Christmas with my Friends IX

Jazzrausch Bigband - Alle Jahre wieder!CD / Vinyl / digitalJazzrausch BigbandJazzrausch Bigband has more or less invented a new art form, techno jazz, and has become well-known for performances of it. But the band also has another, different story to tell. It has invented its own tradition of hitting the road and touring at the end of each year with a programme consisting of Christmas music, and has been doing this ever since the band first emerged eight years ago. Bandleader and founder Roman Sladek explains: “Whereas our regular projects – the most recent album, ‘Emergenz’, is a good example – are all about working through a specific theme and finding new ways to reinvent ourselves, our Christmas thing is something we do for one reason alone: to have fun. It was our very first programme, we still love it, and we’re still nurturing, developing and growing it. Being able to devote one month a year entirely to the big band tradition is something we’re all really passionate about.” The band has already released four albums since its 2019 ACT debut, “Dancing Wittgenstein”, including a first Christmas programme, “Still! Still! Still!” (also in 2019). Jazzrausch Bigband has gone on expanding and renewing its holiday season repertoire. So, naturally, when a major Germany-wide Christmas tour around the major concert halls in the big cities started to beckon after the Corona break, Sladek figured: “this theme being so close to all of our hearts, it was time to record a new album. So here we are with ‘Alle Jahre Wieder’”. Some bands might have been tempted just to throw together an album of Christmas chestnuts any old how, but the Jazzrausch way of doing things is not like that at all. Indeed, the band would hardly have become the force of success and innovation which we know today if it had chosen easy options. Jazzrausch Bigband is more comfortable with the concept of pushing itself to do better than with being content with what it has done. For this band, things always have to be different, contain surprises, and have genuine “oomph”. Those strong imperatives have been there right from the start of the preparations for this album: as early as this spring, Sladek commissioned the band’s chief composer and arranger Leonhard Kuhn to put together a 50-minute programme of completely new pieces. Rehearsals and recording were wedged in between the very few gaps remaining in the band’s hyper-busy summer touring schedule. The earlier Christmas album “Still! Still! Still!” was already a kaleidoscope of big band styles, and yet Jazzrausch Bigband has managed to broaden the spectrum for “Alle Jahre wieder!” even further. In terms of form it is even more concentrated. Unlike any other album by the band, for the first time we hear purely instrumental music. Furthermore, Kuhn has taken ten classic Christmas songs – each one of them rarely heard in jazz, and tunes which can often come across as a bit staid in their original settings – from “Tochter Zion, freue dich” to “Adeste fideles” or “Ihr Kinderlein, kommet”. The title track, “Alle Jahre wieder!” (based on the 1830s carol to music by Silcher which is very familiar to children and adults in the German-speaking world) appears here in completely new orchestral garb. Sometimes the listener will recognise the kind of swing typical of Glenn Miller. At other moments it is the incomparable big band elegance of, say, Artie Shaw. “Es wird scho glei dumpa” (an Austrian carol) is given the full extra-high-pressure Tijuana brass treatment. “Maria durch ein’ Dornwald ging” gets the touch of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra after a Henry Mancini-like intro, and “Ich steh’ an deiner Krippe hier” recalls more of the great swing heritage. “We had such a great time, a Fetz’ngaudi”, Sladek smiles. The sense of enjoyment is absolutely everywhere on the album, where masterful playing and a mischievous glint in the eye go well together. Any tendency towards being introspective and over-thoughtful is simply blown away as listeners are swept up in the frenzy of Christmas joy and Christmas jazz. At the same time, “Alle Jahre wieder!” is a Christmas homage to the greats of big band history. “It’s almost over-sentimental when one realises, thinking how this recording was sandwiched between all kinds of live performances, that you’re part of something that might one day become an anecdote in jazz history. Yes, we are that very rare thing nowadays: a big band that really plays a lot. It’s a phenomenon that you only normally encounter when you dig into the past.” And it’s about even more: “This music simply has an incredible power and joie de vivre… but that doesn’t mean you have to play it wearing a suit. We want to present it in a more authentic, modern, humorous and attractive way. In such a way that everyone can relate to it in the reality of their own everyday life. In a Christmas programme, everyone can meet on common ground. And from there it’s a journey we take together.” So, once again Jazzrausch Bigband has succeeded in a way that only very few in the jazz field can, notwithstanding the openness of the genre: they have brought young and old together, tradition and revolution, the familiar and the new. Which is why it feels so completely natural and right that they should continue to do this ‘again every year’, as the album title tells them: “Alle Jahre wieder”.Credits: Directed and produced by Roman Sladek Traditional music arranged by Leonhard Kuhn Recorded by Josy Friebel at Mastermixstudio, Unterföhring, August 2022 Mixed by Josy Friebel Mastered by Umberto Echo The Art in Music: Cover Art by Lena Maidl (sturmtiefdesign)

Nils Landgren - Christmas With My Friends VI CD / Vinyl / digital Nils Landgren trombone, vocals Sharon Dyall vocals Jonas Knutsson saxophon Jeanette Köhn vocals Eva Kruse bass Jessica Pilnäs vocals Ida Sandlund vocals, piano Johan Norberg guitar Christmas without the songs – it's unthinkable. And yet how can one be open to different musical styles and also strike a good balance between them? How can all the right moods for the festive season be captured? Should it be classical or soulful, gospel or pop, blues or jazz? The result can often be just one style of singing from one person – but that’s not the case with Nils Landgren's "Christmas With My Friends". A sequence which would normally have had to be patched together from a wide range of interpreters is all there, and from just the one source. Alongside the Swedish trombonist/singer himself, there are four vocalists, Jeanette Köhn, Ida Sand, Jessica Pilnäs and Sharon Dyall, and their fundamentally different voices allow them to combine many musical genres. The way these four co-exist so harmoniously is just one of the reasons why "Christmas With My Friends" has proved to be quite so popular and successful over the past twelve years. Accompanied by Eva Kruse on bass, Johan Norberg on guitar, and saxophonist Jonas Knutsson, the ensemble reinterprets Christmas songs from all over the world and in a jazz spirit, bringing together the well-known with the less familiar, combining the cheerful with the contemplative. Soprano Jeanette Köhn sets the classical tone. She has been garlanded with all of the most important prizes in Sweden, including a Grammy. She also tends to be the singer who steps into the limelight for important official celebrations in Sweden such as the King's Birthday, the Nobel Prize Ceremony, Astrid Lindgren's funeral or the Royal Wedding in 2010. And she brings exactly that sense of occasion to "Christmas With My Friends", notably in the album's reflective conclusion with the Swedish traditional song "Den signade dag" and Mendelssohn's "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing". She is to be heard in delightful vocal duets with Nils Landgren – a medley from "Little Drummer Boy" and "Peace On Earth" – and also with Ida Sand in "Christmas Lullaby". And mentioning Ida Sand, she is not only the pianist for this little Christmas ensemble, she also brings her bitter-sweet voice to it. For many years she has been one of the outstanding white soul voices in Europe, and is the perfect singer for the bluesy "Merry Christmas Baby", and for Dave Grusin's soul song "Who Comes This Night". Jessica Pilnäs has a clear and bright timbre, hers is a disarmingly light voice, and she has a fine understanding of how jazz should flow. She caused a sensation in 2012 with a Peggy Lee tribute. She has exactly the right voice and attitude for standards like Frank Loesser's "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" and for her own composition "When This Night is Over". The darkest vocal colour comes from Sharon Dyall. Daughter of a Swedish mother and Guyanan father, she grew up in London and Barbados and brings gospel and blues to the party. She made her name in musicals (as well as work in overdubbing, as a TV actress and as a speech teacher). Just watch the stage light up as she comes on to sing songs like Bobby Troup's "I'd Like You For Christmas" or Jonas Knutsson's "Come One, Come All".And of course one must not forget our Master of Ceremonies himself, Nils Landgren. He doesn’t only make the trombone sing, he also has that unmistakable, throaty yet bright soul voice. He sets the Christmas cavalcade in motion with the opening piece "Christmas Is", on which he welcomes all of the others to join in. "Christmas With My Friends VI" is a celebration, and everyone who enjoys exceptionally good Christmas songs from Bach to ABBA in new and characterful interpretations is most welcome to it. It is the perfect accompaniment for all situations and moods, and is to be enjoyed before, during and after the day itself. Everyone involved in it has been a part of this joyous Christmas music-making for a long time now – while the number of listeners feel who love to be part of it has kept on growing too. For all of these friends may it be a peaceful and very merry Christmas!Credits: Produced by Nils Landgren with Johan Norberg Cover design by Siggi Loch, based on David Ortins / ACT Art Collection Recorded by Janne Hansson at Atlantis Studio, Stockholm, December 18-20, 2017 Additional recordings by Johan Norberg at Krubaston, Stockholm Mixed and mastered by Lasse Nilsson at Nilento Studios, Gothenburg (Kållered) Production team at Nilento: Michael Dahlvid, Joar Hallgren and Jenny Nilsson

Various Artists - Christmas in the Spirit of JazzCD / digitalJust as there are a multitude of different ways to celebrate Christmas, there is also a vast and appetising array of Christmas music. And whereas Nils Landgren's "Christmas With My Friends" series has been an integral part of the run-up to the holiday season for the past 15 years, it is far from being all that ACT has to offer: a host of other artists from the label have created their own distinctive Christmas sounds. These range from the quiet contemplations of pianist Bugge Wesseltoft or the hymn-inspired "Nordic Christmas" from saxophonist Tore Brunborg, to music from Cana-dian singer Laila Biali or “a touch of class” (The Observer) from Echoes of Swing... and even the coruscating and youth-ful energy of the Jazzrausch Bigband. All these and many more are to be found on "Christmas in the Spirit of Jazz". This is the ACT Christmas soundtrack for 2021. Tracks from all eight of the "Christmas With My Friends" albums are the thread running through this Christmas com-pilation. Nils Landgren sets the celebrations in motion with "Coming' Home for Christmas", the album opener. In the course of the album’s eighteen tracks, we hear a roster of other soloists: Jessica Pilnäs, Johan Norberg and Jonas Knut-son bring seasonal joy to Leroy Anderson’s swinging classic "Sleigh Ride"; Sharon Dyall with her blues-infused voice jingles us through the lively "Just Another Christmas Song"; Ida Sand and Jeanette Köhn sing John Rutter’s "Angel's Carol" in a gently-paced duet. As German magazine Stern has remarked of "Christmas With My Friends”, this is music which "sparkles like the starry sky of a Nordic winter night". We cross the border from Sweden into Norway for another Christmas classic: Bugge Wesseltoft recorded one of the best-selling Christmas albums in Norway with his piano solo CD "It's Snowing On My Piano": the plaintive sounds of Wes-seltoft playing "In Dulce Jubilo" have an irresistible simplicity and directness. And then on to Denmark for Janne Mark: she sings about "Vinter", a delightful hymn which brings light and warmth to Scandinavia's season of darkness. Christmas with the Jazzrausch Bigband is lively and sassy. Sometimes loud, sometimes quiet, the stylish sound of this big band has been superbly caught: "Fröhliche Weihnacht überall" (Merry Christmas everywhere) takes us a long way from the quieter and more contemplative vibe to be heard elsewhere on "Christmas in the Spirit of Jazz". Echoes of Swing with Rebecca Kilgore treat us to a superb "Winter Wonderland": it’s swinging and American - but with a knowing, five-four smile.A song which was not originally written with Christmas in mind, but which has nonetheless found its way into the canon is "A Child is Born" by Thad Jones: Laila Biali's version of it is released here on CD for the first time. Another which has also become a Christmas evergreen is Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". Polish violinist Adam Bałdych interprets it here. And with "Happy Xmas, War is Over" from 1971, we hear Iiro Rantala paying homage to John Lennon. His solo piano interpretation is virtuosic yet has depth, and the song’s message of peace could not be more topical or important than it is today. Caecilie Norby and Lars Danielsson have made a new recording of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" especially for "Christmas in the Spirit of Jazz". We hear just the duo of voice and bass, the mood carefree yet festive. "Christmas Song" is heard in a calmly uplifting version from Viktoria Tolstoy, with Ida Sand, Ulf Wakenius and Nils Landgren. And finally Mr. Redhorn brings "Christmas in the Spirit of Jazz" to an atmospheric conclusion on solo trombone: "Der Mond ist aufgegangen" (the moon is risen) is from his recently released solo album "Nature Boy". Landgren’s trombone sound echoes weightlessly through space and time: the final mood is one of contemplation and peace.

