Layers of Life Emil Brandqvist Trio

• 1Still Awake04:41
• 2Everflowing06:10
• 3Lullaby in Green04:46
• 4In Between06:48
• 5A Year04:23
• 6Solitude07:41
• 7Above the Stars03:54
• 8In This Moment03:43
• 9Layers of Life06:20
• 10Follow the Bumblebee04:24
• 11Daydreaming in Blue07:08
• 12Passage Through Time05:13
• 13Blue Hour05:19
• Total Runtime01:10:30

Info for Layers of Life

13 new compositions from the pen of Swedish drummer Emil Brandqvist, which he transforms into fascinating songs together with his trio partners Max Thornberg and Tuomas A. Turunen.

The Emil Brandqvist Trio has become a permanent fixture on the European jazz circuit and enjoys greater popularity with each album, reaching position 3 in the German jazz charts, for example. The Gothenburg drummer and composer Emil Brandqvist and his trio partners Max Thornberg on double bass and Tuomas A. Turunen on piano, who have been constant for six albums, move with dreamlike ease through worlds of sound that are as poetic as they are pictorial. It is fair to say that this trio is one of the few in Europe that has found a sound all its own and one that has been euphorically celebrated by audiences.

The new album "Layers Of Life" is undoubtedly the highlight of their work so far. Thirteen new songs from the pen of Emil Brandqvist convince with filigree, highly complex and yet so catchy arrangements, with one of the central pieces of the album, "Solitude" was also involved as a co-author Finnish pianist Tuomas A. Turunen. It is already a good tradition that Brandqvist has also invited the Sjöströmska String Quartet into the studio for some songs, in order to expand the trio format to a broadband sound. In addition, Maija Kauhanen (Kantele,Voice and Harmonium) and his brother Martin Brandqvist, who selectively adds flute, clarinet and bass clarinet, have also been invited to refine the sound worlds. Emil Brandqvist himself does not miss the opportunity to set special accents by using a Moog synthesizer.

Emil Brandqvist Trio:
Emil Brandqvist, drums
Max Thornberg, bass
Tuomas A. Turunen, piano

Emil Brandqvist Trio
The reactions to Emil Brandqvist?s debut album with SKIP in 2013, ?Breathe Out? (SKP 9115), were nothing less than enthusiastic. The recording together with the Sjöströmska String Quartet not only clocked in as CD of the Week at radio broadcasters WDR3 and HR Mikado, it was the Audio Tip for STEREOPLAY magazine. The German periodical Jazzthetik attested to ?an intriguing alternative draft to the general view of what a drummer does.? As for festival and club appearances, though there weren?t many last year he cast a spell that left audiences in a rapt, attentive and even euphoric mood.

One could say that this drummer and composer from Göteborg, Sweden is more an audiophonic painter than ?the guy who sets the beat’. Fearless and persuasively convincing, he has the courage to put the melody first, to live out his folkloric influences from the far north and his penchant for quiet drum-playing. The trio?s line-up equally comprised of Tuomas Turunen, pianist and composer from Finland, and bass-player Max Thornberg from Stockholm, provides copious support. Turunen is a discovery all by himself: Inclined toward the classic vein, his playing is at times cheerfully bubbly, other times reserved, with dabs and dashes. A pianist who knows how to set distinctive accents. Following ?Breathe Out? with its string quartet arrangements, on ?Seascapes? (SKP 9128) Emil Brandqvist has now turned to winds & horns. In his inimitable way he manages to create an atmosphere ranging between levity (for instance on the track ?Silloin lennän? by Turunen), melancholy (on ?Vals?, the opener), spontaneous surprise and magic moments. The album also features Johan Asplund / flugelhorn, Martin Brandqvist / flutes, clarinet and bass clarinet, and Nils Börén / clarinet, all of whom strive to add to ?the big picture’ without soloist allures. The final touches on ?Seascapes? came from Stefano Amerio at the studio ARTE SUONO in Udine, Italy, a world-class audio engineer who most recently put the ?spit & polish’ on a number of albums for ECM, not to mention the last four Tingvall Trio productions for SKIP.

This time the CD is predominantly presented as a trio. For Emil Brandqvist, it’s tracks like ?Vals? that come closest to his ideal of lyrical pieces playfully wrought for a trio. ?Skog? (?the forest’) describes a feel-your-way stroll, the magical ?Du haller min hand? the balance between the tension and happiness of a jaunt to the big city with his child. Encounters with ?Bobergs udde? and ?Grimsholmen?, places where Brandqvist spends the summer, along with thoughts given to ?Den sista isbjörnen? (?the last polar bear’) belong to the widely varying points for listeners to enter the world of Emil Brandqvist. German magazine STERN: “Magical music: weightless melodies…a blend of film score in wide-screen format and chamber play, sweet melancholy…thoughts on love, homesickness and yearning – 5 Stars, Highest Rating.”

This album contains no booklet.