Liberetto Lars Danielsson

Good things are worth waiting for. Lars Danielsson had recorded just a few tracks for a new Liberetto album in late 2019. So, when a window appeared in September 2020 between the lockdowns across Europe, he seized the opportunity to bring his fellow band-members back to his studio near Gothenburg to finish what they had started.

Swedish bassist/cellist Lars Danielsson is a master improviser, who completely engages listeners by taking them on journeys of both pleasure and wonder, with themes which are always expressive and song-like. He is far too classy and refined a musician to indulge in superficial virtuosic display. Danielsson's well-honed, naturally lyrical improvisational lines remain at the service of the flow of the music, something particularly noticeable when he steps forward and takes on the role of soloist. These core traits are also there in his extensive and much-praised work as arranger, composer and bandleader.

Laura Marti's new album "Africa - Tribute to Lars Danielsson" is a beautiful homage to the legendary European jazz musician. Recorded in Germany's Bauer Studios during the intense conflict in Ukraine, the album is a testament to the importance of supporting Ukrainian music in European cultural life. The album features 9 tracks, including 8 of Danielsson's well-known compositions and a special track written by him for the project, called "For Laura," in which he also participated. Marti invited renowned Ukrainian jazz pianist and composer Natalia Lebedeva to create the arrangements for the songs, and talented Ukrainian jazz musicians Yakiv Tsvietinsky, Yuriy Natsvlishvili, and Dima Litvinenko joined the project. This album is a must-listen for any jazz lover looking to explore the intersection of European and Ukrainian jazz.

Happy coincidences can often lead to extraordinary results. No-one could have foreseen that Lars Danielsson and the Armenian pianist Tigran would pair up to form the new dream duo of the European jazz scene, when in fact the two musicians played their first concert together only one week before the scheduled recordings of Liberetto. It was clear from the first note that two musical soulmates had found each other, and despite it happening by coincidence the result of their meeting was all the more intense. Lars Danielsson says: “Tigran sees my music exactly the way I do and he composes music exactly the way I would do myself. For example, his ‘Svensk Låt’ sounds more Swedish than my songs. It was simply fantastic to record this album with him.”

"More than any other art form, music touches people directly," is ACT founder Siggi Loch's credo. For nearly 30 years, the core of what the label does has been to find and to promote the artists who can inspire the mind, reach the heart and touch the soul, and who do so in ways that have a lasting impact. Perhaps this has never been more important than now in the time of the pandemic, when culture has been silenced, when people have felt emotionally isolated and – far too often – the only “reality” has been virtual.