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E.S.T. SYMPHONY

Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra

E.S.T. SYMPHONY

Format: CD
Label: ACT music
UPC: 0614427903426
Catnr: ACT 90342
Release date: 28 October 2016
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1 CD
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Label
ACT music
UPC
0614427903426
Catalogue number
ACT 90342
Release date
28 October 2016

"Eight years after his death the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra playes a touching and beautiful accolade to the Swedish pianist Esbjörn Svensson."

Jazzenzo, 29-12-2016
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
Press
EN

About the album

This is a program of exceptional symphonic music featuring compositions of the “Trio of the Decade” (The London Times); the most important, most copied, most influential and style-building jazz band of the Noughties, E.S.T. (Esbjörn Svensson Trio), arranged for symphony orchestra and jazz soloists.

Artist(s)

Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra

Continuing a tradition since 1902, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra has earned a great national and international renommé. For decades the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra (RSPO) has strived actively to renew and broaden the classical repertoire. This is shown for example in the annual and week-long Composer's Festival where an internationally renowned living composer is presented in depth. Among the featured composers in this firmly established festival we find Schnittke, Börtz, Pärt, Penderecki, Lutoslawski, Hillborg, Lindberg, Saariaho, Gubaidulina, Salonen, John Adams, Henze and Tan Dun. In 2006 yet another festival was founded: a spring festival called Composer’s Weekend features each year a Swedish up-and-coming composer. In addition, the orchestra regularly plays contemporary music and commissions new works. Lately the RSPO has also presented...
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Continuing a tradition since 1902, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra has earned a great national and international renommé.
For decades the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra (RSPO) has strived actively to renew and broaden the classical repertoire. This is shown for example in the annual and week-long Composer's Festival where an internationally renowned living composer is presented in depth.
Among the featured composers in this firmly established festival we find Schnittke, Börtz, Pärt, Penderecki, Lutoslawski, Hillborg, Lindberg, Saariaho, Gubaidulina, Salonen, John Adams, Henze and Tan Dun. In 2006 yet another festival was founded: a spring festival called Composer’s Weekend features each year a Swedish up-and-coming composer. In addition, the orchestra regularly plays contemporary music and commissions new works.
Lately the RSPO has also presented much-appreciated and talked about concerts featuring video game music arranged for symphony orchestra.
The RSPO works with conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kurt Masur, Andris Nelsons and Yannick Nézet-Seguin and soloists like Evgeny Kissin, Anne Sofie von Otter, Martin Fröst, Håkan Hardenberger and Leonidas Kavakos. Furthermore, the orchestra has a close collaboration with the illustrious Eric Ericson Chamber Choir.
The RSPO entered the 21st century under the American conductor Alan Gilbert as both its Chief Conductor and Artistic Adviser. he worked with the orchestra until 2008. At this moment the new Chief Conductor and Artistic Adviser is Sakari Oramo.


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Hans Ek (conductor)

Magnus Öström (drums)

