About the live album

The album was recorded live in concert in Mixát Stage, Budapest. A video is also available for this recording. www.youtube.com/watch?v=srpHxr5_3cM

“Swansong” trio has played a mixture of songs from their first and second studio album, as well as from their to be released short album recorded in Japan.

Swansong Trio was founded in 2010 in Berlin by Gábor Csordás and Noriaki Hosoya. The first drummer, Andrea Zuliani was replaced by Marty Risemberg in 2016. That was the time when they recorded their self-titled first album “Swansong”. It was released in 2019 on Hunnia Records & Film Production which led to immediate success especially in Japan. The band has toured in Japan in 4 major cities performing the first album. Then the pandemic has cut the follow-up plans short, and the trio waited 3 years for another reunion. In 2022 the trio recorded two albums: “Turbulence” in Mixát Stage, and “Do Swans Fly?” is their second studio album, recorded in SuperSize Studios, Törökbálint.

The style of the trio is centered around melodic ideas coming from European music. The nowadays somewhat unusual setup in contemporary jazz of electric bass and acoustic piano gives a balance between the mainstream jazz sound and the fusion/jazz-rock rhythms often emphasized by trio. Swansong also has a tendency to incorporate many styles into their music, from rock to electronic and on this very record even latin.

01 Bird’s Eye (Nori)
It’s the power of the music that opens up a whole new world to us to explore, allows us to be free as a

bird and to stay open minded. We have been playing this song since the very beginning & it’s a great opener to share our musical journey with you.

02 Lidi (Nori)
As a composer, you make different colors by using different combinations of notes. I composed this piece based on my favorite scale called “Lydian” to create vibrant atmosphere with a little bit of nostalgia. This arrangement is also dedicated to Swansong Trio to feature light drum’n’bass-ish groove on drums and melody played by 6 string bass.

03 Distance (Gábor)
A previously unreleased song, that was written and recorded in Tokyo, during the bands 2019 Japan tour. The song was inspired by how relative distance can be, sometimes our loved ones are on the other side of the planet, yet they are close to our hearts – and in a similar way is our trio still active despite being located physically on three different continents. Also the song has became more meaningful after the pandemic season has presented further challenges, not only physical distance.

04 Blue In Bordeaux (Nori)
Summer sky, fresh air, and clear water – these are what I’ve seen one of sunny days in Bordeaux.

05 Painting with two colors (Gábor)
A favorite from the first album, a folk-inspired theme in a tricky odd meter groove that always sets new challenges in the improvisation section, and also has a demanding bass part. Also a prime example of the trio’s unique ability to combine jazz-rock/fusion groove based music with the acoustic piano sound, and improvisation techniques that are more relevant in mainstream or contemporary jazz. I was imaging a picture of very sharp contrasts. The key centers and the moods of the themes are very abrupt and contrasting, like a picture.

06 Houdini (Gábor)
A new ballad, that references the famous magician Harry Houdini in the title. It refers to how emotional connections can “magically” be created or broken, just like Houdini was able to break through from impossible locations. The uplifting second section is probably the “break through” – winning when the odds seem impossible.

07 Unknown Cover Song (Nori)
When I picked up my first electric bass, I originally wanted to be a rock star even though I am taking a

slightly different musical path nowadays. This is like a dream come true for me to play this piece with my buddies to smash our instrument as hard as we can.

08 Turbulence (Nori)
We all have been through one of our toughest moments in the last couple years due to the world pandemic. There are a lot of ups and downs in our life – it’s like turbulence & that’s the idea of this piece is originally coming from. But nobody would have predicted when I composed this piece for our first recording back in 2016 that the COVID hit us so hard a couple years later.
I still remember the feeling of pain the day we were forced to cancel our concert tour, live and studio recording to create our upcoming albums, which were all originally planned for spring 2020 & it was so tough for me to swallow. Finally after being patient for 2 years, we achieved everything we wanted – perhaps even in a better way in many circumstances. The whole story makes it even more precious for me to share the musical path as a trio & I am so glad we captured one of these emotional moments as a live album.