Wartel/Landæus/Wartel Collins/Wartel | Celebrating Live | April 25, 2026
Celebrating Live brings together three generations of shared history, instinctive communication, and uncompromising free expression. Formed by brothers Henrik and Jonny Wartel alongside bassist Georgia Wartel Collins and pianist Mathias Landæus, the quartet captures a rare kind of musical intimacy – one shaped by family lineage, long friendships, and decades spent navigating the outer edges of jazz and improvisation.
Henrik and Jonny Wartel, born in the late 1950s, grew up immersed in music. Raised by two classical pianists, both became professional musicians early on, following largely self-directed paths with free jazz at the core of their work. Henrik began performing professionally at 20 with trombonist Eje Thelin and later worked extensively with saxophonist Roland Keijser, blending jazz with Swedish folk and North African influences. Jonny, a self-taught saxophonist, co-founded the quartet Position Alpha, touring widely across Europe and Argentina, while also working across theatre, dance, folk, and global music settings.
Family collaboration has always been central to the Wartels’ musical life. Georgia Wartel Collins first performed with her father and uncle as a teenager, initially on trumpet and electric bass before focusing on double bass. Now based in New York, she is an established upright bassist working across free improvisation, traditional jazz, indie rock, and experimental music. After years living in Norway and the Netherlands – where she completed a master’s degree—she continues to develop her own projects while remaining closely connected to her family’s musical world.
The current quartet came together in 2024, when Henrik, Jonny, and Georgia were joined by pianist Mathias Landæus for a tour in Sweden and Norway. Landæus, a long-standing figure on the Scandinavian jazz scene, shares deep musical ties with the Wartel family dating back to the 1990’s Stockholm jazz scene. The chemistry was immediate, leading to Celebrating Live, recorded live during a concert in Oslo.
Musically, the album is rooted in free improvisation and collective listening rather than fixed structures. The music moves fluidly between raw intensity, open textures, and moments of lyrical clarity, unfolding through trust and shared instinct. Celebrating Live captures a group for whom improvisation is not a strategy but a natural mode of expression.
“It’s striking how naturally the music flows, from the jarred beauty to the abstract soundscape to the intense and rhythmical. I feel honoured to be offered a seat at the family table with these people – whom it feels almost ridiculously natural for me to make spontaneous music with,” says Mathias Landæus.
Line up
Jonny Wartel | Saxophone
Henrik Wartel | Drums
Mathias Landæus | Piano
Georgia Wartel Collins | Double Bass
Track Listing
Side A
Side B
PR Quotes
Jazz Journal (USA)
“Here’s some free jazz from Scandinavia purveying one of the more uneasy listening strains of the music still holding out in this culturally conservative era“
Paris-move (FR)
“the album is best understood as a collective work in the fullest sense. No single voice dominates. Instead, what emerges is a convergence, of generations, of experiences, of musical languages. The differences between the musicians do not divide them; they deepen the conversation”
La Habitacion del Jazz (ES)
“Intimacy, intensity, sensitivity, abstract musical landscapes, pure lyricism”
Lira (SE)
“Celebratring live is a brilliant album. And a shining example of how free jazz can swing”
Esensja (PL)
“This collaborative album by three members of the Wartel family and Mathias Landæus is another work that could convince fans of more classical jazz (modern, post-bop, or fusion) to embrace the free variety”
Jazz Weekly (US)
“Jonny’s tenor is quite frothy in the opening moments before getting into some rich moans and cries later on in the set. Landaeus is tentative with the digits before digging in and bopping hard towards the end in a frantic trio format. Collins gets some space for stretching out, buzzing about a big on the bow and fuzzy with the scratches, but also does a creative tug of war with Henrik, who directs most of the traffic with his sticks, pulling here, building up crescendos there, percolating around the coffee pot and leading up to the dramatic and fragmented avalanche of a conclusion.”
Orkester Journalen (SE)
“Free improvisation and collective listening are central ingredients in this communicative and at times uncompromising music, which nevertheless remains surprisingly accessible for listeners with open minds and ears.”
JazzTrail (USA)
“This is a confident effort by full-fledged free jazz explorers”
Musik an sich (DE)
“The musicians play with these elements in a completely cohesive manner, generating a high degree of energy and tension, somewhere between wildness and meditation”
FREQ (UK)
“The first effort for this line-up is a forty-six minute journey through relationships that go beyond the professional and somehow manifest into something magical.”
Jazz-fun (DE)
“For lovers of free improvisation, this album is a true discovery. Music full of intensity, humanity, and astonishing naturalness – fascinating, bold, and enriching with every listen”
Donos (PL)
“this isn’t just a meeting of musicians, but a meeting of people connected by something more than music – family, friendship, in which music is just one language… I recommend it!”
Cuttings
