NILS LANDGREN | ESBJÖRN SVENSSON — Layers of Light (2001) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

All music has its roots in folklore. In some playing styles this is easy to recognize. In others hundreds of years of cultural development and change have effectively sublimated those roots. Stripped of ornamentation and structural artifice, however, the foundation remains the same. The melodies and structures that affect and influence people in their day to day lives remain the basis of musical knowledge and experience. They are the blueprints of the collective consciousness and a challenge to the creative spirit. Individuality along with innovation in its surprising, unconventional workings emerge as a contrast to those folk origins. So is the secret art by which the balance between memory and fantasy, between folklore, tradition, and improvisation is weighed.

Nils Landgren was born in 1956 and grew up with the music of his father, a jazz cornetist, and the church music of his grandfather, a pastor. He never lost his strong affinity for his own musical heritage.

Esbjörn Svensson, born in 1964, didn't want to play folk music at first. At home with the music of Chopin, Ellington, or disco-pop groups such as The Sweet, the pianist had first found his place in the competitive music scene in Sweden. His trio was a success, and in his homeland he was voted jazz musician of the year in 1995 and 1996. The first sprinkling of jobs became a steady flow. Svensson proved himself in the bands of his friend Nils Landgren. The music was about funk and soul, occasionally pop, and in the main, classic jazz. But not folklore.

It was through the influence of Landgren and Svensson's former teacher Bengt-Arne Wallin, who recorded the landmark album "Old Folklore In Swedish Modern" back in 1962 (ACT 9254-2), that Svensson and Landgren were inspired to make a duo album centered around folk songs. In August 1997 both went into the studio and with only trombone and piano recorded Swedish Folk Modern (ACT 9257-2). Their improvised treatments of the classic songs of the folk culture not only impressed the public; it brought praise from the press. Svensson and Landgren had created more than just a few impressions in duo. Discarding any sort of large conceptual superstructure, they had continued what Jan Johansson's Jazz på Svenska and Bengt-Arne Wallin had begun in the early sixties and what has since become a major force within the inner workings of European jazz.

The time after Swedish Folk Modern was hectic and exciting. Nils Landgren's Funk Unit advanced to the position of a celebrated festival act. Svensson's own trio, EST expanded beyond Scandinavia's borders, where the band's fortunes skyrocketed. Inundated with jobs, the musicians finally found the time to once again get together in December 1999 in Oslo's Rainbow Studio. It would be a meeting full of exceptional jazz energy. Even more than the first time, they would rely on the force of reduction. Moods would be suggested, left open. Melodies worked out in simple clarity. Delicate variations supplemented and amplified both the original and traditional motifs of the central musical im- pressions. Layers of Light is an affair of the hearts of two artists who went back to their roots. That makes their music truthful, direct, and authentic in a wondrous way. ACT
Tracklist :
1    Song From The Valley    3:33
2    Calling The Goats    3:37
3    Kauk    4:07
4    Kristallen    4:25
5    Mattmar    2:59
6    Lakk    4:32
7    Höpsi    2:53
8    Calling The Cows    4:16
9    Lullaby    3:21
10    Simple Song    3:03
11    Layers Of Light    5:04
12    Lonely At The Lakeside    3:38
13    Norwegian Fox Trot    4:21
14    Nils Walksong    3:57
15    The Farewell    3:34
Credits :
Nils Landgren - Trombone
Esbjörn Svensson - Piano

ESBJÖRN SVENSSON — HOME.S. (2022) FLAC (tracks), lossless

Since the tragic death of E.S.T. leader, pianist, and composer Esbjörn Svensson in 2008, we've seen the release of the band's final studio albums in Leucocyte and 301, the E.S.T. Symphony assembled by trio members Dan Berglund and Magnus Öström with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, and more recently, a pair of archival live albums from London and Gothenburg. Amazingly, none of that prepares us for HOME.S., an intimate collection of nine solo piano songs Svensson composed spontaneously and recorded in his home studio just weeks before his death. Eva Svensson, his wife and business partner, heard him composing and recording. As was her custom, she backed up his files on a hard drive; it became part of her personal archive. The files sat unheard for more than ten years. After rediscovering them, she enlisted Åke Linton -- E.S.T.'s sound engineer -- and titled them after letters in the Greek alphabet to celebrate her husband's interest in history and mythology.

