Sweden has recently been in the news after Donald Trump referred to as fact a Fox News report based on the statements of a certain Nils Bildt, a Swedish mythomaniac who passed off as news the usual anti-immigration and anti-Islam propaganda spread by the “Sverigedemokraterna” (Swedish Democrats) party, a nationalist-inspired political faction founded by some neo-Nazi groups.
The Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided to reply by publishing a significant and exhaustive press release in English, “Facts about migration and crime in Sweden,” which demolishes some of the most widespread false opinions/news currently circulating, based on facts and statistics extracted through official channels, primarily Police Force data.
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Category Archives: Artiklar och krönikor
A Man Who Loves Women: The Hell of Prostitution as Recounted by Swedish Policeman Simon Häggström
If I could make every adult inhabitant of the planet read one book in 2017, it would be Shadows Law [translated by Selina Öberg and published by Bullet Point Publishing, from the original Swedish Skuggans lag, published by Kalla Kulor Förlag] written by Stockholm policeman Simon Häggström. In just four hundred pages he makes us see a hidden world, one that it would be too easy and self-consoling to call obscene. In the narratives of his experiences of long squalid nights in a car trying to arrest clients of prostitutes, Häggström is able to tell the story of millions of women, of thousands of years of history, of billions of violations. A difficult book, obviously, but imperative, necessary, revelatory.
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The polar infinite: “Antarktis” by Gerry Johansson
I return once more to discussing photography because of a new one-person show at the Elf Galleri in Gothenburg. Under the spotlight the Swedish photographer with the most international recognition Gerry Johansson, with an exhibit called “Antarktis” (“Antarctica”).
It consists of images printed from a negative obtained in analog large format (8 x 10 inches) taken during a long, six-week session while on an expedition in the Antarctic. In prohibitive conditions among polar temperatures and violent winds, which Johansson braved with great obstinacy, he would wait for the right moment to go outside and shoot in all directions. The composition of the images is one of the most rewarding elements of this collection, with images that are always that millimeter different from how we would have photographed them. A millimeter that truly makes all the difference between a sharp, clean image and a work of art. Continue reading
Frozen Polaroid: Thron Ullberg extreme photography
What distinguishes an artist of photography from a simple photographer? In this age of so much banality and an overdose of photography it should be difficult to find the boundary, and yet it isn’t. Because a photograph has energy, spirit, originality, a disturbing quality, or it doesn’t – despite filters, cropping and other post-production contortions. And the photography of Swede Thron Ullberg – currently with a one-person show called Vilsen (Lost) at the Elf Galleri in Gothenburg – is almost more art than photography. Continue reading
Iiro Rantala at Rome’s Casa del Jazz: Hilarious virtuosity
Concert at Casa del Jazz, Rome, Italy, January 18th, 2015
It’s a fact: jazz in the Nordic countries doesn’t like to take itself too seriously or to put on airs. The best Finnish pianist, and one of the best pianists in Europe overall, can kid around with the audience as if it were all a great game and at the same time express such virtuosity that he renders them speechless. Rantala’s first important solo tour in Italy was a great success, likely to be repeated. The tour ended in Rome, where he was welcomed with enthusiasm, even though he is not at all as well known here as he is in central and northern Europe, where he fills the auditoriums.
New jazz’s most propulsive band Phronesis gives Life to Everything
Phronesis is one of the few European new jazz bands about which music critics of any generation are in almost total agreement, as has been noted in most of the major rankings of 2014. And their most recent work, Life to Everything, is a further leap forward in the already consolidated production of this group, whose leader is the magnificent Danish bassist Jasper Højby, also the composer of all the tracks in the band’s first two albums, and of most of the previous one. In Life to Everything, however, the boys shared the composition equally, each one responsible for three pieces. Most certainly, the band’s secret lies in the exceptional musical and personal balance of an ensemble in which each element stands out on its own so much that it is never subordinate to another, in an eternal playful game of tag. It is quite incredible: they always rise to each other’s heights. Not that in other bands the leaders crush the others, but Phronesis deploys not only a great pianist, the British Ivo Neame, but also the best double bassist and the best drummer (the Norwegian-Swede Anton Eger) of their generation. Phronesis overwhelms with its pulsating and propulsive style, maintaining a rock band energy that viscerally touches the listener, especially when live. This is why their album was recorded live instead of in the studio: it bears that seal of emotional contagion. No coincidence that the title of the album is the ending of a Plato quote, which is displayed on the CD cover: "Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, […] and life to everything".
