Reform

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

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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