Press-Highlights
…”Martensson invests every sound with a skimming, rapturous lightness and clarity”… JF, The Guardian
….”A voice of quite remarkable expressive depth” -JAZZWISE
"It's encouraging to see an artist excel at their genre while successfully dappling in others, and Martensson does just that with this latest single".-EARMILK
"An interesting markup of professionalism and ecstasy, as the band delights in understated tones, looking out at the world, and then beyond. Quite a treat, in itself.-COMEHEREFLOYED-"
"...always intriguing, often beautiful and thought-provoking".-JAZZ JOURNAL
THE GUARDIAN****- Martensson's casually confident timing and childlike dreaminess make an entrancing meditation out of the title track"...
..."Paul Simon's Everything Put Together Falls Apart works perfectly with Martensson's ability to suggest an inner conversation on which she hadn't noticed anyone listening in. A subtle set from a very imaginative singer"...
THE OBSERVER****''fresh and immediate'
Critics have described Emilia Mårtensson's voice as ethereal, delicate and having "pearly innocence", all of which is true. But she has other qualities which save her from sounding bland or passive. She has a very sharp sense of time and the alertness to her fellow musicians that distinguishes jazz singers from the rest. Whether it's a Swedish folk song, one of her own pieces or a tune by jazz saxophonist Joe Henderson, this is what makes each of these 10 numbers fresh and immediate. Pianist Barry Green and bassist Sam Lasserson are outstanding too.'READ HERE
JAZZWISE REVIEW ++++ -Immensely subtle arrangements, exquisitely beautiful songs, and, at its centre, a voice of quite remarkable expressive depth. With her second album, the Londonbased Swedish vocalist Emilia Mårtensson has struck gold. Coloured by the use of strings (the excellent Fable String Quartet) and percussion, and featuring a core band that gets to the very heart of the music, the various streams of Mårtensson’s artistry – Swedish folk songs, singer-songwriters and jazz – are subtly drawn together into a profoundly satisfying whole. Named after her Slovenian grandmother, the otherworldly opening to the title track sees the singer’s voice floating ethereally over beautifully sustained string chords.
EMILIA MÅRTENSSON, EVAN PARKER AND ALEXANDER HAWKINS
WIN AT PARLIAMENTARY JAZZ AWARDS
TUESDAY, MAY 10, 2016
The winners of this year’s Parliamentary Jazz Awards were announced at a packed Terrace Pavilion at the House Of Commons on Tuesday 10 May, for what was the 12th edition of the award event. Read here
Interview
The new faces of British jazz
On the eve of the London jazz festival, we profile the artists who are winning plaudits for their energy and originality.
JAZZWISE FEATURE NOVEMBER 2019
"Loredana' is a collection of heart-stopping songs filled with music of enormous delicacy, subtlety and imagination". ****JAZZWISE
With a voice of remarkable expressive depth, Emilia Mårtensson makes music in which Swedish folk songs and jazz sensibilities are subtly drawn together into a profoundly satisfying whole. She talks to Peter Quinn about making connections, creating a narrative and finding beauty in tragedy.
When I meet her in a Soho hotel, Emilia Mårtensson needs to take a pause for breath. She’d flown in that day on a ridiculously early morning flight from a gig at Arthur’s Jazz and Blues Bar in Dublin, and was about to head off to New York later the same week – her first visit – with her Elda Trio project to perform as part of Made in the UK at Rochester Jazz Festival.
Named after and dedicated to her mother, for her new album, Loredana, Mårtensson has taken a novel approach in terms of engaging her audience to become part of the creative process. “It was about wanting to do something that everyone can relate to,” Mårtensson says. “And I find that relationship really fascinating – that you come from someone’s body and you have to have a relationship with that person.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
Jazzwise Feature-2014
“With a jazz-edged mix of her native Sweden’s folk songs and classic singer-songwriter sensibilities, Emilia Mårtensson has become one of the most distinctive singers on the UK scene in recent years. First gaining attention through her ongoing work with the award-winning Kairos 4tet, and now back with her self-assured and shimmering second solo album, Ana, the effervescent singer talks to Peter Quinn about her love of the dark side of her folkloric roots and her highly personal take on bringing the art of song and jazz together…”
Textura
“…I’ll take impeccable taste in vocal styling over histrionic showboating any day of the week, so if you’re anything like me you’ll find Emilia Mårtensson’s sophomore album Ana, which follows 2012’s And So It Goes… debut with forty-one minutes of new material by the London-based, Swedish singer, very much to your liking….”
EARMILK -"It's encouraging to see an artist excel at their genre while successfully dappling in others, and Martensson does just that with this latest single". READ HERE
LONDON JAZZ NEWS-Loredana’s breathy vocal smooths the unsettling Lionel Loueke-ish guitar patterns; she muses on her mother’s influence: “We were kept like fallow gardens all this time, waiting for the wind to come.” There’s a sublime moment in a whirlwind rush as the instruments slide up into the drama of Adriano Adewale’s percussion. Sigurta’s keening trumpet falls into free jazz, as the hurricane builds again. (Special mention for the album’s producer Chris Hyson.) Mårtensson’s One More for Ana reflects her love of 70s singer songwriters. It’s a touching memory of her grandmother focused on domestic detail, with silvery steel-strung guitar.
