CMU Approved

Approved: Ellen Arkbro & Johan Graden

By | Published on Thursday 15 September 2022

Ellen Arkbro & Johan Graden

Ellen Arkbro and Johan Graden are both respected composers in their own right – Arkbro was previously featured in this column for her solo work back in 2017 – and they have now come together for collaborative album ‘I Get Along Without You Very Well’.

Combining their talents across contemporary classical, jazz and experimental pop, they’ve created a very special record filled with rich brass, woodwind and piano arrangements, and the beautiful sound of Arkbro’s voice – something absent from her previous work.

The songs all move slowly, but nonetheless refuse to linger long before moving on to the next, creating two contrasting elements of pacing that add to the affecting sound of the record.

This is also reflected in how the album was made, Arkbro explains, saying: “Throughout the process, we spent as much time talking about the music as working on it, exploring our ways of thinking and being”.

Graden adds: “At times we’ve had no choice but to wait, sometimes for months at a time without touching it. The fact that we’ve taken all this time to create something together and been patient with it – and each other – has been essential to this album and has shaped the music in a way that could never have been thought out or planned in advance”.

“This music and the process of making it”, he goes on, “in many ways felt like a return to an early source of inspiration. I remember the feeling while sitting by the piano as a kid, very carefully listening to chords – how would it sound if I do this, add this, remove that… I love that space. Being able to share that process with someone is a rare gift”.

This is reflected perfectly on new single ‘Temple’, of which Arkbro says: “We had the idea of this song with us for some time, we had an arrangement for brass instruments. However, I found the song to be so delicate, so whenever I was writing words to sing I felt that it took away some of the magic. For this reason, I never got around to writing the lyrics until the very last day in the studio”.

“This final version of the song is very different from the first draft we made, which was dense with lots of layers”, adds Graden. “Like with many other songs on the record, we were committed to removing rather than adding elements, and ‘Temple’ embodies this process”.

‘I Get Along Without You Very Well’ is out next week. You can listen to ‘Temple’ here:



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