These nine pieces aren't outtakes or novelties but completely unheard songs that offer us the only complete album of Svensson's solo playing and composing. "Alpha" opens the album with whispered chords. The melody emerges crystalline, circular, and assonant, with just enough drama to captivate and play repeatedly. "Gamma" is a haunted ballad that spreads its architecture across pop, gospel, and folk. Its use of themes associated with Bill Evans and Bobo Stenson are not only clever in articulation, they also bridge three generations of jazz pianists.

It is fair to assume that some of these tunes were composed for Svensson's ears only. That said, others seem intended for more extensive treatments by the trio. In particular, the angular, harpsichord-like "Delta," with deft lower-middle register flights and pulsing chord voicings would have been expanded by the rhythm section. Their sense of drama in presentation was almost always tempered by their imaginative timbral palette. "Theta" commences classically; Svensson's approach initially suggests a Bach sonata, but he deconstructs the harmony and stretches time signatures to the breaking point using clever ostinatos and a massive chordal playground. It never abandons the classical motif but does inject it with jazz syncopation. In the gorgeous "Epsilon," Svensson is motivated by classical harmony, but his use of pedals, sense of phrasing, and double-handed chord voicings are cinematic save for his (very) gentle humming amid the tune's flow and directional shifts. Closer "Iota" is so tender and deliberate that it sounds like an improvisation on a nursery rhyme. That said, there are canny juxtapositions of progressions and sharp arpeggios that blur together in the pianist's scalar vocabularies.

Ultimately, HOME.S. offers an overflow of Svensson's unclassifiable style. His ever-eclectic approach to composition and improvisation is always original. Though some of these selections are sketches that sought further development, Eva, Linton, and ACT have provided fans with a great gift: hearing Svensson's wildly idiosyncratic, very private composing process at the moment of creation.
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-

There are only a few figures in music whose work influences and shapes a genre as a whole. This is undoubtedly true of the Swede Esbjörn Svensson. With his trio e.s.t., the pianist and composer wowed audiences beyond age and genre affiliations. And his influence on jazz as a whole reverberates to this day and already within the second and third generation of musicians worldwide.

HOME.S. is Esbjörn Svensson's only solo album and the sheer existence of such a recording and its completely unexpected discovery over a decade after its creation are nothing less than a sensation: Since the early 1990s, Svensson focused almost his entire creative energy and recording activities on his work with e.s.t.. Thus, these new recordings are not only the first, but practically the only ones that show Svensson in a setting other than that of the trio: Intimate, concentrated and completely one with himself. The recordings for HOME.S. were made only a few weeks before Esbjörn Svensson's sudden death on June 14, 2008. Svensson recorded the music in his Swedish home.


For almost ten years afterwards, the album rested untouched in his wife Eva's personal archive. In this interview, she tells the story behind the discovery of the album and the music:

How exactly did you find this music?
After Esbjörn’s passing, I made sure all the contents of his computer were saved to backup hard drives. And then I basically left them untouched for the next ten years.
At the point where I eventually felt ready to look into the material, I soon realised that there was something I wanted to look into. I took the hard drive and went to Gothenburg to meet with Åke Linton, the sound engineer who had worked on all e.s.t. albums as well as on their live shows. He was also the one who had helped me to save the material from Esbjörn’s computer in the first place. So he probably already knew that there was something hidden in there. But nobody had listened to it.
We went to his studio. And we pressed the start button. Then there was a total silence and we couldn't speak for the entire time the music was playing. After it finished, at first we were not able to say anything, because we were both so touched and surprised that it was all there, and that it was so beautiful. The tracks seemed to follow one another like pearls on a string. After we just had sat there for a while we agreed: This is really good. Musically, but also from a sound perspective.
At first Åke wasn't sure if Esbjörn had recorded everything at home and just by himself. So he called different studios in Stockholm that he knew Esbjörn was in contact with and asked them whether he had been there, recording anything. But no, he hadn't been anywhere. I know he had bought some very nice microphones and in the course of touring had learned from Åke how to use them. So it became clear that this music had to have been played and recorded in the basement of our house.

So there was nobody with him? He was all alone doing that?
He was all alone. In retrospect I have been thinking about it because the few people who know that this exists were asking me if I knew about it. What I did know was that Esbjörn was constantly working, as he always did. He was in the basement, and I could hear him play. But to me, this didn’t raise any questions. Is he doing something? Yes, of course he's doing something. That's what he always did. Rehearsing, practicing, composing. But for me it wasn’t clear that something new was happening. I did know that he was longing to have time to compose and play in different kinds of constellations, but I had no idea that it might be piano solo.
Just weeks after making these solo recordings, Esbjörn died. Everything suddenly took on another perspective. There was no way for me to focus on music. All I could do at that time was to make sure all the material he was working on was kept safe.