Magnus Öström was born on May 3rd, 1965 in Skultuna, Sweden as second son to local painter Arne and Siv Öström. His brother Tommy was three years older and influenced Magnus in his early years with his eclectic record collection including Jimmy Hendrix, Deep Purple, Almond Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd. At the age of eight Magnus built his first drumkit out of his fathers empty paintcans and only a year later he started his first band together with a kid from across the street, Esbjörn Svensson. Magnus received his first real drumkit only one year later as a christmas present. Another year later he performed his first concert. The band was called ”Beware Of The Beginners”. In 1978 his brother took...
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Magnus Öström was born on May 3rd, 1965 in Skultuna, Sweden as second son to local painter Arne and Siv Öström. His brother Tommy was three years older and influenced Magnus in his early years with his eclectic record collection including Jimmy Hendrix, Deep Purple, Almond Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd. At the age of eight Magnus built his first drumkit out of his fathers empty paintcans and only a year later he started his first band together with a kid from across the street, Esbjörn Svensson. Magnus received his first real drumkit only one year later as a christmas present. Another year later he performed his first concert. The band was called ”Beware Of The Beginners”.
In 1978 his brother took him to a concert of Billy Cobham with John McLaughlin. This experience turned his musical world upside down and got him into jazzrock. Aged 13 to 16 Magnus had several bands simultaneously together with Esbjörn Svensson playing all different styles, from dance-music to punk. From 1981 to 1983 Magnus studied at the music highschool (Gymnasium) in Västerås. During those years Esbjörn and Magnus had their first trio together. From 1983 to 1985 he then studied music at Sjöviks folk high-school.
In 1985 Magnus moved to Stockholm to study at the Royal Conservatory of Music. He immediately started to play in different bands on Stockholm ́s jazz scene. Between 1987 and 1992 he was a constant member of Monica Borrfors band, a well-known Swedish jazz vocalist who played mainly jazz standards and together they toured extensively throughout Sweden and beyond. ”Playing live, especially with a singer is the best school in the world for a young drummer”, he says.
In 1989 after a break of a few years Magnus and Esbjörn hooked up again and started jamming together. They formed a band called ”Stock Street B”. The setup included - amoung other gadgets - samplers and octapads with sampled vocals. ”It was too early for that kind of thing. No one understood what we were doing, really. They thought we were playing to backing-tracks but everything we did was live...!” In 1991 him and Esbjörn started the predecessor to e.s.t. and in 1992 Dan Berglund joined on bass. Together they recorded 12 albums and one concert DVD, toured the world several times over, sold hundreds of thousands of albums, and were titled the ”trio of the decade”. Nowadays e.s.t. are considered to have been the most influential band in jazz in the Noughties and their album ”Live in Hamburg” (ACT 6002-2) has been awarded ”Album of the Decade” by no lesser than the London Times. The career of e.s.t. came to a sudden, tragic end when Esbjörn Svensson died in a scuba diving accident on June 14, 2008.
Three years later, on Februar 25, 2011, Magnus Öström released “Thread of Life” (ACT 9525-2) – his debut as a leader and his first (musical) sign of life after the tragedy. Its haunting, dark music, drawing inspiration from jazz, progressive rock, drum’n’bass and minimal music was Öströms attempt of coping with the huge loss. On the song “Ballad for E”, Magnus Öström and Dan Berglund played together in the studio for the first time after Svenssons death – accompanied by the great e.s.t. fan Pat Metheny.
In July 2011, the German JazzBaltica Festival is paying tribute to Esbjörn Svensson and e.s.t. .
The highlight of the festival is an evening with music by and for Esbjörn Svensson, on which Magnus Öström not only performed with his “Thread of Life” band but also was hosting the programme.
In 2012, Magnus Öström received the „Echo Jazz“, Germany’s most important music award, as „best drummer international“ for „Thread of Life“. His performance of piece “Tears for Esbjörn”, together with pianist Iiro Rantala was an emotional peak of the award ceremony.
Four years after the death of Esbjörn Svensson, on March 30, 2012 with „301“ (ACT 9029-2) a new e.s.t. album was released – with previously unreleased studio material, produced by Magnus Öström and Dan Berglund. The album made it to #53 of the German popcharts and #1 of the jazzcharts. Also, since the release of “Liberetto” (ACT 9520-2) in February 2012, Magnus Öström is a permanent member of the band of bassist Lars Danielsson.
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Verneri Pohjola (trumpet)

Iiro Rantala (piano)

Iiro Rantala is 'a natural phenomenon on keys' (German jazz magazine Jazzthing); an all-rounder of whom New York-based pianist and arranger Gil Goldstein quite rightly said: 'Iiro Rantala is a pianistic sensation who makes the strongest case I know to believe in reincarnation, because his pianistic technique and musical sensitivity speak of depths that appear impossible to have been achieved in this lifetime alone'. Up to now, Rantala was mainly associated with the trio Töykeät, one of the weirdest, funniest and most visionary piano trios in international jazz. He sounded out all the possibilities of this formation: Sometimes playing the energetic lion on keys, sometimes the sensitive romantic or the burlesque clown. His playing blasted away all stylistic boundaries and...
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Iiro Rantala is "a natural phenomenon on keys" (German jazz magazine Jazzthing); an all-rounder of whom New York-based pianist and arranger Gil Goldstein quite rightly said: "Iiro Rantala is a pianistic sensation who makes the strongest case I know to believe in reincarnation, because his pianistic technique and musical sensitivity speak of depths that appear impossible to have been achieved in this lifetime alone". Up to now, Rantala was mainly associated with the trio Töykeät, one of the weirdest, funniest and most visionary piano trios in international jazz. He sounded out all the possibilities of this formation: Sometimes playing the energetic lion on keys, sometimes the sensitive romantic or the burlesque clown. His playing blasted away all stylistic boundaries and was as uncompromised as it was entertaining, but kept together by a magical triangle: his boundless technical ability and his unmistakeable senses of humour and style.
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Marius Neset (saxophone)

