Everything is now set with the first Emergenza gig.
Klubben Fryshuset January 20th. There will be many good bands playing.
We have had two great rehearsals since last and we have decided to include Align and Nuclear War in the set. There will probably be a new tune included as well.
Because of various reasons we have been laying low for a while. The work with the new record was more exhausting than we thought it was. We have had a bit of what is called post performance depression, PPD. The record has been very well received, but the psychedelic jazz rock business is not a brisk one. Therefor it is important to have a new goal to aim for. We have decided that we will concentrate on new songs and the ones we like the best from the album. We will try to develop new interesting sounds and approaches to our music so we do not get stuck.
We had a rehearsal last Tuesday and we actually made two new tunes. Very satisfying and relieving! I feel we have strength now and I hope that in a not so distant future we will do a release concert for Reveries of Reform.
It was really nice playing the Live at Festival in Örebro. We have decided to play the Emergenza Festival here in Stockholm. From what I know this festival is mainly for new hungry rock bands that want to reach out. I talked to the festival board about our participation and they actually assured me that we would not be completely out of the festival frame. On Tuesday, before we rehearse, we will do a promo photo shoot! Great!
Here is a newly edited video from last time we played the South Side Pub. Janne Kullhammar had never played the tune, The Faithful, but made a great interpretation anyway. There was not enough video recorded so a sequence from the movie 2001 has been made to work as a substitute. Enjoy!
Over to reform related matters:
On Saturday October 29th me and my long time friend Lars-Johan Brännmarkinitiated the work with Ralph Lundsten's new music. It will a multi musical experience where musical worlds meet and collide. All based on, as it seems, three new pieces by Ralph. The working title is River of Time.
The Andromeda studio is really something special, something completely out of the ordinary. We located everything and Ralph taught us how he use to work. Very interesting! Although Lars-Johan is a great engineer all this took quite a while.
On the 3rd of December we returned to begin the recording session. Ralph had prepared everything with choosing his sounds and by SMPTE coding a tape plus having constructed a very complicated background consisting of "cosmic noise". After having synchronized the computer with the 32-channel tape recorder the recording happened accordingly:
1. The midi signals from the piece were transferred to Ralph synthesizer unit where he mixed sounds from different modules.
2. The midi with the new sounds were recorded onto the tape in order to get the analog warmth. This process was made for every midi channel.
3. The music, now on tape, was in turn transferred back as audio tracks to the computer.
A very interesting and unique process. Well tried out to gain the best musical result.
It has been a hectic time, as always in the psychedelic jazz rock business. Three gigs in two months! Life is great!!!
Junikullen, Live At Heart and Southside Pub.
Live At Heart went great and we are really proud of the concert consisting of four tunes. Although the hour was late, 2400h, when we started playing we felt up to it and everybody played great. I had brought some copies of the new album and the nice audience bought some of them. The gig was recorded by Sveriges Radio Örebro and that recording has been merged with the one I myself did with my DAT-tape recorder. The result is very satisfying and I am proud of the crew. Magnus could not accompany us, but Thomas could, and can he play or what? Great work!
I also give you Madame Riot Lajath from Junikullen on August 27, where we actually perform as the sextet we are meant to be, in my opinion. The were some trouble with the sound and Mattias could not hear what he was playing, but that's the way it is when you are playing live.
Last, but not least I will present you with something that we are going to do much more often. This is a jam that we played at Southside Pub on September 24. I call it Happy Tax since the tunes we jam around are Tax Vobiscum and Happy Landing. Although there is a short break between the tunes I seem them as one complete unity and therefore they are presented as one track/video of 21 minutes.
Janne Kullhammar had the kindness to join us this night since Anders was occupied elsewhere. We performed as a quintet with me on bass, Mattias and Magnus on Keyboards and Peter on guitar. Janne did a great job!
In my opinion, this is the way Reform should function; the jamming should be the focus and lead into the different tunes. We have moved towards the songs being the core for jamming, which is also interesting. I though strongly believe that the most important ingredients in this type of music is energy and magic and a musician usually receives energy and magic where the "known" stops to be a parameter. Then the band is suddenly outside the perimeter of where the playing is intellectual. We suddenly feel and share the same awareness. This awareness tells us:
-Since you have crossed into unknown territory you must try to get to know it and find the way out, together.
