Sten Sandell - Now or Never (Remastered) (2020) [Hi-Res]

From 1976 to 1986 Sten Sandell undertook wide-ranging studies: on piano with Mats Persson and Carl-Axel Dominique; in improvisation/compositio with Sven-David Sandstrom; and with Par Lindgren into electro-acoustic music. Attended the Academy of Music in Stockholm during the period 1981 to 1986. Influences are broad and include free improvisation, contemporary music (John Cage, Morton Feldman, I. Xenakis etc.), and ethnic music (classical music from India, Japan, Iran etc. folk music from Sweden, Norway, North Africa). From 1976 to the present day, has been involved in group work, solo projects and in dance, drama, and film. The two long-standing groups are Sa Vidare, 1979-89 with guitarist Peter Soderberg and saxophonist Johan Petri, who played 'structurally organised improvisations', and Gush (from 1988 and ongoing) with saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and percussionist Raymond Strid, well known for their free improvised music. Instrumentation for solo projects has included piano, synthesizer, sampler, percussion, and voice and is represented on a number of records, for example, Frames, on the Bauta label.

Sten Sandell has undertaken tours in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Holland, France, Italy, Switzerland and Austria (Glaxon festival, Holland 1986; 'Free Music'-90, Antwerpen 1990; Solo-92 in Stockholm, FMP-festival in Berlin 1994. He has collaborated with Carl-Axel Dominique, Anders Jormin, Sainkho Namchylak, Jon Rose, Mats Persson, Kristine Scholz, David Moss, Phil Wachsmann, Sven-Ake Johansson, Mats Gustafsson, Raymond Strid and many others.

A new quartet (incorporating lute, theorbo, cello, marimba, percussion, voice, piano, harmonium) was formed in 1995 to work with composed and arranged material (Cage, Feldman, Nancarrow, Sandberg and the members of the group) and also in free improvisation.

Sten Sandell, piano, keyboards [sampling], percussion
Marie Selander, vocals
Sören Runolf, guitar
Johan Petri, soprano saxophone
Mats Gustafsson, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone
Raymond Strid, drums
Ulf Strandberg, drums

Producer, Mixed by Lars Jonsson*, Sten Sandell

Digitally remastered