Esbjörn Svensson Trio - Three Falling Free
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Just months before Esbjörn Svensson died aged just 44 in 2008 EST – the groundbreaking and hugely influential piano trio that Svensson formed with Dan Berglund and Magnus Öström – recorded a great deal of material in a Sydney studio that has never seen the light of day.
That is until now. Speaking to Stuart Nicholson, Berglund and Öström relive the course of that momentous marathon recording session that yielded some truly remarkable music that is included on their stunning new album, 301.
Jazz albums like EST’s 301 don’t come around every day. Or every month, or even every year. In fact, rather like the Beast of Bodmin Moor, ocelots or the Abominable Snowman, albums as gob-smackingly good as this are a decided rarity. Suddenly, out of the blue (and appropriately the album cover art is strikingly blue), comes this session by pianist Esbjörn Svensson, bassist Dan Berglund and drummer Magnus Öström from January 2007. Recorded in Sydney’s Studio 301 in their down-time during a tour of Australia, they amassed a total of nine hours of material, some of which was previously released as the album Leucocyte in 2008. Yet 301 sounds as if it was recorded on a different planet in a different universe – it roars where Leucocyte simmers, it powers where Leucocyte is polite and it packs a powerful emotional punch where Leucocyte gives you a peck on the cheek.
This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #162 – to read the full article click here to subscribe and receive a FREE CD...