Tonbruket

Following the tragic death of pianist-composer Esbjörn Svensson in a diving accident in the summer of 2008, double bassist Dan Berglund and drummer Magnus Öström decided to continue on their own for a while. In the process, they both distanced themselves from the “Nordic” piano jazz of the well-travelled Esbjörn Svensson Trio and from acoustic jazz altogether.

Soon after, Öström formed his own more electric quartet combining different styles with electric guitar as the fourth instrument – and Berglund’s next project settled on the same exact lineup. The debut albums of both had a melancholic track dedicated to Svensson – Song For E and Ballad For E – but this was the closest the quartets got to the sound of Esbjörn Svensson Trio, but that was hardly the intention. Both progressed towards instrumental music, which was at least initially closer to progressive rock, jazz rock and the second wave of post-rock.

Bassist Dan Berglund (b. 1963) has made great strides with this style, as the six albums of his band Tonbruket have won four Grammis awards – the Swedish Grammy Awards. Over its 15-year run, Esbjörn Svensson Trio received five of those, so just one more.

Now, finally, Tonbruket is set to make their debut in Finland and at a particularly interesting stage. The group’s sixth album Light Wood, Dark String (2023), another Grammis nominee, is more streamlined, simpler and, above all, more acoustic than its predecessors. It has a “strong sense of realism” as described by Berglund himself, who will take the Pakkahuone stage for the third time in November. 

The first time was in 2005 together with Esbjörn Svensson Trio and the second in 2018 as a member of the Rymden trio, which he had formed with Öström and Norwegian pianist Bugge Wesseltoft the previous year.