Last November The Young Mothers, the project led by Norwegian born bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, announced the release of their third album, Better If You Let It. Slated for release on February 21st through Sonic Trasmissions, it’s a monumental and majestic effort bound to be one of our favourite records of the year. Following ‘Better If You Let It’, they have unleashed a second powerful and gripping new single called ‘Song for a Poet’. The track is dedicated by the band’s Stefan González to his father, trumpeter Dennis González, who in the early 90’s had travelled to Norway to collaborate with jazz musicians on an album. González comments:
“When The Young Mothers recorded our third studio album in Oslo, Norway during late October and early November of 2022, my Father, world renowned Texan jazz trumpeter Dennis González, had just passed away a little over half a year earlier. In 1993, 29 years prior, he had traveled to Oslo from Warsaw to record an album with some of Norway’s finest musicians of the era: Nils Petter Molvaer, Sidsel Endressen, Pal Thowsen, and Bugge Wesseltoft, the recorded result came out on cd and cassette as an album entitled “Welcome to Us”.
I vividly remember him mapping out this music at home, prior to him traveling to Europe to meet up and record with said musicians. I was 8 years old. I decided on a whim that it would be beautiful if we could pull off some sort of tribute to my Father’s music from his time spent in Oslo.
Me and my gracious bandmates in The Young Mothers (plus haunting spoken word from Klara Weiss and Malwina Witkowska) settled on covering the ever mournful sounding composition “Song for a Poet”. As you can hear, it turned out beautifully, really capturing the melancholic and spiritual qualities that my Father loved about Scandinavian jazz. Fittingly enough this particular track was recorded on Día de Los Muertos, fueled by a surreal feeling of connection and synchronicity to the music and to my Father on his prior Scandinavian musical journeys.”
Accompanying the single release, The Young Mothers have unveiled a video made by Erik Johannessen, and you can watch it below.