Tuva Halse - Reconnection (2026) [Hi-Res]

After the critically acclaimed debut album Two (2023), violinist and composer Tuva Halse returns with Reconnection, her second release with Tuva Halse Quintet. Where Two introduced a striking new Nordic voice, Reconnection asks what happens when you return to the music, places and feelings that formed you – and discover they cannot sound the same way twice.

The album circles themes of time, belonging, memory and the friction between past and present. Diverse elements are blended with quiet assurance, fluid, mellifluous melodies thread through chattering percussion and babbling basslines. Across eleven tracks – including Contemplation, Consideration, Sorryrow, Confusion Illusion and Reconnection – the music moves from the intimacy of a soundtrack for a storybook to a crash of metropolitan angst, then retreats to a grey-lit drawing room where a kind of chamber music seems to soothe the afternoon.

Baroque-inspired structures give the pieces a clear architectural spine, but the quintet keeps the walls permeable. Solos grow organically from within the music rather than skimming its surface, often blossoming into new ensemble lines or reshaping existing motifs. Complex techniques appear not as displays of virtuosity but because they are exactly what the composition demands. Chord patterns take unexpected turns, ushering in subtle modulations and moods that seem to dance on the head of a pin: bursts of staccato exuberance and asymmetrical counterpoint contrast with plaintive, melancholic passages and stretches that are contemplative, nostalgic, wistful. Hints of whimsy and playfulness occasionally peep out from behind the carefully cultivated structures.

“Reconnection is about opening up to new perspectives when you meet ideas, people – and yourself again,” says Halse. “It’s also about returning to places and emotions that shaped you, while new experiences change how you hear them. A lot of this music grew from asking who I am musically and where I come from. By revisiting music I loved as a child and combining it with what I’ve learned and love today, I’ve reconnected with what formed me in the first place.” The result is music filled with yearning, the deep breath of patience in the face of trial and adversity, and a quiet determination not merely to survive, but to move through and beyond.

With an enchanting atmosphere and keenly attentive interplay, Tuva Halse Quintet pulls the listener into its lyrical universe from the first note. Described as “The New Generation of Nordic Jazz”, the group brings together five young musicians who, in a short space of time, have become a conspicuous presence on the Norwegian jazz scene. Halse’s melodic writing moves from the melancholic and sentimental to the intense and insistent, creating a distinctive, expressive voice in a universe of contrasts.

Tuva Halse has quickly established herself as a clear presence in the Nordic jazz sphere. In 2024 she was appointed NTNU ambassador for her “playful lyrical nerve and rare, brave sensitivity in tone and expression”, and received DNB’s #huninvesterer grant, resulting in the commissioned work Air Music, premiered at Kongsberg Jazz Festival with Håkon Kornstad as guest. At Oslojazz 2025 she drew attention for her appearance with Joshua Redman and Trondheim Jazz Orchestra – “It wasn’t the superstar, but the super-substitute who made a packed Cosmopolite electric at the opening of this year’s Oslojazz” (Jazz i Norge).

Inspired by nature, relationships and human emotion, Halse composes with improvisation at the centre. In Reconnection you hear traces of folk music, classical music and Nordic jazz, shaped into melodies that feel as though they come from a place unknown yet strangely familiar – played with a warmth and intimacy that invite you not just to listen, but to recognise yourself in them.