New jazz at the nth power, innovation, groove and a mixture of rhythms, often Latin as well, from flamenco to Afro-Cuban, passing through Brazil.
The calm and mesmerizing tranquility of the Helge Lien Trio: Badgers and Other Beings
There is a special quality in Norwegian –and Icelandic− jazz that distinguishes it, even from its Nordic (Swedish, Danish and Finnish) "cousins": a deep, ancestral, almost mystical, even pantheistic, bond with Nature. As if each chord holds a vast, contemplative breath of a landscape, whether marine or mountainous – in Norway, the land and water are inseparable− or related to fauna or flora, or to the white blanket that paints the ground to a blank space for many months. That contemplation often becomes almost meditative introspection, which for some takes on a nuance connected to the divine (I think of Tord Gustavsen, for example) and for other remains close to the broad but also beautifully minute sense of Nature and its secrets. I think this may be why Italians −who have lost their own Eden through overbuilding, overcrowding and urban alienation− have a special love for Norwegian music: in it they find their Lost Paradise.
“Duo”, a huge small album by Karlsson and Markusson
There is something ancestral and mysterious in this album, despite its simple and straightforward appearance. A secret quality that makes it special, intelligible to many, even to those who do not follow jazz. A record that makes you slow down, listen, reflect. And even for those of us who have a visceral love for jazz, it remains a mystery how an album of just piano & bass can be so powerful. In truth, one of my favorite albums of all time is Barron and Haden’s Night and the City, so in my specific case there is a precedent; and indeed Duo, the first album of Daniel Karlsson (piano) and Thomas Markusson (double bass), has a similar feel to it: soft and intimate, often introspective, albeit less nocturnal. It too is likely to become a classic.
The more conventional but still exciting Nolan of “Interstellar”
It may be that none of the fans of the most cerebral contemporary director around thinks that Interstellar is his best film. Indeed, many of them have been disappointed. Perhaps because the tributes to Tarkovsky and Kubrick are too obvious, to the point of becoming quotes or counter-quotes; or perhaps because, apart from the complexity of the idea of wormholes, or the law of gravity, too many things are “explained” at the end. And sometimes it has the feel of “the happy American family”, especially at the beginning, when some of the dialogue is naive and condescending, sometimes a little cheesy, too Spielbergian (the director for whom the movie was originally written). This is not what Nolan fans are looking for. And the most loyal −or the fussiest−have noticed some inconsistencies in the script, yes, even a few mistakes at the scientific level, that has negated the pleasure of “mechanical perfection” enjoyed elsewhere with this director. For some, even the most important Nolanian concept −the love conquers all message− is considered a shortcut.
Magnus Öström finally back in Italy
Concert at Panic, Marostica, Italy, October 22nd, 2014
Not even a year has passed since I last saw Magnus Öström, live in Istanbul, but I was determined to go anyway: it had been the best jazz concert of my life, as I had tried to express here. I was wishing for a new similar performance, in the hope that the Venetian public would be able to offer an equally Mediterranean heat to the stage. Certainly, I did not expect an improved performance, I was going to be very content to have it at the same elating level. I was wrong. Incredibly. This concert was truly exceptional, as concurred backstage by all the musicians, so coming all the way from Rome was absolutely worth my while. The band was outstanding, beginning with Daniel Karlsson, who has definitely made a further technical leap in his pianism, filling up his playing with an indeterminable number of notes, struck with precision and passion. Andreas Hourdakis was splendid, and enthusiastic about his sparkling new Collings guitar, and the great energy of the immense Magnus Öström and the precise inspiration of bassist Thobias Gabrielson were both confirmed.