The Twelve Week Year

While 2014 already has a few too many scuffs on it to be termed box-fresh, and the unremitting sogginess has stifled most new year excitement, there’s still plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the music heading our way over the next 12 months. So, having celebrated the best albums, tracks, videos, gigs and artwork of last year (and slated the overrated), what better way to move on than by making 2014′s first Album of the Week something that came out in, um, 2013…

"Moments, Op. 7" is pianist/composer Tim Neumark’s eighth album and his second album this year. Twelve of the thirteen tracks are solo piano, but the lucky thirteenth is a fully orchestrated arrangement of Neumark’s first composition, “Beginnings.” It was included as a piano solo on his debut album, "Biography," but Neumark always envisioned the piece as an orchestral work. With Doug Hammer’s help, that dream has become a reality for the whole world to hear! The music on Moments was inspired by those unplanned moments in life that mean so much and truly define what life is all about. Most of the music on this album is on the lighter, happier side, strongly influenced by life with two very young daughters and a couple of playful cats. The liner notes explain where these moments came from. Some are personal experiences and some are other people’s moments that affected Neumark enough to compose music for them. Although classical music has a strong influence, Neumark’s music isn’t overly flashy, but is confident, lyrical and heartfelt.

Primary school teacher Tricia Mailey is mum to Cara, twelve, Noah, five, and one-year-old Bethany. Tricia and husband Sean run a home filled with laughter and love but what makes this everyday family so unique is that Tricia and her two elder children have the height-restricting condition achondroplasia, while Sean and Bethany are average-height.

Charley Rose and Devin Daniels are saxophonists from France and the USA, born in 1985 and 1997. Rose studied with a broad musical interest in Amsterdam, Daniels studied at Berklee College in Boston and soon played with renowned jazz greats.

Celebrating 30 years of Nils Landgren Funk Unit. The year 1994 marks the birth of the Funk Unit. When I got the offer from Siggi Loch to join his new label ACT, the first thing he did was to change the original band name Unit to Funk Unit. When I asked why, he answered: ”because you play funk” – and right he was. The rest is history. After 30 years of albums, touring and everything connected to it, I thought it would be great to go somewhere special for our 30th anniversary recording session. I happen to have a dear friend, Johan Lundgren, who used to be my trombone student lightyears ago, and he, together with another friend, Fredrik Thomander, built a fantastic Recording Studio in Palma on the island of Mallorca. Wouldn’t it be a great opportunity for us all, after all these years together, to record the album in a relaxed setting, being able to fully concentrate on our task? To make an album celebrating our 30-year history as a funk band from Sweden.