"He's a master of all the reeds."
- Jazz Weekly

IN THE NEWS TODAY

NEWS  //  FEB 22nd, 2024

SPRING NOCTURNE: Two new records!

I mean why release a record when you can release two, right? Records like to be released.
Runoja rauhalle - Poems for Peace out Feb 20th, 2024 / Dialogues V out Mar 1st, 2024.

Poems for Peace is a duo cd with Adele Sauros, recorded in Dolby Atmos at Kamppi chapel in the middle of Helsinki. I wrote the music within a two hour flow moment about a year ago, having read texts, particularly poetry, by people living in conflict zones around The World. I took the texts as a source of inspiration to the music - in an abstract way, and in two hours I had written six pieces and recorded demo versions of them. With Adele we met at Kamppi chapel where I'd put up a 7.1.2 style recording setup. We rehearsed the music and recorded versions of all the songs. Then, the next day, we took a single take of each song again, and knowing the music, knowing how the chapel's unique echo response works, we were able to concentrate on expression and just let every emotion from anger and despair to hopefulness come out of our instruments. This I feel can really be heard and felt, listening to the outcome. Some of the collective improvisation moments especially are, I dare to say, magical. It works in stereo, definitely, but if you want to hear how it really sounded in the chapel, we welcome you to take a listen to the Atmos mix. Tidal Hi-fi+ subscribers need just a pair of regular headphones for that. And oh yeah, since I played a couple tracks on the cello and we had free impro going on, this also marks my debut as an improv cellist! This is somewhat remarkable to me, having played the cello since -83 but never releasing anything improvised until now.

Dialogues V came out of an idea: "if I could record with anyone, who would they be?" These fine four musicians, Ingrid Jensen, Tom Harrell, Wayne Krantz and Marc Ribot came to form my "line 1" (in hockey terms) due to the fact that they were all super influential to my growth as a musician in my early twenties. I was PLANNING to record with four more musicians, people who I felt had given me strongest goose bumps over the last years, but perhaps that's a project for the future since it ended up being too much for now. Anyway, happy to get at least an EP out, and excited about how well everything went! Four songs, four great meetings in the studio meaning musical, but also actual conversations with huge personal value to me. Without these musicians I wouldn't be who I am today. So, hats off. Please find more detailed info about the sessions as blog texts on the "Dialogues" page!

Kurjet - The Cranes premiered at The National Theatre in Helsinki, Feb 14th, 2024
The beginning of 2024 has been mostly consisting of sitting in a (dark) theatre space, trying to figure out what kind of music to write, as I got invited to this great working group making a new theatre piece at the National Theatre. "Kurjet" is a piece about the Krohn family, influental writers and culture persona like Aino Kallas, Helmi Krohn and Aune Krohn, written by Hanna Suutela and Tiina Puumalainen. I've done theatre music before, but never alone, and it's been pretty exciting! But I was lucky to be amongst fantastic professionals and humans, an environment of trust, just like the ones I try to create when working with anything creative. Good things tend to happen in surroundings like this. And the play has been received well. There are just a few tickets left this spring so get yours quick!

BERGHÄLL BROTHERS BIG BAND: vol.2 made the BEST of 2023 -list at New York City Jazz Record
This is such a big thing for someone who makes a big band album composing, arranging, playing, recording and mixing it by themself. It said in the review (by Daniel A. Brown) that "His compositions boast the same fearless tenacity as large-ensemble works by Carla Bley" - which is pretty much the prettiest thing ever said about something I've done. So thank you! "Vol.II" is for sale too, if you're interested, at Bandcamp, selected record stores like Digelius and Levykauppa Äx in Finland (with online stores) or The Jazz Record Center in NYC. Or here:
                                        https://holvi.com/shop/dialogues/

KUPLA "Best Movie" at Nordic International Film Festival, New York, 2023
This deserves to be mentioned too! Kupla (Bubble) was my first feature film as a composer and it's received very well, we were also Finland's nominee for the Nordic Council Film Prize. Greatest respect to the director Aleksi Salmenperä, co-writer Reeta Ruotsalainen, editor Samu Heikkilä, cinematographer Peter Flinckenberg and my closest colleague, sound designer Tuomas Klaavo, among everyone else involved, for making such a great film! Composing to a movie means seeing it for about a 100 times, and it's pretty amazing having a film that you really want to see all those times. I still want to see it! You should want the same thing!

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ABOUT ME

Joakim Berghäll

I'm a freelancer musician, composer, arranger, sometimes educator, living and working on an island in Helsinki.
I began studying music at the age of three and ever since I've been intrigued by all kinds of instruments and everything that makes a sound. My main instrument is the baritone saxophone, but in different bands and projects I also do play all other saxophones, cello, various kinds of percussion, drums, electric and double bass, guitar and some other stringed instruments, piano, keyboards, bass clarinet, clarinet and a bunch of different flutes.

Improvising music in a small ensemble is my main object of affection, but there's so much more out there that interests me, and I consider myself extremely lucky to be able to make a living playing in various settings from free jazz to folk, from Beijing Opera to psychedelic punk. As long as there's something special to it and people are leaving everything onstage, I really don't care which genre is it categorized under.

I'm a cargo-bike-riding vegan stunningly aware of all the details in current NHL statistics.
If you want to make me happy, all it really takes is a cup of good coffee.

(photo: Dorit Salutskij)