Julia Gjertsen is a pianist and composer who lives in Oslo, Norway.  

She has developed a body of solo work in the form of singles, EPs, and albums which often center on personal themes inspired from nature and a sense of place to states of mind and past memories. By blending electronics with piano, she creates a personal sound marked by  layered piano melodies and ambient textures. Her debut album, Fragile (2019), introduced this distinctive sound, while her second album, Formations (2022), expands upon it with compositions where the piano merges with flute and pulsing electronics. One of her compositions, titled Runddans, was released as part of the official Piano Day Vol.1 compilation. Her music has been featured on BBC Sounds Mixes and broadcast on radio stations such as NTS Radio, KEXP, Balamii, and UC Radio Beethoven. Some of her collaborative works include two albums with Nico RosenbergDistant Fields (2020) and Paisajes Imaginarios (2022), as well as Dive (2023) with Juha Mäki-Patola. 
In her third album, Shadow Light (2024), she returns to a more subtle and natural piano sound while exploring the contrasts in her music, inspired by the interplay between light and shadows.
 

Review by Higher Plain Music

Oslo based composer Julia Gjertsen has an uncanny knack for creating some of the most soothing and lightly melodic compositions I’ve heard over the last decade. On her new album “Formations”, she brings in flutes, synths and textured ambience to her piano work and it feels like music for clouds. 

Review by Stationary Travels

Delicately poised between texture and melody and bursting with ideas that are realized with equal portions of precision and zest, Formations becomes a buoyant listening experience with an underlying cleverness that demands it be taken seriously. That is not an easy balance to achieve in this medium and is a testament to the creative talents on display in this thoroughly pleasant and uplifting album.