Eyolf Dale is a Norwegian pianist and composer of exceptional nuance and control and with an extraordinary expressive improvisational voice. His music is profoundly lyrical and emotive with a deep sense of purpose embedded in its core. “Music helps me to understand and realise what my feelings or emotions are about. It helps me to make choices in life. It’s that big, actually. I mean, don’t write that down but you know, it helps me balance everything. To be in contact with my own compass”.

Speaking to us in the midst of recording his new trio album in Oslo in March 2022 Eyolf focussed on the deep trust and connection between himself and his fellow musicians, bassist Per Zanussi and drummer Audun Kleive. “The one thing that really I come back to every time is the empathy and the connection between people. I felt that when we had finished the first evening, and we came back to the second evening, there’s this special connection. It’s a matter of trust. They trust me to create music for them. And I trust them to deal with it in a manner that’s both respectful and disrespectful. What I’ve worked on is very personal to me. But the moment that I give them the music or tell them that this is the material we’re going to work with I also need to be humble enough to say that okay, this was my thought but it has to be your thoughts as well”.

Eyolf has written a vast amount of music in the 37 years he’s been on the planet. With that comes the experience of when to say no and when to yes: “I started the music in spring last year. I went to my cabin, as I usually do, and tried to compose something and think of what to do now. I came home with a lot of material. None of it has been used this time. But that’s what I mean, throwing things away. It’s just as important in the process of creating something as keeping everything. It’s easier for me to tell if something doesn’t speak as I want it to because I’ve done so much already, even though I’m relatively young. I know by experience if something is worth keeping or not”.

With an album and much touring behind it, the trio is now an established group with deeper connections and the process to find the sound and voice is more familiar. Their first album as a group was Being, released in Feb 2021. For Eyolf this was a difficult period; “I had just got divorced three months before. And I lost my hearing and I was in really bad health. But I had a very strong need to create, which sort of comes out through that music, I think. With this new album, I’m looking ahead to something new”.

For Eyolf, his writing and musical life is part of his being. It keeps him centred and balanced and is part of a therapeutic process; “it’s a way of channelling emotion. It’s a real need. I mean, it’s something I need to do to be happy. it’s a release of emotion, I guess”.

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Being was released in Feb 2021 on Edition Records. Eyolf’s new album will be released in Feb 2023.

Eyolf Dale plays two concerts in The Netherlands at Bimhuis, Amsterdam on 31.03.22 and Paradox, Tilburg on 02.04.22