Tvärvägen – Magenta Quartet Plays Tvärvägen LP

The compositions on this album explore circular structures in several dimensions; through forms like the classical canon, phase-shifting, looping and sampling techniques as well as moving in circles through physical space itself. At the premiere concert in late 2024, the musicians seldom stood still, performing on foot, moving ceaselessly through the audience. Instead of gazing at a stage ~ a sonic embrace. When the time came to transfer these sounds to a recording, the setting was recreated at Atlantis Studios in Stockholm, with surround miking capturing the live sounds of the musicians spread out and moving through space.

Magenta Quartet, formed in 2022 by alto saxophonist Julia Strzalek, is a saxophone quartet who work in the fields of jazz, free improvisation and contemporary art music. With musical as well as personal range, the quartet moves between through-composed and completely improvised material. They honor and challenge the format, and make solo, duo and trio excursions within the framework of the quartet. The unusual combination of two altos and two tenors gives the quartet a dense sound where the musicians work actively with harmonies and interference.

Tvärvägen is the nom de plume of the composer and multi-instrumentalist Henrik Öhberg, born 1980. Since his free-jazz tinged avantpop debut in the late aughts, the bedroom producer turned composer has slowly but steadily expanded his musical horizons. Perhaps mostly through an inward motion, digging deeper into, as well as breaking up, his signature melodic minimalism. He has released five solo albums and had a minor streaming hit with the solo guitar piece “Everything that can be invented”, counting plays in the millions. His music has been featured in film and TV. In 2022 he was one of the Swedish Skap Award recipients.

All compositions are written by Henrik Öhberg of Tvärvägen, then further developed and reworked through workshops and rehearsals with the quartet. True to the core principles of this music, the composition process was a circular feedback loop between the composer and the performers.

Magenta Quartet consists of Julia Strzalek, soprano and alto saxophone; David Bennet, alto saxophone; Johannes Gammelgaard Lauritsen, tenor saxophone and Pelle Westlin, tenor and baritone saxophone.

Recorded at Atlantis Studios by Calle Gustavsson. Produced and mixed by Henrik Öhberg. Dolby Atmos mix and mastering by Stefan Boman. Design by Henrik Öhberg.