Featuring a five piece lineup with an age span of nearly four decades, the band is a recurring expansion of the pianist’s long standing trio with the additions of three-time Grammy nominee and Blue Note Records artist Tim Hagans (trumpet), and Karl-Martin Almqvist (tenor saxophone) with whom Landaeus has been performing and recording for over 20 years. 

The ensemble’s impressive collective CV includes performances and recordings with titans of the art form, including Benny Golson, Jerry Bergonzi, Aaron Parks, Dexter Gordon, Joe Lovano, Nduduzo Makhathini, and more.

Spurred on by the playful quality of their ensemble and “sibling-like dedication” to the group both on and off stage, Landaeus composed the backbone of Path, the Body-Mind-Spirit Suite, with these musicians specifically in mind. Folk-tinged melodies interpreted with a delicate, breath-like rubato feel evolve into grooving explorative improvisations in Landaeus’ signature style where composition and spontaneity share the spotlight. 

Balancing the spiritual side of the music with inventive compositional concepts, each piece on Path was written within a specific musical framework. Body was built on a simple pentatonic melody and a vamp in 11/8, Mind is centered around a theme derived from a 12-tone row, Reminder cycles symmetrically through three keys, and Tim Hagans’ composition Free Mess is a contrapuntal exploration of the third mode of Olivier Messiaen.

With a level of listening and interactivity only achievable through years of performing together, the quintet’s egoless and textural ensemble approach seems to ebb and flow through space and energy as one living being.

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