Live concerts
from Saalfelden Jazz Festival -23
"After the 10-minute walk to the Ritzensee, a small, man-made lake in the midst of some rolling fields, I checked into the hotel and was soon back at the Nexus concert hall for the 'soft' opening of the festival with the Sweden based pianist Lisa Ullén, bassist Elsa Bergman and drummer Anna Lund. The group, "Space," began with a sparse melody from Ullén's piano, which Bergman picked up on, and leaning into her bass in the middle of the stage, opened up further. Lund provided a persistent pulse as the trio's music developed. The songs varied in intensity, each musician providing melodic or rhythmic impulses that stood alone, as well as complimented the others - whether it was gentle, precisely placed notes from the piano, a tambourine being used as a drumstick, or a firm nudge from the bass. The group released their debut album, Space, last year on Relative Pitch and a listen to the recording will give you a perfect impression of the expressiveness and intensity of their music tonight." — Paul Acquaro, Free Jazz Collective
from BlowOut Festival, Oslo -23
“Så rigges kveldens første trommesett til. Anna Lund setter seg bak det, og Space Trio legger ut. I tillegg til Lund rommer den pianist Lisa Ullén og bassist Elsa Bergman. Det duver og det bryter i musikken, og Ullén får de mørke utlegningene til å skinne. De tettsittende pådragene treffer. Trioen går både hardt og kledelig ut. De tre vil åpenbart det samme, på hver sin måte. Etappene skifter. Bergman, Lund og Ullén kjenner hverandre. Det høres. Så er det trommene som buldrer i vei andre seanse, før Ullén begynner å leke seg med en korthugd stubb. Idéene utvikles gjennom sterke samhandlinger. Det er tett kommunikasjon i det de gjør, og de rocker det til når det er nødvendig. Setter egne fortegn i det de holder på med. Drar seg selv over i stadig nye områder. Det er høy klasse og egenrådig sprut. De reiser vegger og får dem til å stå. Dette syder.
Så er det bassist Bergman som introduserer tredje og siste innslag fra trioen. Det får også denne distinkte karakteren de tre har holdt seg med gjennom hele settet. På raden foran meg er det en som mener Space Trio er verdens beste band. Fire fete sett er uansett over.” —
from Jazzfest Berlin -22
"The festival’s second night peaked with Playing The Haus, a multi-performer sequence utilising three stage-spaces around the venue, with nine sets criss-crossing over three hours. Kassenhalle turned out to be the most inspiring location, as your scribe uncovered the Stockholm trio of Lisa Ullén (piano), Elsa Bergman (bass) and Anna Lund (drums). Nearly avoided as ‘yet another piano trio’, this group turned out to be the most crucial discovery of the weekend, few folks in the audience having witnessed them previously. The trio maintained a taut improvisatory circularity throughout, continually winding up to fresh peaks, then subsuming into temporary introversion. This winding progress was magnificently sustained." — Martin Longley , Jazzwise
Embrace the Space - Space (Relative Pitch Records, 2024)
“This trio’s singularity has stood out from the start. That’s not a given for a piano-bass-drums trio; there are looming giants who have done standard-setting work with it, and legions more who have turned it into cliches known to those whose familiarity with jazz begins and ends at brunch. But as Space, pianist Lisa Ullén, bassist Elsa Bergman and drummer Anna Lund project a collective identity in which each player’s contributions merit appreciation, but they all make their marks most strongly felt by contributing to acts of instantaneous collective composition.” — Bill Meyer, Dusted Magazine
"The release of energy is hair-raising as three voices collide in free jazz maelstrom. Utterly brilliant… Space is fast becoming one of the most daring piano trios on today’s scene (and a personal favorite of mine). Embrace the Space is a milestone achievement for the trio as they solidify their sound and camaraderie. Highly recommended." — Taylor McDowell, Free Jazz Collective
“DN:s Magnus Säll imponeras av energin och kraften i musiken, som samtidigt balanseras upp av intellektuell skärpa.” — Magnus Säll, Dagens Nyheter
(EN) “Magnus Säll is impressed by the energy and force in the music, that is balanced with intellectual acuity.”
“...the way Bergman and Lund have honed an almost telepathic rapport that allows them to sculpt infectious yet elusive shape-shifting grooves—a gift for a pianist as versatile as Ullén, who rides those rhythms with uncanny confidence and experimentation.” — Peter Margasak, Nowhere Street
“The trio is totally invested in the art of the moment and follows its primal, raw instincts with restless energy, imagination and poetic sensibility. This great trio just getting better and better.” — Eyal Hareuveni, Salt Peanuts
Space -Lisa Ullén, Elsa Bergman, Anna Lund (Relative Pitch Records, 2022)
“Stockholm possesses one of the deepest, most open-ended, and exciting musical communities in the world these days, but sadly it seems to be overlooked both there and abroad. This electrifying fully improvised piano trio came together when its members – pianist Lisa Ullén, bassist Elsa Bergman, and drummer Anna Lund – worked together in the Anna Högberg Attack!, and they’ve developed their own furious sound marked by febrile tension and release, as the group persistently pushes its spontaneous explorations to the edge of the abyss, forever maintaining its composure.” — Peter Margasak, Complete Communion/the Quietus “Best Jazz of 2022"
”The pianist has internalised the free jazz piano vocabulary, but she puts these tools together with the rigour and pacing of a serious composer, even if she’s creating on the fly. A knockout.” Peter Margasak, Complete Communion/The Quietus
"... evolving into the perfect freedom of what a jazz piano trio could sound like: unleashed, nervous, disciplined, listening and full of energy." — Stef Gjissels, Free Jazz Blog, 4,5/5
" Space [...] exhibits the type of free improvisation that is unpredictable and yet flows logically between themes and motifs."
Mike Borella, Avant Music News
«Space» is not an album of a conventional free jazz piano trio and this trio never follows familiar routes. Maybe the time of the recording during the stressful era of human isolation and the feeling that every act – musical like other human acts – really matters, or the exquisite attention of the trio to detail makes it so special.
Eyal Hareuveni , Salt Peanuts
"Propulsive and varied, the ensemble has a sound all its own."
Bill Meyer, Dusted Magazine
“Best er kanskje likevel av- sluttende «Core». Denne åpner som en surrealistisk ballade, både ulidelig vakker og fascinerende foruroligende. Pustende rom og dvelende toner vikler seg snart inn i hverandre, før de tar til i energi, med et Thelonius Monk-kantete tilsnitt og en freidig, snublende fremdrift”.
Chris Monsen, Klassekampen ⅘
“Things happen randomly, and sense emerges as an almost indescribable whole”. Paul Meldrano, Best of Jazz
“Space is a careful and refined work with Lisa Ullén, Elsa Bergman and Anna Lund engaged in demonstrating that the language of music is a universal language, capable of being understood by everyone beyond any proposed genre”
Mario Ariano, Radioaktiv.
"Tempest" is the longest performance, and a very exciting one, with the musicians playing in a very dynamic manner, using an elastic sensibility and approach to keep the music in continuous motion, through episodes of cascading piano, and strong bass and drums or interludes of quiet, this is a fine demonstration of the trio's considerable skills”.
Tim Niland, Jazz and Blues blogspot
" Things erupt again on “the final piece, “Core”, a free/music piano trio at its best, who could ask for anything more?!?"
“There are moments on this album that are absolutely riveting."
Dave Sumner, Best Jazz on bandcamp March
