«The end result is music that is uniquely individual and highly distinctive. Forget any comparisons, Holsen is without parallel. Even more so than Ask did, Lazuli signals the arrival of a bright new star.»
– John Eyles, AllAboutJazz
«These pieces sound as if they have developed a life of their own, a tangible entity. Their strong, enigmatic qualities embrace alien elements and sounds, moving organically between deep meditation, through troubled dream-states to colorful sci-fi visions. (…) Highly impressive.»
– Eyal Hareuveni, Salt Peanuts
«Jeg kan ærlig talt knapt huske sist jeg kom over et så åpenbart talent. Møtet med «Lazuli» bringer frem minner om å høre Arne Nordheim, Arvo Pärt og den senere Miles Davis for første gang, som inngangsportaler til parallelle universer av musikk. (…) Det lyder vakkert og gnissende, meditativt og utfordrende, ensomt og likevel varmt.»
– Arvid Skancke-Knutsen, Klassekampen
«Holsen is a new flowering of the Norwegian trumpet legacy. In Holsen’s vertically expanding music, created on the spot, cross-fading, gritting and spreading layers of sound, crunching sand and croaking toads, permeated dune-like silhouettes and airy swathes. Finally it ran into the sound of her solitary trumpet. (…) She is a promising force and definitely a real new, strong (trumpet) voice in the electronic field.»
– Henning Bolte, London Jazz
«But the album’s depth and seriousness means it projects inwards rather than outwards. Even on headphones at full volume, you want to listen harder, to follow the trailing off sounds as they sink lower into the night.»
– Nina Power, The Wire
«From the wee Norwegian label Hubro, […] is this new release from trumpeter Hilde Marie Holsen, who also uses electronics to sketch out her odd landscapes. In this piece, a trumpet improvisation emerges out of twitching static as if picked up by a radio held up to the sky on an icefield. Holsen’s wandering melody is utterly wondrous, and met halfway through by an electronic tone that mirrors it exactly, then strays on its own course – eventually both are caught in an apocalyptic smudge of noise. Exceptional»
– Ben Beaumont Thomas, The Guardian
«Perhaps not as much geologic as alchemical, there’s an uncanny dimension Holsen somehow sculpts throughout Ask’s 45 minutes – kind of blue, but kind of other – that tenderly and masterfully attends to both melodic and textural dimensions to form a sublime sensual sound.»
– Russell Cuzner, The Quietus
«Il y a là une maîtrise évidente à un si jeune âge, qui en fait une grande réussite sonore, où chaque son, chaque texture est à sa place ; avec une justesse remarquable dans l’économie de moyens générale à la base de ce disque dont on ne peut s’empêcher de penser qu’il sera dur à surpasser – avec cette méthode de travail particulière du moins. Pas facile de prévoir donc ce que l’avenir réserve à Hilde Marie Holsen, dont la palette, bien que réduite à l’usage d’un seul instrument, est ici illimitée. Quoi qu’il en soit, ce premier jalon dans son parcours mérite une reconnaissance allant bien au-delà des frontières de sa Norvège natale, et devrait constituer une référence dans les années à venir. À l’écoute de ces 36 premières minutes publiées en solo, la jeune trompettiste le mérite en tout cas.»
– Emmanuel Reymond, Dave’s place music
«Ask is a short LP, yet deep and plentiful: indeed its heaviness and stillness, like each improvisation, is a vivid experience.»
– James Welburn, Freq