Please Note: e.s.t. releases are only available through Emarcy for USA, Canada, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan and Asia (excluding Russia, Israel and Turkey).

e.s.t. are a phenomenon: A jazz trio, which sees itself as a rock band that plays jazz, breaking with the tradition in jazz of having a leader and his sidemen in favour of equality within its members, which not only plays jazz-venues but also on stages at festivals and in venues usually reserved for rock bands. Lighting effects and dry-ice are also an integral part of their now-legendary live shows, this is a band that goes way beyond the normal boundaries of the average piano trio.

Their music can be found in the pop-charts and...

Please Note: e.s.t. releases are only available through Emarcy for USA, Canada, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan and Asia (excluding Russia, Israel and Turkey).

e.s.t. are a phenomenon: A jazz trio, which sees itself as a rock band that plays jazz, breaking with the tradition in jazz of having a leader and his sidemen in favour of equality within its members, which not only plays jazz-venues but also on stages at festivals and in venues usually reserved for rock bands. Lighting effects and dry-ice are also an integral part of their now-legendary live shows, this is a band that goes way beyond the normal boundaries of the average piano trio.

Their music can be found in the pop-charts and while their videos are playing on MTV Scandinavia. With their distinctive soundscapes that combine jazz with drum 'n' bass, electrona, funk grooves, and catchy melodic figures as well as elements of European classical music, their audience reaches across a multitude of genres and breaks many barriers between musical styles. Critics and audiences worldwide agree: e.s.t. are without question one of the most innovative jazz bands of today.

Openness, curiosity, and a little bit of chance are all a part of pianist Esbjörn Svensson's artistic foundation: "I play piano because we didn't have any other instrument in the house. Actually, I would have rather played drums. For instance, as a kid, I put together a set out of old odds and ends, and tried to sound like "Sweet" on "Ballroom Blitz". But then Magnus Öström came with his drums, and I decided to stay with the piano. Magnus and I grew up together, and have played together from the beginning. When Magnus was given his first drum set, he brought it over to my house, and we started playing. We had no idea how to play, but it was a lot of fun. Since we didn't have a teacher, and no one was telling us how to play, we were able to gradually develop our music in a very unique, individualistic way."

From the mid-eighties on, Svensson and Öström established themselves as inspiring sidemen in the Swedish and Danish jazz scenes. They formed their first trio in 1990, but it wasn't until 1993 that they got the necessary lift to get their first CD off the ground. It was then that they met versatile bassist Dan Berglund. Both were fascinated by the structural strength and creative diversity of his playing and were able to entice Berglund into joining the trio.

In 1993 the Esbjörn Svensson Trio recorded and released their debut album, When Everyone Has Gone (Dragon): in 1995, the live recording Mr. & Mrs. Handkerchief (Prophone), which has been released followed six years later under the title e.s.t. Live '95. By the mid-1990s the trio had made a name for themselves in Sweden and got a recording-deal with the pop-oriented label Superstudio Gul / Diesel Music. The first album for this label, released the same year, was E.S.T. Plays Monk, which quickly sold over 10.000 copies in Sweden. And the talented newcomers started to collect prizes: in 1995 and 1996 Esbjörn Svensson was awarded Swedish Jazz musician of the Year and 1998 Songwriter of the Year, and the 1997 release "Winter in Venice" - consisting mainly of original material - was awarded the Swedish Grammy.

The 1999 release of From Gagarin's Point of View was the first e.s.t. album to be released outside of Scandinavia through the German label ACT and also saw the band play make appearances at big European jazz festivals such as JazzBaltica and Montreux, marking the beginning of their international break-through.

A year later the album Good Morning Susie Soho was released and earned the trio the title Trio of the Year by the UK’s Jazzwise magazine, which the band followed by e.s.t. touring the ‘rising stars’ jazz circuit that includes all the major festivals throughout Europe. The same time Sony Columbia USA released the first album Somewhere Else Before a compilation from the European albums From Gagarin´s Point of View and Good Morning Susie Soho in the USA.

A Strange Place For Snow, e.s.t.´s 2002 release was supported by a 9-month tour through all European countries, but also the USA and Japan. Music from that album also became the soundtrack for the French movie Dans ma Peau directed by the French actress and screenwriter Marina de Van (8 Women). The album earned numerous awards for the band such as the "Jahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik" (from the German Phonoacademy), the "German Jazz Award", "Choc de l'année" (Jazzman, France), the "Victoire du Jazz" - the French Grammy - as best international act and also the "Relevation of the Festival" award, a special award from Midem.

