The Calling is the debut album of Swedish, New York-based young tenor and baritone sax player-composer Isak Ingvarsson, exploring the experience of religious calling – a calling that has taken him through the deepest despair and the brightest hope. Ingvarsson’s Catholic upbringing had a major impact on his musicianship. While composing the music for this album, he realized that, subconsciously, the music was emerging from the psalms and prayers he had known as a child. He is currently pursuing his Master’s degree in Jazz Performance at the City College of New York, where he studies under the mentorship of Tim Berne and Vincent Herring. Ingvarsson also did the cover artwork.

Ingvarsson is accompanied by Swedish, Stockholm-based pianist Johan Graden (a co-founder of the Haphazard collective, whose label, Haphazard Music, released the album) and Danish, Copenhagen-based drummer Kresten Osgood. The album was recorded at LP Studion in Malmö in November 2023.

The eight short pieces of The Calling inject a Nordic melancholic twist into the American spiritual free jazz. Ingvarsson embodies his raw emotions in the spacious music and evokes a sense of reverent yearning, as well as a mature sensibility of compassion, understanding that the music serves as a healing force in his life. He enjoys the minimalist yet dynamic, thoughtful contributions of Graden and Osgood, cementing the music in austere, immersive textures. The music is developed slowly as melodic musical meditations that express feelings of frustration, aspiration, and unanswered questions, as well as the comfort of a collective, supportive interplay.

Eyal Hareuveni

Isak Ingvarsson (tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone), Johan Graden (piano, organ), Kresten Osgood (drums, Yamaha PSR-1500)