All Abuzz!

Four years on from the acclaimed Ding Dong. You're Dead, the Hedvig Mollestad Trio make an inspired return with new album Bees In The Bonnet - buzzing with energy, riffs and bold statements, whether musical or political. Their intrepid leader talks to Prog about why songwriting is like speed dating, unlikely inspiration from Texas, taking risks and the rewards of play.

- David West

You are what you are,” says Hedvig Mollestad. “Everything else comes second — trying to get gigs, trying to find a market, blah blah blah.”

Markets and gigs notwithstanding, Bees In The Bonnet, the eighth album from the Hedvig Mollestad Trio, follows the eardrum-shredding trajectory of its predecessors by refusing to quietly inhabit familiar forms of jazz and rock. Together, guitarist Mollestad, bassist Ellen Brekken and drummer Ivar Loe Bjørnstad have mastered the art of combining heaviness and power with improvisation and interplay, although on Bees In The Bonnet, their sound is darker and more menacing than ever.

Four years have passed between releases from the trio, during which time Mollestad composed music for the Moldejazz Festival and recorded 2022's Maternity Beat with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra. Then there was the Weejuns album in 2023, with Mollestad joined by drummer Ole Mofjell and Elephanty’s keyboard wizard Ståle Storløkken. A second Weejuns album is due next year and while all these additional outlets create opportunities for Mollestad to express different facets of herself as a player and composer, the trio feels like home.

“You get motivated to go back to the family and the core,” she says, “because everything is much easier when you work with two people that you know very well and are your friends, and everything has less stuff around it compared to when you do big projects.”

Certainly, there’s no sign of Mollestad, Brekken and Bjørnstad drifting apart personally or musically, as evidenced by the sheer energy and invention that permeate Bees In The Bonnet.