"One thing must be stated at this point: Christmas With My Friends by the Swedish jazz trombonist Nils Landgren is the most beautiful Christmas CD of the year." - STERN

Nils Landgren - Christmas With My Friends - Jubilee CollectionCD Box / Vinyl Box Nils Landgren trombone & vocals Sharon Dyall, Jeanette Köhn & Jessica Pilnäs vocalsIda Sand vocals & piano Jonas Knutsson saxophone Johan Norberg guitar Eva Kruse bass Christmas With My Friends I with Viktoria Tolstoy, Lars Danielsson, Ulf Wakenius, Bugge Wesseltoft Anders Bromander & Walter Brolund Trombone Choir The ultimate Collectors Box for Nils Landgrens Albums "Christmas With My Friends"

"The 15 Swedish and international Christmas songs, in Landgren's and his friends' versions, have such a touching, almost childlike charm that one cannot escape the pre-Christmas atmosphere they reveal." - JAZZTHING

Together with singers such as Sharon Dyall, Jessica Pilnäs, Jeanette Köhn and Ida Sand as well as 1500 guests, Nils Landgren celebrated a musical Christmas devotion in December 2011 that was as intimate as it was joyful. "It was a magical evening for everyone involved. Our wish is to give listeners the same feeling we had during that concert, which eventually became this album." - Nils Landgren

Nils Landgren - Christmas With My Friends IVCD / digital Nils Landgren trombone & vocals Sharon Dyall vocals & harmonica Jonas Knutsson baritone & soprano sax Jeanette Köhn vocals Eva Kruse bass Jessica Pilnäs vocals Ida Sand piano, vocals & glockenspiel Johan Norberg guitar & kanteleAnd year after year it rings out at Christmastime: Nils Landgren's "Christmas With My Friends" ensemble is a loyal companion for the most wonderful time of the year. The fourth edition again presents a diverse selection of international, Swedish, traditional and modern carols and atmospheric secular popular songs, with the familiar hushed and intimate mood we have come to know and love. "There are still so many songs that touch us and that we want to make our own," Landgren explains the reason for recording another "Christmas With My Friends". And it is true: the ensemble's interpretations simply do not get any less fascinating. Why? Because a very special magic is inherent in this music, that goes straight to the heart and speaks from the soul of us all. Because it is not sentimentalised and kitschy, but rather exudes a peaceful and familial serenity that is highly addictive. Because this Christmas music is not artificial and calculated, but real, and because it is a special desire and need of Landgren and his family of musicians. Ever since the "Christmas With My Friends" debut came out in 2006, many people simply can't imagine a Festive Season without this music. The "most beautiful, touching, magnificent Christmas CD of the year. […] Luminescent. Sparkling. Celebratory." said STERN magazine at the time, and it remained full of praise for the following albums as well: The music "sparkles like the clear night sky of a Nordic winter" ("Christmas With My Friends II") and the third edition it lauded as simply "splendid Christmas music". All three albums have now attained jazz platinum status in Germany. The ensemble's Advent concerts are generally sold out to the last seat, as will most certainly be the case again on the Germany tour this December, when people flock to the churches and music venues to indulge in Christmas spirit. What makes the "Christmas With My Friends" interpretations so unique? Most of all the fact that the people who have joined up to make them are not only congenial musicians, but also true friends of many years' standing who love to make music together. You can feel the harmony and connection of the group in the results. "Christmas With My Friends" is teamwork, not a one man show. Nils Landgren understands like few other band leaders how to put his comrades into the limelight, to give them the freedom to stamp their personalities on the music: Jessica Pilnäs shines with her mellow, crystal-clear voice, complemented by the soulful timbre of Ida Sand, who also takes charge of the piano. Soprano Jeanette Köhn lends especially the traditional Christmas carols the necessary classical emphasis, and Sharon Dyall provides the bluesy touch, like on Odetta's "If Anybody Asks You". With his tastefully reduced acoustic guitar accompaniment, Johan Norberg injects the folk-music influence and builds the harmonious foundation, perfectly supplemented by Eva Kruse with her restrained and creamy bass. The jazzy embellishments from Johan Knutsson's saxophone set the interpretations alight and give them magnitude and candour. And over and over, Nils Landgren's butter-soft trombone punctuates the atmospheric music, and his typically fragile vocals touch the soul, for example in the intimate duet with Johan Norberg on his own composition "I Wish It Was Christmas". Nils Landgren and his friends never tire of telling their personal, musical Christmas Story. Year after year. Because it is simply such a beautiful one. Merry Christmas! Credits: Produced by Nils Landgren Executive Producer: Siggi Loch Arranged and performed by Christmas With my Friends Recorded by Lasse Nilsson at Studio Riksmixningsverket, Stockholm, December 17 - 19, 2013. Assistant Engineer: Linn Fijal Mixed and mastered by Lasse Nilsson at Nilento Studio, Gothenburg Nilento Studio production team: M. Dahlvid, Jenny & Joakim Nilsson The Art in Music: Cover art (detail) by David Ortins / ACT Art Collection

Nils Landgren - Christmas with my Friends IXCD / Purple Vinyl / digital Nils Landgren trombone, vocalsSharon Dyall vocalsJeanette Köhn vocals Jessica Pilnäs vocals Ida Sand vocals, piano Jonas Knutsson saxophones Johan Norberg guitars Clas Lassbo bassTrombones from the Swedish Radio Symphony OrchestraHåkan Björkman, Mikael Oscarsson, James Kent, Martha Eikemo Andersen What would Christmas be without songs? And without friends and family? Trombonist, singer, and producer Nils Landgren had long dreamed of celebrating a musical Christmas with good friends. In 2006, this dream became reality: Christmas With My Friends was released and quickly became one of the most popular and successful Christmas albums in European jazz — and a beloved tradition. Since then, the series has appeared every two years, accompanied by regular tours. Now, with Christmas With My Friends IX, the series enters its ninth round.“Someone once asked me: is there not an end to Christmas songs?” recalls Nils Landgren. His answer is simple: “The answer is simple: no, there is not. As long as we celebrate Christmas, there will be songs celebrating the occasion in one way or the other.” For Landgren and his fellow musicians, both the recordings and the concerts are a special joy: “There is no way I can describe the feeling when another recording session is finished. We all put our heart and soul into each and every Christmas album we make, and over the years we have become a very tight bunch of people, and we know each other quite well by now — after 8 albums and 10 long tours over the past decades.” As in every edition, Landgren & Friends also gathered over coffee and cinnamon buns for the ninth installment of Christmas to discuss and try out a selection of classic European and American Christmas songs across styles and eras, as well as new compositions. The lineup once again features Jonas Knutsson (saxophone), Johan Norberg (guitar), Clas Lassbo (bass), and Ida Sand (piano, vocals), along with vocalists Sharon Dyall, Jessica Pilnäs, and Jeanette Köhn. Traditionally, the recordings took place at the renowned Atlantis Studios in Stockholm – under the direction of Nils Landgren and co-producer Johan Norberg. As a special treat this time, Landgren invited the trombone section of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra to perform on some particularly moving chorales. The variety of voices, the close familiarity among all the musicians, and the warm, acoustic character – both festive and intimate – shape the unmistakable charm of this music. Christmas With My Friends IX is a celebration of friendship, peace, and joy – a musical Christmas story that Nils Landgren and his friends share with their audience. Credits Recorded March 3–4, 2025, at Atlantis Studios, Stockholm Recorded by Niclas Lindström Trombones on #1 recorded by Hans Gardemar at KMH Kungasalen Stockholm Mixed by Johan Norberg Mastered by Klaus ScheuermannProduced by Nils Landgren & Johan Norberg

Nils Landgren - Christmas With My Friends VCD / Vinyl / digital Nils Landgren trombone & vocals Sharon Dyall vocals Jonas Knutsson saxophones Jeanette Köhn vocals Eva Kruse bass Jessica Pilnäs vocals Ida Sand vocals, piano &school organ Johan Norberg guitars & kantele When things go this well, there is no earthly reason to break with tradition. For this tenth anniversary the participants have been absolutely rearing to go, and to do it all over again. And their mission to spread a message of peace is now certainly more current and more urgent than it ever was. So, welcome “Christmas With My Friends V.” “It is quite amazing,” says Landgren, “what buried treasures there are that can still be brought to the surface, “and for this fifth album we have definitely unearthed a few. For me it is always a joy to go out on search parties with my Christmas friends, they always come back with surprising songs - from medieval times right up to the present day.” Once again an instrumental and vocal powerhouse team has been assembled around Landgren and his trombone. First and foremost the four vocalists: Jeanette Köhn, Jessica Pilnäs, Sharon Dyall and Ida Sand, who is also on piano duty. There’s Jonas Knutsson on saxophone, Johan Norberg on guitar and Eva Kruse on bass who make up the experienced unit to back the singers. Their work together in Landgren’s group over the years has led to the point where they have now created something of a Christmas signature sound. Each of the eight musicians was asked to put forward two pieces for possible inclusion, and thereafter the construction of the programme was a joint effort. The end-result of that process was a comprehensive, unbeatable 18-part kaleidoscope of Christmas sounds. It starts with a trombone choir playing Bach – in reality the multitracked solo sound of Nils Landgren. We move on to Christmas songs in Swedish (“Härlig Aer Jorden”), in German (“Oh Heiland, reiß die Himmel auf”/ Oh Saviour, tear the sky) and American Christmas carols (“Sleigh Ride”) followed by some original compositions to soul-humdingers such as Gary Hines “Love Is Born.” We then move on to a comedy treatment of the old Swing standard “Baby, It's Cold Outside” which is the opportunity for some stunning vocal duetting from Landgren and Pilnäs. When all is said and done, it is once again the wealth of great voices on show that turns this album into a Christmas sleigh ride traversing all kinds of different landscapes: Jeanette Köhn has real authority with her classical singing, Sharon Dyall brings a wicked hot come-hither bluesiness, Jessica Pilnäs has an irresistibly soulful jazz timbre, and Ida Sand gets right into the gospel groove. Equally compelling is the creativity of the musical interpretations, which nonetheless leaves the essential character of every one of the songs completely intact. A footman seems to be beckoning you into an eighteenth century coach for the “Hosianna” by the musical world traveller Georg Joseph Vogler – it has an almost Caribbean feel; “Joy To The World” is even older but it is a smooth cruise through the gears of jazz changes, while Johan Norbergs “Kokles Christmas” seems to connect the listener to some kind of psychic mystery. Sometimes it is endless snowy landscapes and winter Carl Larsson scenes which unfurl before the mind’s eye, sometimes it is the gaudy colours of streets bustling with Christmas shoppers. At other moments the sorrow and the drama of the Christmas story touch the heart, sometimes one can feel oneself transported by the pure sound of hope, or of salvation and deliverance. God Jul, as they say in Sweden, and a very Merry Christmas!Credits:Recorded at Atlantis studio, Stockholm, December 20 - 22, 2015 Recording engineer: Lasse Nilsson. assisted by Janne Hansson Additional recordings by Johan Norberg at Krubaston studio Mixed and mastered by Lasse Nilsson at Nilento studios, Kållered Team Nilento Studios: Lasse Nilsson, Jenny Nilsson & Michael Dahlvid

