Tomas Hallonsten releases Monolog on CD / MC / DL via Thanatosis Produktion on the 27th January 2023.

The album started out as a Mark Hollis-influenced project; gradually the music morphed and now it’s an album treading territories adjacent to the music of Francis Bebey, Mamman Sani, Hailu Mergia and Alice Coltrane.

“A serial collaborator on Sweden’s jazz and experimental scenes, the trumpeter used enforced isolation to down his horn and pick up a drum machine, improvising over its rhythms with Hammond organ and antique synths to get as close to the feel of a live band jamming as he could, ‘Monolog’ being the utterly wonderful result.

Hallonsten has Jimi Tenor’s knack of flirting with kitsch and creating oddball springy funk on the like of ‘Earth’ and ‘Go Ashram Go’, the latter ending with a beautiful piano part worthy of Ryuichi Sakamoto.  Most charming of all is his winning way with melodies, best displayed on ‘In Clouds (Pt. 1)’ with its irresistibly hummable vocal refrain: a veritable cherry atop an album as indulgently fun to listen to as it fells like it was to make.”
Paul Clarke, DJ Mag