Per Gessle and Tommie Haglund write music together

As Hallandsposten informs, Per Gessle and Tommie Haglund write music together. Tommie Haglund represents classical music, he has composed chamber music, works for orchestra and for choir. For the song the guys cooperated on, Per has written the lyrics and Tommie has composed the music. The title is Making Something Out Of Nothing and it’s about getting older and looking back on your life and the choices you made.

Once it’s possible to organize events again, the song will be on the repertoire of the Tommie Haglund Festival. Due to Covid-19, it will happen only in spring 2022. Founders of the festival are producer Anders Wilhelmsson and Joachim Gustafsson, conductor and artistic manager. Lars Nordin is involved in marketing and design.

That Mr. G came into the picture was because both he and Tommie felt that they wanted to try something new. Haglund says he and Per lived in parallel universes musically, but they have the same bottom. Lars says it’s fun that both Tommie and Per live in Halmstad, they were born three days apart, Per on January 12, 1959 and Tommie on 15th January the same year and they have both made an incomparable international career in their respective genres.

The first text Per sent didn’t really fit Tommie’s music, but Mr. G sent another almost immediately and that one just flowed into Tommie’s music, as he says.

There will be an album recording together with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Stockholm and it’s already decided that Emmi Christensson will sing the song both on the album and at the festival in 2022. Lars informs Hallandsposten that she has a fantastic voice and has, among other things, played the lead role in The Phantom of the Opera in London. Her relation to Halmstad is that she attended the high school there.

After Per listened to the song, he sent an SMS to Tommie telling that he thinks it sounds fantastic. You travel in time and sometimes end up in old black and white 40’s movies, sometimes in a Bacharach romance, but usually in Tommie’s own wonderful musical rainbow. Per thinks it’s a feast for the brain and heart, Hallandsposten writes.

Photo by Lars Nordin

Update on 8th August 2021: As Tommie Haglund informs, Making Something Out Of Nothing will be recorded on 1st September 2021 with Emmi Christensson soprano and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Joachim Gustafsson. It will premiere live at the Tommie Haglund Festival on 23rd April 2022 in Halmstad with the Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra.

Update on 1st September 2021: Hallandsposten informs that ”Making Something Out Of Nothing”, a song by Per Gessle (text) and classical musician Tommie Haglund (music) is being recorded today with Emmi Christensson soprano (who is very excited about the recording and says it’s a very beautiful and emotional piece) and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Joachim Gustafsson (music director of Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra). It will be played live at the Tommie Haglund Festival, 21-24 April 2022 in Halmstad. The song will be released on vinyl with Emmi singing on side A and an instrumental version on side B. It’s out for the festival. Tommie tells that the piece will premiere in March next year internationally in Bogotá, Colombia, by the city symphony orchestra. Many suppose that it will then be Colombian world star Shakira who will sing.

Per Gessle’s Italy

As we already informed you about it approximately a month ago, Per appeared on the cover of the latest issue of Sweden’s biggest magazine about Italy, Solo Italia.

solo_italia_01The magazine contains 10 pages about Per Gessle’s Italy. The article is written by Lars Nordin, a dear friend to Per and Åsa and the photos included are also taken by him. When I saw Lars in Milan at the Roxette concert in May, I wouldn’t have thought he was going to publish an article about the show, as well as tons of Italy-related details connected to Per Gessle. It’s a really nice reading and great to see some older (Capri 1994) and new pics attached, too. Thanks a lot for that to Mr. Nordin.

In the article Lars Nordin writes about how awesome and magical the Roxette gig was in Milan, that everyone was standing during the whole show and the seats remained unused. He writes about the goosebumps moments of sing-alongs, how excellent Marie was and for him, seeing many Roxette shows before The Look in Milan sounded the best so far. He also writes about the deafening cheering of the crowd when Marie and Per left the stage and turned back for a last waving goodbye. After the show they (Lars & Co., i.e. some Ferrari fans) met Per in the lounge.

solo_italia_03From the article you get to know Mr. G’s Italian favourites. He says that besides Asian meals, Italian food is his fave. He likes that you often get the ingredients separated: cheese, olive oil, tomatoes, spinach, broccoli, etc. One of his most favourite meals is Veal Milanese (Vitello Milanese) with spinach and a little spaghetti, garlic and oil on the side. VM is what he has on his plate on the pic on the right.

Regarding fashion, Per mentions he has no Italian brands he is following closely. Gut feeling is there not only when it comes to songs, but also when it comes to shopping. Right now he wears a lot of Yves Saint Laurent and last year he thought Rick Owens was good for him and his [I quote him] ”weird body”. If Italian, he thinks Costume National almost always do some cool stuff.

We already know Per thinks Italian wines are fantastic and he gives a list of some great regions and wines: Tuscany, Ornellaia, Masseto, Solaia, Sassicaia, Barolo, Brunello di Montalcino.

In Solo Italia Per talks about his favourite Italian cities. Florence and Venice are the top for him, but Milan is fab for shopping clothes and interior stuff. Rome is wonderful with all the stunning architecture. The album cover of Mazarin was photographed there by Anton Corbijn. He likes Lake Como and Lake Garda and mentions the Roxette recordings in Capri in 1994.

Six weeks in the sun. In addition, I won the tennis tournament. Grazie.

solo_italia_02Per when asked about Italian artists, he mentions da Vinci as a classic, but also Modigliani and Fontana. And he says one half of Gilbert & George is Italian, too. Regarding Italian movies, he tells Fellini’s films are still good. He is gladly watching them on a rainy Sunday.

Besides Ferrari, Per finds Pagani and Alfa Romeo nice. He says cars are mostly about the design for him. His fave Ferrari F1 racers are / were Gilles Villeneuve, Kimi Räikkönen and Schumacher.

In the article which was probably written in May, the new album is still mentioned to be out in November. Now we know it’s out a bit later.

The Per Gessle Selection, at least 2 wines from the set, namely Kurt & Lisa and Furet can’t be left out from such an article. Both wines are Italian, from Tuscany and they are the result of a cooperation between Mr. G and Marilisa Allegrini. Per talks about both wines and at Kurt & Lisa he explains it’s the name of his parents.

Both of them taught me early to appreciate the good in life.

When he tells Furet is the name of that part of Halmstad where he was born, he says:

There thrived my passion for fine pop music, neat hairdos and ingenious football feints.

 

All photos in the Solo Italia article © Lars Nordin.