Music is a holy entity and it has to be treated as such!
At least, that is what I believe.
Take care and be aware Jesper
torsdag 15 september 2011
Live at Heart bjuder exklusivt in er artister till seminarier och andra aktiviteter som går parallelt under festivalen./>Lokalen på Clarion Hotel, Kungsgatan 14, rymmer ett begränsat antal personer. FREDAG 16/9, HOTEL CLARION/>13.00 Musiksverige och Sponsrings- & Eventföreningen presenterar sin nya rapport ”Musik- och eventbranscherna på frammarsch – en studie av framtidstro och kompetensbehov”. Rapporten är den första någonsin i sitt slag och beskriver branschernas behov av kompetens och syn på tillväxt de kommande fem åren.
LÖRDAG 17/9, HOTEL CLARIONMusikhögskolan och musikproduktionsutbildningen vid Örebro Universitet presenterar: Seminarier/workshops i songwriting och produktion! Seminarierna är endast öppna för festivalens artister (de som bär artistpass) och ackrediterade delegater. Ingen anmälan krävs, men kom i tid!
11:00 Play Productions (ett producent/låtskrivarteam som jobbat med t.ex. MartinStenmarck, Susan Boyle och Kumi Koda) berättar bl.a. om hur deras arbete går till och hur man jobbar mot ett förlag. 13:00 Paneldebatt med bland andra Anders Hjelmtorp (Export Music Sweden), Håkan Olsson (Rootsy.nu), Janne Granvik (Musikerförbundet), Patrik Larsson (Headlock Management), Annika Fehling (artist). Moderator för debattenär Claes Olson, Musikindustrin. 15:00 Per Aldeheim (Lambretta, Nick Carter, Def Leppard) berättar om hur hitlåtenblir till. Varför är vissa låtskrivare så framgångsrika? MUSIK- OCH SKIVMARKNADMissa heller inte 4Sounds musikmarknad och Banana Moons skivmarknad på Kulturhuset på lördagen.
Here is the complete rehearsal from the 10th of August. The sound is not perfect, but the playing is really good! This was the first rehearsal with Thomas Berglund on guitar.
The line-up is:
Me on bass Peter and Thomas on guitars Mattias on keyboards Anders on drums
Long time, I know! I completed the mastering of Reveries of Reform early August and Tony Boyle completed the art work, which turned out beautifully, at the same time. The release date is set for the 6th of October. I am waiting impatiently and so does the rest of the reformers.
On August 27 we played a festival in Julikullen, Midsommarkransen in Stockholm. It went great! We had rehearsed a lot and brought Thomas Berglund to play with us. He did an amazing work on guitar. Very pure and expressive! He and Peter play very well together.
Here are two videos from the gig:
We have also been selected to play at the festival Live at Heart in Örebro. The festival takes place on the 16th and 17th of September and we still have not received an exact date and time. I will keep you informed.
Today was a very special day for me. I went to meet the Dream master himself, Ralph Lundsten in his pink castle, Villa Frankenburg. He and Fredrik Walldén, a very nice guy who (among other things) helps Ralph with his digital stuff, were sitting in the garden sofa when I arrived. They greeted me and we went inside the house. For me it was surreal since Ralph, for me, is a concept rather than an actual person, and there I was standing face to face with this charismatic 75-year-old legend. His eyes were piercing, but nice and friendly, and his voice was calm and clear.
As I entered his pink utopia it felt as if I were entering a different universe. Since his 2-year-old daughter was having her afternoon nap we had to go upstairs to his office. He asked me to turn on the cd so I handed it to Fredrik who put it on and while we were listening Ralph started to ask me questions about the music and how I defined it. I said that I called it jazz rock or progressive music. After a while he said that he use to call all the music that is hard to define cosmic music. So I guess for now on we play cosmic music!
We talked about music today and that it was hard to reach out to an audience from within the massive media flow. After talking about publishing rights and exchanging some necessary numbers Ralph said that he liked the music and that it sounded nice and welcoming, which made me very happy.
