I stood on top of the mountain and looked out over the landscape. It was so beautiful that my chest hurt. The light vibrated, time stood still, and the contours dissolved for a moment. Everything had changed; I felt it then. I took their little hands so as not to lose contact with the ground. Then we ran down the mountain, scraping our knees. Still, we didn't make it. You had already put away all the nautical charts, loosened the moorings and steered out among the skerries. Mum stood waving from the jetty. You were alone, you wanted it that way. It was to be just you in the boat this time. I called out to you. I think you heard me and felt less lonely. We couldn't carry each other anymore, no matter how hard we tried. We washed our wounds on the shore and scattered tears and rose petals in the bay. The children laughed and searched for treasures under water. We called to them that it was time to come up. They were cold, and we hugged them to warmth. One ran ahead, the other up on our shoulders. Up the mountain, our mountain.
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In 2020 Anna Högberg put her widely celebrated band Anna Högberg Attack on hold, retraining as a nurse whilst continuing a solo practice and playing in other groups. With Ensamseglaren she makes a spectacular return with her own ensemble — this time a double sextet — performing an album length suite of new music written in dedication to her late father — the titular ‘ensamseglaren’ pictured on the LP cover as a young boy.
(ensam in Swedish can mean both alone and lonely, seglaren = the sailor).
Shot through with renewed energy and a brutally affective emotional punch, Högberg’s formal experimentation opens up vibrant possibilities for the assembled musicians to let loose with some of their wildest and most ecstatic playing on record.
Högberg’s contention with grief leans into collective joy as method of mourning — the big band as extended family; where bonds are made through a shared experience of being together. Where everyone gets to be themselves without expectations of who they should be or what they can do. It’s a radical commitment to care — of her self and others — that animates and unifies this suite of music’s radical dynamics and variations in colour: from whisper-quiet textural intensity to harrowing distortion and double drum chaos; raucous and solemn song.
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Throughout history, humans have had different images of the transition between life and death. Imagine standing on the seashore on a summer evening and seeing a beautiful vessel being prepared for departure. The sails are hoisted. The evening breeze comes, the sails fill and the boat glides out onto the open sea. You follow it with your eyes as it heads towards the sunset. It gets smaller and smaller, until it finally disappears as a tiny dot on the horizon. Then you hear someone next to you say, ‘Now they have left us.’
Left us for what? The fact that they got smaller and smaller and finally disappeared is only how we see it. In reality, they are just as big and beautiful as when they were here, lying on the beach by our side.
Just as you hear that voice say ‘Now they have left us’, there may be someone on another beach who sees them appear on the horizon, someone waiting to welcome them when they reaches their new port.
Credits
Anna Högberg Alto Saxophone
Elin Forkelid Tenor Sax
Niklas Barnö Trumpet
Maria Bertel Trombone
Per Åke Holmlander Tuba
Dieb13 Turntables
Finn Loxbo Guitar + Saw
Alex Zethson Piano
Gus Loxbo Double Bass + Saw
Kansan Zetterberg Double Bass
Anton Jonsson Drums
Dennis Egberth Drums
All Music by Anna Högberg (ncb/Stim). Recorded by Niklas Lindström and Calle Gustavsson at Atlantis Grammofon, Stockholm: 15-16 October 2024. Mixed by Niklas Lindström at Atlantis Grammofon. Mastered by Andreas [Lupo] Lubich. Innersleeve Photos by Tina Axelsson. Cover Photographer Unknown. Design by John Chantler. This Release has Received Financial Support from Kulturrådet, the Swedish Arts Council. c + p 2025. This lp is Fönstret—16.
Distribution
Discreet Music (SE)
ANOST (DE)
Soundohm (IT)
Clandestine (USA)
Anna Högberg is an alto saxophonist and composer from Stockholm.
In 2013 she initiated her own group — Anna Högberg Attack — a sextet that released two acclaimed LPs — the group's eponymous debut in 2016 and it's follow-up 'Lena' in 2020 which was awarded LP of the year by Sweden's Jazz magazine Orkester Journalen. Shortly after that record's release Högberg put things on hold, retraining as a nurse whilst continuing a solo practice and playing in other groups — most notably various permutations of Fire! Orchestra.
