ON SAX/EWI - BJÖRN ARKÖ
When writing material for this album I listened a lot to the likes of Michael Brecker, Bob Berg & Mike Stern. Not that that's anything new - that stuff is always in heavy rotation in this household - but I guess it must've rubbed off on my writing, because what I ended up with was a collection of tunes that had tenor/soprano sax written all over them!
Which leads us to Björn, who is someone I've wanted to work with for quite some time. Actually, the first time I heard him was at an outdoor concert in 2009, where his group played "Thrill Minute" (the opening track off my first album Luna Nueva)! Now, it's always cool to hear your songs interpreted by others, but what I remember the most from that gig is that I was really impressed with Björn's mature sound and technical abilities on the horn (he can't have been more than 16 or 17 years old at the time), so his playing obviously appealed to me right off the bat! On Equanimity, Björn is featured on both tenor/soprano sax and EWI (acronym for Electric Wind Instrument), and as expected he delivers the goods big-time!
Björn is currently working on the debut album of his quartet Björn Arkö Group, and you can also hear him with HAON, a new project that he's co-leading with Japanese guitarist Souta Niihara.