In the fall of 2001 I got the idea of having an album named after the African Lion, Ambessa. In Uppsala, where I live and work, there was a great falafel place called Ambessa, and at one time after dining there, it occured to me that "Ambessa´s Dream" would be a cool name for an album. So there it started. From that point I wrote some music, and started recording it. Over the years of playing soul/funk/jazz, both as pianist, but also as a DJ, I have encountered several great musicians along the way. Thanks to their generosity, and to them believing in the project, I got to have a fantastic group of musicians playing on the album. Through the mercy of "Master" Henry Gibson, who sadly is no longer with us, I got to play with Chuck Anthony, Brad Johnsson, and of course the Del Pilar sisters. Together with Henry, we did a tribute to Curtis Mayfield, one of the many artists that Gibson played with during the seventies. That consert resulted in a, I dare to say, mutual friendship. A couple of weeks before he passed away, I called him up to see if he would consider playing the congas on Ambessa´s dream. I must admit that I was somewhat nervous of asking, and when he agreed I got even worse. I wanted it to be almost finished before I send the tapes to him to listen. But just two weeks later he died. It feels natural to dedicate the album to Henry, as a thanks for believing in me over the years. For a long time I couldn´t see any other percussionist taking his part. But then I heard about a Mexican conga player living in Stockholm, Rafael Huizar Sida. I called him up, and we spend a couple of sunny days in 2003 talking, getting to know each other and foremost, recording. He captured the mood and immediately brought the album to another level. Gladys Del Pilar and Consuelo Del Pilar also contributed in the same unselfish, generous way some months before that. I recorded them at Gladys´ place and when I started to mix it, I just felt that it now had the potential to be more than I hoped for. They brought the soul in to it. Besides Henry, I wanted to dedicate Ambessa´s Dream to Andreas Hedström, a brilliant guitarist who also passed away when I was in the mittle of it all. He was supposed to be on it too, but it never happened.

He inspired me in a million ways and through the process of making Ambessa´s Dream, he has somehow been there for me. I feel honored when I think of all the great musicians beeing a part of my music, and how they all helped me completing it musically; Chuck Anthony, Marc Gransten, Derek January, not to mention all my fellow musicians in Uppsala, whom I´ve played with earlier. I can not thank them enough. After recording all of the musicians, I got to the next big challenge, mixing it. It took me two years to get through that, mostly because the sound I wanted was very hard to reach with the equipments I had. It has cost me nearly nothing to record, mix and produce this album, that is, nothing but hard, hard work. My good friend Mattias Lasson helped me create the cover art and in the end it got to be just as I wanted it. In fact, thanks to all of the people involved, fellow musicians and loved ones, this has turned out to be more than I ever wished for.
In the future I hope that we all will come together an do a couple of live gigs, performing songs from Ambessa´s Dream. Other than that it´s just fantastic to be a part of the whole process.
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