torsdag 26 juni 2014

Still Alive!

There are too many things happening at the same time. Dear fellow reformers! Reform exists, but has become severed by coincidences. A new group is formed. It is called Silurien. At the same time Peter and me are working on a side project. Vocals have been added to some Reform material and there are some songs in Swedish also.

Silurien consists of:
Jesper Bergman: bass, vox
Peter Åkerberg: git, vox
Mats Pettersson: git, vox
Thomas Berglund: lap steel, vox
Micael Öberg: drums

Watch Bonding with the Stars for a Ride:


 Silurien Psychedelic Trip:

Driving Cassady Live:

Driving Cassady will play in Italy this summer. The new album, In Blue, is being released last week of August.

Also take a look into Ralph Lundsten's fantastic, but now lost, universe. This is the last time Ralph sat down to work at his wonderful Andromeda Studio. Now what remains is an empty room. Sad!


torsdag 22 augusti 2013

On the road again


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Sometimes things just happen. People are on and off. Since I wrote last I have been enjoying the company of other musicians than the "reformed" ones. I have tried to gather my thoughts about how to put new life or sparkle into Reform. I have come to the conclusion that a group with any kind of future plans whatsoever must consist of musicians that want the same thing.

I admire a drummer named Johan Svedmyr, so I asked him if he was interested in playing with me. e was! Peter and Thomas are interested too, and Emil Berglund (keyboards) was also interested. Today we will meet and have a rehearsal. Only to see what can happen. I am really looking forward to it and I think it will be great!

A few days ago a digital release came out. It is called "On the Verge of an Interstellar Implosion" and is possible to listen to on Spotify. It is a collection of jams from 2001 - 2012.

The musicians are:
Jesper Bergman: Bass and assorted keyboards
Peter Åkerberg: Acoustic and electric guitars and assorted keyboards
Thomas Berglund: Electric guitars
Reine Fiske: Electric guitars
Jonas Englund: Electric guitars
Johan "Glasson" Halling: Electric guitars
Anders Bergman: Drums and percussion
Micael Öberg: Drums
Åke Eriksson: Drums
Pedro Martinez: Drums
Bill Öhrström: Percussion
Per Tjernberg: Percussion
Alexander Wiig: Sitar and percussion
Magnus Ramel: Keyboards
Mattias Lennestig: Keyboards

Hope you like it!

Talk to you all soon!
Jesper


  

lördag 26 januari 2013

A Great Session!


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A spectacular happening took place on the 30th December. I assembled five great musicians for a jam session in the spirit of Reform. The first one I thought of was of course Peter Åkerberg. He has everlasting musical imagination and creativity, not to mention his flawless craftsmanship. Me on bass and
Per "Cussion" Tjernberg on percussion
Micael Öberg on drums
Christer Falk on keyboards and saxophone
and
Nils-Erik Thomasson on guitar

From left: Nils-Erik Thomasson, Christer Falk, Per Tjernberg, Micael Öberg, Jesper Bergman, Peter Åkerberg

The session went great. I had never played with Nils-Erik and Christer. They were just great! Right up my alley! It is always interesting making new musical acquaintances. Every musical individual equals a new universe to discover.

I have jammed with Micael a couple of times before and already knew that he would fit perfectly within this musical realm. It is always a pleasure playing and associating with him. He is very creative and is a drummer that really participates in creating the music by connecting everyone with each other. In my world he is a medium. He interprets my musical thoughts in real time. Micael is actually a painter also, that knows exactly what colors to choose. He has the ability to be bombastic at one point and very subtle at another.

Nils-Erik is much into a more Pink-Floyd-like sound with an obvious blues influence in his improvisations. What is very special with his playing is his very accurate timing, which gives him a very interesting way of rhythmisation. He is also very dynamic and ambient. Sometimes you see that he is playing but you don't hear anything, but suddenly he stops and then you definitely notice the silence that follows.

Christer is obviously an experienced musician with a great spectrum of different styles of music, reaching from the more abstract such as La Monte Young to general cover band repertoire. Interesting is the word! On keyboard he is dynamic and has a sense for filling empty spaces as well a sense for selecting sounds that fit the atmosphere. What I mean mostly by being dynamic is that Christer knows how to play in a band. He is always present, you can hear him and he is never inappropriately loud or silent. 

Per is hard to describe. What does he actually play? For me, Per plays music. He contributes with music! He is not your typical percussionist that can play all the "correct" patterns. He is more like an even more spaced out Airto Moreira blended with abstract electro acoustic music. Per's latest album is called Music is My Salvation and that is what Per radiates. He is not present in the real world when he plays. He has traveled to the beautiful land of music, where music is the salvation and the only existing religion, therefor a world in peace.

Peter I have played with since 2008 and he has always puzzled me. What is he going to do? What is going to happen? What happens is always great and sometimes it is astonishing! His ability to create is enormous though you can always hear that it is him playing. That is a rare gift. Peter always wants to move the limit a bit further forward and even though he himself is not always satisfied after a jam session, a gig or an ordinary rehearsal he almost always changes his mind when he hears the result. He sometimes reminds me of a cranky old man who knows what he wants but doesn't know how to get it although he already has got it. Peter definitely has got IT! He is a musical explorer and creator! He is ON most of the time. The only times he is OFF is when he is testing his guitar sound or when he drowns in his iPhone!

We recorded the whole session in one take. It resulted in three numbers:

Resolution, which is a varied improvisation. From small to tall, from silent to loud. Listen to it from Soundcloud.

River of time Jam, which is based on a composition from the upcoming release, that I am producing, by Ralph Lundsten. Great energy! Listen to it from Soundcloud.