Marius Neset (b. 1985) remembers his very first experiences as an instrumentalist, well before he took up the saxophone at the age of eight: “As a 5-year old kid, I got a drum set,” he says, “and it was the beginning of an incredibly exciting – and rhythmical, musical journey. From the beginning it felt natural to me to play around with grooves in different odd meters, and play around with different polyrhythms too.” This particular focus, this ever-present sense of adventure are intrinsic to everything he does, whether working as a solo saxophonist, in a jazz quintet, as part of chamber ensembles or with big bands or symphony orchestras. Neset made an astonishingly powerful impression when he first emerged onto...
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Marius Neset (b. 1985) remembers his very first experiences as an instrumentalist, well before he took up the saxophone at the age of eight: “As a 5-year old kid, I got a drum set,” he says, “and it was the beginning of an incredibly exciting – and rhythmical, musical journey. From the beginning it felt natural to me to play around with grooves in different odd meters, and play around with different polyrhythms too.” This particular focus, this ever-present sense of adventure are intrinsic to everything he does, whether working as a solo saxophonist, in a jazz quintet, as part of chamber ensembles or with big bands or symphony orchestras.

Neset made an astonishingly powerful impression when he first emerged onto the European jazz scene as a young saxophonist of protean gifts more than a decade ago.
Django Bates, who was a teacher and a significant mentor at the Rhythmic Conservatory in Copenhagen, had Neset in several of his band, and also appeared on Neset’s breakthrough album, Golden Xplosion (Edition, 2011).

The intervening years have seen him bring his huge creative energy to so many roles in different contexts, as either an instigator or as a catalyst. An aspect of his work which does not often receive the attention it deserves is the substantial catalogue of works which Neset now has to his name as a composer, a list which continues to grow. He has received and fulfilled a flow of major commissions for substantial pieces for large ensembles and orchestras, starting in 2012 with “Lion” written for the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, first performed at the Molde Jazz Festival, and released as a CD in 2014. The album marked his debut with one of the leading jazz labels in Europe, ACT, with whom he has gone on to make a total of ten albums in his own name.

Since “Lion” Neset has written three major works with the London Sinfonietta: “Arches of Nature” / “Snowmelt” (2016), described as “majestic” by Downbeat, “Viaduct (2018) commissioned by the Kongsberg Jazz Festival, and most recently a commission, “Geyser” from the BBC Proms which was premiered in the Royal Albert Hall in September 2022.
Other commissions have come from Big Bands in both Bergen and Copenhagen, from the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival, where artistic director Leif Ove Andsnes, one of the leading classical pianists in the world, is a close musical colleague and friend, and from symphony orchestras: the Bergen Philharmonic who have commissioned both a saxophone concerto, “Manmade” (2020), released by the Chandos label, and a 20-minute piece for full orchestra without saxophone (2021), and also the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.
Marius Neset has now received well over twenty awards or award nominations for albums and from festivals. The first was received as a teenager from the NattJazz Festival in Bergen. In Norway several EDVARD nominations and Spelleman prize and nominations have followed. He has won prize and been nominated in different categories at the German ECHO Awards. He was also the only European to be listed as one of "25 for the Future" by Downbeat in 2016.

Neset’s dynamism and his organisational capacity are such that this substantial activity as composer runs in parallel with a busy touring schedule as both leader and sideman – he is a member of Arild Andersen’s new quartet which has a new recording on ECM. It is just part of a substantial and growing discography. Neset’s main release in the current quarter (autumn 2022) is with a newly-formed quintet. “Happy”, on the ACT label features Neset’s closest musical associate, Swedish drummer Anton Eger, and other leading lights of European jazz of his generation: Magnus Hjorth on piano, Elliot Galvin on keyboards and Conor Chaplin on electric bass.

The common thread running through Neset’s career is that both his compositions and playing have consistently attracted other world class musicians, not only the jazz-scene, but from from many different genres in the musical world to want to work. The result is that the sheer breadth of Marius Neset’s activity at the top level in all kinds of musical contexts is astonishing, and is still broadening.


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Composer(s)

Esbjörn Svensson Trio

The Independent’s critic Stuart Nicholson was clearly moved by the concert. Here we reproduce his thoughtful and vivid review: “The Esbjorn Svensson Trio, or EST as they like to be known these days, do to the jazz piano trio what James Joyce did to coming-of-age tales by cutting up the form and starting afresh.  “This acclaimed Swedish group have been a hit on the European scene for a while now. In 2000, the German news weekly Der Spiegel hailed Svensson as 'the future of the jazz piano', and since then his trio have consolidated their position as one of the top bands on the circuit. They are currently more popular than most big American jazz names.  “Attracting the kind of following EST enjoy...
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The Independent’s critic Stuart Nicholson was clearly moved by the concert. Here we reproduce his thoughtful and vivid review:

“The Esbjorn Svensson Trio, or EST as they like to be known these days, do to the jazz piano trio what James Joyce did to coming-of-age tales by cutting up the form and starting afresh.

