Hyena’s Song is the sophomore album of Swedish-Colombian, Malmö-based young guitarist Jhoan Sebastian Cardenas Piza as a bandleader, following the trio Tre Öar’s Tone Poem (2020). The album was recorded at The Village studio in Copenhagen in September 2023.

Cardenas Piza tends to float in ambient, new age-y soundscapes, but on Hyena’s Song he is accompanied by the resourceful Danish rhythm section of double bass player Anders ‘AC’ Christensen and drummer-percussionist Michala Østergaard-Nielsen, and on a few pieces by Swedish Ellen Pettersson and German alto sax player Julia Strzalek, who add depth, color, and tension to Cardenas Piza’s minimalist, atmospheric pieces. Cardenas Piza left enough space and freedom for individual, improvised interpretations of his concise themes and welcomed their natural, patient development.

Cardenas Piza’s homages to non-musical influences have more substance. He dedicates the gentle and fragile «Françoise» to the French author Françoise Sagan, whose book Bonjour Tristesse made a huge impression on him as a teenager. The meditative «Winter and Winter» is dedicated to the now-defunct German label founded by Stefan Winter, as Cardenas Piza loved Paul Motian’s album released by the label. The sensitive drumming of Østergaard-Nielsen recalls Motian’s masterful work. The mysterious «Andrei» is dedicated to the Russian filmmaker and director Andrei Tarkovsky, whose images were «paired with deep riddles about life».

Eyal Hareuveni

Ellen Pettersson (trumpet, effects), Julia Strzalek (alto saxophone), Jhoan Sebastian Cardenas Piza (guitar), Anders ‘AC’ Christensen (double bass), Michala Østergaard-Nielsen (drums and percussion)