Per Cussion Jam, is based on an idea by Per. It has the same feeling as Maiysha from Mails Davis' album Get up With it. A strange bossa! Will be presented later.

Hope you enjoy!

Cheers!
Jesper

lördag 22 december 2012

Latest report


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Hi there everyone!

X-mas is upon us. Reform has not been a very active band these past months. We have been working on new material and it now seems as if the next recording will consist of compositions made by all the members. That's great!

I have been working a lot with Driving Cassady, Ralph Lundsten, Glasson and some of my own projects.

I present you here with the latest song of mine, Hör Rätt. It is in Swedish.


Reform wishes you a Merry x-mas and a Happy New Year!
Jesper

lördag 1 september 2012

Gigs, videos and more!


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A salute to every reformed soul out there!

After two great gigs I must say that I am satisfied with the way things are working out. The direction is set, the air is cleansed and it is only to start walking. The first gig, since I last wrote to you, on August 4 at the Backstage Festival went very well. When we played at Boo Folkets Hus on February 20, with Janne Kullhammar substituting for Anders and Bill Öhrström helping out on percussion, Peter and I really discovered how much we liked playing with Thomas Berglund who then were substituting for our two keyboardists who could not participate on that occasion. This time, on August 4, Thomas had accepted a place as a steady member of the group and he and Peter made a hell of a good job filling out for the two keyboardists that were absent on this occasion also. It was a very progressive version of Reform that performed. High energy! A lot of sound experimenting. For this concert we had also rehearsed a new number composed by Peter, The Earth Will Swallow You. A really nice composition with obvious influences from the Swedish seventies. Enjoy it here:
I have also finished editing Align from the same concert:
Otherwise it was a very nice arrangement with many really good bands.

On August 25 it was time to play at Junikullen in Midsommarkransen. We had some good rehearsing and actually managed to rehearse another new song, Stars in My Pocket, composed by Magnus. At this concert Hampus Halling, the drummer from Driving Cassady, substituted for Anders. He did a very good job! Both Magnus and Mattias played keyboards and Peter was the soul guitar player. It became a very psychedelic set. Everybody felt very into it.

Here is Stars in My Pocket:
On August 11 2012 I once again had the pleasure to play with Wasa Express at Uppsala Progrock Festival. It went great. Here follows a song from the festival. It is a tune called Ett Brev and it is from Their latest album OS 2032:
Driving Cassady, another group that I play with that I told you about when I last wrote, has released its first album On The Ties. Liste to it on Spotify:




Take Care and live well! Jesper

torsdag 5 juli 2012

An ego-trip and some more


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Hope the summer has been great so far!

Concerning Reform we have been laying low for a while, actually since the last concert at Amsterdam Café on April 23rd. Why? Having a band is complicated and I felt as if I was short of air after that gig. We played well but I felt dissatisfied anyway. My impression was that we had not progressed as a group enough. It was good musicianship without magic. We all no that music cannot exist without magic! I have been considering great many possibilities and talked to some group members. I want more participation from my fellow musicians. I want more cooperation. I want everybody to write material.

Tomorrow we will rehearse and Magnus has sent me a great idea for a tune. He already has two songs on our standard repertoire, Madame Riot and Tax Vobiscum. I have a great feeling for his third contribution!

Ralph and I have now mixed four out of six compositions for his upcoming 111th album! River of Time, Between Phantazy and Pholly, Citadels of Mystery and Agent of Paradise. Ralph has also been approached by the DJ Sanna La Fleur Engdahl. It seems as if she will do an interpretation of Agent of Paradise. Lars-Johan and I will work out the rest of the details.

 I have also have some good rehearsals with Glasson and Driving Cassady. Driving Cassady is a new constellation that I have been asked to join and accepted. We have completed a great studio recording and the album will be released in September. I really like the reference to Neal Cassady, the driver of the bus Further. It would have been a real "trip" driving HIM instead of the opposite. Anything could have happened with him loose among the passengers! That, for me, is the whole point of Driving Cassady.

Last weekend I visited my good Friend Mats Jarl and his great studio Alice´s Restaurant (yet another great reference). I recorded from the evening of the 28th - the morning of the 1st of July. I played everything myself except for a guitar solo, played by Ulf Henningsson, on the second song.

I'll now present you with my ego-trip. I call it "Komma Hem Hel":


Mats handled the camera and I did the editing. I am really satisfied with the result. My brother Anders, myself and Gustav Ejstes jammed together in Alice´s Restaurant a couple of times in the late nineties. We also recorded there with Reform in 2001. Great memories and great music. Reine Fiske and Johan Glasson played the guitars. Reform actually sprung from Dungen. Some day the music from those sessions will be released.

On August 4th Reform will be performing at the Backstage Festival in Lerdala. A great festival arranged by Mats Jarl.

On August 25th Reform will play Julikullen, Midsommarkransen. An event arranged by Musikmacken.

Take care and live well! Enjoy summer! Jesper

söndag 6 maj 2012

Hopefully a new member!


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Dear reformed friends!

It seems as if Thomas Berglund has decided to join us on our quest! Thomas is a great guitar player and also a great person who has played with us from time to time during the last years. He is also the guitarist in Wasa Express. It will be very interesting to see him collaborate with us. Janne Kullhammar, Thomas and I have a trio called BKB Trio. We made an album last year. You can listen to it here.

When we played Amsterdam Café on the 23rd of April Thomas join us. The concert went well and I am actually proud over how flexible the group is. We had to play on a very low volume since the place has problems with complaining neighbors. I think we made a great appearance considering the circumstances. I have so far edited two videos, Uncle Urri II and The Faithful.