Roberta Settels was a composer and industrial designer who composed electronic music for spiritual survival. She was born in New York where she received her basic artistic-musical education at the Juilliard School of Music and The Art Students League, but was mostly residing in Europe. She composed at the EMS studios in Stockholm and IRCAM in Paris and worked with computerized and concrete music. “Music in Crisis” was her first gramophone record, but she also composed for TV-films, radio, and concerts.
Orchestral Transitions - Swedish Symphonic Music for the Organ / Lundblad
Caprice
CD · 1 disc
$17.99Nov 03, 2023
Organist and musicologist Jonas Lundblad explores the rich repertoire of Late Romantic music in the borderland between the organ and the orchestral sound scape, with both arrangements and original works of Swedish music from the early 20th century.
Field recordings of authentic Bosnian folk music; gathered by Swedish composer Folke Rabe; here paired with his monumental orchestral work "So That This Song Shall Not Die"; based on the varied melodies & expressions he found there.
Ljus och lykta (Light & Lantern): Swedish Shanties, Ballads & Love Songs
Caprice
CD · 1 disc
$20.99Sep 16, 2022
Debutants Ljus och lykta (meaning "Light and lantern") is a fresh breath of air on the Swedish music scene. A versatile musical experience, Ljus och lykta performs all kinds of traditional Swedish songs - ballads, love songs, shanties and more. While their music is firmly rooted in the Scandinavian tradition, Ljus och lykta also finds inspiration in other musical genres, such as bluegrass and British folk. At the core of the Ljus och lykta sound, we find the crisp, edgy voices of Klara von Huth and Annika Hammer. Vega Nordkvist’s forceful fiddling and Anton Larsson’s groovy guitar provide a steady backbone for the intertwining voices.
The organ played an important part in the changing musical climate of 19th century Sweden. Despite this, it's repertoire of the time has remained largely forgotten. In this release, several premiere recordings are presented, which still represent only a fraction of the rich repertoire of the 19th and very early 20th centuries. We also touch upon many examples of the parallel development of organ construction and repertoire in Sweden. The recordings document five historic organs, in original or restored condition, and music that has been relatively unknown is brought to the forefront. For instance, several important but rarely represented female composers have finally been recorded.
Caprice presents the luxurious double vinyl re-release of Jazz Furniture's classic debut album from 1994. Jazz Furniture was the name of a jazz group that spoke for themselves. They did this by, among other means, winning the 1994 Jazz i Sverige (Jazz in Sweden) award, which included a recording on Caprice Records. Jazz Furniture included: Magnus Broo, trumpet; Per ”Texas” Johansson and Fredrik Ljungkvist, saxophones; Esbjörn Svensson, piano; Dan Berglund bass; and Magnus Öström drums. Originating with the ambitious project, ”Swedish Jazz Future,” the group took the playful name, Jazz Furniture. The cover art shows what it is all about – Jazz Furniture crushes the old jazz furnishings, with great respect and finesse. With roots in the 1950s and 1960s, they set their very personal stamp on the music through their expressive playing style – reminiscent of the feeling one finds in rock music. Using rock’s terminology, it can be said that Jazz Furniture played a kind of ”trash jazz.”
Clavierists at the Organ in 18th Century Sweden / Lundblad
Caprice
CD · 1 disc
$20.99Mar 20, 2020
This recording is a modern portrait of the music that Swedish clavier-players might have carried to the organ in the latter half of the 1700s. Since hardly any Swedish music of the time was written exclusively for the organ, we must rely on historical sources for a sense of the possibilities. The selection offered here is largely a work of reconstruction, and except for the short movement by Roman, none of this repertoire has been recorded before, at least in this form for organ. Jonas Lundblad is an organist and musicologist. He studied church music in Malmö, Lübeck and Piteå, specializing in organ interpretation. A prolific freelance career performing both as an organ soloist and with choirs and orchestras has taken him to countries across Europe. When choosing repertoire, he looks mainly to the Romantic era and to new music, and enjoys delving into the sources to discover unknown or forgotten works. While a student for Hans-Ola Ericsson, he performed the complete works of Olivier Messiaen. Since then, the music and mental landscape of Messiaen have remained one his central influences.
Caprice presents the highly anticipated re-release of Rena Rama's live album from the Stockholm jazz club Fasching in 1975. Formed in 1971, Swedish jazz band Rena Rama was noted for mixing jazz, unusual time signatures, and African and Asian folk themes. It's original lineup included Lennart Aberg, Bobo Stenson, Palle Danielsson, and Bengt Berger. Stenson and Aberg had previously worked with Red Mitchell, and Danielsson with Steve Kuhn. Berger had previously studied percussion in India. Stenson had already recorded his first trio LP. This production features Leroy Lowe on drums.
