CE25

Alla Drömmars Sång

Lena Willemark, Jonas Knutsson or Mats Öberg

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“In intimate dialogues they play one another and rediscover music for us. – Ale Möller

On january 24, 2012

three of the real heavyweights in Swedish contemporary music, be it folk, jazz, impro or whatever, spent an inspired day in the Atlantis studio in Stockholm with master sound engineer Janne Hansson. Knowing each other quite well musically since many years, here they mix traditional material from Lena’s Älvdalen with own original pieces and a surprising “cover” into a strong unity of power and sensibility, created on a day when they let go and just played music.

On february 26 2013

we are happy to release the first album with Lena Willemark, Mats Öberg and Jonas Knutsson, three of the swedish contemporary greats together. They have done a magnificent album showcasing all their talent, creativity and interplay.

The album was nominated for a Swedish Grammy.

Here is the album booklet

Says long time music partner and friend Ale Möller about this album:

“In deep forest at track’s end I lived. Where lake and mountain let the eye wander.
One day I no longer saw all that beauty.
Far too many times had I walked between potato cellar and bakehouse.

On this cd you hear some of the musicians I have played with most of all. Hundreds and hundreds of hours on stage and in rehearsals.
Yet I hear them for the first time when I hear them here. Their intensive presence in the music. Their power and genuine will to move us. In intimate dialogues they play one another and rediscover music for us. Then: surprise and joy at the sudden capitulation of the notes.

They are good. Very good.“

Reviews

CD Roots: “Three of Sweden’s most respected performers in any genre, vocalist and violist Lena Willemark, pianist Mats Öberg and reeed player Jonas Knutsson together create a whole new folk-art form for Sweden. They have all worked together in folk, jazz and art music ensembles for decades, and here they mix traditional material from Lena’s home of Älvdalen with own original pieces and a surprising cover of The Beatles with a strong sense of unity, in a recording created in one day, as they simply let go and just played music. Highly recommended.”

Greg Barbrick, Blinded By Sound: Music is universal, not geographical, and there is something about this recording that drew me in immediately. After numerous spins, the attraction has only grown deeper. Alla Drömmars Sång translates to Song of Dreams, which is about as apt a title as I could think of for this album.

Andrew Cronshaw, fRoots: “An album with Sweden’s Lena Willemark on it is always headed for the top of the review pile. She’s one of the world’s great singers; on stage or record, the honest, unstaged passionate intensity of her spun-gold-haired figure commanding the extremes of vocalisation or bowing fiddle with wild tension makes her the only place to look or listen. …….In Lena’s singing there’s no sense of now traditional – now jazz’, nor any suggestion of copying; she’s unlike anybody else, in any genre.

Swedish reviews at kritiker.nu
Gunilla Brodrej, Expressen: “Alla drömmars sång är den första skivan, kronan på verket, från ett mångårigt samarbete mellan spelmannen Lena Willemark, saxofonisten Jonas Knutsson och pianisten Mats Öberg….Jag tar gärna risken att redan nu utnämna det här till årets skiva.”