e.s.t. 30

We may have lost Esbjörn Svensson but the love for his music and the dedication of his drummer and bass player in e.s.t. remain as strong as ever. Two concerts were organised in 2023 by Magnus Öström (drums) and Dan Berglund (bass) to celebrate 30 years since e.s.t. was formed, they were performed in two venues; the Kölner Philharmonie, Köln and the Filadelfia church, Stockholm. Öström and Berglund needed a ‘voice’ to take over the duties of the trio’s founder and found it in close musical friends Joel Lyssarides (piano), Magnus Lindgren (tenor saxophone, flute), Verneri Pohjola (trumpet) and Ulf Wakenius (electric guitar). It’s hard to find a piano lead ensemble today that doesn’t sound like e.s.t. in one way or another.

The concert on this recording was performed at the Kölner Philharmonie and consists of six e.s.t. favourites that open with the sublime ‘From Gagarin’s Point of View’ from the album of the same name released in 1999. Here Lyssarides gets to bring his own style to the piece, adding some bass rumble but largely letting the piano shimmer over a slow beat. This is a superb recording and opens up a huge vista with a near silent background, but you can feel a powerful atmosphere produced by an eager audience. By starting slowly however the band keep them hungry and this warm, inviting entrée clearly wets their appetites for the haunting intro to ‘Seven Days of Falling’ (2003) where Lindgren and Pohjola weave a mesmerising tune over slowly building drums. The band waits until over halfway through before the beat kicks in and the horn gets more intense with a soupcon of gruff skronking that takes it to the crescendo before the band returns to the theme with the piano bringing things down with a shimmering denouement.

The piano on ‘Eighthundred Streets by Feet’ (2006) sounds more like the original Svensson version with some kind of treatment on the strings, here we get the two horn players echoing one another, a mute in the trumpet, with a slow build for the first half. Here they add some effects and the groove gets stronger with the brass section going off in directions unimagined when the tune was composed but not frightening any horses either. With Öström’s brushwork propelling the sound they build up to quite a crescendo which really ignites the audience. ‘Tuesday Wonderland’ (2006) is an old favourite and sounds superb in this performance, here Lindgren picks up his flute to illustrate the melody over a great riff with plenty of dynamic oomph. Riffs are the essence of many great e.s.t. tunes, they are what brought their music to the attention of a mainstream audience, with the original rhythm section on this they remain as powerful as ever. There’s more to it than that of course, the snare work on this is particularly snappy and keeps your thighs twitching while the flute break builds up a head of steam, taking the audience with it on a piece that ends superbly with high pitch bowed double bass matching the tone of the singing tube.