When did you hear the music for the first time?
I think it was in 2017 or 18, maybe.

This was really the first time?
Yes, the first time. After almost ten years.

And you kept everything safe and untouched until then?
Technically, yes… Well, I don’t know about safety, because it was in the cupboard. *laughs* But safe enough to be released now anyway. Life changed so dramatically after Esbjörn’s passing. For me and for us, it was not just Esbjörn, the musician, it was my husband and the children's father who was gone. That was what we had to deal with and find a way to live without.

What made you choose that the time was right to share this with the public?
It was really not about choosing the right time. At the time when I heard the music, I simply understood that it was important for me that it happened. To be able to hear it and to have it physically in my hands. And when I realized this, I also wanted to share it with more people. By making an album and having it released, but also, just as importantly, by creating some spaces for myself and for others, to meet and to listen together and to hear the voice of Esbjörn.

Do you know where the repertoire of the record comes from? Has any of this been previously written or do you think it’s fully improvised?
I think individual tracks and compositions were prepared. At least I am sure there were some kind of sketches. I don't think Esbjörn was just sitting down improvising from start to end. It was not how I remember that he worked. There is actually a lot of sheet music around and I am sure some of it is connected with this recording, but I wasn’t able to go through all of it. Yet.

You decided to have the tracks to be named after the letters of the Greek alphabet, and one reason to do so is Esbjörn’s passion for astronomy. Something that also inspired one of e.s.t.’s most popular pieces “From Gagarin’s Point of View”. There is this feeling of being far away from everything, in zero-g with a totally different perspective. And at the same time at great risk.
Yes, I could imagine that Gagarin’s adventure and his urge to go to new places must have been so much more thrilling to him than his fear of death. To take that leap out into the universe and taking as opposed to just staying home. I don't think that was an option. In a musical way, Esbjörn was just like that. This is probably why the stars and space were such a big deal for him and what fascinated him about astronomy. At the same time I remember that he said that he in some way regretted that he learned more about it because then some amount of the mystery was gone.

He was always keen to look into things that he didn't know that much about. And then in a way try to find out how they work and how they’re connected to other things. In life and in music. He heard something, but he didn't know how to connect it. And then he, and also Dan and Magnus of e.s.t. would explore things together, without any outside guidance. From their childhood days they would just meet at Esbjörn’s house, play around, explore and to find things out.
Esbjörn knew the Greek alphabet by heart and also all of the Greek Zodiac signs. So along with this being a metaphor for the desire to explore and discover new spaces, by naming the pieces on the album just by Greek letters, we are not explaining something that we don't want to explain, and we leave space for the listeners to find their own associations with the music.

Any closing thoughts?
When the solo piano recordings were found at our home it felt like “getting a message smuggled over the border. This music is like having Esbjörn’s voice in the room. It couldn't be anybody else that played. Never. It is his voice. And he still has something to say. And I'm having the chance to let people hear that. My feeling is that we’re doing this together. …Thank you Esbjörn. This is beautiful. ACT
Tracklist :
1    Alpha    4:01
2    Beta    3:35
3    Gamma    6:08
4    Delta    2:49
5    Epsilon    4:36
6    Zeta    3:19
7    Eta    7:06
8    Theta    2:29
9    Iota    2:20
Credits :
Composed By [Uncredited], Grand Piano – Esbjörn Svensson

ESBJÖRN SVENSSON TRIO — e.s.t. Live in Gothenburg (2019) 2CD | FLAC (tracks), lossless

 Between 1993 and 2008, Sweden's Esbjorn Svensson Trio (E.S.T.) shifted the argument for the jazz piano trio's continued relevance while expanding the landscape for contemporary jazz's slipstream, wholesale. Like the previous volumes in the series, including Live 1995, Live in Hamburg, and Live in London, this marks the testament of a band of gifted improvisers and communicators who turned previously held notions about the formation on their head. Each of these men -- pianist Svensson, bassist Dan Berglund, and drummer Magnus Öström -- was a frontline player in the late pianist's compositions.

