Maria Guttesen is a musical soul who lives and breathes inside her music. She was born and raised in the beautiful Faroe Islands, which can be heard in her music. The Faroe Islands are characterised by beautiful but rough nature with quiet and bright summer nights and harsh, dark winter storms. The gentle and sometimes hoarse sound of Maria’s voice reflects harsh storms and gentle embraces mixed with a continental, European sound. The sound of Maria Guttesen, a fabulous composer, pianist and singer, craves intense attention

image of sound

Maria Guttesen’s mission is to express her own musical sound image and in that way reach and bring about both joy and reflection in the listener.

Wide Open

On March 8 Maria Guttesen introduced the project of her dreams, the album Wide Open on which Maria sings and plays all instruments by hand. Wide Open is her fourth release and as the title indicates, Guttesen lays bare her musical soul, opens up, flourishes and offers to the world her artistic image. The only thing Maria did not contribute to her album Wide Open is the lyrics, which were written by lyricist Lene Drachmann.

family of music

Maria Guttesen comes from a large family of musicians. Both of her grandfathers were active musicians and her father also played several instruments. As far as Maria Guttesen remembers, she has always made music and melodies from everything that made a sound. She was very young when she wrote her first song and at age 11 she was a soloist on a Faroese children’s album, which is still frequently played on Faroese radio. With seven siblings everyday life was kind of like playing in a family orchestra and much time was spent playing the organ of the home.

Sports

Maria Guttesen is not just a musician. As a child and young girl she was an elitist swimmer and also one of the main incentives behind the establishment of women’s football in the Faroe Islands – a game for which she still harbours great love.

Creative

Maria Guttesen does more than just play music. She has taught rhythmical singing and ensemble playing for several years, arranged workshops, worked as a music coach and taken part in a long line of music projects. The motivation is to create and make the most of the talents she works with.

the Person

As a person Maria is a live wire who just can’t get enough. She loves creating and with her cheerful mind, acute observations and extremely high spirits mixed with her presence and sense of humour, she is a natural centre. This is the joy, which she is eager to give to the world through her music.

aarhus

At the age of 20, Maria Guttesen moved to Aarhus, which has been her musical base since then. Maria’s first solo album was released in 1994 and from 1996 to 2001, she studied rhythmical music at The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus. In 2004 she released an album with the group Divided Minds and in 2006 she released the live album Maria Guttesen Live. On March 8 2008, Maria’s fourth album Wide Open is released.

The Maria Sound

Throughout her life, Maria has tried to develop but at the same time maintain the authenticity in her musical sound image. Her experiences as a musician, a producer, a music coach, a composer and a teacher has lead to her finally beginning the project of her dreams Wide Open, in 2007.

Throughout the years Maria Guttesen has played with several bands and worked with many musicians but she has always kept the dream alive of making an album all by herself on which she could express her inner image of music and share it with the world. After many experiences with other music projects, music teaching and music coaching for other musicians, the time had come to delve into herself and compose an album where she could build up The Sound of Maria instrumentally as well as vocally.

As mentioned, the lyrics on Wide Open were written by Lene Drachmann. “I don’t care too much for explaining lyrics”, says Ma­ria. But anyone can tell that the songs are about love – grand love – strong emotions, joy and pain and about a creative urge and a curiosity towards life. “But it is a joy to be able to communicate the lyrics through the music”, Maria clarifies.

Musical CV:

1977 – Performs on a Faroese children’s album (Hjørdis og genturnar) as a soloist and backing singer at the young age of 11

1983 – Lead singer in a Faroese copy rock band (Astro)

1984 – Records her first demo containing three songs (own material)

1986 – Singer and keyboard player in the Aarhus band Blue Shine Company (original material)

1988 – drummer and singer in the band Åarósabólkurin (Faroese pop band)

1991 – début concert in The Nordic House in the Faroe Islands playing her own songs with lyrics by Maria Salomon

1993 – Concerts all around Denmark with Maria Guttesen Band (own material). Played e.g. Montmartre, Glazzhuset and Huset

1994 – Soloist in Nordic Women’s Big Band. On tour in Denmark and Finland (Concert in The Music Hall in Aarhus was recorded and released by Amanda Music)

1994 – Maria releases her début album entitled Maria Guttesen Where it all Begins (Tutl Records)

1995 – Preparations for admission to The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus. Maria frequently gives concerts while also being a student assistant for the vocal groups Drós and The Tasteless Singers

1996 – Maria is admitted to The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus

1998 – Establishes the band Maria Guttesen Nordic Band (initially called Pale) with Danish and Norwegian musicians. Songs by Maria Guttesen, lyrics by Maria Salomon. The band records a promotion demo produced by Per Chr. Frost and performs two songs on Danish TV’s “Good Morning Denmark”

1999 – Maria composes, arranges, programs, coaches vocals, performs and produces a Faroese children’s album (Beinta Zachariassen)

2001 – Finishes her degree at The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus and establishes the project Pop Diva Network (a project which focuses on female songwriters over 30) with Lene Drachmann, Julie Michelsen and Pia Trøjgaard. This involves a radio tour and concerts in the large cities of Denmark – three concerts were given in one night. (Concerts were played in Fatter Eskild in Aarhus, Rytmeposten in Odense, Skråen in Aalborg, Park Café in Copenhagen and Voxhall in Aarhus)

2001 – Vocal producer for the band lloyd on their single Dew

2001 – Maria establishes the duo Divided Minds with Stephen Nørrelykke

2002 – Arranges, plays and produces the single Spild din tid (Waste your Time) written by Marianne Søgaard. Released by FDF (in connection with their 100th anniversary)

2002 – Composer and producer on three Christmas songs with the Faroese vocal group Drós

2002 – Maria starts teaching rhythmic solo singing on MGK (Basic course in music) and the music school in Holstebro. Additionally, she teaches rhythmic solo singing on Klejtrup music continuation school, coaches singing and ensemble playing at the Drum School in Randers

2003 – Maria records the début album The Last Night with Divided Minds. Maria functions as composer, musician, singer and producer as well as she arranges. Divided Minds gives concerts in Denmark and is interviewed by + performs two songs on Danish TV channel DK4

2004 – The debut album with Divided Minds is released in August and they give concerts and perform e.g. on Danish TV shows “Mik Shack’s home service” and on TV2 region Eastern Jutland. Divided Minds receive a lot of praise for the album as well as for concerts from reviewers in newspapers and magazines

2005 – Maria goes solo while continuing her co-operation with lyricist Lene Drachmann. She begins playing small concerts with an intimate atmosphere in which she sings and plays the piano. The new songs are more intimate than the songs Maria has previously written

2005 – Ensemble playing instructor at an MGK (Basic course in music) meeting in Holstebro

2006 – Concert recording of the album LIVE which is released by Tutl Records in May

2007 – Duet with Lasse Dyrholm on the single En håndfuld kærlighed (A handful of love) with the young band DP-Laurens (released by Elektrochok)

Guest performer (soloist) on the song Fra Kursk with the band Ratslør (In the House records)

2007 – Recordings for Maria’s dream project begin in July. On this album, Maria has decided to play all instruments, sing and produce the entire album herself. Everything is played by hand in order to keep it as authentic as possible. Only a technician helped out on the recordings. The album of her dreams allows Maria to express herself 100% without the interference of anyone else. The album is made without programming and played with intensity by Maria who has put her heart and soul into this sincere album.

2008 – The album Wide Open is released on March 8

2008 – Maria is currently recording with guitarist and producer Peter Steenild known from e.g. the band Sally Gardens. This album is will be released later this year.