Samuel Hällkvist

in time …
nature will again reclaim itself.
In its own …
odd …
time. 

The most common explanation of the word ‘Gugge’ is that it may derive from the Alemannic ‘Sack/Tüte’, meaning ‘bag’. Other unsourced explanations include the word used for a small children’s trumpet, that in Swiss German is the word for ‘scream’ or the call of a cuckoo bird. The word ‘Laslafaria’ refers to the German sentence ‘Lass es Fahren’ or in English,’Let it go.’

Swedish Hammond phenomenon Andreas Hellkvist offers, with his second solo album, a fresh take on the sound and the style of the organ trio format. A journey into jazz and neighboring genres with compositions of his own. The Hammond organ is in the center of course, but his fellow musicians Samuel Hällkvist on guitar and Daniel Olsson on drums, each in their own way, play significant roles in shaping the sound of the trio. Together they create music that is both groovy and uplifting, heartfelt and deep.

The release marks the final chapter of her 2017 ‘La Saboteuse’ – an explosive album that turned heads worldwide, scooped numerous best of ’17 lists, as well as becoming a heavyweight UN certified UNESCO album of the decade. High praise for an artist on her second full length release.

Symphonic bombast, in which synthesizers encounter horns, strings and world-music instruments, giving Hammill’s voice the background to singing his stories from Amazonia. This is the high progressive art, without being forced into progressive rock drawers.

«Armed with the deft skills and abilities of her Swedish bandmates and guest guitarist Samuel Hällkvist at her disposal, Eggen is able to highlight every pop and jazz infused element, blending and consolidating them together in a compositional approach that has always served song and soundscape first ahead of virtuosity.» 

It’s all soil and damp earth, there, smelling strong, like ancient blood, caressing your skin like the hands of an invisible lover. But only for a moment, and then you are up and moving again, chasing that rhythm, those ever-shifting melodic punches and deep swells. The alchemist, Hallkvist himself, he knows you. He wrote this story, for you.

Following the 2017 release of La Saboteuse, her highly acclaimed psychedelic Arabic jazz album, this remix EP brings together three of Europe’s eminent electronic DJs.

With Carry My Heart, Indra and her band continue in the eclectic spirit of “Heartland” and weave a world of sound that creates a through line between songs by Steely Dan, Swedish electro-pop singer Robyn, Johnny Nash, the Isley Brothers, classical composer Claus Oberman, Duke Ellington, Curtis Mayfield, Gershwin, Bobby Caldwell as well as two original compositions, album opener “Carry My Heart” and “Give It Your Best”.

This is really what you can call Art Rock where you investigate the outer limits of what you can do with arranged and improvised music.

Recorded in Tokyo, Halmstad, Peniche, Gothenburg, Copenhagen, New York, Paris & Malmö between March 2015 and January 2017, Hällkvist’s music embraces swirling electronica, big grooves saturated with squalling lead guitar, dreamy sojourns, febrile electro-acoustic explorations, free-form improvisation and incendiary flashes of stirring themes, unsettling noir-ish soundtracks and anthemic post-rock landscapes.

An international cast of twelve performers joins the Danish-based guitarist as Variety Of Rhythm continues the momentum begun with 2012‘s Variety of Loud and 2015‘s Variety of Live with a continuous suite that blends intense combinations of textures, tonal colour, breathtaking dynamics and organic interactions.

If you appreciate Orbit Stern’s knack for experimental electro-prog, then the addition of vocals and shiny hooks this time will probably look like a concession from a group whose instrumentals conveyed plenty of personality on their own. But These Open Waters ends up being the opposite — a rich body of material that showcases just how wily and adaptable the Orbit Stern project was always meant to be. 

La Saboteuse, the new album from British-Bahraini musician Yazz Ahmed, maps out a captivating new direction for jazz. The trumpeter and flugelhorn-playing artist, like contemporaries Kamasi Washington, Sons of Kemet, Yussef Kamaal, or The Comet is Coming, comes at the genre from a fresh angle, and there’s a legion of new jazz fans out there in-tune with the sound.

Swedish Progressive pioneers, Isildurs Bane and Marillion vocalist Steve Hogarth join forces on 2017 album Colours Not Found In Nature
Comprising six songs composed by IB’s musical director and keyboard player Mats Johansson and Steve Hogarth, the richly detailed recordings feature tuned percussion, strings, woodwind, brass and voices, and within an integrated suite-like album structure.
Both a departure for Steve Hogarth and a stunning return for Isildur’s Bane, the album incorporates elements of Rock, traditional music, Jazz and contemporary Classical in one brilliantly unified world.

It begins with a lone saxophone sketching a gentle, cyclical pattern. Soon its delicate sound is blurred by distant, noisy, guitars. Suddenly, for a brief second, one  guitar plays a riff that brings to mind Jimmy Page’s killer one from ‘Black Dog’, and then this dense mix of sounds evaporate in a sweet atmospheric haze.

