Photo: Alice Boman / Mike Højgaard

Samuel Hällkvist is no stranger to creative collaborations, having played with many phenomenal musicians and contributed to several albums across various genres, including jazz, progressive rock, country, electronic and metal. We may be a little late picking up his latest offering, ‘Sustain’, but we were clearly missing out. Previously unreleased, the track was originally recorded during the same sessions that yielded Epik, Didaktik, Pastoral, one of our Album Picks of 2020. Left out then, the composer and guitarist extraordinaire has revisited ’Sustain’, this time with Swedish singer/songwriter and producer Julia Ringdahl aka Kavi Kwai as a vocal contributor. Speaking about their collaboration, Hällkvist explained:

“The track was originally instrumental and intended to be on my album Epik, Didaktik, Pastoral but I felt like it was missing something so I had to put it aside until the right time. When I read that Kavi Kwai recommended one of my records on a blog somewhere, I thought it would be interesting to do something together since I really like what she does – that song might come in handy and get a little different direction. It quickly turned out that it was a great idea.For me, Sustain is about contemplation and not taking anything for granted, which feels very relevant for this time on so many levels.”

Listen to ‘Sustain’ below.