Acoustic, well-played, soft, close-up music, ranging from jazzy Brazilian style to Swedish folk music.

4 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Gentle, JAZZ: Smooth Jazz



Details:
Something about me:

Ever since I was a tiny little piano girl music has been my place and my own room in existence.

When I opened the door to the stone scenting ivied old music school house in Visby (Gotland, Sweden) and heard the clang of pianos and wind players from all the closed doors mix in the echoing big hallway, I felt: This is my magic box and I want to learn EVERYTHING!

I still work on that, and the more I learn and the more I explore, the more there seem to be left!

It might be because of my doing so many different things in music that I find it so hard to concentrate my work to a specific genre. Jazzy tunes, oldfashioned songs, funky pop, gospel, blues, flaunting schlagers and sad folk songs, happiness and melancholia in a glorious mess. I really don't know where in the index I belong. But - if your goal is to walk where the songs are, you must gratefully welcome the melodies and the lyrics when they knock on your door!

On the CD "Å ena sidan" ("On the one hand") I've recorded four of my songs, which all have in common that the lyrics are about seeing things from different perspectives, and how opposites complete each other - like Yin and Yang, you know - masculin/feminin, weak/strong, dark/light.

#1. Om Flickan Ifrån Ipanema ("About the girl from Ipanema") is an old-style, Jobim-like Bossa Nova, which tells the "True Story" of this famous jazz icon. From her point of view.

#2. The Beauty Of Your Soul, a jazzy ballad in English, was inspired by a pupil I once had. She looked so miserably unhappy, always dressing in black, hiding behind a thick layer of make-up. But deep in her eyes I saw something completely different - a spark of something bright and beautiful, which I believe every person has. In a years' time she opened up, started to write and perform her own songs, spreading her wings like a wonderful butterfly.
I will never forget her.

#3. Både Och, ("Both") is more in style of Swedish folk music, and the lyrics are about the existential anxiety you can get into by beeing asked "Who are you? Describe yourself in three words!".
I myself found it impossible, nothing exists without it's opposite, so I wanted at least four words⦠You can't be strong without acknowledging your weaknesses, for example.
The instrument played is a so called alto guitar - an eleven-stringed quasi-Baroque lute, with an very rich sound.

#4. Ingenting Är Allting, ("Nothing is everything"), another song on the theme Opposites.
We love it when people come and tell us - This is how things are.
But the only thing we know for certain is that we can't know anything for certain.
Still - as everything contains its' opposite we can rely on that as there's a tinge of darkness even in the brightest moments (the fear of loosing itâ¦), there's a spark of light in the deepest darkness.


In "Go! Grönlunds orkester" I write the songs, sing and play the piano. My husband Magnus Grönlund plays the guitar. He is mainly a classical guitarist, probably that's why he has this remarcable tone quality, but he get's a lot of respect for his jazzy approach in pop, folk and jazz styles as well.

This CD was recorded in OAL studio in Stockholm, Sweden, which is a cult analog studio where Swedish music giants as Cornelis Vreeswijk and the top Swedish jazz musicians have made their recordings ever since the seventies.

Read more about me, Magnus, Go! Grönlunds orkester, and Magnus' classical project Duo Dialog at www.mariagronlund.com