Nils Landgren - Christmas With My Friends VIICD / Vinyl / digital Nils Landgren trombone & vocals Sharon Dyall vocals Jonas Knutsson saxophones Jeanette Köhn vocals Eva Kruse bass Jessica Pilnäs vocals Ida Sand vocals & piano Johan Norberg guitars & mandolin Christmas 2020 will be unlike the Christmases of the past, because the Covid-19 crisis and social distancing have fundamentally changed the way we live. Maybe they will also make us yearn more for the true spirit and the joys of Christmas. As we reflect and contemplate on what is important to us, we know that we want to keep hold of our sense of friendship and community. We feel a strong imperative to reach out for whatever can bring joy to the world. And with that thought in mind, there can surely be very few people who can gift-wrap the Christmas season in music for us – and do so quite as naturally, effectively and magically – as Nils Landgren. It is all of fourteen years since this risen star of the trombone, charismatic singer and established luminary of the European jazz scene first gathered together his closest companions in a studio to make a "Christmas With My Friends" album and then take the group on tour with him. The project was successful right from the start: the German magazine Stern hailed the first album as "the most beautiful Christmas CD ever." So from that point on there was no looking back, and never the slightest doubt that Landgren and his friends would go on to repeat this special way of celebrating Christmas: they have continued to do so every other year. Legions of fans have welcomed the albums and tour concerts into their own ways of celebrating Christmas. In fact, "Christmas With My Friends" has now estab-lished itself as nothing less than a Christmas tradition in its own right. In similar fashion, this project has become something very personal for Landgren and his cohort: "Ever since we did the first 'Christmas with My Friends' tour, we have seen so many beautiful churches and concert halls, we’ve met so many wonderful people, we are full of gratitude for all of this – we can hardly wait for this year’s encounters.” ACT owner Siggi Loch didn’t need any persuading to get involved in "Christmas With My Friends VII" either. He did, however, make a suggestion, that they should reach outwards and include songs from all over the world. So Landgren enlisted the help of his longtime colleague Johan Norberg to go off and do some research. Norberg is an experienced guitarist/producer, and he returned from his quest with a substantial trawl of songs. Of these, fourteen numbers from fourteen different countries have made it onto the album. In every respect, there has a been a widening of the scope of "Christmas With My Friends": alongside songs by classical composers such as Franz Schubert ("Ave Maria") and Benjamin Britten ("Hodie Christus"), there is a lullaby, the English 16th century carol "Sweet Was The Song". From Poland we hear "Gdy sliczna Panna/Listen to my Lullaby", from Russia there is the children’s song "The Forest Raised A Christmas Tree", and from South Africa the lively “Sizalelwe Indodana”. There is the Finnish song "Sylvian Joululaulu", scarcely known beyond its country of origin. By contrast, there is a hit that has travelled the world: "Feliz Navidad" by the Puerto Rican guitarist and pop singer José Feliciano. There are homages, such as one to the great Belgian chansonnier Jacques Brel, and there are compositions by Johan Norberg and Eva Kruse. And the scale ranges from the purity and simplicity of a cappella (Norberg's opener "This Christmas") to "Just Another Christmas Song", in which Landgren’s group convincingly delivers the sound of a full big band. There is a very appealing variety here, but every single piece also brings out the talent of this unique cohort of musicians. Landgren’s trombone has an inimitable lightness and variety, Norberg’s guitar tone has folk resonances, the saxophone of Jonas Knutssons is imbued with wonderful lyricism, and the sound of Eva Kruse’s bass is warm and full. But above all the magic comes from the fact that the singers have voices that are so distinctive and yet so perfectly complementary: the classical vocals of Jeanette Köhn, the bittersweet soul of Ida Sand, the radiant clarity of Jessica Pilnäs, the dark, powerful blues of Sharon Dyall and – last but not least – the bright white soul sin-ging of Nils Landgren herself. "Each of us has our own way of interpreting," says Landgren of this, "and the personality of each one of us shines through on the album. Mine too - yes I have indulged myself....and every song here really does have a special meaning for us – and maybe for you too." Christmas 2020 is not just something special; with "Christmas With Your Friends VII" it's something especially wonderful.Credits: Recorded at Atlantis studio, Stockholm, December 7 - 8, 2019 Recording and sound design by Lars Nilsson Mixed and mastered by Lars Nilsson at Nilento studio, Kållered (Gothenburg) Produced by Johan Norberg & Nils Landgren

Nils Landgren - Christmas with My Friends VIIICD / Vinyl / digital Nils Landgren trombone & vocals Sharon Dyall vocals Jonas Knutsson saxophones Jeanette Köhn vocals Jessica Pilnäs vocals Ida Sand vocals & piano Johan Norberg guitars Clas Lassbo bass For large numbers of people, Nils Landgren's Christmas albums are now a part of their holiday season, just like advent calendars or mistletoe. Seventeen years ago, trombonist/singer Landgren, one of the brightest stars in the European jazz firmament, brought together some of his closest musical companions. To get themselves into the mood for Christmas, they set off on a tour of churches in Sweden and Germany. The album which resulted from that first tour, "Christmas With My Friends" was described by one critic as "the most beautiful of all Christmas CDs." Ever since then, Landgren and his friends have been repeating this special way of celebrating Christmas every other year. That time has come round again: "Christmas With My Friends VIII" is ready to take its place among the presents under the tree. These albums all have a wealth of different moods and colours, and that is what makes them so special, as each musician brings their own highly individual contribution. There is Landgren himself with his unrivalled flexible and velvety-smooth trombone, Jonas Knutsson with his lyrical saxophone playing, Johan Norberg and his folky guitar tone. Here for the first time, we also hear the sonorous bass of Clas Lassbo. Above all, however, it is the vocalists who give each track on the album its own special character, and also complement each other perfectly: the classical soprano singing of Jeanette Köhn, the bittersweet soul of Ida Sand, the radiant clarity of Jessica Pilnäs, the powerful blues of Sharon Dyall and, last but not least, the bright soul of Nils Landgren himself.The repertoire which Landgren – and increasingly his friends – choose is also remarkable for its many colours and for the extensive research work which has gone into finding it. There are carols, Christmas songs from pop and jazz, songs which are played all over the world appear alongside songs unknown outside their countries of origin; there is a range from. This time, Landgren and his friends have taken the idea of the richness of colour quite literally. "My Christmas is orange," Landgren says. "I wasn't keen on presents as a child, but far more interested in the holiday season food. That was what made up my Christmas: My mother Margareta brought a big bag of fresh oranges. I still remember when I peeled the first one, and then enjoyed the smell and the wonderful taste." That's why the glowing cover of "Christmas With My Friends VIII" is so...orange.Listeners are encouraged to associate colours with the tracks on the album. Who wouldn't be thinking of green with "O Tannenbaum", for example, especially when it is played, as here, in New Orleans Mardi Gras style. With the hymn-like "In Dulce Jubilo", which swirls around the classical vocals, it has to be gold. And everyone can imagine their own colours for tunes like the ethereal "Lully, Lalla, Lullay", the folky "Soon After Christmas" or the jazzy- "It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year"... just as Johan Norberg has done in his composition "That's How I Picture Christmas Eve". And there is clearly one colour that must not be missing: the colour of jazz: "When we had recorded everything, Ida Sand said: 'What about Blue Christmas?'" Landgren remembers. And so the album starts with the song by Bill Hayes and Jay Johnson, which gave Elvis Presley his breakthrough to fame, as a wonderfully rolling blues. There are so many colours represented here, and no doubt more will be added when the group tours Germany in December. All that remains is to wish them well: may your days be merry and bright, and may all your christmases be...colourful.Credits: Produced by Nils Landgren & Johan Norberg

Bugge Wesseltoft - It´s Snowing On My Piano - Songbookbook12 songs for C-Instruments for Christmas!included Songs: -It´s Snowing On My Piano -Mitt hjerte alltijd vanker-Dellig er jorden -O Little Town Of Bethlehem -Du grone, gliternde tre -Det kimar na til julfest -Greensleves, What Child is This -Kimmer I klokker -Es ist ein Ros entsprungen -Stille Nacht -Into Eternal Silence -In Dulce Jubilo

Bugge Wesseltoft - It's still snowing on my pianoLiveCD / Vinyl / Limited Sky Blue Vinyl / digital Bugge Wesseltoft pianoBugge Wesseltoft’s solo piano album It's Snowing On My Piano (1997) is one of the most successful albums that the ACT label has ever released. For many people – especially in Germany and Norway – this music, made with such care and love by the affable and generous-spirited Norwegian, has become an essential part of their holiday season. And yet, for a Christmas album, it is anything but typical. From the very first note, the meditative strength of the music is palpable. Wesseltoft creates a locus of peace and tranquillity – a state of being which seems even more precious today than it did when the album first appeared. In the intervening years, Bugge Wesseltoft has played the music from the album many times in concert. Each time, he reinterprets the music afresh, with the compositions and melodies serving as points of departure for musical meditations shaped in the moment. After almost 20 years of these performances, the time is now right to document and indeed to celebrate this aspect of Wesseltoft’s patient but continuing creative evolution through the release of It's still snowing on my piano. This new, live version of the much-loved album was recorded at five concerts in cultural centres and churches in Norway. When Bugge Wesseltoft played the music from Snowing live for the very first time almost 20 years ago at Kalkmølla, an intimate hall in a cultural centre outside Oslo, he had strong doubts as to whether it would be possible to recreate the magical atmosphere of the studio recording. He recalls: “There were about a hundred people seated in a small acoustic space. I started playing quietly and slowly, just like on the album. After a few songs, I started to hear deep breathing coming from somewhere in the audience. ‘Oh God, this must be so boring for them,’ I thought... I was sure they would all leave during the interval.” Of course, his fears were unfounded – not a single person left. In fact, quite the opposite: “After the concert, everyone told me what a great experience it had been. Since then, I have been playing this music every December in Norway in front of large audiences. It's incredible to feel the collective energy that this music and the presence of an audience in a concert hall can create together.” When Siggi Loch, the founder of ACT, originally suggested that Wesseltoft might record a Christmas album in 1997, the pianist was initially less than enthusiastic. He can still remember why: “I'm not a big fan of the frenzy of Christmas shopping, all that enforced happiness...In the early nineties I worked in a psychiatric clinic and was shocked to discover that Christmas was a peak season for depression, nervous breakdowns and family problems. I counted myself lucky, because I grew up in a family where Christmas Eve was a heart-warming, peaceful evening spent with my closest family." This eventually inspired Wesseltoft to record a Christmas album in this spirit — one that his then two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Maren might one day come to love: "Calm, slow, with an emphasis on fond childhood memories, on the songs we sang while holding hands around the Christmas tree," as he describes it. There was no particular reason to expect that the recording would do well when it was released before Christmas 1997. And at first, not much happened at all. But in the following year, word spread about this very special Christmas music, people took the album to their hearts, recommended it and gave it as a gift again and again, something which continues right up to the present day. The live recording It's still snowing on my piano feels familiar – but at the same time it is new. The melodies of the compositions, originals but in traditional vein, remain intact. Wesseltoft's approach to the songs is neither of deconstruction nor of recomposition, but rather one of gently wandering and exploring the spaces between the notes. And yet it is precisely in this way that completely new music emerges within the songs. It seems as if each preceding note is paving the way for the next, as if each new twist and turn leads on to another. It can often seem that Wesseltoft himself is both player and listener. During the recording of the original album, his daughter Maren sat on his lap – not a typical artist-audience relationship, but rather one of listening and feeling being shared. And that is the spirit which pervades Snowing whether it is heard in concert or at home. It is the ever-present feeling of connection between musician and listener that makes this evergreen music so completely magical. CreditsMusic arranged and produced by Bugge Wesseltoft Mixed and mastered by Klaus ScheuermannCover art by Ardy Strüwer

Bugge Wesseltoft's album "It's Snowing On My Piano" is a beautifully crafted Christmas jazz album, awarded Gold and Platinum with a timeless, serene sound.

Jazzrausch Bigband - Still! Still! Still!CD / Vinyl / digitalJazzrausch BigbandJazzrausch Bigband is the latest group to join the ACT family of artists, and it stands out being as unique in several respects, in the first place for its size and versatility: it has more than 40 musicians as regular members. Jazzrausch plays an average of 120 concerts a year, which would clearly be impossible to achieve without this bench-strength. Within one year the ensemble has performed at Lincoln Center in New York, the JZ Festival in Shanghai, the Safaricom International Jazz Festival in Nairobi, the Ural Music Night in Yekaterinburg and the SXSW in Austin TX. There is probably no other jazz orchestra in the world which is quite as busy, in demand and successful as Jazzrausch. And there is also no other orchestra which reaches audiences as young as it does, notably people who had hitherto been very dis-tant from jazz.Jazzrausch Bigband’s ability to reach young audiences is attributable to its revolutionary new sound and repertoire. By playing acoustic techno-jazz in a big band format the ensemble has created a new style that delights jazz fans and excites dance addicts. This is music which can satisfy the longings of clubbers in search of the genuine, the hand-crafted and the original; and yet it appeals in equal measure to devotees of jazz and classical music by having more oomph, being brilliantly entertaining, and through its chunky sound. The German broadsheet FAZ talked about a mixture of "powerful sound, groove and enormous stage presence". For the time being at least, Jazzrausch Bigband has no imitators and essentially has the field to itself.The band’s rapid rise in just five years of existence naturally has everything to do with its instigator and leader, trombonist Roman Sladek. This visionary musician who grafts round the clock had already realized when he was still a student that “the way in which jazz has developed has ended up destroying an awful lot. There’s a prevalent attitude of snobbishness and dismissiveness, combined with an ab-sence of awareness of the audience. We jazz musicians have to find our way back into the here and now. We have to learn to master every form of music and demonstrate and proclaim that our music has massive creative potential." In other words. if people won't come out to jazz, then jazz has to go out to the people.So he cast his net widely and took his ebullient enthusiasm to places that jazzers hadn't thought of before. And one place where he located a definite interest was the legendary Munich techno club "Harry Klein". Sladek asked his chief composer and arranger, guitarist Leonhard Kuhn, to write a programme that combined big band jazz and techno. And, as it turned out, the young audience was all over it. Jazzrausch Bigband became the only "artist in residence" big band in a techno club anywhere in the world, with a monthly date that still sells out every time. The good word started to do the rounds, and soon other clubs and festivals were keen to get hold of them and the band’s rise to its current heights began. Now the band has two ACT albums as its visiting card: there is a rerelease of "Dancing Wittgenstein", the successful techno-jazz program, and also "Still! Still! Still!” a Christmas album in classic big band style."The Christmas programme was actually the first one we ever played," explains Sladek. "And we’ve enjoyed developing it further every year since. In the run-up to Christmas, it provides the perfect counterweight to the thrills of the techno shows that we do for the rest of the year." "Still!, Still!, Still!" consists of Leonhard Kuhn's multi-layered orchestrations for the band’s 18 musicians of twelve popular German Christmas songs, traversing the entire history of big band repertoire – and justifying those three exclamation marks in the album title. The opener is a Basie-style swinger "Leise rieselt der Schnee" with extremes of soft and loud; “Engel auf den Feldern singen” (Shepherds in the Field Abiding) receives a brisk Herb Alpert treatment; "Fröhliche Weihnacht überall" has the characteristic Stan Kenton sound. “These tunes,” says Sladek, “are to our Christmas programme what the rhythms are to our techno programme. The beauty of "Still!, Still!, Still!" is that everyone knows the songs. So we and the audience have a common starting point musically from which we can inspire people who seldom hear jazz to really enjoy it." In fact, this idea gets to the heart of the Jazzrausch Bigband phenomenon: for a long time, this group has been working in "jazz", which more than ever today is the category for interesting and worthwhile music that doesn't fit into any other category. Jazzrausch Bigband keeps the music fresh and on the boil. It doesn’t merely demolish musical barriers, it has a joyful focus on one thing above all: that musicians and audience alike can have fun.Credits: Band directed and produced by Roman Sladek  Music arranged by Leonhard Kuhn

