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Listed: Lisa Ullén

Photo by Märta Thisner

Lisa Ullén is a pianist based in Stockholm, Sweden. Born in 1964 in Seoul, Korea and raised in Northern Sweden, where she moved after being adopted just prior to turning 4, Ullén initially focused her love of music in its immensity into classical piano training. Encounters with modern composition and improvisation steered her away off the straight and narrow, and she’s pursued both sides of music as a major contributor to Stockholm’s avant-garde music scene throughout this century. She is a valued side-person for bandleaders such as Anna Högsberg and Finn Loxbo, and a strong collaborator in ensembles such as Reading Music, which presents work by composers including Nomi Epstein and Hanna Hartman, and the free improv trio Space. Ullén has also recorded several volumes of solo piano music. Bill Meyer wrote of the most recent such release, Heirloom, “It’s easy to get hung up on the novelty of Ullén’s sounds, which impart a visceral thrill that’s likely to keep you coming back to them. But as one spends time with them, the existential dimension of how they’re played looms larger.”

In this moment, this is some music that means and/or has meant a lot to me. What I listen to and whatchanges.

Thelonius Monk — Criss Cross

What I particularly like about Monk is how his playing and compositions form a single entity. Even so his songs have an integrity all of their own. They are very much like his playing — there is this amazing clarity to everything he does. Every phrase is exceptionally well-articulated, even when it is slightly slurred. And he goes in the wrong direction at all the right places.

Andrea Neumann — Solo at Monopiano Festival

I have known Andrea Neumann´s music for a long time and I love her approach to time, sound, and space.There are such strengths and frailties in her music. Also, a lot of the music I listen to and really appreciate is like this — it is something that happens in a particular space and unfolds in real time. You can sometimes listen to it and appreciate it afterwards, via videos like this one, but it is not produced to be recorded, packaged, and sold.

Derek Bailey — Solo Guitar

When I started to dig into improvisation, I listened to a huge number of players, Derek Bailey among them… Big inspiration, also a huge impact on me.

Helmut Lachenmann — “Ausklang” from Musik für Klavier mit Orchester

Fantastic piece; how did they get all these extended techniques in an orchestral situation? Ueli Wiget on the piano — there are so many amazing classical pianists. But it’s also the composition as such, and the way it transposes one of the key elements of the piano as an instrument — its resonance, the Ausklang — into an orchestral setting. All instruments work with resonances in some ways, of course, but to do it collectively like this, and pick up on and extend effects which stem from the piano is beautiful and impressive.

Robert Wyatt — “Shipbuilding”

Of course… Robert Wyatt: his songwriting, his arranging, his voice. Also his choice of covers, and ability to make them his own. This one seems very apt again.

Captain Beefheart — “The Floppy Boot Stomp” from Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)

Outstanding, especially this late phase. Kudos to the Magic Band; I love the trombone. The instrumentation and arrangements on this one are fantastic, so carefully chiseled, yet full of surprises.

Aretha Franklin — “Climbing Higher Mountains” (Live at New Temple Missionary Baptist Church, 1972)

I went to a gospel camp when I was 13 — I found a note for it somewhere, and applied without telling my mum. I took a long train ride to south of Sweden. I have always admired gospel music and not least gospel piano players. I would like to be one. But listening to Aretha in this movie is pretty good too… My gospel camp was not even close to this, but the feeling and energy reminds me of it.

Carla Bley — “The Lord Is Listenin’ To Ya, Hallelujah!”

The gospel according to Carla, with great trombone from Gary Valente. Carla’s music has followed me since my late teens. Always… Trombone again…

Kristine Scholz, Mats Persson, Sten Sandell — “To Begin With”

When I studied at the Academy, I had seminars with Mats Persson about new contemporary music and we played a lot of different material. A huge inspiration. Mats and Kristine Scholz are an outstanding duo. I love their careful interpretations of different composers. On this recording, they are joined by Sten Sandell, another amazing idiosyncratic pianist.

Bill Evans — “Gloria´s Step” from Sunday at the Village Vanguard

Amazing trio, extraordinary, with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motion. Once upon a time I was living in North Carolina, and among other things I did, I studied jazz piano and copied Bill Evans’ solos . But when I arrived in North Carolina, I had already gotten my head set on other things.

Cecil Taylor — Looking (Berlin version)

Morning, lunch, dinner — always Cecil… also his solo Silent Tongues. I attended a workshop with him in Stockholm in the late 1990s. I was too shy to say anything, but it made a huge impact. His solo concert at this time was a real thing… Life has not been the same since.

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