We went down to the kitchen, his protein laboratory as he calls it, for a coffee and some cookies. Before we went to the kitchen he asked me if I wanted to see the Andromeda Studio. Guess what my answer was! The studio was in perfect shape with a big 32-channel mixer, his Dimi-o and -s, the Andromatic synthesizer a 32-channel tape recorder, great big monitors and some computer equipment. Very interesting. He showed me some stuff and told me some stories about when for example Led Zeppelin visited the Andromeda Studio in the 70s!
Well in the kitchen we had coffee with another guest, his wife and daughter and Fredrik. Only to be in the protein laboratory is an experience. There are paintings and decorations everywhere. In the kitchen there are visual discoveries to be made which could last for a week. We talked about music and Ralph share anecdotes and opinions about everything.
After that we went back to the studio and Ralph played some music and sang and danced a bit. A very lively experience! I bought his autobiography, another book of his called Happy Earthday and two discs called Out in the Wide World and Festlust. I also asked him to sign a vinyl that I brought, Nordic Naturesymphony No.1 "The Neck", which he did.
After this two-hour-visit I said "thank very much and goodbye". He shook my hand and said "keep up the fight". Fredrik and I also shook hands and i was off with a very happy feeling filling up my mind.
It was a great experience meeting Ralph and I feel motivated by the visit and even more eager to finalize this project with a great result. An nice and inspiring experience indeed!
Thank you Ralph!
To make you even happier I hereby publish another video from Southside Pub. Tax Vobiscum:
The name of the new record will be Reveries of Reform. Artwork and layout is being worked on by Tony Boyle, a great artist and designer. The album will consist of 12 tracks and they are finally mixed and mastered. The work is not done yet, but according to Jocke at Transubstans Records the album is to be released in October. We have also been offered a deal with Ralph Lundsten's publishing company, Andromeda Music, which is great. Ralph's compositions have also been incorporated into the music, forming bridges between the tunes. Very interesting actually! All this has consumed all of my spare time recently. A pleasure to work with this project, but you can't do everything at once. You have to prioritize. This time the blog, unfortunately, was not prioritized.
On May 11 we had a gig at the Southside Pub, Stockholm.
Madame Riot Lajath was the last tune in our set. Here it is:
One person that plays on some of the album's tracks is Per Tjernberg. A great inspirer and musician. He is also a great composer and has so far released 11 albums. One of those is Inside Information from which I give you a taste. It is the first track of the album divided into two parts. Musicians on this track consist of the cream of the Swedish jazz musicians. Listen carefully and enjoy!!!
The gig at Blå Bodarna on May 21 went very well and it seemed appreciated!
The line-up was:
Jesper Bergman: Bass Peter Åkerberg: Guitar Mattias Lennestig: Keyboards Jonas Englund: Guitar Paul Svanberg: Drums
It was a nice experience playing as a quintet. On June 11 we will also perform as a quintet. This time with Magnus Ramel on second keyboard and with only one guitar. I presume it will work well. The event is called Progressive Playground and the group teaming up with us is Pocket Size, a great progressive group lead by Peter Pedersen!
I present you with all the songs in the correct order. I am very satisfied and I think everybody did a great job. Paul Svanberg played amazingly and so did Jonas Englund! Thank you guys! I hope we will play together soon in a near future!
Enjoy all seven songs:
That's all for now! I hope you will enjoy the videos!
The gathering started on Sunday 8th of May at 1300h. The personnel consisted of:
Jesper Bergman: Electric bass Christer Bjernelind: Double bass Mattias Lennestig: Keyboard Magnus Ramel: Keyboard Milton Öhrtröm: Keyboard Peter Åkerberg: Electric guitar Jonas Englund: Electric guitar Peter Pedersen: Electric guitar Anders Bergman: Percussion Bill Öhrström: Percussion Per Tjernberg: Percussion Paul Svanberg: Drums Åke Eriksson: Drums
The intensity was obvious from the very start. Bill and Åke started off a groove and from there the airplane lifted off!
Everyone contributed magnificently and it all flowed.
Four really good numbers came out of this session:
Ambient Noise
From the Hilltop and Beyond
and
Horrorscope which infact is a Ralph Lundsten composition, Op 167. His original was recorded with Ralph Lundsten & The Andromeda Allstars in 1979. Watch the video at the end of this post!