Finally, the Swedish Grammy Award-winning album Folk with eminent jazz group Oddjob is released in a gorgeous new format. On the album, Oddjob turns to the past in order to see the future, blending traditional Swedish folk music expressions with contemporary jazz. The seven tracks are all inspired by the Caprice Records classic Ancient Swedish Pastoral Music. When Folk was first released in the fall of 2015, 50 years had passed since celebrated jazz musicians Jan Johansson, Bengt-Arne Wallin, Georg Riedel, and Bengt Hallberg were instructed by the Swedish Radio to make a similar excavation in the Swedish folk music archives, resulting in the album Adventures in Jazz and Folklore. But that's where the similarities end. This new edition of Folk has been specially remastered and edited for the format, and promises a listening experience unlike any other.
The great Swedish composer Wilhelm Stenhammar can be heard as accompanist on recordings with John Forsell, and as soloist on a few piano rolls, but never as conductor. However, his successor, Tor Mann was recorded while rehearsing and performing the famous 2nd symphony, and the Serenade, works he himself experienced under the composer's baton as an orchestral cellist. Sixten Eckerberg succeeded Tor Mann, and together with the Gothenburg Symphony and pianist Hans Leygraf, he made the world premiere gramophone records of Stenhammar's important orchestral works. This release explores Stenhammer's heritage through these historical recordings.
When Swedish composer Wilhelm Peterson-Berger's secret compartment was opened in connection to his 150th birthday in 2017, several unknown and forgotten recordings were discovered. These were of P.B. himself as narrator, pianist and conductor, as well as contemporary recordings of two complete acts of his opera Arnljot from the Royal Swedish Opera, and several shellac discs with his favorite singers. This release aims to bring those recordings into the light. Esteemed during his lifetime but relegated to the tertiary ranks of music figures thereafter, Wilhelm Peterson-Berger was a significant Swedish composer and critic in the early decades of the twentieth century. He studied organ and composition at the Stockholm Conservatory (1886-1889), then traveled to Dresden for further instruction in composition and orchestration. As a composer, he was a Romantic nationalist. He wrote many large works - his quasi-Wagnerian Arnljot is considered to be the Swedish national opera, and his third symphony and violin concerto are still highly regarded in his homeland - but Peterson-Berger is best remembered for his miniatures, particularly the piano pieces Frösöblomster, and perhaps the song collection Swedish Lyrics.
This record is a panorama of contemporary Turkish music. As such it includes traditional music - folk and classical - and also new popular music, in which Western, Indian och North African influences are combined. The music group Sameyda consists of six eminent Turkish musicians, all residing in Sweden at the time of this recoding. The group was founded by singer Sevinc Uygur, who also leads the group. Uygur also picked out the repertoire for the group, a great part of which she copied from the Turkish Radio's Folk Music Orchestras, a kind of modern versions of folk songs with strong melodies and rhythms. Many of the lyrics are humoristic and light spirited, built up around rhymes and jingles, and with love as a general theme.
When we use the terms "Greek traditional," "Grek folk," or "Greek demotic" music today, we mean songs and tunes coming from the past, from areas that were home to Christian farmers, shepherds and sailors during the Byzantine and Ottoman periods. Mostly- though not exclusively- Greek speaking, these populations lived, as was normal then, in close proximity with other ethnic, linguistic, or religious groups. In these areas, some of which now form modern-day Greece, the oral tradition of folk song and ecclesiastical music were the only available forms of musical expression. This album is the highly anticipated re-release of the 1980 album of the same name, extended with tracks licensed from the Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association. Domna Samiou (1928-2012) was a charismatic and multifaceted personality who dedicated her life to a quest which is now synonymous with her name: the preservation, dissemination and teaching of Greek traditional "folk" music.
Swedish Jazz History- a series of album compilations released by Caprice Records- chronicles jazz in Sweden with representative recordings up until the 1970s. Volume 11 is a comprehensive set of four albums with a total of 62 tracks, including some unissued items. It presents a vast selection of music by artists such as Alice Babs, Monica Dominique, Nannie Porres, Monica Zetterlund, Lars Gullin, Georg Riedel, Bernt Rosengren, The Swedish Radio Jazz Group, and more. Many sources of studio and live recordings are used from different locations in Sweden. This album reflects Swedish jazz of the 1970s, characterized by internationalization and intercultural influences. Foreign Sweden-based artists like Red Mitchell, Maffy Falay and Okay Temiz worked with Swedish musicians. For instance, with its Turkish influences, the Sevda group was a forerunner in what would later develop into the World Music genre. The 1970s was a musically rich decade where older jazz coexisted with new, freely improvised forms, influenced by both American and European avant-garde artists. Different kinds of Fusion, mixing jazz with other styles and expressions, became popular, such as Jazz Rock/ Jazz Funk.
A record with Swedish folk music – played on a bagpipe from Dalecarlia! + This was unheard of when these recordings were made during 1982/83. + The bagpipe being an instrument with Swedish traditions is a rather unknown fact for most people today. + On this album Per Gudmundson plays on a type of bagpipe that could still be heard at the beginning of the last century. + The specific instrument on this album is based on two older bagpipes from the Western part of Dalecarlia and is a result of a collaboration between Per and the instrument builder Leif Eriksson. + Here we can hear the bagpipe alone, but also together with vocals (Agneta Stolpe) and other folk instruments like the violin, the lira, the zither and the harmonica. + All played by well-known Swedish folk musicians like Magnus and Ola Bäckström, Jan Winter and Erik and Ingrid Ingels. + The bagpipe is used in a more contemporary context, inspired by modern Swedish folk music. + Extra tracks are added on this release.
