Ellen Arkbro & Johan Graden Announce New Album 'I get along without you very well'

Acclaimed artists Ellen Arkbro & Johan Graden have announced their debut collaborative album I get along without you very well, out on September 23rd, 2022.

Along with the album announcement, the duo have shared the album opener "Close". Arkbro described the piece as "the most naked song on the record", the composer's breathy vocals curling in ribbons around murky brass, as delicate blue vapors evaporate, underpinned by featherlight percussion.

Ellen Arkbro & Johan Graden embody the limitless curiosity and fearless innovation of the Swedish and Berlin new music scenes they inhabit. Arkbro is a composer and musician whose work has been presented around the globe at prestigious institutions such as the Barbican in London, GRM in Paris and the Kölner Philharmonie in Köln. Graden is one of Sweden's most sought-after pianists, moving freely between classical music and the European contemporary jazz scene.

Currently living in Amman Jordan, he is an active member of the Jordanian experimental pop scene. Following their collaboration on the acclaimed for organ and brass released on Subtext, new album I get along without you very well expands on the duo's intoxicating exploration of meditative, spiritual sonics in unexpected ways. It is a beautiful meeting of two friends and inventive musical minds, resulting in the most affecting and surprising of pop albums.

From its opening notes, I get along without you very well delights in subtle tensions and contradictions. While no song lasts more than a few minutes, the album feels distinctly unhurried, its atmospheric textures and sparse rhythms seemingly distorting the flow of time. The duo's arrangements conceal an incredible amount of compositional detail paired with a distinctive sonic pallet, of brass, woodwinds, upright bass and synthesizer.

Timbres in a similar register create an incredible depth of sound while paradoxically giving the impression of sparseness with individual instruments blending with one another seamlessly. Arkbro's ephemeral vocals, entirely absent from her solo works, provide a perfect counterpoint to the album's rumbling low-end, magnifying the intimacy and vulnerability of the music.

Listen to the new single here: