Release date: 26 June 2020

Daniel Herskedal Tuba

Call for Winter is Daniel Herskedal’s seventh album as leader and 5th on Edition. Taking as a starting point the opening track of his 2015 album Slow Eastbound Train, The Mistral Noir, the new album is built on layers of tuba and bass trumpet, with each layer adding more emotion and conviction. The Mistral Noir picked up adoring fans, instantly developing an audience for its unique and cinematic vision. Call for Winter is the album that takes that inspiration and expands it into a full-spectrum experience.

Daniel self-isolated for two weeks in the depths of Norway’s frozen highlands, writing and recording this masterful music – before he had to actually isolate in Corona outbreak.

“Instead of going to a recording studio I rented a cottage and made my own studio. The cottage is located in Elgå in Norway, where the road stops (literally) in the most southern Sami area between Trondheim and Oslo, close to the Swedish border. I did that to get out of my daily routines, away from noise and city life. I was seeking loneliness – but also open beautiful landscapes in a place where more animals than human beings live and time runs slower. This combination gives plenty of possibilities to find depth, soul and beauty in the music. I stayed there alone for more than two weeks – skiing, composing and recording every night and day. A couple of those days I also joined the local Samis and helped with their reindeer herding.”

Daniel Herskedal is the enigmatic master of sound and sonorous beauty. His music ebbs and flows with utter grace and poise, perfectly fusing the spirit of jazz with the compositional craft of classical music. Seldom do you hear a musician with such depth, emotive intensity and virtuosity shine whilst simultaneously pushing the boundaries of his instrument to the limit. The cinematic scope of his music is obvious in the way he conjures landscapes in his compositions (as is evident in his elemental trilogy of album Slow Eastbound Train, The Roc and Voyage) and has led to his work on soundtracks, including the gorgeous arrangement for tuba of San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair) for the multi-nominated, Brad Pitt produced, 2019 film The Last Black Man in San Francisco) – which had similar sound ideas to this album.

Daniel’s also been Commissioned for and soloist with BBC Concert Orchestra, LJF 2016, the Royal Norwegian Navy Band, Oslo Jazz Festival 2018, the Russian Patrarchate choir of Moscow and he’s won the Norwegian Grammy with Marja Mortensson 2019.

Possessed with a real feel for melodic resonance, Daniel Herskedal is a hugely gifted and dynamic composer. His music breathes and is full of life. While his previous three albums have earned him huge praise and adoring fans, this new music expands on that work and develops it logically, performing entirely solo, layering tuba and bass trumpet in a mesmerising and sublimely beautiful way.

The influence of multiple genres is evident in the songs, but it’s the sense of space, the quality of sound and the true brilliance of its simplicity that impresses most. Combined with the advanced technique and the sheer range of sounds he gets from these unwieldy brass instruments, it blows your mind!

“Our man succeeds in stimulating interest through the entire album, and it says a lot about his musicality…Herskedal stands for clarity and gracefulness, and the technical skills are never made at the expense of the music… I think Daniel Herskedal must have known something primal up there in the cabin.” – Jazzinorge