Anders Hagberg - 2025 - With Hope

(56:28; Prophone)

Track list:
1. Elasticity of Trees 4:23
2. Elegy 6:30
3. Ruins 6:38
4. Welcome for Allie 5:05
5. Circle No. 2 4:36
6. With Hope 4:57
7. Arctic Call 6:41
8. Evening Hymn from Gammelsvenskby 4:05
9. Sisters for Lo & Ebba 4:12
10. Woods in Blue 5:17
11. O Magnum Mysterium 4:04

Line-up:
Anders Hagberg - flutes, saxophone, singing bowl
Johannes Lundberg - bass, vocals, Oberheim, effects
Joona Toivanen - piano, synthesizer, effects
Helge Andreas Norbakken - drums, percussion


Swedish composer and musician Anders Hagberg has a recording career that goes back to the first half of the 1980s, with a number of band constellations and cooperations on his resume in addition to a substantial amount of solo albums over the years. The most recent of the latter is the album "With Hope", which was released through Swedish label Prophone in the fall of 2025.

It is a mainly instrumental variety of jazz we are treated to on this production, with only a token few nonverbal vocal details making select appearances in a few of the compositions. The piano and the flute appear to be the main lead instruments, with the saxophone also having an important role to play in the lead instrument department.

In many ways this is a bit of a dreamladen affair, and the compositions are all careful and subtle affairs. Soft spoken one might say, and with a manner of execution that might well make this a production that may find a potential audience also among those who otherwise prefer music that falls into the ambient music category. While careful and subtle, this isn't really an understated creation though, but rather an album where nuances and subtle differences are illuminated.

The mood and atmosphere, while dreamladen in nature, does have a tendency to be on the melancholic and mournful side of matters. Exotic sounds and timbres can be combined with subtly odd and quaint rhythms to create more of a cold and otherworldly association, cue the composition 'Ruins', while slight alterations in pace, tone and intensity can make the flute solo runs appear as mournful, melancholic as well as more positive and jubilant in a creation like 'Woods in Blue'. But in between those outer edges the landscapes explored tend to be more introspective and melancholic, with mournful undercurrents and with occasional darker details that creates a softly unsettling yet elegant mood and atmosphere.

This album is also a strikingly beautiful experience, and the material showcase that beauty can easily be explored in a more soft and subtle setting without ever being stagnant, as there is always some manner of movement and development ongoing, and at all times there are layers of sounds beneath the more dominant or highlighted instruments that adds depth and detail to these creations. With the end result, to my mind at least, often deserving descriptive words such as brilliant and exceptional.

If you enjoy a more subtle and soft spoken variety of jazz that hone in on dreamladen tendencies, with plenty of subtle details present, and that explore a more melancholic and mournful type of mood and atmosphere with more occasional moments of a more subtle jubilant feel, then this is a production you probably will find rather rewarding. Much the same will probably be the case for many of those who tend to enjoy ambient music that can be described in a similar manner.

Olav M. Björnsen, October 2025

Links:
https://andershagberg.se/
https://naxosdirect.se/labels/prophone-3