Echoes of Swing - Winter Days at Schloss ElmauCD / digital Echoes of Swing: Bernd Lhotzky piano &musical director Colin T. Dawson trumpet Chris Hopkins alto saxophone Oliver Mewes drums Rebecca Kilgore vocals Henning Gailing bass Rolf Marx guitar (on 4, 8, 9 & 10) For over 20 years, Echoes of Swing have been an essential go-to band for lovers of classic jazz. They show quite how many sides there are to it, and do so in a way that is always consummately fresh. The quartet of Bernd Lhotzky (piano), Colin T. Dawson (trumpet), Chris Hopkins (alto saxophone) and Oliver Mewes (drums) breathe new life into the canon of the Jazz Age with their skill as players, their fine arrangements – and with a lot of hu-mour. The band play their own compositions too. And each of their albums is built around a theme: after "Blue Pepper", "Dancing", "Travelin'" and the "Tribute to Bix Beiderbecke", their new album "Winter Days at Schloss Elmau" is a winter walk, but with a swing to it. The new album continues in the line of superb re-cordings that ACT has made in the large concert hall at Schloss Elmau. Indeed, where would one find more inspiration for a winter album than in this unique location with its breathtaking views of the Bavarian Alps? Whereas previous Echoes of Swing recordings have predominantly featured instrumental tracks, "Winter Days at Schloss Elmau" marks a new departure for the band: it is a vocal album defined by the presence of the grande dame of classic jazz singing, the American vocalist Rebecca Kilgore. "There is simply no alternative to Rebecca,” enthuses Bernd Lhotzky. “So many musical and human qualities come together in her, you really have to hear her to believe it." Lhotzky has previously worked with Kilgore in a duo and calls her "the ideal you’d always hoped somebody would invent" and a "singing enchantress". So all it takes is a few bars of her singing on the opener "Winter Moon", transformed into an atmospheric nocturne by Chris Hopkins, to realise that Rebecca Kilgore has that perfect sense of swing and time that cannot be taught, combined with subtle elegance and a warm timbre, and is able to convey lyrics so naturally in music. There are two additional musicians working with the group: on four tracks jazz, guitarist Rolf Marx brings new colours to Echoes of Swing’s music. Henning Gailing is a specialist in classic swing bass, a distinctly rare craft nowadays. Echoes of Swing have done a lot of live dates with him, and his rare skills and his sound rein-force and underpin the foundation of the ensemble. And off we go on an extended sleigh ride. One could say it lasts from Advent over Christmas and through into the new year. We travel through all kinds of very different regions, from "Winter Wonderland", classically covered in snow (unusually in 5/4 time here, with hand drums and an Ellingtonian horn section), via frosty cities in the northern hemisphere ("I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm") and on down to South America, where December is very different, for example in "Looks Like December", a rare composition by Antonio Carlos Jobim; in the alto saxophone passages one can clearly hear Chris Hopkins' admiration for Stan Getz. "Winter Days" has managed completely to avoid those worn-out and overplayed Christmas standards. On the other hand, there are playful pieces that toy with the winter clichés, or subvert them. For example, there is Burt Bacharach's "The Bell That Couldn't Jingle", appearing here as a bossa nova. And there are also three contrasting poems set to music by Bernd Lhotzky: there’s "Stopping By Woods" by Robert Frost which is almost like a pop tune, an icy and gloomy "The Night Is Darkening Round Me" by Emily Brontë, and a classical, notated setting of William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 97" which ventures into the domain of art song. Interestingly, it is played just by the trio of guest musicians, but they are anything but drop-ins; they put their complete heart and soul into it. Rebecca Kilgore has written the title track "Winter Days" together with Lhotzky – the tropical sounds in it give a sense of contrast. She also chose "Snowbound" with its subtle wordplay. This song is by pianist/composer Dave Frishberg who has been a friend of Kilgore’s for a long time. Taken together, here are thirteen musical winter greetings which are consistently delightful. They chime particularly sweetly with the ethos of the season. Echoes of Swing are respectful of tradition but have a verve and an energy which make it completely new. This band's taste is impeccable, their ingenuity is inexhaustible, and their musicality is outstanding. This may be music inspired by a specific season and by a long-gone era of jazz, yet it is precious and timeless.Credits: Recorded by Stefan Gienger at Schloss Elmau, December 13 - 15, 2018 Mixed and mastered by Stefan Gienger at Mastermix Studios, Munich Produced by Echoes of Swing

"Torsten Goods plays the guitar in a way that need not shy away from comparisons with George Benson. A huge talent is maturing here!" - MANNHEIMER MORGEN

Nils Landgren - 3 GenerationsCD / Vinyl / digital Nils Landgren with Joachim Kühn, Michael Wollny, Iiro Rantala, Lars Danielsson, Cæcilie Norby, Viktoria Tolstoy, Wolfgang Haffner, Ulf Wakenius, Jan Lundgren, Ida Sand, Youn Sun Nah, Vincent Peirani, Emile Parisien, David Helbock, Marius Neset, Nesrine, Julian & Roman Wasserfuhr, Anna Gréta, Johanna Summer, Jakob Manz, and many more We are Family – Celebrating 30 ACT Years Nils Landgren has been and remains the absolute linchpin of the ACT family. To date, the Swede has made forty albums on the label as leader, plus another twenty as producer or soloist. Michael Wollny, whose many many projects with Landgren give him a special connection, sums up a key ele-ment in his success: “With Nils everything becomes easy.” There is indeed a particular ease about Mr. Red Horn’s way of being; it is infectious and runs through everything he does. Which is all the more remarkable when one considers the sheer number of roles he takes on: trombonist, singer, band-leader, producer, festival director, professor, curator, talent scout and mentor.All of Landgren’s multiple roles and traits come to the fore on “3 Generations”. Working alongside producer and ACT founder Siggi Loch, Nils Landgren brings together three gene-rations of ACT artists’ in various line-ups to mark the label’s 30th anniversary. Landgren and Loch have a friendship and habits of working well together which go back almost as long as the existence of ACT itself. The two met for the first time at the 1994 Jazz Baltica Festival, just two years after the label was founded. Landgren became an exclusive ACT artist shortly thereafter. Since that time, it has been through Landgren’s network that artists such as Esbjörn Svensson, Rigmor Gustafsson, Viktoria Tolstoy, Ida Sand, Wolfgang Haffner and many more have joined the label. Nils Landgren continues in his trusted role as ACT’s leading connector and integrator. Finding and nurturing young talent has always been one of ACT’s strong suits. It was true for Nils Landgren, then later for Michael Wollny who joined the label in 2005 and is today one of the most significant pianists in Europe. With artists such as Johanna Summer and Jakob Manz - both born many years after ACT was founded - the label looks to the future with its younger generation of musicians bringing new ener-gy and impetus to the world of jazz.The Times (UK) has written: “Since 1992, ACT has been building its own European union of musicians, fostering a freedom of movement between nationalities and genres, and has given us an authentic impression of what the continent is about.” “3 Generations” demonstrates quite how true that assertion is. Around forty artists from the ACT Family make this anniversary album a celebration of the breadth, openness and inclusive power of jazz. The core of the album consists of recordings made at a summer 2022 studio session lasting several days. In reality, it is only Nils Landgren and Siggi Loch who could have brought this pano-rama of musical Europe into being. The influences here range from jazz, popular song and folk to classical and contempo-rary music, and much more. Thirty tracks from three generations of musicians marking thirty years of ACT, with Nils Landgren as driving force. Not just a retrospective, but above all an insight into the present and future of the discovery label “in the Spirit of Jazz”.Credits: Recorded by Thomas Schöttl at Jazzanova Studio, Berlin on June 7 - 9, 2022, assisted by José Victor Torell – except as otherwise indicated Mixed and mastered by Klaus Scheuermann Produced by Siggi Loch and Nils Landgren The Art in Music: Cover Art by Yinka Shonibare CBE: Detail from Creatures of the Mappa Mundi, Mandragora, 2018

Viktoria Tolstoy - A Moment Of NowCD / digital Viktoria Tolstoy vocals Jakob Karlzon Steinway grand piano, pump organ, celesta, Fender Rhodes Special Guest on Send One Your Love: Jocke Bergström vocalsThough there are many beautiful singing voices in jazz today, Viktoria Tolstoy is one of a kind. A great melodramatist of jazz who is also bipolar, she makes happiness sound fragile and threatened, and bitterness sweet and enchanting. She has framed and perfected this art on a conceptual level since becoming an ACT artist in 2003, whether concentrating on material from Esbjörn Svensson – whose e.s.t. began to some extent as her accompanying trio – or, most recently, on Herbie Hancock, classical originals, Swedish standards or repertoire from Russia, the home of her ancestors. Her latest album "A Moment Of Now" is her most frank recording yet – for one simple reason: "Jacob [Karlzon] and I are the concept this time," says Viktoria. Indeed it is an intimate album by the duo that focuses on their musical partnership. Karlzon has been Tolstoy's trusted companion on her band projects for almost 15 years now, his playing thrives on nuances, transitions, ambiguities – be they inspired by classics such as Ravel or hard rockers the likes of KoRn. It is a partnership that shows no signs of abating, despite Karlzon’s own highly successful trio that bears his name. "We each generally know in advance what the other is thinking and is going to do, without either of us having to say anything. It's almost a bit spooky," says Tolstoy of the intuitive understanding between the two. Their style depends on melodies like a fish depends on water, and 14 of the best are brought together on "A Moment Of Now". As Tolstoy explains, they are "songs we've heard a lot in recent years, and that imposed themselves on us, but also some that were entirely new to us and were really a challenge”. This has resulted in a selection that sounds entirely coherent and as if created especially for these two musicians, even though its component parts come from the most diverse, stylistic, and often surprising backgrounds. From the classical "Apres Un Reve" by the Frenchman Gabriel Faurè, to Stevie Wonder's soul-pop "Send One Your Love" – on which Tolstoy invited Jocke Bergström, a new face in these climes, to share in a vocal duet that simply takes your breath away – to the jazzy "Shadow And Light" by Joe Zawinul. Thanks to Tolstoy's father, who suggested Phil Collins' "Against All Odds", the entire history of Genesis is represented, so to speak, with "Taking It All Too Hard" and Peter Gabriel's "Red Rain" also rebooted on the album. Beyond global hits like these or Alanis Morissette's biggest success "Hand In My Pocket", the album also includes new discoveries like "Satisfied" from the almost-forgotten funk virtuoso Lewis Taylor and "Deep River" from Norwegian jazz saxophonist Benedik Hofseth. Among the pieces, three were originally instrumentals; namely "Apres Un Reve" (based on Faurè's "Apres Un Reve"), the Pat Metheny revamp "A Moment Of Now", and Karlzon's own composition "Scent Of Snow”. For these, Anna Alerstedt, the fantastic songwriter who Tolstoy discovered in 2008 for "My Russian Soul", once again pens profound and memorable lyrics. The ease with which Viktoria Tolstoy and Jacob Karlzon can change the fundamental character of songs that otherwise seem to be set in stone is quite spectacular. The best example of this is their interpretation of Mark King's "Lessons In Love", transformed from a loud up-tempo song by the funk band Level 42 into a melancholy ballad. There’s also Cole Porter's classic "I Concentrate On You", which rings out as a Nordic anthem, and which in the middle section is even reminiscent of Esbjörn Svensson's "Love Is Real". But above all, what the songs all have in common is an overwhelming quietude and power. The weighty and complex sounds light and easy – just note the jumps and key changes on "Satisfied", where the subtle nuances and vocals change and shape the music. There is a calmness and strength in the music that comes from experience and draws from the tried and trusted. For example, Nils Landgren returns as the producer, while the album was recorded with the familial team at Nilento Studios in Goteborg. "I felt safe and well looked after at every moment,” Tolstoy recalls, “Never change a winning team!". This is how a fascinating and completely unique moment in her and Karlzon's oeuvre was born—and it is one that will remain.  Credits: Produced by Nils Landgren Co-produced by Jacob Karlzon and Lasse Nilsson Recorded, sound design, mixed and mastered by Lars Nilsson, April 22 – 24, 2013 at Nilento Studio, Gothenburg Production team: Jenny Nilsson and Michael Dahlvid

