Country & Eastern presents BECHES INDIAN BREW

After a celebrated concert tour of India where Beches Brew collaborated with some of the leading Indian musicians today we are happy to present BECHES INDIAN BREW in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark in October 2016.

Beches Brew is the latest of Bengt Berger’s groups, it was formed in 2010. Almost all of the original members from the selftitled first album Beches Brew are still in the group and quite a few more has joined along the way so nowadays the group is from five to twelve (5-12) people strong depending on the occasion. A reflection of this is the latest album Beches Brew BIG where the group has grown to nine and it has not stopped there.

All music is written by Bengt Berger and the music genre is the same as the name of the production company/recording label, Country & Eastern. The name might call for a short explanation as this has nothing much to do with country & western. It’s a very user-friendly music ranging from having an often humoristic unpretentious country-side-bush-music atmoshphere to a character with quite a few influences from studies in India and Ghana and an eastern emotional modal approach that makes our Indian friends feel at home. And it swings a lot!

A very important aspect of this music is the improvising. The members of the group are all among the most experienced, excellent and expressive Swedish musicians today and they have taken an active and indispensible part in shaping this music.

Beches Brew leader Bengt ”Beche” Berger has a long time connection with India, having studied tabla and mridangam since 1965. He has a very active relationship with many of the leading musicians in India today. For several years discussions have been going on about a collaboration between the Swedish and Indian musicians. Thanks to generous support from Musikverket in Sweden it happens during 2016!

During January 2016 the Swedish group Beches Indian Brew visited India and gave concerts in Chennai, Mumbai and Pune together with some of the greatest Indian artists of today and it was a roaring success. In October the South Indian maestros is returning the favor by coming here for a series of concerts and recordings together in BECHES INDIAN

BREW.

”There is a good chance that anyone who experience this great band will become a fanatic.” -

The Swedish musicians, some of the finest in Sweden today:

Bengt Berger, drums, composer, leader” There is vorticist movement in percussion colorist Bengt Berger's music. Like a whirling fluid mass slingshot around the world - although anchored in the broad folk forms of Swedish music--it sucks in the dancing and chanting, moaning and prancing rhythmic Hindustani and Carnatic music of India and West Africa, it is all here in Beches Brew. The music is sophisticated and lurid, downright earthy and sensuous yet deeply mystical, magical and mysterious, bringing the best forms of surprise.”

50 years ago Bengt Berger started learning percussion in India, the North Indian tabla from Pandit Taranath and the South Indian mridangam from P.S. Devarajan. After that Berger played a lot with Roland Keijser, Bobo Stensson, Palle Danielsson and other front liners in Sweden and was one of Don Cherry’s favorite drummers in Europe touring extensively with him. After further studies in Ghana in the seventies he formed his first own group Bitter Funeral Beer Band in the late seventies and from then on he has been composing for and leading various groups connecting jazz and non-european music. For this tour he has invited some truly great Indian musicians for a series of concerts with Beches Brew under the name Beches Indian Brew -

”During my musical journey a number of musicians have been partners and fellow travellers who has developed an understanding and helped to develop the Country & Eastern style of music. It is a great pleasure that so many of them have agreed to take part in this chapter in our common musical evolution.” says Bergerwww.beche.se

Jonas Knutsson, saxophones: “Knutsson is also one of the most expressive saxophonists playing today. Combine this with his flawless technique and Knutsson becomes an artist in the Liszt tradition. His playing may not be dramatic as Liszt’s was, but with deep—often aching—emotion he is able to summon feelings from the very depths of his soul. This might put Knutsson in the same league that was once occupied only by Charlie Parker and John Coltrane—not only in terms of sheer mastery of technique, but also when it comes to innovation and creativity.”

