FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH

MEZZOFORTE-30 years on, MEZZOFORTE seem on a great roll. Still fresh-faced, creative and vibrant. After all they were only teenagers when they created Iceland´s first international chart-hit, GARDEN PARTY in 1983. This well crafted instrumental paved the way, allowing musical ideas to flow, develop and mature and making sure their over-night success should not be just a one-night stand. Their stamina and well balanced longevity reflects the name itself, MEZZOFORTE. Playing it strong without distorting. More like a CRESCENDO. A steadily growing, enhanced signal.

From strength to strength indeed well describes MEZZOFORTE´S continuing saga of success. With 40 countries already visited and 11 albums released, The year 2012 will see their 13th album followed by tours of the European and Asian continents with original founders Eythor Gunnarsson on keyboards, Gulli Briem on drums and Johann Asmundsson on bass. Other teammates include Reykjavik reed-man Oskar Gudjonsson, guitarist Bruno Mueller fromCologne and Sebastian Studnitzky from Berlin on trumpet/keyboards.

This line – up recently celebrated the first Jazz concert in the sold out main hall of Reykjaviks brand new concert buildung “Harpa”. This concert gave a truly magnificent overview of MEZZOFORTE´s great body of work, starting with numbers from their self-titled debut in 1979, through albums such as SURPRISE, SURPRISE ! OBSERVATIONS, RISING, NO LIMITS, PLAYING FOR TIME , DAYBREAK, MONKEY FIELDS, FORWARD MOTION, VOLCANIC and finishing off with new compositions from their forthcoming release.
It was a grand party indeed, mirroring their own glorious musical history while marking a new exciting phase for this extraordinary group. While MEZZOFORTE is truly based on solid musical pillars, the group keeps refreshing and reinventing itself by constantly reveling in new concepts which typically lead to imaginative new global & musical adventures.

Oskar Gudjonsson: Sax
Eythor Gunnarsson: Keys
Sebastian Studnitzky: Trp/Keys
Bruno Müller: Guit
Johann Asmundsson: Bass
Gulli Briem: Drums

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