Martins musical micro-biography:

Life: was given without any explanation as to what was so important about it. Suddently: one note, then a lot of them – in all a language. As obvious as it differed from the spoken word, it spoke.
Existence stayed unanswered off course. But music said: it´s OK, step right in. Soon enough I found myself, as listener and musician, musically at home in that kind of music that is born at the instant.

Lore: I remember well my first tune; one in frozen improvisation. To comfort me in the loss of my grandmothers piano in a town far away, I was given a recorder. I was six and every note I achieved in my lacklustre life was fire-works. It was magic, this symbios of air, cheeks, lips and finger producing sound. That tune was a flat-tone one, steeped in folklore - the sentiment where humanity – and indeed the improvisational musicians – is grounded.
Soon enough my grandmothers piano became mine; themes and tunes where born and caught on paper.

Listening: Jan Johansson, Beatles, jazz from New Orleans, John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Bach, Mothers of Invention (Frank Zappa), Miles Davis, folk music and world music (long before it was defined), McCoy Tyner, Beethoven, Archie Shepp, Satie, Sjostakovitj, Arbete&Fritid, Don Cherry…this namedropping makes me uncomfortable – it excludes as well as invites, because inspiration is much more interesting than counting stars – still is´s hard to avoid. You can´t skip the references, they evolve. And I really like – and have been influenced by – that master of melody and melancholic of the organ Johan Sebastian Bach. As well as storyteller Don Cherry, when that tin-type pock-trumpet tone of his cried for deliverance.

Leisure: Together. That´s where it´s at. Foremost the joy of having friends to play with (you can never take things for granted), to share a language. And talk.
The earth is turning, and we follow. Time rules; and it can break us in an instant with its iron fist. As we believe it, after the Big Bang.
Fourteen billion years later, in a basement in the Svartbacken part of Uppsala, we meet as MOVIO. Our goal is pretentious; either conquer time, or at least get on speaking terms with it.
It all about having good, down to earth fun. No matter how that jamsession turns out.
Improvised jazz always boils down to the courage to take a risk, even on a strategic level. Whether you use chord-progressions or actual tunes, it´s the same. For those not inclined the pop-group or the symphony-orchestra are better for a. In grasping the moment we do our best, as a group and for our audience, but there´s no guarantee that the magic will happen; that we become unsure if we are the same people as the ones who just opened their cases.

Landahl: I share this name with my drumming brother.
When I´m not playing piano – or the assortment of horns and reeds – I teach journalism at the University of Uppsala. Between terms I write novels and poems. There are a number of books in different genres from my pen.   

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