Nils Eldredge

Thirty tracks from three generations of musicians marking thirty years of ACT, with Nils Landgren as driving force. Not just a retrospective, but above all an insight into the present and future of the discovery label “in the Spirit of Jazz”.

The French/Martinique percussionist Mino Cinelu and the Norwegian trumpet-player Nils Petter Molvaer got together for an outstanding piece of music.They were reflecting their roots: Sula is the island from which Molvær stems, Madiana is a synonym for Martinique, where Cinelu’s father comes from. “SulaMadiana” combines all which is perceived as trusted, familiar, and achieved, with a notion of sounds beyond the horizon: glittering, shimmering, and always promising.

This recording presents Kaija Saariaho’s works for choir, a cappella and with electronics, and displays her virtuosity in the treatment of texts, which she endows with the full range of verbal expression. At least one of these works is also a discographic premières.

Ex Grin member Lofgren’s 1977 double live album for A&M Records. Lofgren’s stage shows were always a high point and this recording captured the moment well, featuring such favourites as ‘Keith Don’t Go’ and ‘I Came To Dance’. The album charted on both sides of the Atlantic. Up until the Covid lockdowns, Lofgren had been busy gigging and recording. Digitally remastered.

Nils Frahm releases a new double album, Old Friends New Friends, released by Leiter, the label he set up with his manager, Felix Grimm. The collection gathers together 23 solo piano tracks recorded between 2009 and 2021, almost all hitherto unreleased but, for one reason or another, omitted from previous albums and projects. Neither quite a new LP nor exactly a compilation, it offers “an anatomy of all my ways of thinking musically and playing,” Frahm says, adding with a smile, “Maybe I could say it’s an album I worked on for twelve years, and finally I have enough material?”