Hedwig Mollestad is a Norwegian guitarist and composer. She also improvises in the jazz and hard rock scenes. She is a member of the trio Ellen Brekken, Ivar Joe Bjornstad and her bass player. She has also collaborated with rock and jazz artists.
Thomassen was born 1982 in Alesund in More og Romsdal in Norway. At the age of ten, she began playing guitar on her mother’s nylon string instrument. Although she didn’t have a formal musical education, her primary source of musical knowledge was her father’s vast jazz and rock & roller record collection. She translated Jimi Hendrix’s biography for school while still in high school. She was fascinated by his pioneering work as well as the styles of guitarists such as Jimmy Page, Sonny Sharrock and Pete Cosey.
She collaborated with many musical personalities before forming her trio.
Her recording career began in 2009 when she was a guest on Cumshots (environmental activist musicians Kristopher Schach and Ole Petter Andreassen’s fourth album, A life less necessary). She was also a keen jazz player and improviser, winning the Jazztalentprisen award at the Molde International Jazz Festival, Norway in 2009. She immediately formed the Hedwig Mollstad Trio together with Brekken, Bjornstad.
She was a guest soloist in Jarle Bernhoft’s cassette-only 1:Man 2:Band in 2010.
Shoot! Shoot! Later in the year, she was a soloist with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra’s Migrations. She also appeared on The Coarse Sand & The Names We Wrote and Hilde Marie Kjersem’s Let’s Let Go. Mollestad, a guitarist and Hammond B-3 player, joined Andreassen’s progressive, revolving supergroup El Doom & The Born Electric in 2012. Eberson, Stale Storlokken and Eberson were also members of the band. Brothers Havard Takle Ohr and Brynjar Takle Ohr played drums and guitar respectively. Bassist Nikolai Haengsle Eilertsen was Mikael Lindquist played Mellotron. The band released a self-titled album via Rune Grammofon. That summer, her own trio performed at Steinkjerfestivalen.
The second album by The Hedwig Mollestad Troo, All of Them Witches was released in 2013. It received universal acclaim from jazz, avant-garde and indie rock circles. Ekko was her studio album, which she also recorded with Trondheim Jazz Orchestra that year. She performed live with them. Enfant Terrible, the third album by HM3, was released in June 2014.