Our version became quite interesting. I will present it when we know what to do with all the material.
The last piece I will mention was actually the first one we recorded. I call it "In a Strangely Nice Kind of Way". Press it and listen! It lasts for 20 minutes.
I am very proud that so many prominent musicians joined the group and helped us fulfill this dream. Nothing existed to begin with, but thanks to our universal mind everything worked out. I really hope we will play together some time in the future. I have great hopes for this album and it seems as if it will turn out as a double!
Here is Horrorscope by Ralph Lundsten:
Christer Bjernelind and Per Tjernberg played together in the group Archimedes Badkar in the 70s. A great Swedish progressive group. Listen to them here:
Per Tjernberg is a legend that has recorded numerous solo albums. He actually recorded an entitled Don't Stop in 1983. Listen to Lucumi Suite from that album with no one else but Doktor Åke Erksson himself on the drums:
Åke Eriksson is Swedish drum legend mostly known for his work in Wasa Express and Egba:
Bill Öhrström once turned down a part as singer in an English r&b band. This band later became The Who!!! On Jimi Hendrix' first visit to Stockholm Jimi stayed at Bills apartment in Stockholm. Bill produced the legendary Swedish duo Hansson & Karlsson and has all his life played music and lived for playing music. He has played with everyone! Bill is always young! Here is a a clip from one of the times when he played with us at Stampen. Åke is playing the drums:
Paul Svanberg is an up and coming jazz drummer. Listen to him playing with Ulf Wakenius! Impressive!!!
Today is a very joyful and happy day, although I am in bed with the flu!
The jam on Sunday has an almost complete line-up:
Electric bass: Myself Double bass: Christer Bjernelind (Archimedes Badkar) Electric guitar: Jonas Englund (Malak taus & Konstruktion Abstraktion) Electric guitar: Peter Åkerberg Keyboard: Mattias Lennestig Keyboard: Magnus Ramel (Keyboard: Milton Öhrström) Percussion: Anders Bergman Percussion: Bill Öhrström Drums: Åke Eriksson Drums: ?
As you can see the second drum chair is still not set. I am still waiting for some calls. Bill's son Milton will maybe join us on keyboard. That would be nice! Anyway, I have a feeling that Sunday will be great.
Another huge thing is that one of my idols and one of Sweden's, or maybe the world's or universe's, greatest electronic composers, Ralph Lundsten, has agreed to collaborate on our new album! I wanted to make the album as a "journey" with sound-bridges leading the listener from one song to the next. Ralph has agreed to help me with these bridges, which in fact is something huge!!! I can hardly believe it myself.
When I studied at the Royal University I had the privilege to have Ralph's old collaborator Leo Nilsson as a teacher of electro acoustics and electronic composition. Leo was a really interesting person who caught his students with experiments and weird anecdotes. The first time I met Leo I was late for class and stumble on the threshold as I entered the classroom. Leo immediately wanted me to do the exact stumble and sound once again so he could record it, but, of course, it was impossible to recreate what had happened. He said that "the sound was lost forever".
The wondrous of music is endless! Today I also received a guitar overdub made by Peter Åkerberg for Happy Landing. It was totally amazing and fit in perfectly with the rest of the music. I have great hopes for this album!!!
Here follows a short three-part-documentary on Ralph. He said in an interview that he does not care too much about receiving prices, but I believe that he should definitely receive the Polar Music Prize!
The work with the new album is proceeding. We have more than twelve songs to choose from. There is a jam also which I really would like to include. Let's see if there is enough space. Anyway, I am more than satisfied with what has come together up until now. The keyboards are amazing. It seems as if Mattias and Magnus form a great team. On Sunday May 8 I am planning for a big jam session with some special guests. If it works out I will give you the details. I will contact everybody as soon as Easter is over.
