For those unaware, Erik Dahl is a composer and pianist from Sweden with a passion for discovery. His music is melodic, melancholic and imaginative. Many describe the music as filmic and with a visual quality.

The impulse to make a piano album came unexpectedly. In 2018 Erik heard a solo concert with a folk singer at Saltoluokta Mountain Station in the far North of Sweden. She said: ’This song has been with me for 15 years’.

The words had a deep effect and made him wonder. What would it mean to have a solo repertoire? Then he started writing songs.

The piano is at the center on his new release Music For Small Rooms. The music is both grandiose and restrained. There is a strong melodic element that binds together the diverse influences. Indeed, many of the sounds are recurring in Erik’s music making.

In addition to the piano you hear instruments like harmonium, synthesizers, viola, bass clarinet, live electronics, organic beats and field recordings.

The album is produced in collaboration with Filip Leyman (Anna Von Hausswolff).

1. Postpop (4:16)
2. Natural Home (5:23)
3. Tuva (4:11)
4. Gnista (5:08)
5. The Leopard (4:45)
6. Sparv (5:33)
7. Mannen med bollen (3:31)
8. Night Sky (2:09)
9. Between Heartbeats (4:33)
10. Børnevise fra Skibby (4:28)

The album opens on the ornately beautiful Postpop and the delicate Natural Home and then comes the near crystalline Tuva, the veritably translucent Gnista and the forthright, grandly melodic musings within The Leopard.

Next up are a couple of my own personal favorites from this new collection, the atmospherically charged pairing of Sparv and Mannen med bollen and they are in turn followed by the spacial openness of our infinite surroundings within the ethereal Night Sky, the album closing on the opulent gossamer of Between Heartbeats, coming to a close on the contained, yet elegantly grandiose masterpiece Børnevise fra Skibby.

Erik has been releasing music since 2012 and has been consistently praised by reviewers in Sweden, as well as in the US, Canada and Holland. Music For Small Rooms combines elements of pop, jazz, modern classical, Swedish folk and ambient. It is possibly his most personal album to date.

Musicians:
Erik Dahl, piano, harmonium, synthesizer, voice, field recording, guitar
Anna Malmström, bass clarinet (7)
Anna Cochrane, viola (2, 5, 7)
William Soovik, drums (2)
Filip Leyman, percussion (5, 9), modular (4, 5, 9, 10)

Official Purchase Link