Susanne Sundfør

The album is a live recording of a specially commissioned piece for the Oslo Jazz Festival's 25th anniversary.

Susanne Aartun Sundfør ( (local Haugesund dialect; [sʉˈsɑ̀nːə ˈɔ̀ʈːʉːn ˈsʉ̀nføːr] in Urban East ("standard") Norwegian); born 19 March 1986) is a Norwegian singer-songwriter and record producer.

Sundfør was born in Haugesund on 19 March 1986.

She is the granddaughter of theologian and linguist Kjell Aartun.

After attending a music high school, she began making music as a hobby.

She started playing music when she was six; "I would go to these classes where we would just sing and play the tambourine. You know, it wasn't really serious, but I really liked it so I started playing the violin when I was eight, then taking piano lessons when I was nine, and then singing lessons when I was twelve. So I was playing music at an early stage, but I didn't really take it that seriously. I wasn't practicing that much or anything. Then I went to a music high school, and I guess that's what you'd call my education in music."

Sundfør also studied English and art at the University of Bergen.

Born and raised in Haugesund, Sundfør started touring in 2005.

Sundfør rose to fame in her homeland in 2005, when she toured Norway opening for English singer Tom McRae.

In 2006, she joined Norwegian band Madrugada on tour, performing their song "Lift Me", a duet the band originally recorded in the studio with singer Ane Brun.

In November, she released her debut single "Walls", which would climb to number three on the Norwegian singles chart.

Susanne Sundfør (2007), her self-titled debut studio album, reached number three on the Norwegian album chart.

Her self-titled debut studio album was released in March 2007 and peaked at number three on the Norwegian album chart.

It was followed by Take One in 2008, a live album consisting of songs from her debut.

Susanne Sundfør was followed by the 2008 live album Take One, consisting of acoustic versions of songs from her debut album.

Sundfør considers it to be "kind of like a remix album. Like if you have an album of just remixes of an earlier record you made, that's how I see it. So I don't really see it as an album like the other ones."

That same year, Sundfør covered Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" at Store Studio, NRK.

The following month, she was awarded Spellemannprisen for best female performance.

She spurred nationwide debate when she accepted the award, stating her work represented her as an artist first, and a woman second, bringing into question whether the Norwegian Grammy board was acting archaically with such gender-specific awards.

That same month, Sundfør appeared on Mette-Marit, Crown Princess of Norway's album Sorgen og Gleden (English: The Sorrow and the Joy), with the Norwegian folk-tune psalm "Ingen Vinner Frem til Den Evige Ro" (English: "No One Reaches the Eternal Calm") by Lars Linderot and Gustav Jensen.

Later in 2008, Sundfør moved to Oslo.

Her second studio album, The Brothel, was released in 2010, peaking at number one in Norway and becoming the best-selling album of that year.

The album saw a shift from the piano-driven pop of previous releases towards a more ambitious and electronic direction; its title track reached number two on the Norwegian singles charts, the highest of Sundfør's career.

In 2010, her second studio album The Brothel was released to critical acclaim in Norway and ended up becoming the best-selling album of the year.

The album saw a shift from the piano driven pop from previous releases towards a more ambitious and electronic sound.

Sundfør described it as a "conceptual album with both quite acoustic and electronic soundscapes."

Dagbladet wrote that Sundfør was so good that other young Norwegian artists would start crying when hearing her—both because she is several leagues above them, but also because her music is so moving and beautiful.

It was at this time that Sundfør decided to commit to music as a profession.

In 2011, she released a live instrumental album composed solely of synthesizers, A Night at Salle Pleyel, serving as a commission piece.

In 2011, she provided vocals on the title track from Nils Petter Molvær's album Baboon Moon.

She also released an instrumental album, A Night at Salle Pleyel.

Her third studio album, The Silicone Veil (2012), topped the Norwegian album chart and received critical acclaim.

She said in a 2013 interview, "I think I only decided that this is something that I wanted to spend my entire life doing after I released The Brothel, because that was the first time I really felt like I had 'found' a sound."

Later that year, Sundfør briefly joined the band Hypertext, and they released their second album Astronaut Kraut!.

She also appeared that year on folk/rock band Real Ones' single "Sister to All".

Her international breakthrough came in 2015 with her fourth studio album, Ten Love Songs, which saw Sundfør experimenting with an electronic dance pop sound.

The album reached number one and garnered universal acclaim.

Her fifth studio album Music for People in Trouble (2017) represented a departure from the electronic-driven sound of previous records in favor of a return to her roots as a folk singer-songwriter.

The album reached number one in Norway as well, making it her fourth consecutive album to achieve this feat.

Her sixth album Blómi was released in 2023.