Andreas Schaerer - A Novel Of AnomalyCD / digital Andreas Schaerer vocals & mouth percussion Luciano Biondini accordion Kalle Kalima guitar Lucas Niggli drums Music involves so many levels of communication: verbal, audiovisual, emotional, even body language. In jazz, the spontaneity of improvisation ramps up the suspense and the excitement. And yet in the best situations, instant osmosis and mutual trust can inexplicably kick in. And that was what happened in 2013 with the meeting of Andreas Schaerer, the Berne-based vocal acrobat and multi-genre composer, with Zurich drummer Lucas Niggli. “We went on stage,” Schaerer remembers, “without any rehearsal beforehand, or even a discussion about what we would play - and yet it felt as if we had known each other for ages.” They then continued playing regularly as a voice-and-drums duo. Sometimes what resulted was quiet acoustic dialogues; at other times they would seek out the untrammelled, bombastic and loud. And they decided quite soon that they really wanted to do was to shed light on these two extremes. So, for the purposes of a tour, they decided to use guests to develop their duo into two different trios: there would be a first trio with the Italian accordionist Luciano Biondini, which would concentrate on the lyrical, the poetic and what simply felt good; and a second with the Berlin-based Finnish guitarist Kalle Kalima, in which they would enjoy amplified sounds and electronics. “Rehearsals were planned so that we could work with Luciano in the morning and then with Kalle in the afternoon,” recalls Schaerer. “But a flight delay brought all four of us to the rehearsal room at the same time, and our sound-check simply morphed into a wild two-hour session of collective improvisation.” Niggli adds: “the two of them got on so well with each other, it was clear to us that we wouldn’t want to pull them apart again.” And that is how, instead of two trios, this one-of-a-kind quartet with guitar, accordion, drums and voice was born. Because all of its members are so popular, the band was highly regarded from the very start, and was invited by several festivals. In the course of these performances the group gelled, and what evolved was a quartet in which all of the co-conspirators would have an equal role. They started with old pieces which each took from his own repertoire, and then gradually expanded the scope with new numbers written especially for the quartet. All four were able to contribute compositions reflecting their respective musical origins and preferences. Thus the new album "A Novel Of Anomaly” opens all kind of colourful vistas, and yet at the same time reveals the harmonic inclinations and instantly recognizable character of the band. In “Aritmia”, an ideal opener with its driving swing, as in the melancholy ballad “Stagione”, the central focus is on the Mediterranean element, Biondini’s ‘Italianità’. Kalle Kalima’s “Dive” is influenced by Finnish tango, and in “Planet Zumo” the guitarist brings to the fore memories of his collaboration with Nigerian drummer Tony Allen through propulsive rhythms and the distinctive rumble of highlife guitar. Niggli also turns his gaze towards Africa. He lived in Cameroon until he was six years old. The African poet Chenjerai Hove was the creative fountainhead for his ethereal track “Flood”. In the accordion/vocal duet “Causa Danzante”, Schaerer finally makes room for some classical reminiscences, and then in “Getalateria” he lays down a brilliant rocky alpine yodel-blues. In the hymnic “Signor Giudice” all the elements - the filigree and powerful drums of Niggli, Schaerer’s multiphonics and beatboxing solos, Kalima’s expressive guitar, and the almost orchestral accordion of Biondini - find an ideal way to combine together. “For me it was important to accommodate the mother tongue of each of the musicians in this album,” Schaerer emphasizes. Thus “Fiore Salino”, composed by the members of quartet, is a story told in Italian about spiritual affinities and friendships. In “Swie Embri” Schaerer sings in the dialect of the German part of Valais about the eternal flow of things. Finally, the Finnish text of “Laulu Jatkuu”, inspired by a mountaineering drama which occurred during the band's performance at Mont Blanc, reflects upon the concurrence of creation and destruction. A “Novel Of Anomaly”, then, is a dazzling testimony to the way contemporary European jazz is growing and converging. After his gargantuan orchestral work “The Big Wig” and the improvisational fireworks of “Out of Land” (with Emile Parisien, Vincent Peirani and Michael Wollny) Andreas Schaerer has now immersed himself in a new sound-world. “A Novel Of Anomaly” presents eleven short stories, offering opportunities do delve into more intimate and pared-down vocal textures. It is an unusual, surprising and compelling album.Credits: Produced by Andreas Brandis with the artists

Nesrine - Ahlam CD / digitalNesrine Belmokh voice & cello Matthieu Saglio cello & vocals David Gadea percussionNES can't be tied down to a specific location. Their music is between traditional Arabic and world music, jazz and pop. These three superb musicians originally met in Valencia in Spain. Percussionist David Gadea is from the region, and was already touring with Flamenco greats such as Ximo Tébar and Josemi Carmona; Matthieu Saglio is a French cellist “with a thousand tone colours” who has performed in more than 30 countries; the singer/cellist Nesrine Belmokh had worked with legendary conductors such as Lorin Maazel and Daniel Barenboim, and performed with Cirque du Soleil on international tours. Placido Domingo has called Nesrine “an exceptional artist, a wonderful voice.” Russafa, the area around the station in Valencia, Spain, is famous for its market, which offers every imaginable Mediterranean delicacy. This was once a working-class district, but is now full of eccentric cafés and hip restaurants. "Russafa is a place full of light and colours," explains Nesrine Belmokh. "It's the perfect meeting place for everything Mediterranean!" It also proved to be a meeting place that would shape the singer/cellist's future as a musician, because it was there that she met the percussionist David Gadea in 2015. "David and I went to a solo concert by a cellist, Matthieu Saglio. When we talked afterwards, we found out that for seven years we had both lived in Russafa without knowing each other - only 200 metres apart!" The three became friends, created a trio, built a repertoire and chose a name: NES, Nesrine's nickname. The acoustic music on her debut album "Ahlam" draws strong inspiration from pop and flamenco, as well as from the sounds Nesrine heard in her parents' house, which was frequented by Arabic musicians from the Mediterranean region.“Arab-Andalusian music is more or less the classical music of North Africa, and it left its mark on me," explains Nesrine. "It was also the starting point for my artistic career – that all got going when I sang and played mandolin in an Arab-Andalusian band. Later on I embarked on classical cello studies, but I always knew I wanted to be a singer.""Ahlam" means "dream" in Arabic. The long-held wish of the three NES musicians was to make an internationally released album - a dream which has now quite literally come true. The title song also expresses a personal dream of love fulfilled, and of the desire for peace in the world: "There is no beauty without a concept of goodness." (That sentence is a free translation of the title song's refrain.) All the Arabic lyrics on the album "Ahlam" were written by Nesrine's mother, a poet whose main occupation is as a doctor. "We’re in touch all the time," explains the singer. "An intergenerational connection like this needs constant feeding and watering!"Nesrine sings in English, French and Arabic. She can be soft and hypnotic – as in "Bye Bye", chanson-esque – in "Le Temps" or sing pop songs such as "The World is Blue" in a duet with herself. "Music is my exorcism" is the motto of "Bye Bye" – music to drive out the demons. And the lyric: “Spending days and years looking for my identity/ I guess I have to find it within a community" – suggests that this trio itself might well represent the community she is referring to. The astonishingly varied sounds of the classically trained cellist Matthieu Saglio – who also works with loop pedals, and the sometimes fiery, sometimes very delicate percussion by David Gadea constitute the virtuoso flamenco/jazz basis of this band.People with a liking for the genre-busting music of artists such as Anouar Brahem, Dhafer Youssef or Ibrahim Maalouf are going to love NES. NES are not hemmed in by categories or language barriers. Their songs are full of grace and emotion, born and nurtured by the sun in the cultural melting pot of Valencia.Credits: Music composed by Belmokh & Saglio  Produced by NES Recorded Mixed and mastered by Nicolas Baillard at Studios La Buissonne, Pernes les Fontaines, France, June 2017  Except cello loops recorded at Cut Records, Valencia, Spain, in January 2017 by Rafa Sánchez  The Art in Music: Cover art by Philip Taaffe: Asuka Nimbus, 2013, ACT Art Collection, Berlin 

Matthieu & Camille Saglio - Al AlbaCD / digital Camille Saglio voice, shakers Matthieu Saglio cello, palmas, vocals on #8, 10, 14 Gabriel Saglio bass clarinet on #9 "Al Alba" – ‘at dawn’ in Spanish – brings together through music two people whose connection with each other is close and lifelong: brothers Matthieu and Camille Saglio. Cellist Matthieu studied classical music in Rennes in Brittany and then settled in the Spanish city of Valencia. He is driven by a passion to explore different sound cultures, combining them with influences from jazz and world music. Vocalist Camille started to take a serious and passionate interest in music at the age of twelve, beguiled by his older brother’s enthusiasm for the cello. The instrument Camille would decide to adopt as his means of expression was his own singing voice. This is the brothers' first album together, and it has a spiritual dimension to it. It is about transitions and boundaries, about being in states of flux and how that affects music and people. There is a hint of the Celtic-Breton, especially in a leaning towards minor-key melancholy. Flamenco is also present, giving a taut rhythmic framework, but also connecting to the dreams and arabesques of the Mediterranean sound world. And Mathieu Saglio's rigorous classical training allows him great facility and breadth of choice when it comes to composition, as well as a particularly refined sound. Matthieu Saglio’s ways of working have led him to major successes, notably the creation of multi-layered, cross-border music in the flamenco crossover ensemble "Jerez-Texas” and the trio "NES" with the singer/cellist/ACT artist Nesrine, and also through the projects in his own name, both as leader and at the centre of a web of collaboration - on the ACT albums "El camino de los vientos" (2020) and "Voices" (2023).Camille Saglio, likewise, is a traveller between different worlds. The band Sôdi with flute and percussion, which he founded in Toulouse in 2003, explored world music and forged connections with the music of West Africa and the Orient. Camille became part of the Manafina project, learned to play guitar, n'goni and oud and also to express himself in various languages from Bambara and Arabic to Turkish. He wrote short stories and stage plays, produced his own shows such as "Dis-leur que j'ai vécu" (tell them I’ve lived - 2010) and worked with actors and dancers from Vincent Loiseau to Didier Bardoux and Hervé Maigret.He now sings in an imaginary language, which he creates live, evolving in his own universe. Able to carry the listener up and away into high counter-tenor register, he improvises with a voice trumpet sound, but he can also spring surprises too, by switching to a song in English, Bambara, French or Spanish. Camille Saglio has a style which is uniquely his.In this way, both brothers developed independently into poets of their genre. And finally, after years of separate experiences, they have now converged musically. "Al Alba" is a programme of songs which are as gentle as they are powerful. Matthieu Saglio uses his cello as a source of inspiration and opens up all kinds of spaces for his brother's voice. Sometimes he changes role and becomes a singer himself with bowed lines. The closeness to his brother's feelings is palpable in Camille’s singing. There is an interweaving of energy lines, which is also accommodated by the repertoire. Camille Saglio sings Arabic poetry ("Tariq") as well as a well-known political song ("Strange Fruit"), an independent classic by Noir Désir ("Le vent nous portera" – the wind will carry us), Spanish or free melodic lines and ornaments. For one piece, third brother Gabriel Saglio also joins in on bass clarinet. Recorded on an island in the River Loire, this album takes inspiration from the spirit of the river, its flow and the ever-fleeting, ever-changing nature of its moods and emotions.‘Al Alba’ is music in a state of flux, the sound of brothers whose cultural perspectives have real breadth. It is music from deep within. Totally personal, yet at the same time completely universal.Credits:Produced by Camille and Matthieu SaglioMusic and lyrics by Camille and Matthieu Saglio, except #2 (Lhasa de Sela), #7 (Lewis Allan), and #11 (Bertrand Can-tat, Serge Teyssot-Gay, Jean-Paul Roy, Denis Barthe)Recorded on June 24 and mixed on August 24 at Studio de l'Île, Chalonnes-sur-Loire, France by Alban CointeCello bases recorded on April 24 at La Seta Azul Estudis, Benicàssim, Spain, by Juan Carlos TomásMastered on September 24 at Blockhaus DY 10, Nantes, France, by Florian Tatard“Strange Fruit” © Edward B. Marks Music Company, all Rights administered by Warner Chappell Music France“Con Toda Palabra” © Éditorial Avenue“Le Vent Nous Portera” © ND Musique, Universal Music Publishing FranceCover art by Federico Herrero, “Chorus”, 2021, with kind permission of the artist

