Magic Recovery Key

Necromonkey is the collaboration between drummer Mattias Olsson who was part of the founding members of swedish band Änglagård, of which he left in 2012, and keyboardist David Lundberg from Gösta Berlings Saga. The two first met in 2008 while working on Gösta Berlings Saga's second album Detta har hänt and thought about working together. 2010 saw the begining of the writing and recording for their first album Necroplex in Olsson's Roth-Händle studios in Stockholm. Their vision was not about making an Änglagård meets Gösta Berlings Saga kind of album but instead focusing on something new which will reflect everything they love in music. Necroplex was released in 2013 and showed how fertile this duo is, making an album deeply rooted in modern electronic but still incorporates a huge amount of acoustic and electric instruments. Olsson and Lundberg both handle most of the instruments, aided by a big line up of session musicians. The two didn't wait long before releasing a second album, A Glimpse Of Possible Endings is already finished and due to be released in 2014.

Recorded live in Rome before a polite audience - radio audiences always are - Current Conditions features what Enrico Pieranunzi has called "the trio of my heart", with Marc Johnson on bass and Joey Baron on drums.
It also marks something of a change of direction, ora at least a broadening of his concers away from the deep vein of Romantic melancholia which he's been mining. This was apparent from last year's Enrico Pieranunzi tribute Play Morricone on the same label, which showed a new-found exuberance. Most compositions are by Pieranunzi but there are also what I assume are two free improvvisations credited the three musicians, "Joey's Magic Tricks" and "Trio Reflections". Presented with these in a blidfold test, I don't think Pieranunzi would have been my first guess. Other pieces are more characteristic however.