Emil Brandqvist Trio

Emil Brandqvist is a drummer, a composer and bandleader. He is living in Gothenburg/Sweden and was educated at the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg. He is involved in many different projects both as a drummer and composer. Inspiration for his composing often comes as a soundtrack to the nature of Sweden. And the titles of the compositions often come first when the music is performed for the first time and the pictures start to move within the mind. The music is often fully arranged but there is a big open window for the trios musicians to make the music live to its fullest. Emil is also composing music for film and has worked on scores for many different film-projects. Emil is always seeking new ways to express his music and is very interested in exploring the possibilities in new collaborations for his composing and playing.

“Brandqvist has a sense for ethereal melodies that takes the listener on rides across any landscape imaginable.” Lira, Sweden

“Stunning” Jazzenzo, Netherlands

“Those who like Jazz trios should also check out the new record “Falling Crystals” by Emil Brandqvist Trio. Brandqvist is a drummer from Gothenburg and has written most of the music on this exceptionally melodious and beautiful record. He is accompanied by pianist Tuomas Turunen, a Finn with a poetic and lively touch on the keyboard. And lastly Max Thornberg on bass. No one stands out, all impress.” Dagbladet, Norway

“The Emil Brandqvist Trio, which is very successful in Germany, has so far remained relatively unnoticed in the Netherlands. Maybe the fourth album the trio released recently will change that. The sound is further refined and the band can hear more sides of themselves. With the first notes you almost by mistake think you have a CD with music of Satie set because of the introverted, spatial piano sounds. Not only classical music, but also the mighty Swedish nature is a source of inspiration for drummer and composer Emil Brandqvist, and it is again good to hear that he also writes film music: ‘Within a Dream’ contains a number of beautiful soundscapes.” Jazzenzo, Netherlands

“Entering The Woods”/Skip Records – Release February 2020

The wait is over: “Entering The Woods”, the 5th album by the Emil Brandqvist Trio, is finished. There’s no doubt that this formation is among the few piano trios worldwide that have played their way up to a continent-spanning listening audience in recent years by constantly developing the band’s very own, highly recognizable sound and advancing it further. More than 10 million streams for individual songs(!) have catapulted the trio to vanguard rankings. In North America they crop up on playlists displaying major radio audience figures, in Japan they’re a must on countless compilations as a prime example of today’s Scandinavian Jazz, and in Germany their last album ranked No. 3 on the national jazz charts. ECHO award nominations and an appearance on the Longlist of German Record Critics have provided further proof of their large-scale acceptance. Most recently the greatest acclaim has come not only from sold out club tours but from performances at equally acclaimed German jazz and classical music festivals such as Movimentos Wolfsburg, Palatia Jazz, Elbjazz Hamburg, the Beethovenfest in Bonn, or Jazz Baltica on the shores of the Baltic Sea. At a live appearance on “Aspekte”, a cultural TV show on the German ZDF national network, they were announced as “the loveliest flower in the piano trio genre.”
The trio’s secret lies in the rare gift of having evolved such an inimitable sound marked by the finely sculpted soundscapes of Emil Brandqvist on drums and the at times sensitively dotted and dashed, other times rolling like a juggernaut neo-classicism of Tuomas A. Turunen, a pianist from Finland who also recently recorded a highly expressive solo CD for SKIP (released as SKP 9139 “Ornaments Of Time”). The stoically driving force emitted via Max Thornberg’s playing on double bass lends the trio unmistakeable body and weight. As usual, Emil Brandqvist himself is responsible for most of the compositions, but it’s become a fine tradition that Tuomas A. Turunen, who now calls the south of France home, acts as co-composer, too.
No sooner than the first notes of “My New Bike” find the listener riding along in the EBT cosmos of sweetly spiced drum accents and lush piano harmonies. On “Unbreakable”, a Tuomas A. Turunen composition, the notes literally pearl across the voluminous yet discreet bass lines by Max Thornberg: audiophonic moments that invite us to dream and ‘resense images’. With the EBT, you can’t help but hear the highly detailed production work in which Emil Brandqvist successfully manages to enhance the piano trio genre time and time again by adding surprising twists: tricky rhythms like the ones on “Crowded Apartment” are just as much a part of his toolkit as adding guest musicians, like on “The Woods”. Here accordion-player Lisa Langbacka joins the trio to provide mellifluously melancholy moments. On “Grand Piano”, Mr. Emil from Gothenburg employs uncompromising drumwork to whip the trio on while deploying a bass clarinet played by Martin Brandqvist and a flugelhorn played by Johan Asplund to set atmospheric accents. “Butterflies”, a waltz in typical EBT attire, lets the fragile creatures dance as they do their winged-thing. In contrast, “Hide And Seek” sounds like a toy clock gone wild as it spins its way ahead while Tuomas A. Turunen delivers the space for keyboard runs far beyond metronome tick-tock atop meaty, earthy sounds from Brandqvist and Thornberg. In conclusion, and thanks to the central key role played by Max Thornberg, “The Clouds Are Clearing” sounds as if Sting had migrated back to the world of jazz. Embellished with prepared piano effects, celesta, bowed bass, horns and woodwinds, it has all the makings of the soundtrack for a cinematic epic.
The trio will be playing these new songs and classics from its catalog on-stage on extended concert tours in April/May, at summer festivals, and in the fall of 2020. Tour dates at www.skiprecords.com or at www.emilbrandqvisttrio.com “Entering The Woods” is a whole new ball game, another slam dunk from the Emil Brandqvist Trio.