Since his move to Stockholm in 1983 he has worked with a number of groups, artists and projects within jazz, fusion and folk music. Some examples are: Mynta, Elise Einarsdotter Ensemble, Encore, Enteli, Nordan, Jonas Knutsson Band, Triptyk, Stockholm Folk Big Band, Berger Knutsson Spering, Världsorkestern and Bertrand Renaudin’s Larbre Voyage. He leads Jonas Knutsson Quartet and records and tours with Belgian composer/pianist/singer Mathilde Renault and Maroccan percussionist Khalid Kouhen as well as with Nils Landgren. He is also teaching at the conservatory in Stockholm. - http://jonasknutsson.se/

Max Schultz, guitars, banjo”Guitarist Max Schultz is a revelation, an inventive player with a sublime sense of melody.”

Max Schultz is one of the most appreciated, nay loved, guitarists in Sweden. He has played with everybody since the time with Håkan Broström, Herbie Hancock, Bob Moses, Nils Landgren, Esbjörn Svensson, Svante Thuresson, Anna Nederdahl, Peps Person, Mynta and Tommy Körberg and also worked as a studio musician on recordings by Marie Fredriksson, Rebecka Törnqvist and other artists besides heading his own group. Influenced by jazz, blues, country and Indian music, Max has been a major voice in the Swedish music scene for the last 35 years and will surely stay on the scene for the next 35 as well. - http://www.bluemaxschultz.com/

LIVET NORD , 5-stringed violin"Livet Nord is completely dazzling with her violin and viola. The violas' darker voice gives a different sort of weight to the whole, the violin glitters, flatters and demands our attention. She makes the Violin become a voice, a wind, a space, a crystal ."

Livet Nord is an esteemed freelance musician, producer, project manager, concert organizer and violin pedagogue based in Gothenburg, Sweden. Since 1996 she has worked as a musician in a variety of formations and projects and toured throughout the world. She creates international cultural exchange projects between Sweden and other countries. New Tide Orquesta and Kaja are two of the groups she is an important member of. You will also find her playing the violin at over 40 phonograms and Livet also runs the record label Kakafon Records wich has released some of Swedens' most prominent artists and groups within Swedish folk/world music. www.livetnord.se

Lise-Lotte Norelius, percussion, live electronics: "Norelius makes difficult music fun to listen to in a consequent and personal artistry with room for humour as well as seriousnes”

Lise-Lotte Norelius has a long story as percussionist and groove drummer since her time in Funeral Beer Band and Anitas Livs from the 80s on. Outside of Beches Brew she mainly works with live-electronics, electro acoustic music, chamber music and free improvisation in The Welfare Orchestra, Syntjuntan and other contemporary surroundings. She has been the chairperson of Fylkingen, a venue and artists' society for new and experimental work in music, performance, video, film, dance, sound-text composition and intermedia since its establishment in the 1930s - http://www.lise-lottenorelius.se

Sir Thomas Jäderlund, saxophones, bass clarinet”Breathtaking virtuosity and impeccable taste by a saxophonist with the whip-like crack of Eric Dolphy’s alto and a spiralling wail on the sopranino saxophone.”

The expressive sopranino, alto and bass clarinet player Sir Thomas Jäderlund has been working as a free lance musician and composer and radio producer in modern jazz and improvised music since the seventies with some 50 albums to his credit. When not with us he leads his own trio and is head of The Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg. - https://www.facebook.com/thomas.jaderlund

Thomas Gustafsson, saxophones: ”He plays the tenor and the soprano saxophone as if they were a prolongation of himself. His way of playing is impulsive, exploratory and in constant motion. He has always gone his own way musically, happily throwing himself out in the open, constantly reinventing and pushing the boundaries of what constitutes music.”

