Susana Santos Silva & Torbjörn Zetterberg - Tomorrow (June 2021 Carimbo)

Almost Tomorrow was an intense and beautiful experiment in the snowy mountains in the middle of Sweden. The silence, mystery and harshness of that breathtaking place took form in the songs that gave birth to Susana Santos Silva and Torbjörn Zetterberg’s first album, that came out on Clean Feed in 2013. Tomorrow finally arrived, eight years later, and it sounds suspended in time, as if it is still almost tomorrow. A perpetual cycle of movement and stillness… the music starts, then stops. it starts again and stops one more time, it comes and goes, like it is trying to catch its own thoughts, repeating this life rhythm in a cradling flow. The sounds hang in the air waiting for the music to happen, with no rush, no pressure, no hurry to get anywhere. It just stands there as a reminder that life is too precious not to be noticed, and lived wholeheartedly. It’s an intimate dance of sounds, hopes and desires that fills the church, where stillness melts into motion, like if the windless moment suddenly is transformed into a myriad of floating weightless breezes, that spin and whirl until everything magically stops again… and time and space disappear. A quiet ecstasy takes place and the air gets overflowed with joy.

Tall tree

With wind in branches

Rattled leaves

Whisperers into distance

Trunk bending slightly

Supple

Not cracking

Branches moan as they move.

Dark wood, earthbound, groping upper atmosphere

Whisps of air, tea-kettle harmonics

A gasp, a hiss

Steam pipe formants

Secret spot where arbor ends and atmosphere begins.

Is this a description? By me or the tree? A bilateral translation?

The wind sketching its tree? A tree conjugating the breeze?

A writer observing? Merciless act of co-transformation? Movement of matter into spirit?

Anyway, the tree is one thing, the trumpet another. Or…?

All energies

Nothing solid

Every particle in motion

Impermanent

A give and take

Of sequence and space

And thought and emptiness

Of sadness and pleasure

Of certainty and doubt

Patience and harmon-mute

Another give and take

Of now and then

And then again

And when will then

And then and then

Or Zen and Zen

Response’s call

Call’s response

And recall’s yen.

From far apart

Northeast/Southwest

The duet

A re-meeting After

Years of knowing

One

An-

Other

Not years but lifetimes

All sentient improvisors

Unite

Then

Untie

Breathe into these ears

Bow my branches

Sing into my navel

Sprout shouts

And fly the fuck out of here.

– John Corbett, Chicago, May 2021

1. Arriving 03:24

2. Stiltje 02:28

3. Tomorrow 05:06

4. Observing The One 03:47

5. Ema 05:05

6. La Loge 05:24

7. Dreamers 04:06

8. Contemplating The One 03:58

9. A Cry For Light 07:09

10. The Next Hours 05:58

Susana Santos Silva: trumpet

Torbjörn Zetterberg: double bass

Music by Susana Santos Silva & Torbjörn Zetterberg

Recorded April 2nd in Petruskyrkan, Stockholm by Torbjörn Zetterberg

Mixed and mastered by Torbjörn Zetterberg

Produced by Susana Santos Silva e Torbjörn Zetterberg

SSS photo by Aloísio Brito

Graphic Design and Packaging by Maria Monica

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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

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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

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Chris Pitsiokos | Susana Santos Silva | Torbjörn Zetterberg - Child of Illusion (CLEAN FEED RECORDS 2018)

When the music we call jazz continues to reveal a number of new values with the surprising qualities of Chris Pitsiokos, Susana Santos Silva and Torbjorn Zetterberg, you have the final confirmation: this musical genre is in very good health these present days. And when musicians like the ones reunited in “Child of Illusion” distinguish themselves on the scene, you can only hope to find them in the same band. Here it is, for our common pleasure entirely. Pitsiokos, a New Yorker who is filling a new page of the book telling the history of the alto saxophone in jazz, justifies his fame as a super skilled player who is expanding the technical and lexical possibilities of his instrument, either with his own projects or in association with the greatest, from Tyshawn Sorey and Peter Evans to Lydia Lunch and Otomo Yoshihide. Silva, a Portuguese now living in Stockholm, has a warm and acid trumpet sound which quickly positioned her in the Olympus of this music, in the company of mavericks of older generations like Fred Frith, Joe Morris, Mats Gustafsson, Joelle Léandre and Mat Maneri. Zetterberg, one of the top double bassists in Sweden, turned to be an international reference, due to his work as the leader of Hot Five or in the company of like-minded musicians who are making a difference, from Jonas Kullhamar and Alberto Pinton to Mats Aleklint and Jon Falt. If you don’t know them yet, this is a magnificent opportunity for an update.

Chris Pitsiokos  alto saxophone

Susana Santos Silva  trumpet

Torbjörn Zetterberg  double bass

All music by Torbjörn Zetterberg, Susana Santos Silva and Chris Pitsiokos

Recorded at The House Of The Lord December 22nd, 2017 by Torbjörn Zetterberg | Mixed by Torbjörn Zetterberg in Mörbylund | Mastered by Luís Delgado

Produced by Torbjörn Zetterberg, Susana Santos Silva and Chris Pitsiokos | Executive production by Pedro Costa for Trem Azul | Design by Travassos

Fredrik Nordström - Needs (CLEAN FEED RECORDS 2018)

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.

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 | Design by Travassos | Photos of Fredrik by Mats Äleklint | (of basses) by Fredrik Nordström