I am also going through all the Reform concerts chronologically. It was not until the concert at Kolingen in November 2009 that I started to record the concerts with active microphones and DAT. There is a lot of material with quite horrible sound quality and I have become better at mixing and restoring over the years. I am working with the concert from Gamlingen on the April 12 2009. It is quite interesting to hear how the group has developed the sound since then. This work will of course end up in a digital release called something similar to "Best of Reform Live 2009-2010". The physical and digital album Uncut & Lo-Fi, though it still feels interesting, is no longer a representative source of how the group sounds live. This is, firstly, due to the sound quality and secondly because we now have a steady crew. There is actually yet another album in pipeline. I believe it will be only a digital release and it will consist of all the alternative takes, demos and versions of the songs included and excluded on and from the sessions leading up to the completion of the new album.
Why I want to use some recorded jams on the album is because I still want to convey that Reform is based on music created in the moment. Music that is not the same twice.
Skivrecension, Reform, Reformed Skrivet av Matilda Hedberg Dowdle 2011-04-05 20:33
Loungemusik eller experimentell jazz? Den frågan kan man utan tvekan ställa sig när man lyssnar på bandet Reforms skiva Reformed.
Jag ska vara ärlig. Hade jag plockat upp Reformed i närmaste skivbutik och läst vad för typ av musik det var jag höll i, hade jag aldrig lagt pengar på skivan. Så avtänd blir jag på experimental jazz.
Men så är inte fallet nu. När jag klickade på play på Spotify möttes jag av musik vars like jag aldrig stött på. Jag kallar det för experimentell jazz, andra kanske skulle säga hissmusik. Jag själv får en lugn känsla i kroppen när jag tar del av skivans enda sex låtar. Det finns en bra balans mellan de konstanta lugna beatsen och gitarrerna a la Jimi Hendrix som ibland kommer in i låtarna.
Det finns varken sång eller något som verkar som en röd tråd. Reformed är däremot en skiva att ta fram när dagarna är stressiga och maten bränns vid på spisen. Det är en skiva som för dig till en annan miljö, vare sig det är en strand i Thailand eller en takvåning i New York.
Låt oss gå tillbaka till exemplet om skivbutiken. Hade jag vetat mer om bandet, baserat på det jag nu har lyssnat på, hade jag tagit upp plånboken. För visst finns det en mening med musiken som strömmar ut ur högtalarna. En mening som jag mer än gärna vill ta del av.
Those of you who do not read Swedish will have to use the Google Translator. I am very satisfied with this review and I am also proud of it!
To conclude this post I will present you with something that is definitely not very Reformish. In the spring of 2010 we made two concerts in which we incorporated some cover songs performed vocally by Bill Öhrström. The first time we did some 60s soul music and the second time we did some 60s American Psychedelia. The three following songs are from that second gig in May 2010.
Bill is a great singer and performer and he also fits in beautifully into Reform's own tunes when he plays the harmonica. Bill is music and music is Bill!!! I hope we will play with him again soon!
Yesterday, February 24, we produced yet another outtake for the new album. It is called Align and is written by me and Peter. The lyrics are also by us. Yes, I just mentioned lyrics! It is the first Reform track with actual vocals, by me. I am satisfied with both the lyrics and the singing.
Why a vocal track? Our goal is to have three tracks with vocals on the new album and it is partly because we do some Grateful Dead tracks live and then thought "why not try to do some tracks of our own with vocals?". Another reason may be that it is important to broaden one's horizons: Can we keep our sound although we incorporate vocals? Judge for yourself! I think it works and really brings a dark, gloomy feeling to the improvisation.
The following tracks with vocals will, I suppose, be Nuclear War, which I co-wrote in the middle 90's with my old friend Petter Nyhlin, and a song written by me, Anders and Peter called Here's to Life. We played both these songs under the name Mountain Men at Mats Jarl's Backstage Festival in August 2010. Mountain Men is a side project consisting of only Peter, Anders and myself.
Here are the videos from that event:
To confuse you some more I will end this with a clip with Janis Joplin playing the song Raise Your Hand from Frankfurt in 1969. This is great! A genius at her best!
On the 6th of February we had yet another great rehearsal with the new fantastic Reform line-up. Everyone is contributing and this time we rehearsed two new tunes: Click on the title to listen to it!
Little Vienna is a beautiful piece not too inspired by the place where we now have played two weekends in total, I hope. For me, the name actually fits the composition perfectly. It sounds like a strange dream, as a painting of Salvador Dalí would sound and like a circus in black and white from the 20's. Peter plays the lead and hands over the first solo to Hujanen and then takes over to hand over the wheel to Magnus Ramel and then the conclusion comes with the theme played all over again.
