Feature: Carl Liungman Decodes ‘Change’
Credit: Carl Liungman
Can you tell us more about 'Change?'
The album ’CHANGE’ reveals 9 original very personal piano pieces depicting loss and new beginnings, both from personal issues due to my old parents fading away and experiencing our world showing great changes and turmoil but also much love and hope.
The sound of this new album is classical bright from a Steinway grand piano, much alike my album debut ’BORN’ (2020) which got some great reviews. While ’BORN’ was energetic music, recorded on a Fazioli grand in ABBA co-founder Benny Andersson’s studio in central Stockholm, this is a live recorded piano concert at Malmo Art Museum in May 2024. The producer is the skilled Carl Granberg from Malmo, Sweden.
Can you share any memorable experiences or stories from performing this album live?
Yes, the concert hall is in the old castle of Malmo and is incredible in its architecture, it looks like a great hall in Rome with paintings on the ceiling. The environment is a classic museum with gloomy rooms and old paintings and statues and stuff. The acoustics of the more open and bright music hall is wonderful and all this together frame this recording into a retrospective as well as a new beginning.
As a matter of fact there was a slight incident during the concert, and on some of the tracks on my album you can hear the outcome of this. It was my uncle trying to take photos with a digital camera that broke down making beeping noises several times. Very annoying. But that’s life. And the recording engineer did his best to minimize the ”collateral damage.”
Which piece(s) do you like the best and why?
At first this seems like a hard question because I love them all in different ways. But I must say ”After” is my favourite. It is of very much importance to my inner core. The slow pace and the silence in between chords. The sadness but also hopeful feeling this piece of music gives. I feel relaxed when I listen to it and in a way it is like the music makes me surrender, looking back on all of my life’s struggles.
How do you approach composing with the audience in mind? Are there ways you aim to connect with listeners through your music?
A quite complex question to answer. I have an extrovert personality and I like to give the audience an experience more than just feeling inwards and playing for my own heart. There is a special approach on this album release where I decided to reveal my piano concert to the world. It was not on my mind when I played during the concert. But afterwards I felt strongly that the music was important to spread to more people than only the concert audience on that sunny day in May 2024.
If there are ways I aim to connect with listeners through my music? Yes, I try to be naked in my music, I talk through the piano keyboard. I tell stories with the piano. I express myself. I am often melodic and I like contrasts. It is important to shift between different expressions to make the music more alive and shaking up the audience. I don’t know if this was a good answer to your question?
What has been one of the most significant moments of your musical journey so far?
Those concerts at Malmo Art Museum have been very special to me. I also made a release concert there for my last album ”Shine” in January 2023. The hall was totally crowded. And I talked a lot on the stage, talked to the public about my music between the songs played. On the latest concert recorded on ”Change” I changed my strategy and talked less and played more, letting the music do the talking.
I also have to tell you about a great memory from my young age as a pianist on stage. I was 17 and competed in a national talent show in Stockholm. I travelled all alone on a long journey from home to the capital and went on stage without any family support and played my own piano composition that was in harsh modernistic style. Did second place in the competition. Incredible to make that all on my own at that age.