Captured during the Somewhere Else Before tour in 2001, this gig at the Gothenburg Concert Hall was regarded by Svensson as a personal favorite because of its fleet and fluid connectivity with his bandmates. Given how much this band toured -- never with a setlist or a plan -- this is no small assertion. Opener "Dating" reveals why. Its structure floats at the midpoint between the jazz pianism of Vince Guaraldi circa his Charlie Brown themes, and the euphoric musicality and precision of the Pat Metheny Group circa Speaking Of Now. While "The Rube Thing" (one of the trio's live standards) commences as an intricate solo inquiry of Bach by Svensson, it opens into a sprightly, playful, slightly knotty groover with a fat, fleet, bass solo, chunky snare breaks, and tight vamps; it eventually evolves into an intense bebop jam. While "From Gargarin's Point of View" is built around Berglund's mournful, low-register arco playing (deeply informed by Shostakovich's 15th string quartet), it becomes a balanced and pointillistic ballad when his bandmates join in. "Good Morning Susie Soho" weds a wah-wahed upright rockist bassline to a bluesy, soulful piano and a funky snare strut. "The Second Page" opens with an evocative pastoral beauty before turning itself into one of E.S.T.'s most hummable and poignant ballads. The set's closer is a 12-and-a-half-minute version of "Dodge the Dodo" that contains all the drama and pathos of Kid A-era Radiohead and Marillion-esque prog rock, with the instinctive modal sophistication of Bobo Stenson and the improvisational canniness of Keith Tippett! Over two discs and a hundred-plus minutes, E.S.T. Live in Gothenburg is the best of the four posthumous concert releases from the band's archive. It's a reminder of just how much this group opened up jazz for the 21st century to influence groups such as the AMP Trio, Marc Cary's Focus Trio, and the Neil Cowley Trio. This is a must for all E.S.T. fans. While it's a bittersweet reminder of just what we lost when Svensson passed away, it is a guidepost for those younger and postmodern jazz fans who may not yet have encountered the trio's sophisticated, accessible, and life-affirming music.
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-

More about the album:
“...and finally evening comes. We usually meet in the dressing room. Magnus’ drumsticks are pattering against his legs. Åke is talking—saying something about different sound systems or complaining about the US and Bush. Dan and I are jumping up and down to get our energy going. Then we go on stage, meet the audience, the music. Timeless, without a program, without a set list. We want to be open to what fits just then. Sometimes nothing comes to mind and it’s frustrating, but things always work out and it is definitely worth it [...] because when it does we can just go with the flow. Then it’s the music that carries us and we just make ourselves available. It’s fantastic, near religious I suppose. All of a sudden we can hear ourselves playing things we’ve never played before. And suddenly colour returns to life. When that happens I think the audience feels it too. They and we get to be in on something that will never happen again, that’s impossible to recreate. Sometimes you fall into that trap anyway, wanting to recreate, to repeat what was good. It’s almost always doomed to fail. The present cannot be recreated. We have to be content to be in it while it’s happening. And every evening there’s a present that’s waiting for us. We know that it’s going to be different from what made it good yesterday, but what is fantastic is if we can forget the past and just be. Now.”

- Esbjörn Svensson (from Swedish radio programme "Sommar")

On 10 October 2001 the Esbjörn Svensson Trio e.s.t. played a concert at Gothenburg Concert Hall in Sweden. Thereafter, Svensson would always refer to it as one of the very best that the trio ever played. The recording of that performance is now appearing for the first time as the album "e.s.t live in Gothenburg", and it was indeed, as Svensson described it, one of those very fortunate moments. Everything just flows naturally, the energies of the musicians and the listeners inspire each other, boundaries between composition and improvisation become blurred, melodies follow through seamlessly from the tunes and into the solos. At this point in its development, e.s.t. as a band has coalesced and found a genuine sense of unity. The tunes serve as mere starting points for the musicians to head off without any fixed ideas as to where they will end up. What is clear is that each of them is fully enjoying every step of the journey.

On "e.s.t. live in Gothenburg", Esbjörn Svensson, Dan Berglund and Magnus Öström explore and expand the repertoire from their albums from that time, "From Gagarin´s Point of View" and "Good Morning Susie Soho".

