Esbjörn Svensson: HOME.S. (LP)

Esbjörn Svensson is certainly one of the most influential musicians in modern jazz history. Now, with "HOME. S." his first solo album, 14 years after his tragic accidental death while diving. The mere existence of Esbjörn Svensson's solo recordings is considered a minor sensation. After all, the musician had concentrated virtually all of his creative energy on his groundbreaking work with his trio e. s.t.. The focus of all participants on "only" one musical project in a fixed constellation had been one of the special features of the Esbjörn Svensson Trio. It was all the more surprising when nine solo piano pieces were discovered on a hard drive in the personal archive of his wife Eva. The Swedish pianist and composer had recorded them professionally on his own in his basement studio in the weeks before his sudden death in June 2008. Not even Åke Linton knew of the existence of these recordings, although the sound engineer had accompanied all e. s.t. albums and shows for years and, according to Svensson, was considered the fourth member of the band. Whether the nine pieces, named after letters of the Greek alphabet, were improvised or composed remains as much a mystery as the plans Svensson had for them. But the fact is that the recordings now available are not only the first, but practically the only ones that show him in a setting other than that of the trio: intimate, concentrated and completely with himself. Eva Svensson says about "HOME. S.": "When the solo piano recordings from our shared home were discovered, it felt like a message smuggled across the border. A message carried by love, space, time and never-ending creative power. And they encouraged me to carry that message further and find ways for this music to reach its listeners."