Danish songwriting duo, The Liberty Balance, announces the release of their 3rd full length album, PAPER MILL. Just two years after the album ‘Diamonds We Trade’, where single; ‘In America’ gained quite the online recognition in its Stella Polaris edit, this time around, The Liberty Balance plunges into the deep end with a female serial killer, pondering questions most can relate to and longing for that one last dance. Balanced with a dark B side, it is an album for roadtrips into the headwind.

Japan- Scandinavian improvising quartet A ME plays music about rain.

Over the years, Andreas has earned a reputation as an organist always in the moment and with an outstanding technique. At concerts and on youtube videos, those who see him in action are simply amazed by the expressiveness, virtousity and devotion to the music. His pedal playing is also quite rare, showing off a coordination above most.

bright and dark: the sensitive justice seeker Michael Vesterskov is here with HJERTETS VAGABOND.

Nostalgic rethinking. Subtle, heartfelt interpretations of classic danish tunes on this new Michael Vesterskov release.

Nightmare cocktail lounge, dystopian disco, a whimsical carnival from a William Gibson future. If the mood on Music for Runners hews toward the robotic, these are robots who have the potential for romance and poetry buried deep in their circuitry and waiting to blossom.

An alchemical blend of live band recordings and studio overdubs from a variety of guests, the new album brings eerie wordless vocals, sizzling electronica, waves of surf guitar, driving funk-driven beats and a sense of restless experimentation that moves beyond the usual boundaries of rock, jazz and prog.

lim is a collective playing improvised, metaphysical music with a beat.

Soaring, epic melodies, gentle vocals, Juno-synths and consistent drums.

“This is, as always with Lindha, direct, honest, groundbreaking and spiritual. Lindha’s voice is something else and her expression is a force beyond competence.”

-It’s a daily challenge for most people – including ourselves – to choose light over darkness. It seems so much easier to resort to medication or another glass of red wine than to embrace the facts of life – or death, which is always breathing down our necks and confronts us with our fragility, says Michael Vesterskov

The music fills a space that is deep with genre, but resists being labeled.. The leitmotif being vocals atop well-built harmonics, which steer clear of complexity.

Even if you live under the proverbial rock, it’s probably still apparent to you that pop culture’s fixation with American country music has reached a fever pitch. It is important to mention this because, though Frederik Hauch and Samuel Hällkvist, the two players who comprise the duo Orbit Stern, have both nursed a longtime affinity for twang, one thing should be clear that Hauch and Hällkvist won’t tell you themselves, so allow me: It is not enough to say that Orbit Stern is one step ahead of the hordes of current bands sporting 1970s haircuts and country-music affectations. That’s because Orbit Stern stands a world apart from them. In fact, the music on Orbit Stern’s new album Ude i Skoven, Inde i Byen (which translates from Danish as “in the woods, out in the city”) sounds closer to something that came from Mars than our quaint renderings of Appalachia or the American west of popular myth. Likewise, the duo’s obvious attraction to analog keyboard textures yields a similarly alien sound that has nothing to do with the new-wave synth retrophilia now raging within indie rock and chillwave circles like some form of contagious flu. This is, perhaps, where jazz comes into the picture.

The Swedish group The Opposite was initiated by Loïc Dequidt and Peter Nilsson with a desire to investigate improvisation and interplay through a collective approach. Their music is based on rhythmic concepts, partly inspired by the musical traditions of India, Africa and Cuba. The group’s instrumentation and open approach creates a wide spectrum – sonically, dynamically and rhythmically.

Variety Of Loud constantly criss-crosses the borders between control and abandonment, between discipline and intuition, between pulling different elements together and ultimately, having the confidence to let go and see what happens next.

Michael Vesterskov is the confidential troubadour, and with intimacy and humor, in close dialogue with his listeners, he leads them through life and the world as it appears in his poetic universe.

The weird music guitarmanship of Samuel Hällkvist has at last found a rhytmic counterpart in the drumming of Pat Mastelotto. Together they are the incomparable Pat & Sam. Greatest Hits is a collection of their most epic tracks, now available as a handy 2-track single.

This two-disc recording documents Pat’s ongoing love affair with the recording studio. Pat Mastelotto (of King Crimson, Mr. Mister, XTC, others), shares many unreleased tracks and remixes from his recordings with Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree, Robert Fripp, Tony Levin and several other Crim’s. This is Pat’s own brand of rock electronica, IDM and world music played with some of the finest from Finland, Sweden, Italy, England, Canada, France, and the US. This 42 track CD collection also summarizes Pat’s TU series – TU, Tuner, KTU, Tunisia and mpTU – and even contains tracks from the out of print BPM&M featuring Robert Fripp on vocals.

Amazing avantgarde/jazz/rock-singer/musician/composer Lindha Kallerdahl is back with a stellar line-up! Released by NORCD outside Sweden.

The third album from Television Pickup, available for streaming at the BoogiePost website.