Groovy Thunder is a very bombastic piece. It feels very genuinely jazz-rocky with roots from Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra. It is basically based on three riffs, each of them very strong and quite intricate harmonically. The first solo is performed by Mattias Lennestig and the second one is played by Peter.
I am certain that this upcoming album will be great. Taste the name "Age of Reform". How does it sound and feel?
These two tunes are not the only musical matters that came out of the rehearsal. We also had a great Jam. Jamming is the moment when there will be magic or not. When it feels right you just go with the flow and actually starts wondering "what is that fantastic music that I'm hearing?". It is almost as magic as opening Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce. Either you are caught up in it or not. You can talk about it for hours, but the only conclusion is that music is one of the last remnants from when the still not rational human beings roamed the earth and the air was filled with magic. It is nice to sometimes not feel so rationalized.
We're gonna give you a taste of a little stuff we call...
... Reform music!
We had a wonderful rehearsal on January 24. Two newly born songs opened their eyes and saw the light! The first one I call Kytter. Kytter is an internal joke between my brither Anders and Peter. I won't even try to explain how the joke works, but it is really really strange and originates from a dish served on Anders' birthday party. The second one Peter suggested should be called Mitsuhirato. That's a character from the Tintin comic book Blue Lotus. Mitsuhirato is a very strange Japanese type and I lately have been referring to him on various occasions and because of that Peter suggested the song should be called Mitsuhirato.
Sorry about all the strange explanations!
Anyway, here they are. The personnel is as follows:
Jesper Bergman: electric bass Anders Brgman: Drums Micke Hujanen: Guitar Peter Åkerberg: Guitar Magnus Ramel: Keyboard Mattias Lennestig: Keyboard
the first thing that happened this year was that RadioIndy published a review of the re-released album Easy. Easy was the first Reform album and it was released in 2001.
Here is the review:
Saturday, January 1, 2011 "Easy" by Reform (Jazz Artist from Sweden)
The talented group Reform and their fabulous CD, "Easy," captures the essence of instrumental Jazz with sophisticated style and grace. Reform is not only a creative group, but their Jazzy style has originality as some songs emit Avant Garde tonality with intense precision. The opener, "Six," has a smooth groove with a melodic guitar, sweet electric piano, funky bass riffs, and soft drum brushes. The song, "Baker," features expressive percussive drums and silky guitars that weave a melodic melody with a rich relaxing quality. "Scapegrace," is another song with finely tuned drums that meld with the electric piano and funky bass while the guitars interject harmonious riffs. Fans of superb instrumental Jazz music will thoroughly enjoy the delectable compositions on the album, "Easy."
-Diane and the RadioIndy.com Reviewer Team
And here is a short description of how it was recorded and who played what.
Released in August 2001. Recorded live in the studio.
Personnel track 1,2 and 4 recorded at the Semi-Studio at the Royal College of Music, Stockholm:
Jesper Bergman: Electric bass Johan Glasson: Electric guitar Reine Fiske: Electric guitar Alexander Wiig: Percussion, flute Anders Bergman: Percussion Mattias Lennestig: Rhodes Isak Andersson: Drums
Personnel track 5 and 6
recorded at Alice’s Restaurant, Lerdala:
The same as above except for Pedro Martinez Ramirez who took Isak Andersson’s place and played drums, Berimbau and Percussion. Alexander Wiig missed the train and stayed in Stockholm. Mats Jarl helped engineering the tracks.
Personnel track 3 recorded live in concert (Thru Breaks) and at the Semi-Studio (Happy Landing)
Thru Breaks: Jesper Bergman: Electric bass Johan Glasson: Electric guitar Reine Fiske: Electric guitar Alexander Wiig: Percussion, flute Anders Bergman: Percussion Mattias Lennestig: Rhodes Pedro Martinez Ramirez: Drums
Happy Landing: Same as above except for: Alexander Wiig: Percussion, Sitar Isak Andersson: Drums
You may listen to it on Spotify or click the cover to download it from iTunes.
Here is a video from a 2001 concert. It is Thru Breaks.
