We’ve met Tomeu Alcover and his nylon-stringed guitar before here on Meadowmusic. The songs we presented then finally found a home in November on his new album “Transparent”. Accompanied by drummer Robert Ikiz and bass player Kristian Lind he’s created a soft, beautiful album with his own mix of  jazz, latino, flamenco, folk and classical influences. You can listen to the whole album on his site.

Besides this solo album he also released another album in the same month, “Història Sobre Blanc”, but this time performing under the name Nit Project. This is also instrumental music, but using piano and synths in beautiful, slightly mellow and minimalistic arrangements. It feels filmic and has also been used as the soundtrack for the Spanish TV series “Història Sobre Blanc”. Listen to the other songs on Nit Project’s site.

Two and a Half Years (Tomeu Alcover, “Transparent”)
Juga amb mi (Nit Project, “Història Sobre Blanc”)

A couple of days ago Patrick Rydman released his second album, “What Took You So Long”. If the debut album, from 2008, mainly was a jazz album with pop influences, I’d say that it’s the other way around this time: a pop album with a jazzy feeling and lots of sould vibes. It varies more in style between the songs, but mostly i land in the seventies between Burt Bacharach, Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers and Billy Joel with a detour to Sting’s jazz pop on a couple of songs.

It feels like Patrick is perfectly at home in this music, and some songs feel almost like tributes to his predecessors, which all in all gives the album a pleasant, laidback atmosphere. The top moments for me are the more quiet songs, first of all in “Soldier Song”, where you come closer to Patrick.

You can find more info on Patrick Rydman’s site and on his Facebook page. Here’s the second single from the album:

I See You Crying

When the first song “Silhouettes” starts on the trio Desertsongs’ new album, I’m swept into a nice mellow ambience that smells of Autumn nights. This melancholy stays over the entire album, which also gives me the sensation that it’s part of a soundtrack to a classic movie drama. Some of this feeling comes from the storytelling in the songs and the singer Minna Bolin’s special tone and jazz feeling in her voice.

The combination of the electronica sound, with vibes from the eighties, the minimalistic arrangements and the melodies and the sometimes special harmonies, create a different atmosphere on this album, as it balances between retro-jazz-vibes and pop-electronica. A very pleasant music experience with a perfect ending in the soft “Red Coat”.

You can listen to the album on their Bandcamp page or on Spotify. You can also find the band on Desertsongs’ site.

Silhouettes
Lovely Lies

Pokerface, aka Staffan Heidevik, released his new album “Transeo” a little while ago. It’s an exciting album full of experimentation and if I attempt to describe it I’d say it’s about a dense and dramatic mix of  jazz-electronica and progressive rock , largely instrumental. Sometimes I hear something that reminds me of David Bowie and his experimental music from the nineties.

Interestingly half of the songs are recordings from concerts, which I really like as it brings out the depth and the grandness in the music and a sensation of a massive live experience.

The album is a collaboration between Staffan, guitarist Mattis Karlsson, drummer Olle Prim and multi-instrumentalist Per Ericsson plus a number of guest musicians, among them Mike Lloyd and jazz virtuoso Bryan Baker.

Listen more on Spotify and visit Pokerface on Facebook.

Krtek Ve Snu
Beginnings and Endings

Photo: Oscar Poulsen

“I usually describe my music as full of clichés. If someone else had used this term you’d perhaps interpret this as something negative, but I on the contrary love to play with the expected, and therefore I usually say like this:

Instrumental and improvised music doesn’t have to be difficult, simplicity doesn’t have to be boring. Surprise by playing the expected. The music should be like a Tarantino movie, – beautiful, violent and full of clichés.”

That’s how Lars Åhlund describe the music on Lars Åhlund’s Second Coming‘s new album “Fire In Ödeshög”. When I use the word cliché myself I mean something that is used by routine, without depth and maybe a little boring. And from that perspective Lars Åhlund’s Second Coming is quite the opposite.

I think that Lars Åhlund lack the ability to be musically boring and do something by routine, which I could hear already in his pop projekt Gocart System, which I have written about before. Now this is first of all about jazz, where Lars together with Joakim Simonsson, Markus Hängsel and Gustav Nahlin (plus some guests) explore jazz clichés from the past.

And it sounds anything but an old, worn expression, it’s rather a fresh, updated and fun jazz album which ventures into various jazz styles from the starting jazz blues “Vår Blues” to  70’s gangster movie themes to jazz proggressive music to funk- and pop flirts. Brilliant musicians where Lars’ playful saxophone with attitude lies in the front asking for attention. An album also, I think, that’s perfect for those that haven’t listened that much to jazz but are curious of what it’s about.

Listen to the album on Spotify and on a couple of more songs on Myspace. You can follow the band on their Facebook page.

Vår Blues
Ödeshög