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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