This was a period in which the foundations were laid for what would mark a glorious, and ultimately a tragic episode in the history of European jazz. E.s.t. was well on the way to becoming probably the most important European jazz band of the noughties. As the band got to play in larger halls and at bigger festivals, e.s.t.’s music became more ecstatic, rockier and more hook-based. "e.s.t. live in Gothenburg", documented by sound engineer Åke Linton who was the hidden fourth member of the band, has compellingly caught the point of transition of the acoustic jazz trio e.s.t. into the one-off phenomenon that they were to become, setting jazz off in new directions and bringing it to new and younger audiences for most of the following decade. Whereas the two previous live albums "e.s.t. live in Hamburg" and "e.s.t. live in London" have a tendency to to show the band’s bigger, concert hall sound, "e.s.t. live in Gothenburg" documents the trio at an earlier stage – with more emphasis on fine craftsmanship, a sound-world that is acoustic and in places almost weightless, influenced both by jazz and classical music. There are also some early pointers to the future in rock and electronica, especially in the second half of the concert.

On "e.s.t. live in Gothenburg" one can hear what Svensson means by the ‘being in the moment while it happens’. The live versions of the pieces depart significantly from their studio counterparts. In extended collective improvisations and unaccompanied solo passages, music which is completely new and unimagined emerges, seemingly without any effort or interruption. The range of dynamics is wide, there is a genuine band sound and a sense of groove that remain unmatched to this day. A music in which jazz becomes audible more than just an attitude, a specific aesthetic or vocabulary. And jazz itself is just one of the many elements that make up a big picture which includes European classical music, rock, drum'n'bass, minimal music, indie rock and much else besides.

The shot in the arm that e.s.t. gave to jazz, and especially to European jazz, and to the format of the piano trio continues to this day. Widespread enthusiasm for the band's music is undimmed. It may sound like a truism, but Esbjörn Svensson really has become immortal through his music... and through his recordings, which have such a freshness and an excitement about them, it is as if they have just been made... and through the influence that he continues to exert on jazz and especially on the jazz piano trio, both directly and indirectly. "e.s.t. live in Gothenburg" shows why this is true – and does so compellingly: with originality, power, refinement, fantasy, and playfulness. ACT
Tracklist 1 :
1    Dating    9:48
2    Somewhere Else Before    8:02
3    The Rube Thing    11:49
4    From Gagarin's Point Of View    7:06
5    The Wraith    10:04
Tracklist 2 :
1    Providence    8:50
2    Good Morning Susie Soho    12:54
3    The Chapel    6:40
4    Bowling    13:10
5    The Second Page    6:10
6    Dodge The Dodo    12:17
Credits :
Esbjörn Svensson - Piano
Dan Berglund - Bass
Magnus Öström - Drums

ESBJÖRN SVENSSON TRIO — e.st. Live in London (2018) 2CD | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

The release of this album marks a poignant moment: the tenth anniversary of the tragic and premature death of Esbjorn Svensson on 14 June 2008.

During the last ten years after the end of e.s.t. there have been constant reminders of the indelible mark which the band has left on the international jazz scene. Indeed it is hard to imagine a whole generation of currently highly successful young bands all over the world, often attracting an audience of same age, without the deep and lasting influence of the sound and the aesthetic of e.s.t. It might sound like a cliché but it is evident that through his music, Esbjörn Svensson will stay with us forever.

The trio really was a phenomenon. Its scale, recognition and impact grew progressively and internationally during the seventeen years of its existence. British audiences, for example, took e.s.t to their hearts, and in a special way. Things began quietly when they first performed one night in the tiny Pizza Express Jazz Club in Dean Street in the late 1990’s, and their footprint in the UK just kept growing steadily from there, until they were packing out concert halls. It is part of a similar story in many European countries. They were not just met with massive success in Germany and France, they truly went Europe-wide. And they also reached out further: they were the first European band ever to appear on the cover of Downbeat in May 2006, the magazine’s seventy-third year. In 2006, one year after „Live in London“ was recorded, they played over 100 concerts in 24 countries and were heard by 200,000 people.

That unforgettable experience of e.s.t. playing live has been caught before on CD, notably in "Live in Hamburg", which was named the “Jazz album of the decade 2000–2010” by The Times, whose critic wrote: “In a decade when Scandinavia staked a claim as the home of progressive jazz, no one had more success than this piano trio.” Jamie Cullum described the appeal of their live concerts: „e.s.t. are a jazz trio, only I can take my non-jazz friends along to see them.”

