Following the release of their debut collaborative album I get along without you very well, Ellen Arkbro & Johan Graden have shared the bonus track “Postcard greetings”. The song is emblematic of the album’s powerful, bittersweet sense of tension and release. Arkbro’s casts haunting melodies over stretched and melancholic chords from a lush chamber ensemble, her trumpet mirroring her stark voice. This slow and startling composition first appeared as a bonus track on the Japanese edition of I get along without you very well, performed by a chamber ensemble of low instruments; viola, bass clarinet and contrabass, together with Ellen on trumpet.
Johan Graden, arrangement, mellotron
Ellen Arkbro, vocals, trumpet
Josefin Runsteen, viola
Pär-Ola Landin, bass
Per Texas Johansson, bass clarinet
Composed and produced by Ellen Arkbro & Johan Graden
Recorded by Fredrik Swahn, Buller och Bång Studio
Mastered by Jonas Siöström
Since the album’s release, Arkbro & Graden have presented live renditions of the album at Berlin Jazz Festival and Rewire Festival, joined by lauded performers like Josefin Runsteen, Pär-Ola Landin, Per Texas Johansson, and more.
Ellen Arkbro & Johan Graden embody the limitless curiosity and fearless innovation of the Swedish and Berlin new music scenes they inhabit. I get along without you very well expands on the duo’s intoxicating exploration of meditative, spiritual sonics in unexpected ways. It is a beautiful meeting of two friends and inventive musical minds, resulting in the most affecting and surprising of pop albums. The record is a daring statement from two of the most progressive voices in contemporary music. In allowing themselves to be at their most vulnerable – with each other, their collaborators and with listeners – they have created some of their most powerful work to date.
