Dan Berglund
Dan Berglund's Tonbruket

LA RECENSIONE

Tonbruket, the workshop of sounds.

There is a heart in this album, and it's not only the one on the cover, but also that of Dan Berglund, double bassist in the unforgettable E.S.T. of the brilliant pianist Esbjorn Svensson (who passed away in 2008), the trio that earned the reputation of the most influential jazz band of the past decade from the Times. 

Dan, nicknamed "the rocker of the trio," turns the page, but not with Magnus Ostrom, the drummer, instead with old and new travel companions, with different backgrounds:

Johan Lindstrom - acoustic and electric guitar, lap and pedal steel, piano on "Waltz For Matilda" - an old acquaintance and right-hand man in this project even concerning all the treated sounds and the final mixing

Martin Hederos - piano, pump organ, violin, keyboards, accordion - founder of the punk-psych band "The Soundtrack Of Our Lives"

Andreas Werliin - drums and percussion - engaged in the trio "Mats Gustafsson Fire" and the experimental duo "Wildbirds and Peacedrums".

Essentially, he founds a "sound laboratory" with the most diverse influences, without changing his way of playing and without denying the extraordinary journey made previously. On the contrary, by integrating the lesson learned, he changes direction: jazz is no longer the main pillar, nor is the piano; from jazz, Berglund moves straight to his roots, and thus into (hard) rock-progressive, art-rock and post-rock territories. To be honest, the last "Leucocyte" in the name of EST (in the opinion of the writer, a masterpiece), had already made us understand the intentions, which were dictated by an almost absolute freedom of expression, where experimentation played a crucial role.

Each genre influence here is decontextualized , you hear echoes of Black Sabbath, Emerson Lake and Palmer, but also Bill Frisell, Radiohead and music that touches all four cardinal points of the world perhaps in a single track, not the easiest music that somewhat surprises, somewhat destabilizes, but after several listens ends up working admirably.

As already happened with EST, we witness a load of effects, instruments that produce "other" sounds, loops that intersect, and other devilries for connoisseurs. The delightful "Song For E" is undoubtedly a tribute to the departed friend, but here the masterpieces are "Sailor Waltz" together with "Monstrous Colossus" and "Sister Sad".

This might sound biased (!), but you would need to be heartless not to appreciate albums like these!