“This acclaimed Swedish group have been a hit on the European scene for a while now. In 2000, the German news weekly Der Spiegel hailed Svensson as "the future of the jazz piano", and since then his trio have consolidated their position as one of the top bands on the circuit. They are currently more popular than most big American jazz names.

“Attracting the kind of following EST enjoy prompts accusations - often well founded - of dumbing down. But Svensson is one of those rare musicians who dispenses the common touch without compromising his art. He avoids the usual jazz musician's stock-in-trade of cramming as many notes as he can into the square inch, instead favouring innovative silences and a darkly intense lyricism that allows his emotional honesty to show through.

“Although he once dabbled among the magical spells of the pianist Keith Jarrett's Belonging period, the new spirit Svensson has come up with is shorn of Jarrett's angst and the feeling that a good thing has been taken to wearying extremes. Featured were several tunes from EST's current album, Viaticum (which went gold in France and platinum in Germany), including "Tide of Trepidation", "Eighty-eight Days In My Veins" and the title track.

“The suave use of lighting underlined the shifting moods of EST's music while their careful use of dynamics, unusual in jazz, which usually opts for fast-equals-loud, slow-equals-soft, made Svensson's lyrical intensity stand out in sharp relief. Yet the non-conformist Dan Berglund likes Jimi Hendrix and Richie Blackmore (of Deep Purple) and is not afraid to use a wah-wah pedal or feedback with his acoustic bass ("Mingle In the Mincing Machine"), while the drummer Magnus Ostrom dances around formal regularity with a variety of techniques, such as using his fingers on his snare to emulate pop's rhythm samples.

“EST renew the notion that the cutting edge of jazz need not involve volatile experimentation. At the head of a sense-sharpening breeze of change currently blowing through European jazz, Svensson [..] gave further evidence that the best European jazz is no longer a pale imitation of what is happening in the United States. Indeed, here was evidence that Europe is now moving ahead in creativity and originality.”


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Press

Eight years after his death the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra playes a touching and beautiful accolade to the Swedish pianist Esbjörn Svensson.
Jazzenzo, 29-12-2016

Play album Play album
01.
e.s.t. Prelude
06:42
(Esbjörn Svensson Trio) Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Dan Berglund, Magnus Öström, Iiro Rantala, Marius Neset, Verneri Pohjola, Johan Lindström, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
02.
From Gagarin´s Point of View
04:43
(Esbjörn Svensson Trio) Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Dan Berglund, Magnus Öström, Iiro Rantala, Marius Neset, Verneri Pohjola, Johan Lindström, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
03.
When God Created the Coffeebreak
06:21
(Esbjörn Svensson Trio) Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Dan Berglund, Magnus Öström, Iiro Rantala, Marius Neset, Verneri Pohjola, Johan Lindström, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
04.
Seven Days of Falling
07:30
(Esbjörn Svensson Trio) Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Dan Berglund, Magnus Öström, Iiro Rantala, Marius Neset, Verneri Pohjola, Johan Lindström, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
05.
Wonderland Suite
12:53
(Esbjörn Svensson Trio) Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Dan Berglund, Magnus Öström, Iiro Rantala, Marius Neset, Verneri Pohjola, Johan Lindström, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
06.
Serenade for the Renegade
06:28
(Esbjörn Svensson Trio) Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Dan Berglund, Magnus Öström, Iiro Rantala, Marius Neset, Verneri Pohjola, Johan Lindström, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
07.
Dodge the Dodo
06:51
(Esbjörn Svensson Trio) Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Dan Berglund, Magnus Öström, Iiro Rantala, Marius Neset, Verneri Pohjola, Johan Lindström, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
08.
Eighthundred Streets by Feet
05:16
(Esbjörn Svensson Trio) Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Dan Berglund, Magnus Öström, Iiro Rantala, Marius Neset, Verneri Pohjola, Johan Lindström, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
09.
Viaticum Suite
10:47
(Esbjörn Svensson Trio) Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Dan Berglund, Magnus Öström, Iiro Rantala, Marius Neset, Verneri Pohjola, Johan Lindström, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
10.
Behind the Yashmak
10:09
(Esbjörn Svensson Trio) Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Dan Berglund, Magnus Öström, Iiro Rantala, Marius Neset, Verneri Pohjola, Johan Lindström, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra

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