In 2024 she assembled a new ensemble — this time a double sextet — to record 'Ensamseglaren' an album length suite of new music written in dedication to her late father — the titular ‘lonely sailor’ pictured on the LP cover as a young boy. Shot through with renewed energy and a brutally affective emotional punch, Högberg’s formal experimentation opens up vibrant possibilities for the assembled musicians to let loose with some of their wildest and most ecstatic playing on record and across standout concerts for Berlin and Stockholm Jazz Festivals.
Finn Loxbo is a guitarist with a focus on free improvisation. His music is usually on either side of two dynamic extremes: quiet acoustic or very loud. On the quiet side we find him in his own ensemble Kommun, as a solo act and in collaborations with, for example, Skogen. Examples from the louder side are Kyosaku, Anna Högberg Extended Attack, and previously in bands such as Doglife, Strändernas svall and Fire! Orchestra.
Bass playing composer and improviser Kansan (Torbjörn) Zetterberg emerged from the fertile Swedish jazz scene some 25 years ago. Since his debut album in 2002 he has released 12 albums as a leader, and has been involved in a bunch of collaborations with musicians and bands like Jonas Kullhammar Quartet, Johan Lindström Septett, Fire! Orchestra, Johan Lindström Septett, Anna Högberg, Goran Kajfes, Per Texas Johansson, Mette Rasmussen Quintet, Cosmic Ear, Svenska Kaputt and Orakel to mention a few.
In addition life as a musician, Kansan is also a Zen buddhist teacher and priest. He teaches at Zenbuddhistiska Samfundet’s main tempel, Zengården, and at The Stockholm Zen Center.
Born in 1984 in southern Sweden, Elin (maiden name Larsson) moved to Stockholm at the age of 20 to pursue saxophone and jazz studies at the Royal College of Music. For the last 15 years, she has been a prominent voice on the Swedish jazz and impro scene.
Starting off with her first own band Elin Larsson Group, Elin gained a wide recognition with the debut album Live And Alive (Playing With Music/Border 2009). In 2010 she was awarded Newcomerof the year bytheSwedish Jazz Radio.
The debut was followed by albums Let You In (Playing With Music/Border 2011) andGrowing Up (Playing With Music/Border 2013). In 2013 Elin received another prestigious award, The Lars Gullin Prize, in recognition of her work for the development of Swedish Jazz.
In 2013, Elin started working with the praised Anna Högberg Attack, a six piece band that has since then released two much acclaimed albums and toured Europe frequently. Around this time she also performed a lot with Mats Gustafsson’s FIRE! Orchestra and found herself being more and more drawn towards free music.
Today, Elin works primarily with her own band Elin Forkelid Plays For Trane, a quintet that plays willful interpretations of jazz giant John Coltrane’s work, along with quartet SOL SOL, which she leads and composes for together with guitar player David Stackenäs.
In 2020 Elin started her own record label, Sail Cabin Records, in order to release her own projects and the freedom that provides. The label has released two albums, with a third one coming in the spring of 2024.
Elin has gained praise for her composing skills. She enjoys composing for various different line ups, and focuses on the individualities of the musicians she’s composing for at the moment.
Today, Elin finds herself standing somewhere in between jazz, free jazz and free impro. Her curiosity and love for the art of improvisation keeps bringing her to new places and faces.
Per Åke Holmlander was born in 1957 in Skellefteå in the very north of Sweden. He received his diploma in classical tuba in 1983 at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm with Michael Lind as a teacher. Holmlander has always worked simultaneously across improvisation, jazz, rock and classical music.
As an improviser Holmlander leads his own Carliot – It´s never too late Orchestra and has worked with Eje Thelin, Marilyn Crispell, Paul Lovens, Folke Rabe, Phil Minton, Sten Sandell, Sven-Åke Johansson, Gunter Christmann, Kjell Westling, Keith Rowe, Georg Riedel, Position Alpha, The Swedish Radio Jazz Group, Barry Guy New Orchestra, Ken Vandermark, London Jazz Composers Orchestra, Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, Swedish azz, Fredrik Ljungkvist, Fire! Orchestra and many many others.