Band:
Andreas Axelsson - drums and percussion
Mikael Tuominen - bass (upright, electric and Ashbory), baritone guitar, electric sitar
(Kungens Män)
Jonathan Segel - electric guitar, violin, organ, synthesizers, bass
(Camper van Beethoven; Øresund Space Collective)
Reviews/Notes:
“Sista Maj” is colloquial Swedish for “the last day of May”. Literally, it’s “final May,” which leaves the potential meaning that it may be the last May…ever.
The last day of May 2015 happened to be the first time that these three Stockholm musicians played together. They had played in other constellations before, but this started a new group: Sista Maj.
Mikael Tuominen comes from ‘Kungens Män’, a post-rock instrumental psychedelic band. In this band, he played guitar, though he played bass, his first instrument, when he met Jonathan playing together in a composed/improvised group led by Einar Baldursson (Gösta Berlings Saga) for a few specific concerts in Stockholm.
Andreas Axelsson plays mostly in jazz and post-jazz improv and avant-garde groups, such as Lisa Ullén’s Group.
Mikael recommended him to Jonathan for a recording session intended for a record of songs and improvisations that Jonathan was working on.
Jonathan Segel, an American ex-pat in Stockholm, has been playing violin, guitar and keyboards with numerous bands over the past 35 years, most notably the continuing Camper Van Beethoven as well as his own projects which span the genre-worlds of psychedelia, improvisation, prog rock, Americana, electronica and avant-garde.
The pieces range from jazzy (Peony Spies) to electric intense (A Very Heavy Feather), from funky and weird (It Never Ends) to hypnotic (Series of Nested Universes), jam (Like a Diamond in This Guy) to space (Bones of Steel.) The album has an overall dark mood, another unexpected turn, but one that only adds to the heavy nature of the music.
Space Rock Productions