In the world of music, Ale Möller is a much-traveled man. + With an array of instruments he has wandered far and wide, in space and time. + In the ‘sixties and ‘seventies, guitar in hand, he sang his way through Europe, strengthening the common bonds of youth across the frontiers. + With his trumpet he explored the nightlife sounds of New Orleans, the bebop dives of downtown Manhattan. + And then with his treasured bouzouki, among the mountains of Greece, he came to the realization that he must seek his roots, his identity, in the traditions of his native land. + All these impressions, together with his own quest for a traditional folk-music sound, filled Ale’s musical crucible, to be cast in the form of this first solo record of his very special brand of folk music. + The music heard here, recorded in 1986, is oh-so Swedish yet at the same time reflective of the broad musical experience of his travels.
Rudy ”Twoleft” Smith is a legendary figure in the world of steel pan and steelband.This album, What Pan Did For Me, offers samples of his many musical faces: the pan man, the jazz musician, the arranger, the pan tuner, the tune smith…Rudy’s life covers most of the development of steel pan as a tuned musical instrument.The first pans were made from biscuit tins and other metal containers and had but few notes.These were the first steel pans Rudy made and played as a very young boy.During the period 1945-55 the steel pan was gradually transformed into a set of instruments from treble to bass made from 55 gallon oil drums.The orchestra made up of steel pans became known as steelband.The original function of steelbands was to provide music for the masqueraders in the famous Trinidad carnival.The bands played the Trinidad calypso music, but very soon began playing other kinds of music.The U.S. had both a naval and air base in Trinidad.The G.I. audience was a different one than the local audience.And they could pay.With the “Yankees” departure in the late 1950s the steelbands had to look for new markets.As a teenager Rudy started to travel with the band Merrymakers, taking steelband to Europe in the wake of the 1950s calypso craze.
From Caprice Records comes the only recording ever made of Moses Pergament’s The Jewish Song. The work has never been performed as a whole since this 1974 concert performance. Composed in 1944, The Jewish Song, written for soprano, tenor, chorus and orchestra, takes us through history and switches between moods of deep bitterness, pride and confidence in the future. During his time, Finnish-Swedish composer Moses Pergament (1893-1977) was regarded as one of the major figures in Swedish art music.
Folk traditions in dance and music still held a strong position in Bulgaria of the 1950s, 60s and 70s. The Bulgarian style of singing conquered the world music and Rock scene in the 70s and 80s. The particular song style and the uneven bars of the dance music fascinated listeners all over the world. The recordings on this classical LP, now made available on CD were made at the time (1965) when tradition was still strong and new means of recording, together with radio broadcasts and television had entered the scene.
Rosengren, is one of Sweden’s most internationally renowned jazz artists. Since making his name at age 19, he has been a standard-bearer of Swedish jazz for over 50 years, inspiring and accompanying many generations of musicians. Featured in the 19-man band are virtually the entire jazz elite from 1970’s and 80’s, including Parlan and Raney.
Åke Hodell ?– Spirit Of Ecstasy / The Way To Nepal
Caprice
Vinyl · 1 disc
$18.99Sep 25, 2012
Spirit of Ecstasy has been out-of-print for more than two decades which makes this reissue highly important. The album consists of the works Spirit of Ecstasy (1977) and the Way to Nepal (1971). Spirit of Ecstasy is lively, being serious and humorous at the same time - ingeniously dramatized and well constructed, the history of the car is used to tell of the most important events in the history of the 20th century. The Way to Nepal (1971) is an exploration in sound, which confronts the listener with a dramatic process shifting between a meditative soundscape and disturbing motor noise.
One of the towering figures of American music, Cherry was part of the revolutionary free-bop quartet led by Coleman, an ensemble that helped shift the conversation about jazz from chord changes and swing to freedom and energy. By the late '60s, the pocket-cornet player was living in Sweden, with his wife Karlsson, playing with Swedish musicians from all backgrounds, seeking out exciting partners in a somewhat hippie-like atmosphere. It was in this milieu, in the summers of '71 and '72 that Cherry recorded the tracks for his legendary double LP, Organic Music Society, which was released on Caprice and is now reissued for the first time on CD. The sessions that comprise Organic Music Society are varied and represent several directions in Cherry's oeuvre.
One of the towering figures of American music, Cherry was part of the revolutionary free-bop quartet led by Coleman, an ensemble that helped shift the conversation about jazz from chord changes and swing to freedom and energy. By the late '60s, the pocket-cornet player was living in Sweden, with his wife Karlsson, playing with Swedish musicians from all backgrounds, seeking out exciting partners in a somewhat hippie-like atmosphere. It was in this milieu, in the summers of '71 and '72 that Cherry recorded the tracks for his legendary double LP, Organic Music Society, which was released on Caprice and is now reissued for the first time on CD. The sessions that comprise Organic Music Society are varied and represent several directions in Cherry's oeuvre.
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