This new release was recorded at a completely sold-out Barbican Centre in 2005, during a hugely successful and highly popular UK tour. It is e.s.t. at the peak of their creativity touring after the release of their to-date best selling album “Viaticum”. The organic and natural way in which the set evolves is remarkable, and there is plentiful evidence of what Canadian critic John Kelman has called their “unique simpatico.” For people who know and remember the band well, the absolute gem here is a serene, deliciously poised account of “Believe, Beleft, Below.”

The Independent’s critic Stuart Nicholson was clearly moved by the concert. Here we reproduce his thoughtful and vivid review:
The Esbjorn Svensson Trio, or EST as they like to be known these days, do to the jazz piano trio what James Joyce did to coming-of-age tales by cutting up the form and starting afresh. This acclaimed Swedish group have been a hit on the European scene for a while now. In 2000, the German news weekly Der Spiegel hailed Svensson as "the future of the jazz piano", and since then his trio have consolidated their position as one of the top bands on the circuit. They are currently more popular than most big American jazz names.

Attracting the kind of following EST enjoy prompts accusations - often well founded - of dumbing down. But Svensson is one of those rare musicians who dispenses the common touch without compromising his art. He avoids the usual jazz musician's stock-in-trade of cramming as many notes as he can into the square inch, instead favouring innovative silences and a darkly intense lyricism that allows his emotional honesty to show through.

Although he once dabbled among the magical spells of the pianist Keith Jarrett's Belonging period, the new spirit Svensson has come up with is shorn of Jarrett's angst and the feeling that a good thing has been taken to wearying extremes. Featured were several tunes from EST's current album, Viaticum (which went gold in France and platinum in Germany), including "Tide of Trepidation", "Eighty-eight Days In My Veins" and the title track.

The suave use of lighting underlined the shifting moods of EST's music while their careful use of dynamics, unusual in jazz, which usually opts for fast-equals-loud, slow-equals-soft, made Svensson's lyrical intensity stand out in sharp relief. Yet the non-conformist Dan Berglund likes Jimi Hendrix and Richie Blackmore (of Deep Purple) and is not afraid to use a wah-wah pedal or feedback with his acoustic bass ("Mingle In the Mincing Machine"), while the drummer Magnus Östrom dances around formal regularity with a variety of techniques, such as using his fingers on his snare to emulate pop's rhythm samples.

EST renew the notion that the cutting edge of jazz need not involve volatile experimentation. At the head of a sense-sharpening breeze of change currently blowing through European jazz, Svensson [..] gave further evidence that the best European jazz is no longer a pale imitation of what is happening in the United States. Indeed, here was evidence that Europe is now moving ahead in creativity and originality. ACT
Tracklist 1 :
1    Tide Of Trepidation    9:50
2    Eighty-Eight Days In My Veins    9:17
3    Viaticum    6:55
4    Mingle In The Mincing-Machine    14:22
5    In The Tail Of Her Eye    7:13
6    The Unstable Table & The Infamous Fable    12:55
Tracklist 2 :
1    When God Created The Coffeebreak    8:53
2    Behind The Yashmak    17:32
3    Believe, Beleft, Below    7:24
4    Spunky Sprawl    10:30
Credits :
Esbjörn Svensson – Piano
Dan Berglund – Bass
Magnus Öström - Drums

ESBJÖRN SVENSSON TRIO e.s.t. — Strange Place for Snow (2002) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

It is widely accepted today that European jazz has developed its own unique vocabulary alongside its Afro-American counterpart, and e.s.t is an exceptional example.

The Esbjörn Svensson Trio, or e.s.t. as it is known internationally, has taken this musical development several steps further. At the same time it is linked with the same Swedish tradition that has made Sweden famous for jazz. The result is a structurally unified album in which the personal sound of the group has become more intense and projects an even greater depth from which it is able to reach new musical heights. Welcome to e.s.t. country!

Swedish jazz has a long tradition. Lars Gullin and Jan Johansson were already international stars in the 1950s. Today a new generation of Swedish jazz musicians (i.e. Bobo Stenson, Nils Landgren) is knocking on fame's door. It is not surprising - the collective unconscious should never be under-estimated - that the trio's scintillating jazz-mix comprises a trade mark "Swedish Sound", even when the music encompasses diverse elements which include their own rich folk tradition, the European classic tradition and rock n roll.