"This fresh sound has never been so pleasing to Swedish ears before." - STEREOPLAY

Erna Rot - Angst & WeltschmerzErna Rot vocals & glockenspiel Simon Doetsch trumpet, flugelhorn & accordion Peter Kowal guitar Stefan Rey double bass Felix Günther drums Constantin Krahmer piano & organ Joon Laukamp violin & mandolin Georg Schaller flute (10)Jazzpopchansonbluegrassswing with German lyrics as you rarely find them - certainly not in jazz. These songs bounce in the ears, nestle in and yet are not lullaby earworms.Credits: Recorded by Georg Schaller, Cologne Mixed and mastered by Klaus Scheuermann Produced by Erna Rot Manufacturer

Andreas Schaerer - Anthem For No Man´s LandCD / Vinyl / digital Andreas Schaerer voice, mouth percussion, bass-synth Luciano Biondini accordion Kalle Kalima electric guitar Lucas Niggli drums Swiss vocal phenomenon Andreas Schaerer has been described as 'the Germanic Bobby McFerrin with the flow of a Shakespearean actor’ (L’Alsace). His ‘charismatic and powerful stage presence’ (FAZ) mark him out as a unique figure in European music, a distinction recognised in early 2024 when he became the French Académie du Jazz’s European Artist of the Year. Schaerer, as a musical creator intent on making original art – arguably even a completely original art form – is highly conscious of the processes by which the charisma and the presence of a vocal soloist function. As he says, ‘a voice always comes directly out of the music around it. In “Anthem For No Mans Land" he takes a further step in demonstrating that he is driven by other motivations than simply to shine as soloist. Deeply committed to the collective ethos of his regular quartet, he says: ‘I have consciously studied how I can use my voice to accompany music or an instrument. It's less difficult to find accompanying patterns than to ensure that the voice doesn't constantly push itself to the fore. If you don't want to take on this traditional role as a singer, you have to be very deliberate in the shaping of your music.’ What will always shine through, however, and particularly in live performance, is the passion Schaerer applies to his art. On stage, his whole body becomes an instrument, elastic and dance-like. He inhabits the music, glides into it, takes on roles that emerge from the sounds he makes. It's an unusual concept which he can take further when he teams up with drummer Lucas Niggli, guitarist Kalle Kalima and accordionist Luciano Biondini. The quartet brings together strong and disparate musical characters who now know each other well: ‘The band has been in existence since 2016‘ says Schaerer. ‘The original nucleus was the duo with Lucas Niggli which already existed at that time. We couldn't decide whether we wanted to go more in an electronic or an acoustic direction in the long run. The plan was to have two trios. We explored one direction with Kalle and the other with Luciano. The chemistry was right, so a quartet came out of it. And we all play together in other ways, as duos in different combinations.’ It is now more than six years since the release of the quartet's first album, ‘A Novel Of Anomaly’ in 2018, and the band has evolved considerably through more than 100 concerts. The gap between albums is explained by the fact that Schaerer is involved in several other projects: Hildegard lernt fliegen, Out Of Land, The Big Wig, Rom / Schaerer / Eberle or Evolution...All of this other work feeds back into the way the group works. The quartet’s music, as heard on “Anthem For No Man’s Land”, is now perceptibly on a larger scale, and it also has a greater sense of openness and freedom. Along with Andreas Schaerer’s conscious retreat from the ‘front line’ of the band and into the collective, there is also a new experimental freedom in his use of language. The opening sentence of the liner note makes this clear: “This is our musical offering for a utopian, inclusive society, using a new, free, imaginary language unlimited by origin or cultural boundaries.” Schaerer achieves something remarkable here: without renouncing the spoken word, he has also, simultaneously, managed to turn his back on it. The words he sings may sound familiar, but the language here is invented. Schaerer’s way is to evoke associations and to create moods with language. And the way he does it is so masterful and subtle, a casual listener might have the impression they are listening to English, Spanish, Greek or Italian, and that the words have a meaning. In fact, they don’t. And whereas all this might sound as if it is done just as a joke and to get a laugh, it isn’t. There is a serious purpose. As Schaerer says: ‘The interface between language, music and sound is particularly exciting. I have always been interested in playing with this nexus, where content dissolves and language is just sound, but still has enough linguistic DNA to continue to be understood as such. It's fluid, even funny, a childlike place. Children also speak many fantasy languages. And on this album, I thought a lot in this direction. Some pieces work well without any, but others demand a language. I then experimented with imaginary English or Italian, where I only used the ‘temperatures’ of the sounds. Because it quickly became clear to me that “Anthem For No Man’s Land” should use a more free languages that do not belong to any nation. They are all non-existent words.’ The music is completely aligned with this Utopian ideal. As the liner note states: “We are not just striving to affirm freedom, we want to live it in our music.” At times, ‘Anthem For No Man’s Land’ sounds like prog rock or the psychedelic sound of the seventies. At others there is the chance to enjoy echoes of Italian popular song or to lean in to a tango. There are influences of West African rhythms and Alpine melodies. Chamber jazz leads to a sophisticated form of Dada, the diversity of sounds and motifs matches the images conjured up by the imaginary languages. “Anthem For No Mans Land” never just sticks with the obvious. Schaerer and his quartet have declared the intention to express an ideal, a philosophy ‘through the emotions and the immediacy of our music.’ They have succeeded. Credits: Produced by Andreas Schaerer, Kalle Kalima; Martin Ruch #1 & 8 composed by Kalle Kalima, lyrics by Andreas Schaerer #2 composed by Luciano Biondini #3, 4 & 9 composed by Andreas Schaerer #5 & 6 composed by Kalle Kalima #7 composed by Lucas Niggli & Kalle Kalima #10 composed by Luciano Biondini & Andreas Schaerer, lyrics by A. Schaerer Recorded by Martin Ruch at Jazzanova Recording Studio in Berlin, May 28-30, 2024. Mixed & Mastered by Martin Ruch Assistant Engineer: Marian Hafenstein The Art in Music: Cover art by Martin Noël (1956-2010), 2010, used by kind permission of Margarete and Cora Noël

Not only for classical music lovers, jazz freaks or pop fans, but for everyone who loves good melodies.

Birgit Minichmayr - As An Unperfect Actor - Nine Shakespeare SonnetsCD / Vinyl / digital Birgit Minichmayr vocals Bernd Lhotzky piano & musical director Mulo Francel tenor sax, clarinet, double-bass clarinet & sansula Andreas Hinterseher accordion, bandoneon, vibrandoneon Philipp Schiepek guitar D.D. Lowka double bass &percussion Birgit Minichmayr captures the imagination and holds centrestage on “As An Unperfect Actor – Nine Sonnets by William Shakespeare”. This won’t come as a surprise to people in the German-speaking world, where the Austrian actor is well-known from countless appearances on TV and a substantial filmography. Perhaps equally unsurprising is the deep experience she can bring to Shakespeare: as an ensemble member of the Burgtheater company in Vienna, she has repeatedly lived out the searingly dramatic lives of the Bard’s characters, notably the daemonic anger of Lady Macbeth, the sadness of Ophelia, and even the uncomfortable truths of the Fool in King Lear. What might be more of a surprise, however, is the exhilarating musicality she shows on this, her first complete album as a vocalist. One could have predicted the crystal clarity, meaning and intent in her words – the desolation in her voice in “the very birds are mute...the leaves look pale” in Sonnet 97, for example. And yet there is more, much more, not least Minichmayr’s uncannily natural instinct to find artful and felicitous ways to shape musical phrases. Composer/ pianist Bernd Lhotzky has provided her with a wonderful array of musical contexts. As Minichmayr says: “He got so deep into the meaning of each sonnet, his music made it different every time. And we talked a lot about the colour, the meaning of each poem.” The opening track, “Mistress Mine”, Sonnet 130 is a masterfully deft piece of gender-fluid irony. In the poem, a man is describing possibly the ugliest woman he has ever seen – while also declaring that she is the one he loves. Lhotzky gives us an acerbic version in that most male-led of dances, the tango, complete with bandoneon, in which the words are sung by...a woman. Minichmayr then gives a masterclass in how to end a song as she hits, holds and nails the words “false compare” with triumphant fearlessness. Throughout the course of the album, we are magically transported to new musical and emotional places. As Minichmayr says: “Through singing, through just doing it, I was able to find deep love, or deep sadness. I was really touched by it.” We are straight into the elegiac world of “Sin Of Self-Love”, or into world-weariness, tinged with an unmistakable irritation, of “Tired With All These”. And then, unforgettably, we land in the major-key contentment of “Mine Eye Hath Played The Painter”. One of the secrets to this album’s success is Lhotzky’s wish to find melodies which have a certain ease and straightforwardness about them. He says that he approaches all music – whether he is listening to it or writing it – with one simple and direct question: “What story is this telling me?” Lhotzky is known for his work in the field of early jazz, but the range here is far broader, with allusions to examples of fine songwriting: Brassens, Robert Plant, James Taylor... The collaboration between Minichmayr and Lhotzky had a very propitious start and has gone from strength to strength. They were invited to work together on a Dorothy Parker project in the Austrian spa town of Bad Schallerbach in the summer of 2019. Minichmayr had been booked to do readings, but was also keen to sing...Cole Porter’s “Just One of Those Things,” with its reference to Dorothy Parker in the first line. That worked out so well, it led Lhotzky to suggest a Shakespeare project to her which he had already embarked upon – it has been briefly glimpsed already on ACT, on one track of “Winter at Schloss Elmau”. The instrumentalists are a Munich based group named Quadro Nuevo, with Philipp Schiepek’s contribution a standout. As Lhotzky says: “He’s a phenomenal guitarist, and really young. With his acoustic guitar he brings us back to the origins, to Dowland's songs with lute. And the fact that he also plays electric jazz guitar provides a connecting link across the centu-ries.” And then there is bassist D.D. Lowka’s large-scale Charlie Haden-ish bass sound. “D.D. and Philipp are a dream team,” says Lhotzky. And reedsman Mulo Francel brings a whole range of colours from luscious contrabass clarinet to fluent jazz soloing on saxophones. Accordionist Andreas Hinterseher? “He’s just a phenomenon,” says Lhotzky, “he hardly said a thing in the sessions, but every take was perfect.” Bernd Lhotzky's piano playing, for example as he sets the scene for "Let not to the marriage" has a deliciously understated and laid-back eloquence and elegance. Bernd Lhotzky’s kaleidoscopic musical vision and Birgit Minichmayr’s instinct for mood-setting have combined trium-phantly in “As An Unperfect Actor”. In this “perfect ceremony of love’s rite,” they never seem to run out of joyous surprises for the listener.

Jessica Pilnäs enchants with her warm, soulful voice on "Bitter And Sweet"—12 songs about love featuring top musicians from the Swedish jazz scene.

Rigmor Gustafsson and radio.string.quartet.vienna blend jazz, soul, and classical into a unique sound universe with magical phrasing and grooving strings.