RAWRAMP-"When we listened to “Arm Ourselves”, we found a gentle, acoustic-guitar accompanied by a descending wreathe of garland shaped vocals that seemed to be trapped in swirls, like confetti, in an uncertain wind. This was full of creamy petalettes of sound, with crunchy notes, sometimes wafery, and all touching in depth". READ HERE
JAZZ JOURNAL- "...always intriguing, often beautiful and thought-provoking".
"Throughout, Mårtensson’s vocals are superb: light, expressive, they project the at-times opaque lyrics with sincerity"...READ HERE
COMEHEREFLOYED-"An interesting markup of professionalism and ecstasy, as the band delights in understated tones, looking out at the world, and then beyond. Quite a treat, in itself.
MARLBANK-Enjoy the melodies, think about the words, listen to the very soft and subtle instrumental accompaniment. ‘Shine a light on’ asks important questions and shows its humanity. Indeed this album is very humane and poetic, and succeeds completely for these reasons and many others. READ HERE
HIghlight Elda INTERNATIONAL articles and reviews
US:
"Their pooled talents have produced an album abundant in flavour."
Read whole review online. www.textura.org.
GERMANY: www.feuilletonscout.com
Read whole review online. Barbara Hoppe, October 2016.
SWEDEN:
Read whole review. Lira, 2016.
SLOVENIA:
www.rockline.si
Read whole review online. Aleš Podbrežnik, 2017.
"Trio of excellent musicians and musicianship."
Read whole review. DELO, 2017
Album of the week
Read whole review. DELO, 2016
Mladina
Read whole review. Mladina, 2016
"The Elda Trio are a true representation of the potential of world music, it is also true to say the Elda Trio have a unique sound which I haven’t heard anywhere else"
Jazz London radio Review – Fini Bearman and Elda Trio at Union Chapel, November 2016
"THE VOICE that launched... well, a whole new expression of jazz unveils her eponymous debut recording with Slovenian accordionist/vocalist Janez Dovč and Brazilian-born percussionist/vocalist Adriano Adewale – ELDA trio."
AP Reviews. Read whole review online.
"It’s the kind of music that gets every sense involved, leaving you with a stupid grin on your face and bringing goosebumps with every climax, which are both inevitably and organically built up to in each song but also somehow catch you by surprise."
London Jazz News. Read whole review online.
"...an album that merges their three distinctive cultures into something strikingly original."
LIVE REVIEW FROM ROCHESTER JAZZ FESTIVAL, NEW YORK
One of my friends who saw them said he often has to leave before the end of the concerts in Christ Church, but he was transfixed at this one and stayed to the end of the thunderous standing O that followed their set. So did I....Read more
International press-highlights
LIRA, (SWE) FULL ARTICLE- Emilia knyter an till rötterna. Skånska jazzsångerskan Emilia Mårtensson
har inte bara hittat hem och karriär i England.
Nu knyter hon an till sina slovenska rötter och tillägnar skivan Ana sina morföräldrar.
YSTAD ALLEHANDA, (SWE)-..."Sensationen är dock – jag upprepar – Emilia Mårtensson, i duoformat på väg åt sitt helt egna håll inom (jazz)sången och med jazztrion en mer vanlig jazzsångerska fast med exakt tonträff, perfekt rytmik och andhämtning som en lärka"...
YSTAD ALLEHANDA (Sweden)- Sedan millenieskiftet är sångerskan Emilia Mårtensson bosatt i London. Där har sångerskan med rötter på Österlen gjort sej ett namn på Jazz scenen... READ FULL ARTICLE HERE
SYDSVENSKAN-Stämmnigsfullt och personligt.
LIRA-..."Hon har en genomträngande men ändå följsam stämma som kan bli vass när hon tar i, melodierna kan dra iväg och byta spår och särskilt de långsamma äger en finlemmad samhörighet mellan röst komposition och instrument"... READ HERE
POPMANI-Emilia Mårtensson är en svensk sångerska och kompositör bosatt i London. Efter tre hyllade album har hon byggt upp ett välrenommerat rykte som en av de mest spännande rösterna på den brittiska jazzscenen och idag står vi på Popmani för premiären av hennes nya singel Weariest River. READ HERE
VAKENTIMMAR-"Det är okej att ta risker och misslyckas".
Vilka skivor låg du och lyssnade på hemma under skolåren?
- I mina tonår så var det bara Jazz. Min första jazzskiva var Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley. Mina favoriter var Ella Fitzgerald, Blossom Dearie, Anita O'day, Sarah Vaughan och Bille Holiday.
JAZZ DA GAMA- ..."It is not that the singer is sad all the time, but she is able to—because she is only part human and part music sprite that she seems not only to wrap her emotions around the music, but also to inhabit that spectral dimension; a place in the spirit world that only those with a transcendent singing ability are admitted"...
..."Emilia Mårtensson magically seems to form a musical continuum with the folk musicians of her native Sweden, while inhabiting the jazz idiom of today. This in itself is unique. There are only a handful of vocalists who belong to this species: such as Abbey Lincoln of America, Lucia Pulido of Columbia"... READ HERE
DELO-Emilia Martensson - Swedish jazz singer with Slovenian roots performs with RTV Big band in Ljubljana, Slovenia. READ HERE
SLOVENSKE NOVICE- One of the most penetrating young vocalists and composers on the London jazz is of Swedish-Slovenian descent. It is, in short, one of those with whose successes Slovenes around the world like to brag about. READ HERE
SONICSOUL-(Germany) Aus weiter Ferne kommt die Möglichkeit in Betracht, dass zudem ein Hauch von Kate Bush den Raum erfüllt…READ HERE