In 1993 Esbjörn Svensson, Magnus Öström, and Dan Berglund set out the direction for e.s.t. In December of that year their first album, "When Everyone Has Gone", was released, winning praise from the critics. The trio's continuing development occurred mainly through its intensive "club-hopping"; an important consequence was the 1995 release of "e.s.t. Live ´95" (ACT 9295-2). Soon the trio made a name for itself in its native country and this led to a recording contract with the more pop-oriented record label Superstudio Gul/Diesel Music. In the same year the now classic "Esbjörn Svensson Trio Plays Monk" was released and overnight they were not only blessed with positive press; 10,000 Swedish record buyers were rejoicing.

In 1996 Esbjörn Svensson travelled to Germany with his friend Nils Landgren to play with the Funk Unit at the Jazz Baltica festival; Esbjörn also left his unmistakable imprint on the Funk Unit. German Jazz Award-winning hit album "Paint it Blue" (ACT 9243-2) marked the beginning of his relationship with ACT label owner and producer Siggi Loch who invited Esbjörn also to make a first duo recording with Nils Landgren “Swedish Folk – Modern”.

In late fall 1997 the spine-chillingly beautiful "Winter In Venice" by e.s.t. was released in Sweden. It is an album in which, aside from Gunnar Svensson's ambiguous "Herkules Johnssons Melodie" Esbjörn's own compositions are strung together like so many precious pearls. Without exception, every piece was conveyed with a seemingly unearthly elegance and naturalness. The album was rewarded with a Swedish Grammy, and Esbjörn Svensson himself was selected as the year's best composer.

The 1999 issue of "From Gagarin's Point Of View” was a milestone in e.s.t’s career. The group sounded more unified, more concentrated than ever before. In "The Chapel", "Cornette", and "Definition Of A Dog" they literally touch the heavens. Through its connection to the ACT label, "Magic Trio's" long overdue breakthrough onto the international scene came with an appearance at the ACT World Jazz Night at the Montreux Jazz Festival in July 1999. A new star was born.

Fall 2000 was time for album number four with the puzzling title "Good Morning Susie Soho". After Germany, England now also discovered e.s.t., and voted the group "Best Trio 2000", and the album "CD of the Year". To describe and explain the quality and strong impression of "Good Morning Susie Soho", it should be noted that in the magazine Mojo, the CD was named among the "your 400 essential albums".

We are now writing in March 2002. It is once again time for another perfectly conceived e.s.t. album. And as usual, we invite you to a "joyous dance" to the trio's very special mixture of modern jazz, melancholy folk, serious music, along with the irrepressible influence of rock.

Already on the first piece, "The Message", the album's tone is made clear. It originates out of the so-called "free play" that was recorded in May 2001.The soft, gospel-like quality of "the Message", in which Jan Johansson's ubiquitous spirit can be felt, is not really typical for e.s.t. Which on the other hand makes it very typical for e.s.t. Before "Serenade For The Renegade" was named, it was simply called "Radiohead-Melody". One can understand why, even when Chopin and Roxy Music appear on the reference list. "All three of us love Radiohead" Esbjörn declared, his whole face shining with pleasure.

The title piece "Strange Place For Snow" in fact shouldn't be on this album. Esbjörn related that "Before it got its final form, it sounded too much like pop". In retrospect one can't say enough about how lucky it was that the trio finally decided to record "Strange Place For Snow" - it's clearly a future classic. "Behind The Yashmak" is pure celebration-music. After a somewhat searching introduction, "Behind The Yashmak" finds its musical expression in a direction that previously could only be found in some of Pat Metheny's most joyous sound adventures. The ending, with the "hockey celebration" blended in, is, to put it mildly, ecstatic.

The meditative "Bound For The Beauty Of The South" is a virtual hymn of praise for Schloss Elmau castle. This "unusual" castle, which lies near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, had become something of a refuge for e.s.t. They found themselves continually returning, either to recuperate or to give a concert. ACT
Tracklist :
1    The Message    5:10
2    Serenade For The Renegade    4:26
3    Strange Place For Snow    6:46
4    Behind The Yashmak    10:22
5    Bound For The Beauty Of The South    5:06
6    Years Of Yearning    5:40
7    When God Created The Coffeebreak    6:33
8    Spunky Sprawl    6:23
9.1    Carcrash    5:05
9.2    (silence)    3:00
9.3    Untitled Hidden Track    9:46
Credits :
Esbjörn Svensson – Piano
Dan Berglund – Bass
Magnus Öström - Drums