Nils Landgren - Christmas with my Friends IXCD / Purple Vinyl / digital Nils Landgren trombone, vocalsSharon Dyall vocalsJeanette Köhn vocals Jessica Pilnäs vocals Ida Sand vocals, piano Jonas Knutsson saxophones Johan Norberg guitars Clas Lassbo bassTrombones from the Swedish Radio Symphony OrchestraHåkan Björkman, Mikael Oscarsson, James Kent, Martha Eikemo Andersen What would Christmas be without songs? And without friends and family? Trombonist, singer, and producer Nils Landgren had long dreamed of celebrating a musical Christmas with good friends. In 2006, this dream became reality: Christmas With My Friends was released and quickly became one of the most popular and successful Christmas albums in European jazz — and a beloved tradition. Since then, the series has appeared every two years, accompanied by regular tours. Now, with Christmas With My Friends IX, the series enters its ninth round.“Someone once asked me: is there not an end to Christmas songs?” recalls Nils Landgren. His answer is simple: “The answer is simple: no, there is not. As long as we celebrate Christmas, there will be songs celebrating the occasion in one way or the other.” For Landgren and his fellow musicians, both the recordings and the concerts are a special joy: “There is no way I can describe the feeling when another recording session is finished. We all put our heart and soul into each and every Christmas album we make, and over the years we have become a very tight bunch of people, and we know each other quite well by now — after 8 albums and 10 long tours over the past decades.” As in every edition, Landgren & Friends also gathered over coffee and cinnamon buns for the ninth installment of Christmas to discuss and try out a selection of classic European and American Christmas songs across styles and eras, as well as new compositions. The lineup once again features Jonas Knutsson (saxophone), Johan Norberg (guitar), Clas Lassbo (bass), and Ida Sand (piano, vocals), along with vocalists Sharon Dyall, Jessica Pilnäs, and Jeanette Köhn. Traditionally, the recordings took place at the renowned Atlantis Studios in Stockholm – under the direction of Nils Landgren and co-producer Johan Norberg. As a special treat this time, Landgren invited the trombone section of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra to perform on some particularly moving chorales. The variety of voices, the close familiarity among all the musicians, and the warm, acoustic character – both festive and intimate – shape the unmistakable charm of this music. Christmas With My Friends IX is a celebration of friendship, peace, and joy – a musical Christmas story that Nils Landgren and his friends share with their audience. Credits Recorded March 3–4, 2025, at Atlantis Studios, Stockholm Recorded by Niclas Lindström Trombones on #1 recorded by Hans Gardemar at KMH Kungasalen Stockholm Mixed by Johan Norberg Mastered by Klaus ScheuermannProduced by Nils Landgren & Johan Norberg

Rigmor Gustafsson's soulful jazz transformation of classic hits with Jacky Terrasson, Nils Landgren, and more. Fresh and captivating.

Dearest Sister - Collective HeartCD / Vinyl / digital Ylva Almcrantz piano, Rhodes, synthesizers Andrea Hatanmaa lead vocals, synthesizer, backing vocals Ellen Pettersson flugelhorn Joakim Lissmyr double bass Liam Amner drums and percussion Guests: Petter Hängsel trombone Erik Rönér french horn Thomas Lunderquist french horn There is a great succession of musical discoveries coming out of Sweden right now, and it never ceases to amaze. In this instance, the well-honed skills of jazz musicians are aligned with an strong sensitivity for songwriting. The three women and two men who make up "Dearest Sister" form a band in the fullest sense. Their debut album "Collective Heart" is a prime example of a current musical development: extremely able young musicians with open minds and ears are applying the rigour and the tools from their jazz training to find a sound world that is very distinct from jazz. And whereas their music unavoidably looks straight in the eye at the influences, themes and issues affecting their generation, these artists also deftly avoid another trap: they steer clear of the usual production methods of mainstream pop in favor of a much more destinct, grounded approach. What we find on this album is what many listeners are longing to hear: authenticity, originality and emotional depth. The core of Dearest Sister is a very special creative duo: singer/keyboardist Andrea Hatanmaa and pianist Ylva Almcrantz. The two met while studying jazz and popular music at the Malmö Academy of Music in Sweden, the city where the band is based. They have contrasting personalities and come from very different musical backgrounds. A creative tension arises from that, and it not only infuses Dearest Sister's music, it is also what makes it so appealing and interesting. Andrea Hatanmaa was brought up in Finland. Raised on rock and pop music, her vocal technique is rock-solid, and yet she doesn't sound anything like a typical jazz singer. She says: "What is important to me is to master my craft, and to learn and assimilate as much as possible from all directions, and then – whether I’m on stage or in the studio – to forget all that and find an individual voice and personal expression."It is not only Hatanmaa’s haunting voice with its kaleidoscope of facets and nuances that shapes the music, but also the lyrics and concise, refined songwriting. Hatanmaa and Ylva Almcrantz form a songwriting partnership. The singer says: "Ylva is the musical genius in the band. She comes up with the most beautiful arrangements and has an amazing sixth sense for moods, sounds, dynamics, small and big melodies," adding with a laugh: "I just have to be careful that it doesn't all get too jazzy." The band's name, Dearest Sister, brings into focus the special bond between the two women. It is borrowed from "Allrakäraste Syster" by Swedish children’s author Astrid Lindgren, a story about two sisters who experience magical adventures in a secret land. The debut album "Collective Heart" is a result of the close and ongoing collaboration between the two young band co-leaders, but the pair are also complemented by a highly sensitive band. The range of songs is striking in its breadth, and songs can often take very unexpected turns as they evolve: vast Nordic soundscapes alternate with "walls of sound". The engine room, giving propulsion to the band, is the groove from drummer Liam Amner: sometimes delicate, sometimes off-kilter and occasionally extraordinarily driven. Joakim Lissmyr plays bowed or plucked double bass, and flugelhornist Ellen Pettersson plays soft melodies which she extends and enhances electronically. And among this we hear an almost classical, enchanting brass interlude, or a synth line and a cluster enhanced by effects. One might start to wonder if there is too much going on. But the arrangements are so intelligently constructed, their components so carefully chosen and the execution so clear and organic that the music, despite its many elements, always seems approachable, complete and coherent. "Collective Heart" is a fascinating and emotionally affecting album. We find a joy in experimentation, and also musical curiosity and open-mindedness. These are strong musicians who are capable of offering the listener surprising contrasts and great authenticity. This is music in a constant state of evolution and discovery. “Dearest Sister" know what they are looking for, so if listeners find it on "Collective Heart", it is not going to be by accident: this is a band well aware of what it can bring, and that is something new, special, and very real. Credits: Recorded and mixed by Joakim Lindberg at Studio Sickan Malmö, June and October 2019 Mastered by Magnus Lindberg Productions 2020 The Art in Music: Cover art "Metamorphosis" by Emma Larsson: Metamorphosis

Anna Lauvergnac and Julia Hülsmann offer an intense reinterpretation of Randy Newman, recorded in 2003 in Berlin.

Rigmor Gustafsson - Come HomeCD / digital Rigmor Gustafsson vocals Jonas Östholm piano Martin Höper bass Chris Montgomery drums Sometimes it’s wrong to rush things, even when everything might appear to be completely in place: "Straight after I had released my last album 'When You Make Me Smile' in 2014,” says Swedish singer Rigmor Gustafsson, “I knew what I wanted to do next, not least because the inspiration to write new music was coming so rapidly. It's a mystical and magic feeling when you can hear music inside you that you know you have to write down". But Rigmor Gustafsson is not one to rush in headlong. She prefers to let her ideas mature, to bring them to perfection. So before making "Come Home", she took her time. From the outset it was clear to Gustafsson that she wanted to record this album with her regular trio of several years. Pianist Jonas Östholm, bassist Martin Höper and drummer Chris Montgomery have become "my cornerstones, I simply love to sing with them", she says. And because Gustafsson finds that the music for new songs tends to fall into place before the lyrics, she could not have been happier when Andreas Mattsson, who had already worked for many other Swedish stars, suggested they might collaborate. They worked on three songs together. Even the elegiac "I Think Of You", which revels in some unusual and enticing blues changes, was far from a simple proposition. The same can be said of the longing and touching title track – which is heard last on the album – it became a little masterpiece. For the other original compositions, Gustafsson placed her trust in a circle of old friends, lyricists with whom she has worked together for a long time: Lina Nyberg, Tomas Bäcklund, Anders Lundin and the team of Caroline Cederlöf and Sofia Petterson. Originally, she had toyed with the idea of featuring just her own songs on "Come Home", but she had the increasingly strong feeling that she wanted to add some of her favourite songs, all by female songwriters. "Kate Bush and Joni Mitchell have always been an enormous inspiration to me," she says. And so the album begins with a wonderful, highly individual interpretation of Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi". Gustafsson has an extraordinary ability to deploy her technically perfect, captivatingly precise and powerful singing voice in a way that is completely natural and always individual, and those attributes can be admired at their fullest in Kate Bush's extremely demanding hit song "Wuthering Heights". Perhaps the most unusual track is Gustafsson's version of Tanita Tikaram's "Twist In My Sobriety", with Lisa Långbacka's accordion taking the original song's oboe melody. The memories, the feelings in this album are going to be recognizable to every listener. Songs such as "Winter Doesn't End" or "Enjoy The Day" are sometimes cheerful, sometimes melancholy but invariably captivating and irresistible. The sense that these songs are so true to life is attributable to the way the album evolved. Alongside her busy concert schedule, Gustafsson was determined to ensure that "Come Home" should be given all the time that it needed to reach fruition. She was conscious that she could not be satisfied until she had created something new and completely right from the things that had lain dormant within her. “Until I felt that I had truly come home."Credits:Produced by Rigmor Gustafsson Co-produced by Martin Höper, Jonas Östholm and Chris Montgomery Recorded by Otto Wellton at Kingside Studio, Gnesta, Sweden, February 2018 Edited by Martin Höper Mixed by Pål Svenre at Unit 7, Stockholm, Sweden Mastered by Thomas Eberger at Stockholm Mastering, Sweden

Solveig Slettahjell - Cime In From The RainCD / Vinyl / digital Solveig Slettahjell vocals Andreas Ulvo piano Trygve Waldemar Fiske bass Pål Hausken drums At the beginning of the 2000s, Norwegian singer Solveig Slettahjell and her Slow Motion Quintet made the European jazz scene really sit up and take notice. Her concept, as Canadian critic John Kelman has written, was to take songs from the American songbook and to “slow them down. Way down. [...] She proved that slow, powerful and dramatic need not be mutually exclusive terms.” Her new album "Come In From The Rain" de-monstrates how much those virtues have strengthened and dee-pened in the intervening years. That astonishing ability to concentrate on the essentials of a song – and to express much more with nuances and details than would be possible with volume or bombast– are still Slettahjell trademarks. Together with pianist Andreas Ulvo, bassist Trygve Waldemar Fiske and drummer Pål Hausken, Slettahjell captivates the listener from the outset of the opening title track "Come In From The Rain". They literally pull us out of the rain into their musical cosmos, introduced by Ulvo’s wonderful piano touch, the minimalist drum rhythms from Hausken and the grounding yet playful bass of Fiske. And yet when she chooses to take other directions, they feel just as natural and magical too: Frederick Loewe’s "On The Street Where You Live" from "My Fair Lady" pushes forward with beguiling momentum. The Walter Donaldson classic "You're Driving Me Crazy" has a skippy lightness to it, and the playful incompre-hension she brings to the question “What did I do?” is irresistible. "Now Or Never" by Billie Holiday and Curtis Lewis from 1949 rolls along with a springy shuffle rhythm, and when she launches into a blindingly energetic scat chorus, the listener has the sense that her commitment-phobic lover is surely getting the ass-kicking he deserves. Slettahjell prepares her projects thoroughly and gives them the time they need to mature. “The idea of putting together a new band and of recording this album have been in the making for at least the last three years,” she says. And the technical processes of recording are a source of pride: “We recorded this album live to tape in the Propeller Music Division studio in Oslo. Working in this old fashioned way was such a thrill and gives weight to the interplay and instant music-making aspect of the recording and of our quartet.” There are timeless old tales like Buddy Johnson's "Since I Fell For You" or Irving Berlin's "How Deep Is The Ocean", stories to be rediscovered afresh like Leon René's "I Lost My Sugar In Salt Lake City", and more recent ones like "Johnsburg, Illinois" by Tom Waits. Waits is one of her favourites, and the inclusion of one of his songs has become a Slettahjell trope. And there are new ones like "So I Borrow Your Smile", her own composition. These songs may come from folk or jazz or pop, yet Slettahjell and her highly accomplished musicians always make them individual, tasteful and authentic. And the subtle way she bends notes, always bringing them to into perfectly true-pitched final focus is nothing short of miraculous. Every time. The vibe right through this album is well-judged, the storytelling is compelling. And how apt to bring the day – and the album – to a close with a deliciously poised, reflective and spacious Thelonious Monk "Round Midnight". When Solveig Slettahjell first became noticed she was an irresistible new force in Euro-pean song. She is now a unique and major presence. Credits: Recorded live to tape at Propeller Music Division, Oslo, January/February 2020 Engineered by Mike Hartung Assistant: Frida Blomberg Produced by Kåre Christoffer Vestrheim Mixed analog from tape using the Tree Audio Generation 2 console Mastered at Propeller Mastering by Morgan Nicolaysen

