Reform

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

lördag 26 januari 2013

A Great Session!

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

lördag 1 september 2012

Gigs, videos and more!

Check out Reform at Facebook
Review of Uncut & Lo-Fi
Review of Easy
Reform's GrIndie award
Reformed is reviewed by Meadow Music (SE)
Reformed is reviewed by Meadow Music (EN)
Reformed is reviewed by Music Stage (SE)
Visit A&R Jesper Bergman and receive 2 barcodes (UPC) for free!

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

Check out Reform at Facebook
Review of Uncut & Lo-Fi
Review of Easy
Reform's GrIndie award
Reformed is reviewed by Meadow Music (SE)
Reformed is reviewed by Meadow Music (EN)
Reformed is reviewed by Music Stage (SE)
Visit A&R Jesper Bergman and receive 2 barcodes (UPC) for free!

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!

söndag 1 april 2012

Another Happy Landing from Klubben Fryshuset and a review

lördag 25 februari 2012

Align from Boo Folkets Hus

söndag 5 februari 2012

A gig at Boo Folkets Hus plus Andromeda

Yesterday Lars-Johan and I continued the work at Andromeda with Ralph Lundsten. We recorded two more pieces, Agent of Paradise and Citadels of Mystery. They came out great and on Tuesdays the mixing will take place at Andromeda. I have now been in contact with some interesting and interested creators, composers and musicians in order to lay the ground work for the interpretations of Ralph's work.

Here follow some pictures.

A beautiful musical box

Me contemplating the recording progress.

Lars-Johan staring ou through the coloured windows while listening.

A happy dream master.

Happy Harold following the score.

With love to everyone!
Jesper

torsdag 26 januari 2012

Reform Live at Klubben Fryshuset

And here are the videos:

Align

EOD

Nuclear War

Take care and take care of the art! It won't be there if we don't share our imagination!
Jesper

fredag 23 december 2011

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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.

See you next year!

Take care and let the music flow!
Jesper

måndag 5 december 2011

Reform News

Check out Reform at Facebook
Digg Reformed
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Buy our albums
Review of Uncut & Lo-Fi
Review of Easy
Reform's GrIndie award
Reformed is reviewed by Meadow Music (SE)
Reformed is reviewed by Meadow Music (EN)
Reformed is reviewed by Music Stage (SE)
Opinions about Reform at DN Påstan(Swedish)
Visit A&R Jesper Bergman and receive 2 barcodes (UPC) for free!

Hi there all reformed friends!

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.

Larsi at work, Andromeda December 3rd 2011

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.

Jesper at work, Andromeda December 3r<br />d 2011

3. The music, now on tape, was in turn transferred back as audio tracks to the computer.

Jesper at work, Andromeda December 3rd 2011

A very interesting and unique process. Well tried out to gain the best musical result.

Hope everything turns out well!

Take care!
Jesper

söndag 2 oktober 2011

The complete set from Live At Heart on September 16 + Two New Videos

Reform at Myspace
Digg Reformed
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Buy our albums
Review of Uncut & Lo-Fi
Review of Easy
Reform's GrIndie award
Reformed is reviewed by Meadow Music (SE)
Reformed is reviewed by Meadow Music (EN)
Reformed is reviewed by Music Stage (SE)
Check out Reform at Facebook
Opinions about Reform at DN Påstan(Swedish)
Visit A&R Jesper Bergman and receive 2 barcodes (UPC) for free!

Dear fellow reformers!

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!

Here are the tunes:

Spooky Tax

Little Vienna

The Faithful

Madame Riot Lajath

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.

tisdag 6 september 2011

The complete rehearsal from August 10 2011

torsdag 1 september 2011

Live at Heart and two videos

tisdag 5 juli 2011

A visit to Ralph Lundsten and the Andromeda Studio

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.

Order his masterpieces here

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:

Take care and live well!!!
Jesper

fredag 1 juli 2011

A video from Southside Pub and some more!

lördag 28 maj 2011

Seven new videos and Progressive Playground

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!

Take care
Jesper