Yellow Tone

Wonderful collaboration as always with ‪@merregnonstudios‬producing filma for ‪@squareenix‬!

3 months ago | [YT] | 0

Yellow Tone

A portrait of Esbjörn Svensson. Now on YouTube!

This is what music critic Jan Gradvall wrote about the film in 2016.

Sweden, congratulations are in order. On Saturday, October 29, SVT will air a music documentary that is – which is extremely rare for the genre – as precise, exact, and striking as the music it portrays. A documentary about jazz pianist Esbjörn Svensson that strikes straight to the heart, continues through the body, drills through the earth, burrows into the moraine, and ultimately becomes a part of our cultural groundwater.

Malik Bendjelloul's Searching for Sugar Man was the first Swedish music documentary that could be called a masterpiece. David Tarrodi's A portrait of Esbjörn Svensson is the second. If I can claim expertise in any field, it’s music documentaries and music biographies. We all have our ways of unwinding, processing, and focusing – of resetting our mental hard drives. Some run marathons. Others practice yoga. Some prepare complex seven-course meals. I, on the other hand, open my laptop and watch yet another music documentary, perhaps the second of the evening, likely the 46th this year.

The music documentary genre provides me with the perfect combination of predictable relaxation and stimulating activation that my brain needs on a Tuesday night after an intense day, when my thoughts are on repeat. The moment I see the typical opening shots of a documentary – trucks on a highway, queues outside a club, panoramic shots with the text "Leeds, 1972" – I relax and forget everything except what’s on the screen. Usually, I’m already familiar with about 75% of the content in these documentaries, but that’s part of the appeal, the “yoga effect,” of watching them.

Fifteen to twenty years ago, when there were plans for Per Sinding-Larsen, Bertil Fröman, and me to create a documentary series about the history of Swedish rock for SVT, we even traveled to Bristol to speak with the genre’s master, Hugh Thomson, who created BBC's brilliant Dancing in the Street series. In other words, I’ve seen and studied countless music documentaries.

When I received a link in my inbox to A portrait of Esbjörn Svensson, with the note that it would air the Saturday after next, I assumed, as usual, that I could predict what I was about to see. I thought I had a pretty good grasp of EST (Esbjörn Svensson Trio), having written about the trio since their debut in the early 1990s. I believe I even saw Esbjörn Svensson play electric piano with the phenomenal soul collective Blacknuss Allstars, featuring Martin Jonsson and Christian Falk, though I’m not certain. My oldest friend designed a couple of EST’s album covers. EST has been a constant in my life. I also remember the shocking news in June 2008 that Esbjörn Svensson, only 44 years old, had died in a scuba diving accident in the Stockholm archipelago.

The structure of a documentary about Esbjörn Svensson should therefore follow a familiar pattern: the terrible accident, parallels to Jan Johansson, retrospectives, memorial interviews, Grammy awards, perhaps commentary from a prominent American jazz critic.

But young documentary filmmaker David Tarrodi, 30, who wasn’t around when it all happened, does none of this. Instead, he has listened – truly listened – and lets everything begin and end with the music. In this way, Esbjörn Svensson is brought to life. This is not a film about a deceased legend; it’s a film about a creative, living musician.

David Tarrodi spent two years earning the trust of Esbjörn Svensson’s wife, Eva Svensson, before he even turned on the camera. After that, he interviewed everyone: parents, siblings, music teachers, record label staff, and bandmates Magnus Öström and Dan Berglund. Through carefully thought-out interviews, beautifully lit, the subjects don’t speak about Esbjörn in the past tense (“I remember”) but in the present. No melodramatic adjectives, no lingering zoom-ins on sad eyes. Instead, it’s life – life at all costs.

Jazz is often portrayed as music about nothing. But David Tarrodi highlights two recurring themes in Esbjörn Svensson’s life and music: water and space. He loved to explore, swim, and dive. When you learn the backstory of album titles like From Gagarin’s Point of View and compositions like Did They Ever Tell Costeau?, the music’s notes hit even harder and dig even deeper. The narration is Esbjörn Svensson’s own voice, taken from his 2003 P1 summer radio show.

Esbjörn Svensson’s piano and Magnus Öström’s drums were childhood friends. Together with Dan Berglund’s bass, they became unbeatable, especially live. A recurring theme in Esbjörn Svensson’s body of work – and the focus of this documentary – was that the present moment never comes back. No performance is ever the same. Even everyday life is built on equal parts rehearsal, careful preparation, and complete openness to improvisation.

I will rewatch the film next Saturday.

10 months ago | [YT] | 7

Yellow Tone

1 year ago | [YT] | 1

Yellow Tone

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Yellow Tone

1 year ago | [YT] | 0

Yellow Tone

Some of our very very finest musicians is featured in this project. Don't miss!

Images from recording session. Fauré / Bach / Schumann

Release 8-13th of July

Violinist: Alva Holm
DP: David Tarrodi
Sound recording producer: Fredrik Ekdahl
Edit and grade: Tone Post
📸 Fredrik Ekdahl

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1 year ago | [YT] | 0

Yellow Tone

Some of our very very finest musicians is featured in this project. Don't miss!

Images from recording session. Rachmaninov / Bach / A. Tarrodi / Ravel

Release 1-6th of July

Pianist: David Huang
DP: David Tarrodi
Sound recording producer: Fredrik Ekdahl
Edit and grade: Tone Post
📸 Fredrik Ekdahl

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1 year ago | [YT] | 0

Yellow Tone

1 year ago | [YT] | 0

Yellow Tone

For the next six weeks, you will see, listen to, and meet world-class musicians on Yellow Tone - true music experiences.

Yellow Tone has, during the spring, recorded seven different musicians (+ accompanists) in a total of 20 shorter pieces, and each week a new musician will be presented.

First up is the amazing Jakob Koranyi, who in his first performance plays Bach!

Stay tuned for more! Subscribe, like, and comment! 🙏

1 year ago (edited) | [YT] | 0

Yellow Tone

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