S:t Thomas Gustafsson, the first “Swedish National Treasure” awardee is a frequent participator in Country & Eastern projects since the time of the Bitter Funeral Beer Band in the early 80’s playing an important part in the See You In A Minute and Beches Brew albums and in various live projects. During his 40 years as a professional musician he has played with some of the most prominent jazz musicians; Anders Jormin, Anders Kjellberg, Bobo Stenson, Audun Kleive, Lina Nyberg, Lindha Kallerdahl and many more. http://www.gacmusic.se/tg-11970383

Göran Klinghagen, guitars, banjo”Klinghagen reevaluates fusion, mid-60s Miles Davis, and Ornette Coleman, melding these and other influences into a unique musical patchwork. Contemporary creative music at it’s absolute best.”

Göran Klinghagen, Swedish guitarist and composer, puts experience to experience. He grew up with traditional swedish folk music and further to Jimi Hendrix, Weather Report, Wes Montgomery, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and more freely interpreted music. Göran is a guitar teacher in great demand and has worked with many of the most famous groups and musicians in Scandinavia. He is presently quite active in the Jazz & More Collective in Germany, - http://www.klinghagen.se/

Stefan Bellnäs, bass, steelguitar: ”He plays anything from metal to folk music as if it is his speciality”

Stefan Bellnäs hails from Jönköping, spend some years in Malmö and then for many years in Gothenburg where he is in great demand and can be heard more nights of the week than not due to his broad musical knowledge and inspiring playing. He has played everything from metal to folk music, from free form to country, from funk to finnish tango and latin, accompanying many artists and played in a great number of groups with a lot of albums to his credit.https://www.facebook.com/people/Stefan-Bellnäs/100008288832518

Sigge Krantz, sound engineer:

”For a project like this you need the best possible sound engineer and we got him!”

Bass and guitar player Sigge Krantz who was a member of the Bitter Funeral Beer Band a long time ago has played in several of the swedish progg bands and is since the demise of Torbjörn Abelli the bass player in legendary Träd, Gräs och Stenar. However his main occupation these days is as sound engineer; he is the man behind the sound on many of our adventures, an expert in recording and live mixing. Sigge also works with many other recording artists and has usually more than one album among the Swedish Grammy winners and nominees every year. - https://www.facebook.com/siggek?fref=ts

The Karnatik vidwans - the South Indian master musicians

Akkarai Sisters, Akkarai Subhalakshmi and Akkarai Sornalatha, violin, voice:”The two sisters has created quite a storm in the South Indian classical music community, they perform duets of the highest quaility, they do it as a violin duo AND they do it equally great as a vocal duo which is something unheard of before. When we played in Chennai the younger sister Sornalatha played with us but after hearing the sisters in concert we liked it so much that we invited the elder sister Subhalakshmi to join us as well and we are so happy that she liked our music and is coming along on this tour as well.” – http://akkarai.in/

K. U. Jayachandra Rao, mridangam, He is one of the stalwarts in the world of Indian rhythm today and regularly performs with all the leading musicians on the Karnatic classical scene but he is equally at home on the world music scene. Jayachandra hails from a family of musicians and is an incredible virtuoso who will add considerably to our music. Coming straight from a tour with Flute Shankar, he will join Beches Indian Brew from October 21. - http://jayaranjani.org/home.php

B. Shree Sundarkumar, ”Kanjira Man”, khanjira, mridangam is one of the leading Khanjira artists today who started playing at age 3 and has learned first from his father Dr. K.B.S. Mani, and later from Guru Kaaraikudi Mani Iyer. Besides being a great accompanist in the classical field, Sundarkumar is also doing a lot of contemporary music as Kanjira Man with a great attitude and sense of humour that will fit in very well in Beches Indian Brew. – www.kanjiraman.com

Spectacular drumming addition from Ghana!

Doe Kushiator, percussion: This Senior Master Drummer with the status of a priest in the ancient Blekete cult of West Africa is joining us. He is a legendary Ewe drummer in West Africa that Bengt Berger was learning from 1975-77. ”Together our percussionists will offer spectacular rhythmic fireworks” - https://www.facebook.com/doe.kushioator?fref=ts

www.countryandeastern.se