Gustaf Ljunggren with Skúli Sverrisson - Floreana (May 13, 2022 April Records)

Swedish multi-instrumentalist and composer Gustaf Ljunggren has teamed up with Icelandic Bass Guitar player and composer Skúli Sverrisson (Laurie Anderson, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Bill Frisell, Blonde Redhead ) to create an album that wishes to offer the listener private musical spaces to dwell in for a while.

Ljunggren’s musical language is clear, gentle, and melodic, and the pieces chosen for this album all share a sense of weaving past and future together into the present. Gustaf Ljunggren reflects about the music on Floreana: “I listened inwards, and it sounded like this. Melodies came to the surface, and I chose to say ‘yes’ to them, embrace them, carry them forward. My musical partner on this album, Skúli Sverrisson, has been with me throughout this process; embracing the music with both profound dedication and artistic boldness.”

The music on the album grants the listener access to something that’s forgotten or undiscovered. There’s a sensuousness throughout the work; musical spaces that reveal possibilities to listen inwards, aided by repetition in melodies and patterns. The music doesn’t seek climaxes as much as it seeks states of presence and attention.

The live concerts with Gustaf Ljunggren and Skúli Sverrisson will explore the spaces the music on Floreana invites to. Two of northern Europe’s most distinctive instrumentalists will interpret Ljunggren’s compositions with a strong attention to the environment where the music is performed. The audience can expect the performers to display a deep commitment to the presence of the music as it unfolds. Each concert will be an exclusive, one-of-a-kind experience - a celebration of the spaces within, that Floreana seeks out to discover.

Gustaf Ljunggren:

The Swedish multi-instrumentalist Gustaf Ljunggren (born 1974 in Stockholm, Sweden), is originally educated as a saxophonist at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen, where he has lived since 1996. Apart from the saxophone and other wind instruments, Ljunggren also masters various keyboards, the piano and various strings. The main instruments on the new album is the guitar in forms like pedal steel, lap steel, mando- and electric guitars. During his years in Denmark Gustaf Ljunggren has recorded and played with a range of Danish artists, like C.V. Jørgensen, Benny Andersen, Steffen Brandt and the Scandinavian artists Sofia Karlsson (S), Robyn (S) and Eivør (Faroe Islands). In 2015 he received the Ken Gudman prize, one of Denmark’s big and essential music prizes. The last album released in his own name was ‘Måne’, as part of the duo Gustaf Ljunggren / Emil de Waal.

Skúli Sverrisson:

The world known Islandic bass player and composer Skúli Sverrisson handle the albums basses. Skúli Sverrisson (born 1966) moved from his native Iceland to New York in the early 90's. Since then Sverrisson has recorded and worked with numerous international artists. Just to mention a few, Laurie Anderson, Blonde Redhead, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Lou Reed, Bill Frisell and many more. He has also composed music for the Icelandic Dance Company and the National Theatre of Island. Sverrisson has won 5 Icelandic Music Awards, and in 2006 his album ‘Seria’ got the Album of the Year prize. Last album in his own name was ‘An tillits’ as part of the duo Magnus Johann and Skúli Sverrisson.

1. Palace Prelude 00:55

2. Leading Somewhere 04:23

3. Kongens Mark 03:43

4. Bottomless Siestas 04:51

5. Olive 03:47

6. Isen bruten 03:30

7. Codimar 06:49

8. Streams 04:14

9. Vestegnsromantik 04:31

10. Maren 01:22

11. Vi overlever 04:57

Gustaf Ljunggren – Baritone Ukulele, Lap Steel Guitar, Pedel Steel Guitar, Acoustic, Electric. Mando and Resonator Guitars, Drum, Piano & Keyboards

Skúli Sverrisson – Bass Guitar

Cæcilie Balling – Violin on “Vestegnsromantik”

Produced by Gustaf Ljunggren

Recorded by Sturla Mio Thorisson at Masterkey Studios, Seltjarnarnes, Iceland, Gustaf Ljunggren at Gustavo Recording, Copenhagen and Mark Freegard at Kyoti Studio, Glasgow

Mixed by Daniel Ögren

Mastered by Mark Freegard

Photo of Gustaf by Morten Fog, Photo of Skúli by Matthew Eismann

Cover photo by Gustaf Ljunggren

Cover design by Enrico Andreis

All compositions by Gustaf Ljunggren

Arrangements by Gustaf Ljunggren and Skúli Sverrisson

Published by April Publishing ApS

PRE-ORDER

Janne Mark - Pilgrim (ACT MUSIC 2018)

Janne Mark: reinventing the hymn in Denmark in the spirit of jazz 

Janne Mark writes hymns. And yet there is nothing about her that is stuck in a fusty tradition. She writes in the here and now, she is socially aware and committed, and in her work she draws on the freedom of jazz and all of the breadth of the Scandinavian folk tradition. And that is how her songs have established their place outside the canon of sacred music and in the secular space. As she explains herself, “the music of ‘Pilgrim’ is written for people who are unfamiliar with the church as well as for those who know it well.” 

