Toldam / Riedel / Berg / Wiklund / Christensen - Tak for dit brev (ILK Music 2021)

“I see experiences as letters that are sent to me. With this album, I’m replying.” – Simon Toldam

The songs on Tak for dit brev (Thank You For Your Letter), the new album from Danish pianist and composer Simon Toldam, are a series of musical letters inspired by personal transformative events and a tribute to the daily shared experience of being unavoidably affected by both the positive and disheartening things around us.

On Tak for dit brev, Toldam explores a melodically-motivated sonic landscape, marking a departure from his more recent chord-centric work. He wrote most of the songs on clarinet, which applied new parameters and added new character to the process. Writing on a single-voice instrument (limited to playing one note at a time) demands and offers a different compositional approach than a multi-voiced instrument like piano does.

This opened up new structural doors to Toldam, compelling him to create the melodic material first, thereafter creating the harmonic context and arrangement around it. His marvelous ability to absorb and create music from surprising and fascinating angles is on full display here as he presents songs which orbit around strong melodies and shine with unabashed influence from Scandinavian Folk and Jazz musical traditions.

For the recording session at Stockholm’s Atlantic Studio in June of 2019, Toldam invited legendary Swedish bassist and composer, Georg Riedel (born 1934). Among other things, Riedel is known for his celebrated collaborations with Swedish pianist Jan Johansson (appearing on the timeless masterpiece, JAZZ PÅ SVENSKA), as well as having scored several Astrid Lindgren films, including Pippi Longstocking, Emil of Maple Hills, and many more. The rest of the band includes some of the most original voices and instrumental story-tellers in Scandinavia – Nils Berg on bass clarinet, Tobias Wiklund on cornet, and Anders Christensen on bass.

Tak for dit brev is Toldam’s 15th album as leader and co-leader. He is a recipient of the prestigious 3-year Working Grant from the Danish Arts Council, and a winner of5 Danish Jazz Grammys (Danish Music Awards), most recently “Jazz Album of the Year” in 2019 for his trio recording, OMHU.

1. Mor 03:54

2. Nu sejler vi 04:23

3. Måneløb 05:33

4. Luft 00:59

5. Et postkort 06:40

6. Opdrift 04:41

7. Den Blå Stol 04:31

8. Alberts Tic Tac 04:38

9. Godmorgen træ 04:16

10. Gå Gå Gå 03:44

11. Dansk Kulturarv ? 05:41

12. To virkeligheder 03:17

Simon Toldam - piano / clarinet

Georg Riedel - bass

Nils Berg - bass clarinet

Tobias Wiklund - cornet

Anders Christensen - bass

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Peter Bruun's All Too Human - Vernacular Avant​-​garde (AYLER RECORDS March 10, 2018)

‘Less is more’ is a well-known saying. It’s an oxymoron because of its paradoxical nature. Paradoxes take us beyond ingrained patterns of perception, reasoning and action. That’s what is in the expression as coined by the old Greek. 

This newly formed unit’s music is simple without being simple. It sounds vaguely familiar and strange at the same time. It resembles a lot known and nothing known. It has a fairy tale quality and as we know, in fairy tales lots of wondrous things can happen.

Drummer Peter Bruun from Copenhagen has been aware through his musical career of the creative potential and power lurking in paradoxical manoeuvres. In this new unit he has gathered three like-minded musical fellows under the 'All Too Human' flag.

Through the years he undertook a lot of terra incognita expeditions with pianist Simon Toldam, guitarist Marc Ducret and trumpeter Kasper Tranberg. It connected and connects them on deeper levels in their musical interaction.

1. Follow Me 05:45

2. All Too Human

3. Vernacular Avant-garde 07:37

4. Sunshine Superman

5. Extended Mind

6. Is That So Sir Names? 07:20

Kasper Tranberg, trumpet, cornet 

Marc Ducret, guitars (6 & 12-stringed) 

Simon Toldam, moog, juno 60, philicorda 

Peter Bruun, drums, mikrokorg

Recorded in Copenhagen at The Village Studio, April 2017.

All compositions written and produced by Peter Bruun,

except #6 by Peter Bruun and Petter Eldh.

Cover artwork by Stéphane Berland.

Laura Toxvaerd with Simon Toldam & Marilyn Mazur - Pladeshop (2016) ILK MUSIC

Since the release of her debut album No. 1 in 2007 – forming an album trilogy with Do Drugs (2010) and Phone Book (2012) – Toxvaerd’s adventurous, gifted and conceptual compositional works have generated international critical respect.

Her compositions are released on 12 albums and have been performed in USA, Canada, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. She has been awarded the three- year working scholarship by the Danish Arts Council. The recording session of this album was the musicians’ first musical meeting.

PLADESHOP is the 5th album on ILK’s White Label Series released digital & on 40 numbered, handwritten vinyls, for sale at ILK Music’s website.

Compositions by Laura Toxvaerd, Simon Toldam & Marilyn Mazur. Except: Waltz for Snorre, Vandet, Pladeshop & Waltz for Oluf composed by Laura Toxvaerd & arranged by Simon Toldam & Marilyn Mazur.

Produced by by Kæv Gliemann, Laura Toxvaerd, Simon Toldam & Marilyn Mazur.

1. Welcome to the Barn

2. Waltz for Snorre

3. Mangrove Fantasy

4. Treasures and Trash

5. China Fantasy

6. Naughty Mirror

7. Vandet

8. The Grotto

9. Very Free Blues

10. A Friday Dream

11. Pladeshop

12. Waltz for Oluf