After finishing high school, he started on the Music program at the Toneheim Folkehøyskole near by Hamar, followed by studies on the Jazz program at Trondheim Musikkonsevatorium.[1]
Born in 1979 Eick has marvellous range of achievements to show for himself: in 2007 he won the International Jazz Talent, awarded to him by the International Jazz Festivals Organization situated in New York. He then won the Statoil Scholarship in 2009, undoubtedly the largest scholarship in Norway, as he was heading for the release of his second album on one of the worlds most influential jazz record labels, ECM.
In the meantime Eick keeps himself busy participating on several albums playing either trumpet, double bass, vibraphone, piano, guitar, or in his own words “anything needed.” Some of his collaborators have been, among a vast amount of others, Trondheim Jazz Orchestra and Chick Corea, Iro Haarla, Manu Katché and Jacob Young. Eick is also a member of the Norwegian genre-defying group Jaga Jazzist, a group with which he has performed for many years. In the summer of 2006 he toured with Jan Gunnar Hoff Group and Mike Stern and in October/November on European tour with Thomas Dybdahl.
Eicks band is currently a five-piece, featuring two drummers, bass, piano and Eick himself. The lineup changes invariably as all the participating musicians are amongst Norway's finest, but for the most part the band consists of Andreas Ulvo (piano), Torstein Lofthus and Gard Nilssen (drums), and Audun Erlien (bass). The music is composed by Eick and pays tribute to both the truly unique Scandinavian soundscape, as well as the lyricism and melancholy of the Canadian trumpeter Kenny Wheeler.
2012: Mighty Sam McClain w/ Mahsa Vahdat - A Deeper Tone of Longing: Love Duets Across Civilizations
2012: Alexander Von Mehren - Aéropop
Awards
Mathias Eick was awarded “The International Jazz Award for New Talent 2007”. He received a prize of $20,000 US on 13 January 2007 during the IAJE 34th Annual International Conference in New York City where he also performed. The annual prize was founded by IAJE in cooperation with the International Jazz Festivals Organization (IJFO). He was awarded the 2014 DNB price at Kongsberg Jazzfestival (300,000 NOK).