Håkon Kornstad

Norwegian saxophonist and vocalist Håkon Kornstad is a multitalented jazz artist unlike any other. Among the most acclaimed and innovative instrumentalists on the European scene, Kornstad has recorded and performed with a vast swath of the continent’s best, including Bugge Wesseltoft, Paal Nilssen-Love, Ketil Bjørnstad, and Jon Christensen, as well as American jazz guitar giant Pat Metheny.

Over the past two decades he’s devised a kinetic solo practice that involves various horns, flute and live looping. At first he went unplugged, trying to discover all the sounds that the saxophone could make. He also devised his own instrument —the flutonette—pairing the flute with a clarinet mouthpiece to play microtonal Eastern scales. But around 2005 he started to use electronics, working with the legendary Electrix Repeater to create beats and loops. With his imagination unleashed, Kornstad has learned to generate lapidary soundscapes in concert, bringing to venues what he captured in the studio on his 2011 album Symphonies in My Head.

Possessing a beautiful buttery tone on tenor sax, he supplies percussive accompaniment with the horn’s keys and deploys overtones to broaden his palette of sound colors. Continuing to follow his restless muse he’s studied operatic vocals in recent years, integrating his tenor voice to expand the already charged lyricism of his performances.