The music of the Christian church and jazz have always been closely related. Spirituals and then gospel music were both a fertile nurturing ground for jazz and an important source of inspiration. Janne Mark has enlisted the participation of Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen. Henriksen is an important figure in Nordic jazz, and is also known for his work with Lars Danielsson on projects such as the “Liberetto” albums. Henriksen’s unique flute-like trumpet sound with all its emotion and expressiveness fits in superbly. In fact Mark had wanted to incorporate it into her music for a long time. “Arve’s sound reaches into the deepest layers of human existence,” she says. “When I first heard it, it affected me so completely and totally, I knew I had to follow the path of that sound.” 

Danish hymns are unique. The works of Denmark’s greatest hymn writer N.F.S Grundtvig (1783-1872) have a resonance which reaches well beyond the confines of Denmark. Within the heritage of Scandinavian song, they are a constituent part which is very much alive. Like Grundtvig, Janne Mark grew up in Jutland, but she has spent most of her adult working life in Copenhagen. The Danish hymn tradition is agrarian. Most hymns were written in the countryside where the majority of Danes used to live, but Mark incorporates the urban space into her hymn-writing more than any other modern practitioner, and has found a unique way to reinvent the Danish hymn-writing tradition. Indeed she has been described as being like a musical cornflower at the hub of the city.

Since 2000, Mark has been singing in the Brorsons Church, in the centre of Copenhagen. It is in a neighbourhood teeming with different cultures, and where the media has been known to report clashes between local gangs. And yet the church serves as a sanctuary amid this commotion, and also happens to stand right next to the cemetery where two of Denmark’s most prolific writers are buried, the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard and the writer of fairy tales Hans Christian Andersen. This is a place from which Janne Mark derives strong creative inspiration. 

In traditional hymns, the lyricist and the composer are different people, and the role of the music is to express the words with straightforward intensity. As lyricist, composer and singer, Janne Mark has a different approach: “For me,” she explains, “the melody almost always emerges before the lyrics, often accompanied by the first line, an idea for a title or some other bit of text that provides either a melodic and rhythmic impetus.” She finds inspiration in many different places – her local community in Copenhagen, literature and music. Her music emanates from a person who listens to herself, to others and to God; all of that can be heard in it. Perhaps the best way to understand Janne Mark’s hymns is as one long prayer for more light in the darkness. She writes about creating light for those who have lost their way, and also about letting a light shine on the shadowy regions of the soul. And it is as if Janne Mark uses both her words and her lingering notes to send light from the serenity of the church and out into life with all its cracks and imperfections. 

“The church is the house of slowness,” she says. “I am interested in slowness, silence, the sounds of slowness and silence. The sound of the world in the form of a hymn. The sound of the world in the form of a church.” And her songs do indeed convey the stillness of meditation. 

“Pilgrim" is an engaging and thoughtful album with plenty in it to discover. It is a haven of peace and quiet in a world beset with restlessness and uncertainty. It is also the portrait of a fascinating artist who is little known as yet outside Denmark. Janne Mark has embarked upon a path between hymns, songwriting, folk and jazz, and has done so with great success. 

01 Igen berørt (Touched once again) 4:19

02 Verden er en salme (The world is a hymn)* 4:47

03 Pilgrim 5:39

04 Intro 0:48

05 Gå stille og tyst (Walk quietly, hushed through the world) 4:28

06 Elsket favnet, husket savnet (Wanted, cherished, remembered) 3:57

07 Syng for alverdens urolige hjerter (Sing for the hurt in the hearts of all people) 5:36

08 Vinter (Winter) 5:28

09 Julen i hjertet (Bethlehem) 4:59

10 I verden uden for verden (Both in the world and yet outside it) 3:48

Janne Mark / vocals

Arve Henriksen / trumpet

Henrik Gunde Pedersen / piano & celeste

Esben Eyermann / bass

Jesper Uno Kofoed / drums

Gustaf Ljunggren / lap steel

Music and lyrics by Janne Mark except:

04 Intro composed by Arve Henriksen

05 Gå stille og tyst, lyrics by Halfdan Rasmussen translated by Christina Thyssen

01 - 03 arranged by Esben Eyermann

05 & 10 arranged by Henrik Gunde Pedersen

*In memory of Hildegard von Bingen 

Recorded by Lars Nilsson at Nilento Studios, Kållered (SE), May 4 & 5, 2017

and by Boe Larsen at MillFactory Studios, Copenhagen, May - June 2017

Mixed and mastered by Lars Nilsson

Produced by Esben Eyermann and Janne Mark

Vocals produced by Boe Larsen