In 2003 the band released Seven Days of Falling. The album went straight into the pop album charts in Germany, France and Sweden (peaking at No. 15). The album was also released in the USA, Japan and South Korea. The band supported k d lang on her tour throughout the USA performing in stadiums and large concert halls to over 50.000 people a night. More than 100.000 people watched them perform live in the 12 months after the release of Seven Days of Falling, further establishing them as both a stunning live act and as major recording artists. As a result the band was also awarded the Hans Koller prize as "European Artist of the Year" in December 2004 - voted by 23 jazz industry professionals from 23 European countries.

Following this with the album Viaticum (released in January 2005) they have surpassed the success of the previous albums. Going straight into the top 50 pop album charts in Germany and France and made the number 4 position in their native Sweden. The band toured the world extensively to support the album and appeared in major concert halls and festivals in Europe, Japan, South Korea, China, Australia, Brazil and the USA. They were awarded a gold and a platinum German Jazz Award, the IAJE award and the Swedish Grammy and were the first European jazz band ever to grace the cover of the Downbeat jazz magazine in the USA (May 2006 issue). Not only in Europe e.s.t. have become a major concert attraction in their own right pulling large crowds all over the continents.

Their album Tuesday Wonderland, released in 2006, connects directly to Viaticum. The interpretation of Viaticum was that it conveyed that music is the provision that you take with you on your journey through life. Tuesday Wonderland is the spiritual journey itself that opens new worlds and guides you to the Wonderland of e.s.t.´s music.

The powerful final album from the most influential piano trio of the last decade – marked forever by the devastating death of pianist Esbjörn Svensson – Leucocyte shows e.s.t. once again pushing their musical boundaries still further. Created live in the studio over two days Leucocyte is a compelling final statement from this unique band.

Leucocytes, white blood cells, are a part of the human immune system that protect the body against foreign pathogens and infections. They must periodically renew themselves to continue their work.

For e.s.t., spontaneous jam sessions were the way to renewal. They would often rent a local recording studio for a couple of days during their tours and then start to jam. They did this without any pre-composed material. The musicians reacted freely to each other and let themselves be totally carried by the flow of ideas and musical to and fro. The players needed this freedom in order to explore new musical regions, or as Esbjörn Svensson always formulated it, "...to follow the music". In the past, many of the trio's compositions were developed through precisely this art of improvisation.

And there was scarcely another formation on the planet that was as predestined for this way of going about business as e.s.t were. The three performed with an almost telepathic assuredness, breathing as one; "This group has become one sound, one genius mutant human being with six hands, three brains and one musical sensibility." (Jamie Cullum). The trio constantly posed the fundamental question, "What can a piano trio be that it has not been before?" (Pat Metheny).

Leucocyte is the result of one of these two day jams. It took place at the famed "Studios 301" in Sydney during the band's Australian tour. In early 2008 e.s.t.'s sound engineer Ake Linton joined the band at the Bohus Sound Studios in Gothenburg, Sweden to begin mixing. On April 28 there was a photo shoot in Berlin for the new campaign. On May 16 the artwork and album were delivered to Emarcy.

Then on June 14 the incomprehensible happened: Esbjörn Svensson, probably the most influential stylist of the last decade, lost his life in a diving accident off the island of Värmdö near Stockholm.

As a result, Leucocyte has become Esbjörn Svensson's and e.s.t.'s musical legacy. It is the most venturesome album that pianist Esbjörn Svensson, bassist Dan Berglund, and drummer Magnus Öström have recorded as e.s.t. The essence of this journey of discovery is its ecstatic energy. It is a trip through the bloodstream sans compositional safety-net and stylistic restraints in which the borders of musical communication are sounded out.

Esbjörn Svensson's orbital musical journey began barely ten years ago with From Gagarin's Point Of View, before coming to Earth with Strange Place For Snow and Seven Days Of Falling.  He provided food for the soul with Viaticum, lost himself in his Tuesday Wonderland, and the journey now comes to an end with Leucocyte.

This album corresponds 100% to the material that Esbjörn Svensson, Dan Berglund and Magnus Öström chose and sent to their label, Emarcy, on May 16.

(Shrink Biography)