Jan Lundgren & Yamandu Costa - Inner Voices (2024)

Pianist Jan Lundgren from Ystad in Sweden and guitarist Yamandu Costa, from Brazil’s southernmost province Rio Grande del Sur might seem an unlikely pairing, and the combination of guitar and piano is well known to be fraught with difficulty. But the collaborative affinity of this duo, the chemistry which they have found through playing together, first in a handful of concerts, and now on this fine album, are something truly exceptional.

Lundgren and Costa are internationally outstanding representatives of their craft. “For Yamandu Costa, the guitar is a natural extension of his body and soul,” a critic has observed. Costa has six Latin Grammy nominations and one win to his name, and plays with an elegance, harmonic fluidity and a deep knowledge of Latin American music across a whole range of contexts from solo to working with symphony orchestras. Jan Lundgren has made a major contribution to the European jazz of the past two decades, not least through his role in the Mare Nostrum trio with Paolo Fresu and Richard Galliano. As Dave Gelly has written in The Observer (UK), what Mare Nostrum’s members have in common is“ a flair for melody and a similar lightness of touch, which makes their combined sound both delicate and irresistible.” Such are the virtues which Costa and Lundgren bring to their new endeavour together.

The pair first met in Malmö in Southern Sweden in 2019, had dinner together and found an instant affinity. Lundgren invited the guitarist to be a guest at the festival which he directs in Ystad. As they got to know each other they listened to each other’s music, both finding a genuine enthusiasm for the music of the other, which eventually led Lundgren to ask “shall we do something together?” “It made me very happy when the Stockholm Konserthuset joined in on the idea,” the pianist remembers. The duo’s first concert took place on 17 February 2023, was captured on video, and the good experience led them to arrange more concerts and then to book dates for a recording.

After a few days of working on the new repertoire at the ACT Art Gallery, the duo headed to Emil Berliner studios for just a day and a half of recording in February 2024, with Andreas Brandis producing and the watchful and experienced ear of Rainer Maillard as engineer. Brandis says: "It's amazing to hear how closely their playing interlocks, how they constantly switch the roles of lead and secondary voice. Both are masters of harmony and melody, each with their own cultural background." Lundgren agrees: “That is where we find each other and why we like each other,” and Costa ads: “We play original music. I believe that in this way we can have something sincere and really true to our purposes.”

That interest in giving to a collective endeavour is astonishingly palpable from the very first seconds of the album. The rhythm of “Para Aprender A Amar” (to learn to love) is Ecuadorian, a pasilo and the first strong melodic voice that we hear is of the lowest string of Costa’s “violão de sete cordas“ (seven-string Brazilian guitar), a signature model from Cuenca in Spain. There are also delightful explorations of Brazilian music, such as the lively choro “Diplomata”, and a little-known gem from Jobim, “Garoto”. The titles of Lundgren’s compositions point clearly to how personal and how authentic this album is. He has devoted one track each to his Mare Nostrum partners Paolo Fresu and Richard Galliano, and also one to his wife, singer Hannah Svensson.

The variety of style, pace and mood of “Inner Spirits” as a whole is addictive. Jan Lundgren and Yamandu Costa’s winning combination of empathy, mutual respect and jaw-dropping musicianship has produced a beautiful-sounding set which is certainly about to earn its place as one of the very great piano-and-guitar recordings.