Nils Landgren & Joe Sample - Creole Love CallCD / Vinyl / digital Nils Landgren trombone and vocals Joe Sample grand piano, Fender Rhodes Ray Parker Jr. guitar and vocals Chris Severin acoustic bass Raymond Weber drums Lenny Castro percussion Special Guest Charmaine Neville vocals The man with the red trombone is always on the look out for new challenges. This is what has made Nils Landgren one of the most creative, many-sided and also most successful artists to be currently found in the European jazz scene. Since 1994 he has been under contract to the ACT Label from Munich, releasing over this period 12 albums in his own name. Seven have received the golden German Jazz Award, with two even going platinum! Meanwhile, his role as producer of Swedish singers Rigmor Gustafsson and Viktoria Tolstoy has brought him two further gold awards. With "Mr Redhorn" Nils Landgren, who "for a long time has been at the forefront of European jazz trombonists" (Spiegel), you don't only associate the frenetic celebrated concerts of his groovy Funk Unit, which has been ceaselessly on the road for the past year with the successful project FUNKY ABBA (ACT 9430-2). You also know him from his intimate duos with Esbjörn Svensson where they would rework Swedish folk songs, from his chamber concerts of religious music or from his collaborations with big bands.One first came across Nils Landgren as the sensitive interpreter of ballads on his 1999 album Ballads (ACT 9269-2) from which can be appreciated his gentle and touching voice and "hypnotic charm" (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). Following this he released his platinum disc Sentimental Journey (ACT 9409-2) and produced the exceptionally successful album I Will Wait For You (ACT 9418-2) by Rigmor Gustafsson. In 2005 the journey has now taken him to the southern states of USA, leading him to New Orleans. There are many reasons for this. Karl-Erik Landgren would habitually tell his young son: ”Listen to this music, it’s the real stuff”, whenever he took up his cornet to rehearse the swinging tunes from the New Orleans era with his band or played his shellac discs. The enthusiasm spread from father to son and the fascination for the sounds and rhythms of the cradle of jazz was passed on to the young Nils. It was a lifelong dream of his father to set foot in the hometown of jazz at least once in his life. Nils made the journey in his place in spring 2005, in order to realise a project devoted to the music of the American South. A project that could only be recorded in one town and with one man in particular: in New Orleans and with Joe Sample: Creole Love Call. Born in Houston, Texas, Joe Sample grew up exposed to the usual Southern mix of jazz, blues and gospel. He is known above all as a founder member, pianist, keyboardist and composer of the legendary funk jazz band The Crusaders, with which he wrote musical history over the decades. So many of his songs became worldwide hits, such as "Street Life" sung by Randy Crawford in 1979. Many of these can be rediscovered on Creole Love Call. Since the late Seventies, Joe Sample has also followed a parallel career as solo pianist and accompanied stars such as Marvin Gaye, Tina Turner, B.B. King, Eric Clapton and Joe Cocker on numerous albums and tours. Nils Landgren and Joe Sample have known each other for at least 20 years, from when Nils accidentally found himself in the middle of a recording session of The Crusaders in Los Angeles and then played together with Randy Crawford in Santa Barbara the following summer. Years later, after three of the original Crusaders got back together in 2003, Joe Sample invited Nils at the beginning of 2005 to join him on a major Japan tour - and thus Creole Love Call was sealed with a simple handshake. The band which Nils and Joe specially put together for this album mainly consists of musicians from New Orleans. With a famous exception: the pop and soul star Ray Parker Jr., especially known for the title song for the Ivan Reitman film "Ghostbusters" (1984). Here he plays guitar and duets with Nils Landgren on the Otis Redding hit "Dock Of The Bay". The rhythm section includes bassist Chris Severin, who is known amongst others from many Dianne Reeves albums, Raymond Weber (drums), and Lenny Castro (percussion). Weber was in the 90s a member of Harry Connick Jr.'s Big Band and is to be seen on screen in the film "Ray" as the drummer in the band of Ray Charles. The busy percussionist Lenny Castro has worked together with greats such as Al Jarreau, Stevie Wonder, Barbra Streisand, Ricky Lee Jones, Diana Ross and Quincy Jones, and is also known for work with Joe Sample and The Crusaders. Charmaine Neville, a member of the famous Neville Brothers clan, appears as "special guest", interpreting with Nils Landgren Allen Toussaint's classic "With You In Mind", which lyrics are written by her uncle Aaron Neville. Also appearing on Creole Love Call is one of New Orleans' most famous musicians, the sousaphone player Kirk Joseph, arguably the most important and most creative innovator of his instrument. Together with trombonist "Big Sam" Sammie Williams, leader of the New Orleans funk band "Big Sam's Funky Nation", he is a member of the legendary New Orleans' Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Credits: Produced by Nils Landgren

Natalia Mateo - De ProfundisCD / digital Natalia Mateo vocals Sebastian Gille saxophone Simon Grote piano Dany Ahmad guitars Christopher Bolte e-bass Felix Barth double bass Fabian Ristau drums Enigmatic and profound The title of Natalia Mateo’s album, “De Profundis” - meaning ‘out of the depths’ in Latin - sets the tone: the inspirational well-springs for her music are both personal and profound. Subtle, knowing songs leave the listener in no doubt of a determination to mark out musical paths that are Mateo's, and hers alone. Thoughtful, original compositions and highly personal adaptations of songs reflect her story set against a backdrop of East and West, a life punctuated by changes of surroundings, by departures which lead to fresh beginnings. The music of “De Profundis” has a three-fold inspiration: Poland, her country of birth, with its natural closeness to the Slavic traditions has left its mark, as have the international influences of her elective home city of Berlin; finally, Mateo is particularly drawn towards unconventional artists from music, literature and fine art, free spirits such as Joni Mitchell, Maya Angelou and Louise Bourgeois. What she values most about them is the way they have made their mark through a vehement yet unruffled mode of expression, their depth and sustained creativity. There is courage and consistency in the way Mateo follows her intuition as singer, composer and bandleader, and finds her own expressive strength. She combines facets of jazz, Polish folk music and the singer-songwriter tradition. With her affecting intensity all of these are combined in a mesmerizing kaleidoscope. In “De Profundis” Mateo and her band show the experience accrued through the past few years of extended touring. The singer herself captivates not just through intensity but also through restraint. At times the sparseness of sound and structure can be intense, while judiciously chosen instrumentation creates a very distinctive sound. Quiet, emotionally charged passages contrast with sudden bursts of fierce energy. Born in 1983, Mateo now has all the experience, craft and judgement one could ask for - as well as the self-awareness to know that she will occasionally divide opinion. Alongside Mateo herself, the guitarist Dany Ahmad, pianist Simon Grote, bassist Christopher Bolte and drummer Fabian Ristau form a regular band which has grown together over the course of several years. Songs and arrangements have often emerged from the interplay of the band working together. The multi-layered and expressive “Eksplozja Paranoja” has joint authorship by all the musicians. Another commonly created setting, of William Blake’s philosophical poem “Eternity” has a nimbler feel. It is remarkable how seamlessly tenor saxophonist Sebastian Gille fits into this band. His varied and empathetic contributions reinforce moods, and his focused but rough-edged timbre makes for a fuller and richer band sound. Guitarist Dany Ahmad also has range and flexibility to spare, from fast passage-work on the acoustic guitar to emphatic interjections on electric. Drummer/ percussionist Fabian Ristau holds back in some ballads, but can both lay down grooves and mark out sharply defined accents. Bass duties are shared between Christopher Bolte on electric and Felix Barth on upright. Compared with her highly praised debut on ACT “Heart of Darkness”, Mateo sings more often in her native Polish. Alongside a traditional Polish song, Mateo and her band have also taken more recent compositions, and interpret these in a highly individual manner. There is Krzysztof Komeda’s theme from the classic Roman Polański film “Rosemary's Baby”. Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” is rhythmically re-set, reharmonised, to emerge in a completely new guise. From originals and covers, through singing that can be gentle/lyrical and angular/punchy, moods from melancholy to anger, the range of “De Profundis” is wide. Track by track, more of what constitutes Natalia Mateo’s artistry and fascinating individuality is revealed. Credits: 01, 04, 06, 07 & 10 arranged by Natalia Mateo & Band 09 arranged by Natalia Mateo Produced by the artists Recorded by Łukasz Olejarczyk at RecPublica Studios, Lubrza (Poland), October 20 - 24, 2016 Mixed and mastered by Klaus Scheuermann The Art in Music: Cover art by Uwe Kowski, Tisch 1, 2015 / ACT Art Collection, Galerie EIGEN + ART Leipzig/Berlin

Ida Sand - Do You Hear Me?CD / Vinyl / digital Ida Sand vocals, piano & wurlizer Jesper Nordenström organ, keyboard & synths Per Lindvall drums & percussion Dan Berglund upright bass & Höfner bass Ola Gustafsson acoustic & electric guitars Anders Von Hofsten backup vocals Goran Kajfeš trumpet Per “Ruskträsk” Johansson saxophone Mats Öberg harmonica (guest on “Waiting”) In 2020, the authorities in Sweden tried to keep normal life going for as long as possible, but, even there, things were eventually brought to a halt by Corona. And like everywhere else, musicians were among the hardest-hit. "It felt somehow as if one of my limbs had been severed,” recalls Ida Sand. “I had a longing to sing, I was missing music so much." The Stockholm-based singer/pianist is a well-established artist with a strong and long-standing following in several countries across Europe, so her diary would normally have been full. The lack of work, it turned out, was having a similar effect on her long-term colleague, keyboardist/organist Jesper Nordenström. "One day he called me,” she recalls. “'Let's meet in my studio and let's just do something'. Okay, I said, I can try to bring some compositions. We asked some more friends if they wanted to play. It all came from the simple desire finally to be doing again what we all love: making music together. We played four or five pieces and agreed to meet again. I promised I’d bring some new material for the next time, and I did. It was amazingly motivating to be back doing my job..." The result is "Do You Hear Me?". The phrase is used a lot, but here it has a special significance: this is Ida Sand's most personal album to date, and not least because she has written all of the ten songs herself. "Before every project, you ask yourself: what should my next step be? In this case it was very clear: for the first time, I wanted to record my own songs, and only my own songs." But that's not the only reason why "Do You Hear Me?" has turned into such a strong singer/songwriter album. Sand has always seen herself as more of a soul singer than a jazz singer, and in terms of emotions, these tunes hold nothing back. They aim directly for the heart. "I didn't think much about the songs before I wrote them. It all just came together when we were in the studio. One track, ‘Too Close for Comfort’, I wrote when I got home after a session. It took me about half an hour, I was in such a state of creative flow, I literally couldn't stop!" Ida Sand has produced an exciting, varied and colourful garland of songs to make up the album: we start with a snappy, guitar-heavy folk number, "Wasted on the Youth", then the ravishingly groovy "Burning". This is followed by a funky anthem a la Randy Crawford,"Now Is Not the Time". The title track is a ballad which feels almost psychedelic, whereas “Too Close for Comfort" is a languid love song. "Don't Run Away" is a crisp soul shuffle with a brass section, and "Now Is Not the Time" is thoughtful, drawing the attention in on its subtle lyrics. "Go Be With Her" has the melancholy defiance of a song by Tom Waits or Randy Newman. Here, the singer pointedly expresses the wish that her departing lover should experience just as much happiness with his new squeeze as she had with him... The members of Sand's band dovetail with each other wonderfully: they are all old friends, and she has been with them either in the studio or on the stage countless times. Besides Nordenström – who contributes a superbly abstract organ intro to "Can You Hear Me Now" – they are Sand's husband Ola Gustafsson on acoustic and electric guitars, e.s.t. veteran Dan Berglund on bass and Per Lindvall on drums. Anders Van Hofsten contributes vocals, while trumpeter Goran Kajfeš and saxophonist Per "Ruskträsk" Johansson, both known for their roles as creative heads of Oddjob, are there to form a top-notch brass section as required. This band of soloists puts itself completely at the service of Sand's music. They never fail to ensure that the distinctive timbre of her voice, always so dramatic, can shine through. As different as the many moods, styles and the solo passages in this album may be, the songs have one thing in common. As Sand explains: "It could have been a subconscious thing, but because of the time and the circumstances, the songs are almost always about relationships – and not just about couples. I wrote one song for my mother, one for a friend, and one is about parting." So, "Do You Hear Me?" is an album which has something to say – musically, thematically and at a human level – about the times we are living through. So we need to thank Ida Sand – plus her friends...and the strength of that irrepressible longing to be back doing what she does so naturally and so well – for having captured all of these moods and reflections in ten remarkable and captivating new songs.

Solveig Slettahjell and band create an intimate, reflective atmosphere with unique jazz and soul music.

Michael Schiefel's album, a vocal-only masterpiece, recorded and mastered in 2006 at Traumton Studio, Berlin. A unique exploration of the voice.