Magenta Kvartett

During 2024, the saxophone quartet Magenta Quartet do a collaboration with the minimalist composer and sound artist Henrik Öhberg, best known under the pseudonym Tvärvägen, whose music has reached a wider audience through movies and commercials. Henrik has written completely new music for the saxophone quartet, where he explores old classical forms such as canon and fugue in combination with acoustic interpretations of sampling technique. By utilising the physical mobility of the saxophone, the music explores the specific acoustics of the concert venue and gives the audience an embracing and unique concert experience.
In the fall of 2022, alto saxophonist Julia Strzalek took the initiative for this saxophone quartet consisting of four saxophonists who work in the fields of jazz, free improvisation and contemporary art music. The premiere was an acclaimed concert at Blinda Tigern in Stockholm in the fall of 2022, and since then they have done a series of follow-up concerts in 2023, among others in relation to Enskede Jazz Festival and Stockholm Jazz Festival.
With musical as well as personal range, the saxophone quartet moves between through-composed and completely improvised material. The quartet format is both honored and challenged, and there are solo, duo and trio excursions within the framework of the quartet. The unusual combination of two alto saxophones and two tenor saxophones gives the quartet a dense sound where the musicians work actively with harmonic structures and interference.

Lineup:
Julia Strzalek - alto sax,
David Bennet - alto sax,
Johannes Gammelgaard - tenor sax,
Pelle Westlin - tenor sax