The only Italian date for the Norwegian composer and singer Ane Brun with the Swedish quartet Tonbruket at the Rome Auditorium on November 24th, 2013 was sold out. It was their twenty-second date of a long European tour that took them to all the major cities in Europe, with still two more home concerts to go: Stockholm and Oslo.
Loved by Peter Gabriel, who wanted her in the studio and live – as well as by Ani Di Franco – Ane Brun is an absolute star in Scandinavia. In ten years she has composed and published six studio and two live albums, and she has played dozens of concerts anywhere. For her 2013 tour she chose to be supported by one of the most important jazz groups on the Scandinavian scene (i.e. European): Tonbruket, a quartet created by Dan Berglund, double bassist of the Esbjörn Svensson Trio (e.s.t.).
After the tragic accidental death of the leader in 2008, the remaining two musicians (Dan Berglund and drummer Magnus Öström) began solo projects, each in the direction closest to their most profound musical inspiration. Berglund, the metal-rock part of the trio, has veered with his new band Tonbruket towards a more progressive and 70's rock. The meaning of the name in fact, "The note's workshop" has in itself a material sense, like a forging, hammered sound, that still remains "jazz" – however uncommon it may be. The same rule that applied to e.s.t., in fact.
The problem – actually the alluring aspect of this band that opened the evening with a magnificent half-an-hour concert – is that it makes you short of definitions, at least linear ones. What is certain is that the musicians are immense, vast in their playing, and so versatile in the production of sounds. In fact, only the number of instruments played by both members of the band's melodic section is impressive, with Johan Lindström – composer of many of the tracks – playing lap and pedal steel, with a slide effect, electric and acoustic guitars, And finally Martin Hederos whilst predominately playing double keyboards switches from piano to organ, in all its variations; occasionally, he also inserts a plucked and bowed violin, and even the accordion. The rhythm section was apparently simpler, with vibrant Andreas Werliin on drums, and the endless Dan Berglund on double bass, an instrument from which he is able to produce any kind of sound nuance, from a heavy metal electric guitar sound (obtained through his bow), to softer and deeper sounds; from bop to pop.
Category Archives: Artiklar och krönikor
Magnus Öström’s new album Searching for Jupiter, a beauty that lingers after Esbjörn Svensson Trio
I have newly started to cooperate with a magnificent Italian jazz website, Jazzitalia.net, for which I wiil write mainly about my favorite music: Scandinavian jazz. One of the special things about them is that I will be able to public my pieces in both Italian and English. The first could be nothing but my review on what I consider to be one of the best jazz album of all times. So here you go, in English.
In a not so distant past there was the Esbjörn Svensson Trio (e.s.t.), a band that shot to the top and blurred the lines between jazz and rock/pop, charting a new path where the raucous and dirty elegance of the first blends seamlessly in the raw power and playfulness of the other two. A creative vision that has collected a heterogeneous sampling of fans, from purists bop lovers to post-rock followers.