Kummelholmen is an art gallery on the outskirts of Stockholm that has housed exhibitions by  Lars Kleen and William Kentridge among others. It is a former hot water center with an oil cistern with an enormous reverberation. Swedish trumpeter Lars Almkvist and percussionists Bengt Berger and Martin Jonsson decided to see if they can make some slow music – with long sustained lines – in it.

In June 2022, the adventurous Almkvist, Berger and Jonsson climbed into the Kummelholmen cistern through a very small hole dressed in protective white overalls and improvised for an hour-long session. Kummelholmen Sustain Session documents this unique experience, and offers s a suite with four parts and a brief bonus piece that was the first test of the acoustics.

Almkvist, Berger and Jonsson explore patiently and methodically the sonic possibilities of the reverberating space of Kummelholmen. They first let the ethereal, almost silent sound of the trumpet and the sparse and delicate percussive sounds float in this unique space. The innocent listener may think that these sounds have a life and volition of their own. But, slowly, their sounds become more tangible and the distant, minimalist dynamics adopt more poetic modes, and in the third and fourth parts of the suite, the trio plays with the resonating acoustics with meditative sustained sounds.

Eyal Hareuveni

Lars Almkvist (tp), Bengt Berger (perc), Martin Jonsson (perc)