MP3: Yttling Jazz - Tokyo Hyatt

This is a week chock full of exclusives! Besides giving you the very first taste of the new The End Will Be Kicks album and offering it up for sale on mp3 waaaaay before it's available anywhere else, I've got yet another treat for you today! When I first heard that Björn Yttling had a jazz album in the works, I was naturally quite curious. Many people now recognize him as a member of the excellent Peter Bjorn and John, but I first became aquainted with his music through his extensive work as a producer. Many fine records in my collection are adorned with his name on the credits. So not only do I have a brand new track from his upcoming album today, but I was also afforded the opportunity to ask Björn a few questions about his work.

AR: Why a jazz album? What was the inspiration for the project?

BY: I've always listened to jazz (stuff like Mingus, Ornette Coleman, Charlie Haden, Ellington and of course Coltrane and Charlie Parker) and ten years ago I also played it. But the jazz scene can be very very boring with people just playing standards in predictable ways, so I kind of slipped away from it. I was still writing jazz songs though, and spurred by saxophone player Jonas Kullhammar I started thinking of making a jazz record.

AR: Is there a lot of difference in the way you work when you are composing jazz charts as opposed to when you are doing arrangements for pop music?

BY: No not really. The biggest different is that (my) jazz music is instrumental and pop music often isn't. Of course with jazz tunes you can leave the forms more open for improvising. I recorded this record in a day, and pop albums always take at least two.

AR: What other current producers do you admire right now?

BY:I really don't keep track on foreign producers that much, but there are many Swedes that I really like. Björn Olsson, Pelle Gunnerfeldt and Jari Haapalainen of course, but don't forget Jocke Åhlund from Caesars and Calle Olsson from Bear Quartet.

AR: So what's next for you then?

BY: I'm doing/planning a few records right now. Montys Loco, Elias & The Wizzkids, The Charm, Pueblo and we're almost done with the new Peter Bjorn And John album. What I really looking forward to do now is a record with Joakim Åhlund, and we're gonna start next week.

Björn's new jazz album with Yttling Jazz is called "Oh Lord, why can't I keep my big mouth shut". It comes out November 21 via Headspin Recordings.

Yttling Jazz - Tokyo Hyatt

I'm not sure why I haven't done it already, but here's the tracklists for those carious upcoming Startracks-produced Festival compilations:

Accelerator 2004
01. M. Craft – Sweet
02. The Shins – So Says I
03. Electrelane – The Valleys
04. Lali Puna – Faking the books
05. Broken Social Scene – Stars and sons
06. Explosions in the Sky – The only moment we were alone
07. Laakso – Blizzard
08. Jens Lekman – The wrong hands (prev. unreleased)
09. Jonas Kullhammar – Bebopalulia
10. The Go! Team - Panterdash
11. The Von Bondies – C'mon, C'mon
12. Existensminimum – The on and on
13. Franz Ferdinand – Take me out (Naum Gabo re-mix) (prev. unreleased)

Picknick
01. Kristofer Åström – Idiot talk
02. Richard Buckner – Jewelbomb
03. Tiger Lou – Rushmore (prev. unreleased)
04. Ane Brun – Are they saying goodbye?
05. Denison Witmer – Stations
06. Tomas Andersson Wij – Tommy och hans mamma
07. Christian Kjellvander – For the sake of the song (prev. unreleased. Zandt cover, recorded live at Mondo)
08. Anna Ternheim – Troubled mind
09. Nicolai Dunger – Slaves (we're together like)
10. Tomas Andersson Wij – En vän till mig
11. Ane Brun – Fight Song (prev. unreleased. Likely to be recorded for her next album due 2005)
12. Syd Matters – Have a nice day
13. Kristofer Åström – Cardiac (prev. unreleased, from the "There for" sessions)
14. Syd Matters - Bones
15. Richard Buckner – Put on what you wanna
16. Tiger Lou – Like you said
17. Nicolai Dunger - City sun

The (International) Noise Conspiracy live album that was recorded at the Oslo Jazz Festival last summer will finally get released in a few weeks. It features the entire show from start to finish along with special guests Jonas Kullhammar on saxophone and Sven Erik Dahlberg piano doing what can be considered a 'greatest hits' set of the band's material plus one new track. It probably won't get much in the way of wide distribution, so if you're interested in picking it up you should probably contact Moserobie, the label that's putting it out. Otherwise, look for it for sale at upcoming t(I)NC gigs.

In other news, the band reports that they are still holed up in Umeå in writing mode for the new record and have about 20 songs ready to go. No studio date yet, but they say they "feel very inspired and excited to start recording the new album."

The details for P3 Popstad in February have been announced. Read more here or here (in Swedish). Some of the band playing include The Ark, Looptroop, Melody Club, Dub Sweden, The Sounds, The Haunted, Marit Bergman and Awa Manneh.

Recording for the new Fireside album is still coming along. Kristofer Åström reports the band just spent some time in the Silence studio this past weekend. A mid-April release date is the plan.

Before he heads out on tour, Nicolai Dunger will be continuing his pre-production work on his new album with the guys from Mercury Rev up in Kingston, NY. And also, I neglected to find out his backing band on said tour. It's gonna be Thomas Tjärnkvist, Johan Berthling, Jari Haapalainen (Bear Quartet), Jonas Kullhammar and Kjell-Erik Eriksson. Again, full dates are here.

After having various members experiment with solo projects such as A-Camp and Righteous Boy, The Cardigans are finally gonna have a new record out. "Long Gone Before Sunlight" is the title and it will feature guest appearances from Howlin´ Pelle Almqvist (The Hives), Ebbot Lundberg (The Soundtrack of Our Lives) and Nick Royale (The Hellacopters). Look for it in stores on March 24. The first single will be "For What It's Worth" and you'll be seeing that on February 17. For even more detail, read this interview with Nina Persson from MTVE.com.

E-Type to go heavy metal? Apparently so. Blabbermouth reports that E-Type mainman Martin Eriksson is indeed taking his music in a heavier direction for his upcoming tour. I had no idea, but I guess Martin used to drum for Hexenhaus way back when, but will not be behind the kit of course. That duty will be going to Motörhead drummer Mikkey Dee.

In celebration of Bathory's 20 year anniversary, Black Mark Records will be remastering and reissuing all of his albums on vinyl with enhanced layouts and full lyric sheets.