Fredrik Nordström Quintet - Live in Coimbra (2021 Clean Feed Records)

"Inspired in the American jazz of the Sixties, but with a North European perspective of inquestionable modernity, Fredrik Nordström imposed himself already as one of the most powerful and intriguing saxophonists in the tenor variant coming from the Old Continent. His prestige as a performer is extensive to the compositional work he’s developing, such is the richness of ideas in terms of harmony and rhythm presented by his quintet.

With trombonist Mats Äleklint replacing Magnus Broo and his trumpet and Torbjörn Zetterberg ocupying the position of the double bass instead of Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, but keeping Mattias Ståhl (vibraphone) and Fredrik Rundqvist (drums) at their posts, this live CD recorded in Coimbra, Portugal, presents a renewed band with the same objectives defined since the beginning: elasticity of style and afirmative drive. Adding a new voice to the lineage of tenors with robust sound, it’s nevertheless in the Ornette Coleman heritage that we can place Nordström. And that even if “Live in Coimbra” has more connections with the Blue Note catalogue and the Bobby Hutcherson groups in the golden period of this master vibraphonist than with the harmolodic concepts.

The album includes two pieces never recorded before, “Yakiniku” and “Mister Barista”, and a version of a song by none other than the pop singer Björk, “Cocoon”, and it’s a blast, showing this project in the ideal of contexts when the music in question is jazz: a concert. Bravo."

1. Yakiniku 08:01

2. Russian T 05:53

3. No Longer 09:36

4. In Motian 06:01

5. Cocoon 07:28

6. Pizza Girl 12:00

7. Mister Barista 10:01

Fredrik Nordström - tenor saxophone

Mats Äleklint - trombone

Mattias Ståhl - vibraphone

Torbjörn Zetterberg - double bass

Fredrik Rundqvist - drums

All compositions by Fredrik Nordström except "Cocoon" by Björk Guðmundsdóttir/Thomas Knak

Recorded live on November the 5th 2005 at Teatro Académico Gil Vicente in Coimbra, Portugal by Luis Delgado

Mixed and mastered at Bluenord Studio in Stockholm, Sweden by Fredrik Nordström

Produced by Fredrik Nordström

Pre-order

Fredrik Nordström - Needs (2021 Clean Feed Records)

"In his new album, saxophonist and composer Fredrik Nordström deals with a format that reminds of a double quartet of the same type as Ornette Coleman recorded in the early 1960’s. For someone always interested in exploring different possibilities of group interaction, the decision isn’t really a surprise in itself: what surprises us are the results. Instead of acting as a double quartet, Nordström and his fellow Swedish musicians sometimes acts as an octet or as a trio, a quintet, or, you name it! The (double) rhythm section shows off some groovy and hard swinging parts as one unit, but the freedom to contribute individually in this collective of great improvisers is fundamental.

Nordström’s writing and conduction of the improvisational developments are, as always, subtle and meticulous, like hidden geometrical forms in an (apparently) abstract canvas. And if the double quartet matrix is generally connoted with the free jazz subgenre, in “Needs” something else is in equation, coming from the bop and hard bop traditions (Nordström’s tenor style owes something to Dexter Gordon) adding adventurous compositions with dazzling improvisations and giving expression to what the leader of this one day session calls «progressive jazz with unquestionable influence of contemporary classical and rock music». A must."

1. Needs 07:37

2. Fake Face 04:34

3. House of Tales 07:09

4. Hometown Prophet 05:51

5. Hope 07:29

6. Brand New Dollars 06:13

7. Morning Bliss 09:02

LEFT channel:

Fredrik Nordström - tenor & baritone saxophones

Mats Äleklint - trombone

Filip Augustson - double bass

Christopher Cantillo - drums

RIGHT channel:

Fredrik Ljungkvist - clarinet & tenor saxophone

Niklas Barnö - trumpet

Torbjörn Zetterberg - double bass

Fredrik Rundqvist - drums

All compositions by Fredrik Nordström

Recorded March 23, 2018 at BAS, Bandhagen Sweden by Mats Äleklint

Mixing and mastering at Bluenord Studio, Högdalen Sweden by Fredrik Nordström

Produced by Fredrik Nordström

Executive production by Pedro Costa for Trem Azul

Pre-order

The Heat Death - The Glenn Miller Sessions (3 CD) CLEAN FEED RECORDS 2018

We didn’t see (or, more exactly, heard) this coming. How could we expect a band like The Heat Death to turn their attention to the music of Glenn Miller? But here it is, once again confirming the notion that everything is possible when coming from the Scandinavian scene. Truth is that this quintet always had an orchestral approach, in the organization of the collective inputs and due to the doubling of instruments, Kjetil Møster playing clarinet besides his tenor saxophone and Martin Küchen turning to the flute when not playing the alto sax, summing up with the presence of a pasting trombone (Mats Aleklint) to unite every part, but what they use to do was miles way from the swing big band Miller’s sound: a free improvised music metamorphing to free jazz, sometimes with African rhythms, reminding us of Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath, and sometimes with the repetitive, “motorik” balance of krautrock, not so strange when we think that Can’s drummer, Jaki Liebezeit, was an original member of Alexander von Schllipenbach’s Globe Unity Orchestra. But here it is, introducing a new form to understand the problem with thermodynamic energy known by science as “the heat death”. If there was a compositional factor in the way this group used to improvise, finding structures when there wasn’t one, now they deal with it in a more committed way. Of course, the resulting music has few resemblances to what the Glenn Miller Orchestra continue to do until this day, but the spirit is there, exploring aspects which were implicit, but never fulfilled, with all the respect to the historic figure who conceived it. Prepare yourself to be surprised.

CD 1

Myriads of Space 1 29:05

2 Myriads of Space 2 23:45

3 See Don't Tell 15:13

CD 2

1 Myriads of Space 3 20:54

2 Hear Don't Say 11:15

3 Unservable Jazz Soup 30:51

CD 3

1 Towards the Uncool 31:30

2 A Clandestine Jazz Operation 18:47

3 Myriads of Space 4 15:09

Kjetil Møster  tenor saxophone and clarinet

Martin Küchen  alto saxophone and flute

Mats Aleklint  trombone

Ola Høyer  double bass

Dag Erik Knedal Andersen  drums

All compositions and arrangements by The Heat Death

Recorded by Mats Äleklint | Mixed and mastered by Christian Obermayer

Produced by The Heat Death | Executive production by Pedro Costa for Trem Azul | Design by Travassos