Langendorf United - Yeahno Yowouw Land (sing a song fighter)

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

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What We Say

Just as you thought the Ethio jazz revival had died down along comes one of Sweden's leading sax exponents, Lina Langendorf on sing a song fighter, with her own funktified, psychedelic Ethio-jazz fusion reminder of how compelling those grooves & timeless, evocative sounds are, whilst urging you to head to the dancefloor, ditch your tired old two step & twist your body into all sorts of alien shapes. This is going to be a live show and a half.

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What The Release Notes Say

Spiritual Jazz paths always open up unexplored dimensions, this is the clear impression revealed by this superb and ambitious first double album by Lina Langendorf and her new band.

The Swedish saxophonist (OK Star Orchestra, James Yorkston, Nina Persson & The Second Hand Orchestra) seems to be blowing in the lesson of the great sacred monsters of the instrument such as Wayne Shorter, Pharoah Sanders or Archie Shepp, but revising it in a melting pot of bolder contaminations. The secret lies in embracing different musical traditions and genres in the flow of a futuristic, psychedelic sound in constant metamorphosis.

Ethio Jazz may marry Mali Blues, Afro Beat, Scandinavian melanolic melodies and tonalities from the Mandinka tradition.
Everything, however, is focused toward a lysergic fury of rhythmic euphoria. Acid keyboards draw astral and hypnotic grooves, kaleidoscopic carpets, exotic intergalactic and satellite patterns; a hymn toward the Cosmos that still smacks of Sun Ra-like solar myths and Mulatu Astatke's East African winds.
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The music of Langendorf United started to take form already ten years ago when young Swedish saxophone sensation Lina Langendorf was preparing herself for her first trip ever to Addis Ababa. A long lost dream that finally was about to come true. Diving deep into the music of Mulatu Astatke, Getatchew Mekuria and Hailu Mergia, practising the Ethiopian scales and embracing this tonality to make it part of her own musical expression, gave Lina new ideas and a new sound started to take place within her and through the saxophone. Through these ten years many new songs have seen the light and now is the time to share some of this music with you.

When going into the studio the five band members had never played together as a band before, this was their first meeting ever. Lina had played with each one of them in different occasions during the years. Martin and Andreas had played together in wellknown, popular Swedish acts like Tonbruket and Fire! Orchestra.

So it was a pure new meeting and also premier for this amazing rythm section with Norwegian bass maestro Ole Morten Vågan and Andreas Werliin. It turned out to be a very special and beautiful meeting. Some lovely three days for the whole band including lots of laughter, cooking food together and playing around with the music during both daytime and evenings.


Daniel Bingert – synths and guitars. Daniel, the son of legendary latin saxophone player Hector Bingert, and Lina met in 2013 thanks to the OP-1 synthesizer that Daniel makes wonder work on (some of the recordings of Lina's different ideas are accually kept as samples on that very OP-1 and used both live and on the album). Humor and playfulness is what connects them in music. Apart from being soul mates in music, Daniel has been a mentor and huge support in making Langendorf United happen. He has also been a great part of the production work of this album and is, of course, the brain behind the band name too.

Martin Hederos – piano and keys. Martin is that last brick that was missing when Lina was searching for band members for her new vision. He has been awarded Swedish Grammys for his exceptional playing and has recently released (among fine things) a solo album with Erik Satie variations.

Ole Morten Vågan – bass. He’s been heard in Trondheim Jazz Orchestra and many more amazing Norwegian acts throughout the years. He and Lina studied and played together for four years at Jazzlinja, Musikkonservatoriet in Trondheim during 1998-2002. 20 years later they meet and play again for the first time in 20 years, although it felt as if it was only about 20 days ago since the last time…

Andreas Werliin – drums. Andreas and Lina played together for the first time around 2003 and then it took them until now to create music together again. However Lina have been attending many concerts with Andreas (Wildbirds and peacedrums, Fire Orchestra etc). during the years and the fact that a drummer can make you start to cry when playing a drum solo made the answer to who was going to play drums in this band very easy.

Lina Langendorf started to study the classical piano at the age of six. Music has always been her safe haven in life and after attending a jazz concert around the age of 12, Lina went to her piano teacher and told him that from now on she wanted to play jazz. Unfortunately that was not an option (since the teacher could not play jazz) so when Lina one day got to try a tenor saxophone it was love at first sight and the change of instrument and focus on a different genre was a fact. Curiosity is Linas life long companion and through out the years she has been collaborating with many different artists in different genres. From jazz to reggae to Mali blues, Ethio-jazz, pop, rock and balkan music. She even had the honor to play the compositions of legendary Mulatu Astatke with mr. Astatke himself in the audience, at his club in Addis Ababa, and mr. Astatke celebrating her performance afterwards and inviting her back to the club to perform again.

Some artists that she has performed with, either as a guest musician at different concerts or as a member of the band is: Alemayehu Eshete, Toumani Diabaté, Eek-A-Mouse, Vieux Farka Touré, Abegasu Shiota, Ras Kimono, OK Star Orchestra, James Yorkston & Nina Persson with Second Hand Orchestra, Gash Ayele Mamo, Samuel Yirga.

CREDITS
Lina Langendorf - compositions and saxophones
Daniel Bingert - keys and guitars
Martin Hederos - keys and viola
Ole Morten Vågan - double bass
Andreas Werliin - drums

Recorded by Oskar Lindberg at Svenska Grammofonstudion, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Mixed by August Wanngren.
Mastering by Hans Olsson
Cover Artwork by Catrine Jurgander
Photo Illustration by Nino Ramsby

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IF YOU NEED TO TRAVEL MORE WITHOUT MOVING THEN JUMP ON THE SLOW WORLD BUS.