2009: Inger Marie Gundersen - My Heart Would Have a Reason 2009: Thomas Dybdahl - En Samling (compilation) 2009: Silvertongue - Diamond Sky 2010: Motorpsycho - Heavy Metal Fruit 2010: Mighty Sam McClain w/ Mahsa Vahdat - Scent of Reunion: Love Duets Across Civilizations 2012: Mighty Sam McClain w/ Mahsa Vahdat - A Deeper Tone of Longing: Love Duets Across Civilizations 2012: Alexander Von Mehren - Aéropop

Awards Mathias Eick was awarded “The International Jazz Award for New Talent 2007”. He received a prize of $20,000 US on 13 January 2007 during the IAJE 34th Annual International Conference in New York City where he also performed. The annual prize was founded by IAJE in cooperation with the International Jazz Festivals Organization (IJFO). He was awarded the 2014 DNB price at Kongsberg Jazzfestival (300,000 NOK).