To Örebro University

During the years, I had the opportunity to work together with many excellent flute players and I really think the combination of Flute and Percussion is a perfect match. A lot of great composers have written for the instruments and through them, I got the inspiration to compose for flute and percussion. 

After composing Dark Shadows, Kinkaku-ji and Second Concerto for Flute & Percussion, all published by Edition Svitzer, I’ve got a question and wish from many flute players to also write something for piccolo and percussion. They are right, there are not so many pieces composed for that combination of instruments. 

Working close to the young virtuous performers, Laura Michelin & Filip Korošec, I had the opportunity to write them Bird of Prey. In the pulsing rhythms, we hear the bird hunting its prey and the harmonies enhance the wildlife, to always be on its guard. In the middle of the piece, the listener is getting a high-flying journey to the lamenting song of a Bird of Prey.

Fusion 

For many years I have, together with Christer Brodén, ordered new music for guitar and marimba. From the many fine pieces we have received from composers, I find that it is often the case that one of the instruments has a solo part that is accompanied by the other instrument. In Fusion, I have therefore written two parts that seem to be on equal terms. The finger technique on guitar and playing with four mallets on marimba also have their similarities and therefore the two parts are very similar to each other. 

I wanted to write a virtuoso piece that express the joy of playing and borrowed trait from progressive jazz. The guitar and the marimba are thus united in this Fusion. 

La Buena Vida

I wanted to write a work where the rhythm is in focus and the harmony, so to speak, plays the second violin. With a portion of great humor, I have chosen to vary the time signature (towards the end, the instruments play different time signature at the same time) and let the guitar both dance and play a chamber musical "cat and rat game" with the marimba. When I would then set harmonics to these rhythms, I have used 12-tone technique, full-tone scales and one of the few chords I can play on guitar myself. 

With Christer Brodén, I not only share the passion for music but also the joy of life and a great interest for food and beverage. That's why our collaboration is gilded with most from The Good Life - La Buena Vida!

Nova, Polaris, Mimosa… In STARS, the choir and the marimba create a heaven full of stars and form a sublime sound world that shines over us. The choir leader can, if desired, replace the marimba with a genuine FenderRhodes Electric Piano from the sweet 60's.

Growing up in the 80s, my biggest inspiration was the Swedish Percussion Ensemble KROUMATA; six musicians who made a living playing chamber music with percussion. I attended several of their concerts and their interplay, virtuosity and common crescendo and accelerando made a strong impression on me as a young drummer. My first CD with classical percussion was the Kroumata and Keiko Abe. Fantastic recordings of Rain Tree by Tôru Takemitsu and Marimba Spritual by Minoru Miki inspired me to play both pieces myself some years later. A clear proof of how big KROUMATA were in Sweden during this time was when the Swedish His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf turned 50 in 1996. As a birthday present, he wanted a concert with Stevie Wonder AND KROUMATA. Today, when I received the commission from Odense Percussion and their artistic leader Søren Monrad, I would like to pay tribute to my childhood idols KROUMATA. In my piece, there are a few quotes from the repertoire that was so strongly associated with KROUMATA, but also contains the energy that was so magical around the concerts with the ensemble.

As many kids, I started to play drums and later in the teens I got in contact with the melodic percussion… and I was stucked! With the songs in Mallet Ensembles I have an attempt to awaken a young drummers curiosity for marimba and vibraphone. Therefore, I use repeated technical patterns in the chord parts, quite easy to learn, but a little bit tricky and fun for a drummer to play. These three songs are orchestrated for a couple of mallet instruments – to get a rich and ”fat sound”, please double all parts in different octaves. The glockenspiel part is grade as easy, melody part is a little bit harder and chord parts intermediate. Index: Concorde Somethin' You Can Do About It? Oh Yeah!

To me, the northern part of Sweden breathes something enigmatic. It is above all nature, but also architecture, that has something magnificent about it - as it is created by mother earth. Point North is written to Johan Bodin Eriksson and the Härnösand Percussion Ensemble for their 30th anniversary in 2021. The three movements are inspired by three of the four seasons, but also from architecture and nature in the north part of Sweden.

1st movement - Autumn (the Library)

The Sambiblioteket was inaugurated in February 2000 and was a joint collaboration between several libraries and the vision was to create a link between the university and the city center, a meeting place and an active knowledge center for all people in Härnösand. The architect Hans Tirsén and his staff focused in their competition proposal "the beech forest" on the character of Härnösand by solitaires surrounded by vegetation. The interior is played out against the greenery of the ground through the thin membrane of the window wall. During dark autumn evenings, the library shines like a lantern of knowledge in high-tech.

2nd movement - Winter (the Mountain)

-Get a culinary experience with a breathtaking view of Härnösand. Eating should be an experience! The restaurant at the top of Vårdkasen has taken this quote to heart and offers the art of Swedish home cooking together with a magnificent view through the dining room window. At the top of the mountain is also a lookout tower that was completed in 2007. The architect Björn Westin has been inspired by both space rockets and a vårdkase (Phryctoriae) that previously existed on the mountain, a fire that warned for war and other danger. The lookout tower with its three levels is reached by a large open staircase that can also serve as a stage, but also as a starting point for slalom competitions during the winter.

3rd movement - Spring (the Waterfall)

With a drop of a total 90 meters, the Västanåfallet is one of the highest waterfall in Sweden. It’s water from the 4 km upstream lake Eksjön, which via a river forms a waterfall when the water flows down the steep mountainside. Västanåfallet is particularly powerful when snow and ice are melting and the high tide of spring forms a white, rushing wall down the cliffs. The fall height has previously been used for hydropower and contributed to several mills being built in region during the 17th, 18h and 19th centuries. Today the area is a nature reserve and a place for recreation and reflection, especially when the spring flood comes - nature´s musical primordial power!

Two very typical sounds from my childhood is the knocking from an office, with rooms full of typewriters, and the pinball machines in every second restaurant - oh what great memories. As a child, all machines had a life and of course they must dream when they are sleeping! This piece is written and dedicated to the composer Anton Lindström, who also is a great vibraphone player, and his father - violin player, and technical genius, Hans Lindström - Two of a Kind.

With Componi för mixed choir (placed in the chancel) and organ or marimba (placed on the gunner), Daniel Berg wants to embrace the listener. He got the inspiration from the artwork Via sacra, recessed into the floor of Linköping Cathedral, which like Componi embraces the soul.

In 1992, I started with Fredrik Duvling at the Academy of Music and Dram in Gothenburg, Sweden to study percussion for Bo Holmstrand and Einar Nielsen. Already the first week we started playing duo with each other and as a great inspiration we had the Danish percussion duo Safri. We studied several works our Danish role models had in their repertoire such as the arrangement of Ravel's Alborada del gracioso, Re-Percussion by Per Nörgård and Miinoru Miki's Marimba Spiritual in a version for two percussionists.

Today, almost 30 years later, Fredrik and I have worked closely with composers who written a fantastic personal repertoire for us who have followed us on numerous tours and recordings. When we talked about the future after this summer's tour, Fredrik suggested:

- Why don’t you write something for us?

Musicians who have played together for a long time often become a mirror image of the other player, perhaps it is most clearly seen among percussionists? When timing, phrasing, nuances and movements work in the interplay, the musicians become shadows of each other.

With the first movement of IMAGES, I want to create a dreamlike atmosphere where the musicians become a shadow, an echo of each other. The second movement is very rhythmic where the percussionists become a mirror image of each other with unison rhythms that energetically drive the music to the virtuoso ending.